IT was interesting to note Millwall manager Mark McGhee's comments on Tuesday night after his side had quite literally scraped a 1-0 victory against Watford at The Den.

"There are teams in the top eight who could win the title but for some of them it would be an unrealistic hope," he said. "It would be unrealistic for us to think in terms of winning the title.

"We have scrapped our way to second place and, in order to stay there, we would have to start playing a lot better. If you look at the final 17 games and think in terms of us expending the same energy as we have done to get here, then I think we will blow a gasket."

That is the reality of the First Division and, it would appear, no particularly outstanding team has emerged. Manchester City are showing signs that they have the extra class and quality and they may open up and show their class in the run-in. But, as for the rest you could launch any of them into the Premiership and they would sink like proverbial stones.

To hear such observations from the manager of a side that has been consistent for much of the season is a warning for Watford who dropped five more points over the last two matches, losing the theoretical advantage of a game in hand.

If Manchester City overturn Watford at Vicarage Road before the ITV Digital cameras on Sunday, that will mean the Hornets will have played 12 games against the current top nine in the division. Out of a total of 36 points, they will have picked up six points.

In other words the bulk of Watford's points tally has been extracted from teams below them in the table, suggesting that they are in a representative position, just in the top half of the table.

Now some three years back, Watford were in the top six, dropped out and then came charging back into the play-offs with a very late run. They gained promotion to the Premiership and were not good enough.

So it seems reasonable to assume that they are not nearly as good this time round and if they were to put together a run and win a place in the top flight, they would fare no better without a massive injection of cash.

Certainly sides that spend 80 per cent of the game under pressure from Rotherham, are not promotion potential.