Chesterfield boss Lee Richardson has ruled out a top three finish for his club after Monday's loss to MK Dons and Tuesday's subsequent results:
"The top three are now a wedge of points ahead of us and, with games running out, a play-off spot is the best we can hope for. We have missed some opportunities this season, but that is what happens when your side is young, naive and a bit daft."
With Rotherham expected to enter Administration before the end of the week Chesterfield will hold the final play-off spot by four points from Rochdale, who have several games in hand, but the Spireites are thirteen points adrift of the Bulls having played a game more.
Meanwhile Darlington boss Dave Penney believes it is a straight fight between the Quakers and the Bulls for the third automatic spot: "We can't deal with Hereford. There's ten games left, Hereford have got Wycombe on Saturday and it's going to go right to the wire."
The Quakers have ten games left against sides that they have earned 23 points from in the reverse fixtures this season, keeping eight clean sheets in the process and only conceding goals against the Bulls and Peterboro.
The Bulls have ten games left against sides that they have earned 18 points from in the reverse fixtures this season, keeping four clean sheets. The two teams have three opponents in common, Chester, Grimsby, and Peterboro, and face each other in a crunch match on April 12th.