PHIL Parkinson reckons Wanderers can still reel in a handful of teams above them in the Championship table.

The Whites take on Preston North End at the Macron on Saturday four points clear of the bottom three and with two other clubs – Reading and Sheffield Wednesday – within three striking distance above them.

QPR and Nottingham Forest, still some way off the perceived 50-point safety mark, may also be pulled back into the relegation race.

Wanderers have spent most of the campaign struggling to escape the bottom three, with current incumbents Sunderland, Burton and Birmingham City for company. But what once looked a four-way fight has been extended to include Barnsley and Hull City – and Parkinson believes even more clubs could be dragged into trouble.

“We have to start targeting the teams above us,” he said.

“That isn’t being over-confident, of course you need to look at what is going on below you as well, but we have got to drag some of those clubs above us back into it.

“The bigger we can make this league, the better it will be for us.”