Bristol City manager Gary Johnson says that the Championship promotion race has defied all predictions.

"We gave some figures earlier on but they've all gone by the board because teams haven't put in three or four wins on the trot," he told BBC Points West.

"Hull and West Brom have hit a bit of form, but with three games to go on our part and some difficult games all over, we won't know," added Johnson.

"I just want go into the Preston game still playing for automatic promotion."

City are at home to Preston on the last day of the season, but first they face potentially difficult away games at Stoke and Sheffield United.

Johnson is hoping that having slipped out of the automatic promotion places in midweek will inspire the Robins to success.

"It's the champion and the challenger, we've spoken about this before - do you fight harder as the champion or the challenger?" he added.

"We're now the challengers and we've got to make sure we keep ourselves up there."