Newcastle boss Chris Hughton expects the fight for promotion from the Coca-Cola Championship to go all the way to the death.

Having passed up the chance to establish a commanding lead with a run of four games which brought successive home draws against QPR and Bristol City and then successive defeats at Nottingham Forest and Scunthorpe, Hughton is in little doubt that there is no room for complacency in the hunt for a top flight return.

"I see it staying very tight and I see it staying very competitive," he said. "Of course, we will look at the three teams which went down last season - ourselves, West Brom and Middlesbrough - but there's a group of seven or eight teams around that which can at any stage move between the positions at the top depending on their form."

He added: "That's how I see it. Anybody can beat anybody, which we have seen so far this season, and I see no reason why that won't continue."