Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe discusses Championship budgets as he encourages Sheffield United's promotion party

United beat West Brom 2-0, securing second spot and automatic promotion. The celebrations in Sheffield will have started immediately and there could still be some sore heads in those parts.

The season is not over though, with North End next up for the Blades – hoping to keep their play-off push alive. If Sheffield United are feeling a bit under the weather from their partying, it could work in Preston’s favour as they need six points from their last two matches.

Lowe said: “I was thinking of sending a lorry full of booze up to the training ground today, I'm not going to lie! Congratulations to them because they have been great, them and Burnley are two boss teams.

"I thought Burnley would have done it earlier on, just after we played them, but they've been fantastic, both sets of teams. Credit where credit is due, big congratulations. They've been the two best teams in the division and they deserve to go up.”

“You could look it and say they're quite relaxed now and can play with freedom, nothing's on the game. I thought the first half against West Brom was a bit cagey and they weren't at their fluent best. They came out in the second half knowing that there was 45 minutes to get back in the Premier League.

"They wanted to make sure they'd done and all we can focus on is what comes next. We'll focus on us and we'll be right and ready to give a good shot.”

A defeat at Bramall Lane, and results going against them, could see North End mathematically ruled out of the top six this season.

Lowe feels that budgets in the Championship are a deciding factor on where teams finish, and, on the whole, the league table simply reflects who is able to spend the most.

He said: "Coming into the Championship 17, 18 months ago with your eyes wide open, nothing ceases to amaze you. But ultimately, you should finish where your budget allows you to finish. Our budget is 20th in the division, so we've well overachieved. There are other teams that have overachieved, I must say, and I don't know everyone's budget, but budgets will ultimately figure themselves out to where a team should be. I'm still a big believer in that.

"There are teams like Norwich City, West Brom and Watford who are well underperforming, because their budgets are bigger, but for us if you said you'd have a chance of getting in the play-offs with two games to go, to keep the season alive, I'd have bitten your hand off for it.”