CHRIS Hughton has insisted Birmingham City could embrace the pressure and expectation a top-six place brings.

His in-form side are determined to break into the Championship play-off zone for keeps.

Victory over Watford today at St Andrew’s would help them achieve that goal.

Blues got into the top six for two hours last weekend after the 6-0 battering of Millwall.

Reading’s evening win at Watford bumped them back down to seventh.

Hughton’s men have gone under the radar for most of the campaign due to the Europa League exploits which left them trailing in Championship games played.

But they are keen to force their way into the reckoning properly and take whatever attention comes their way.

“No doubt, if you are in that top six, it’s there for all to see,” says Hughton.

“But everybody has that kind of pressure as well.

“Cardiff, they’ve had a very good season and they’re under pressure every week because now people expect them to be in the top six.

“Middlesbrough are the same. Their supporters expect them to be in there.

“I think Blackpool are a little bit different, they’ve been in and out and chopped and changed a little bit.

“But once you’ve been in there for a little while, expectation levels rise and that’s a pressure you have to be able to cope with.

“The alternative is that you don’t cope with it very well and you drop down the league.

“These are the pressures you go into every game with.

“West Ham and Southampton have been up the top all season and they’ve had to cope with that everywhere they’ve gone.

“That’s about having good players, that’s about having enough in the team and winning enough games.

“Yes, it is a motivational tool for us, the incentive of trying to get into the top six, but we don’t need to use it as such.

“We still want to do the same things that have got us to where we are this moment, and hopefully further up that table.