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Look around at points earned by the top teams in the English Leagues so far this season.

Premiership

Chelsea 2.57 points per game
Man United 2.21

Championship

Newcastle 2.17
West Brom 2.05

League 1

Leeds 2.5
Charlton 2.05

League 2

Rochdale 2
Bournemouth 1.94

Conference
Oxford 2.36
Stevenage 2.04

Our performances justify our position in second. The seemingly insurmountable gap between us and Leeds is down to their outstanding form and consistency. League 1 might well be considered to be a difficult division this year with plenty of tough teams, but the problem for us, is no one seems to have told Leeds. Only Chelsea in the Premiership have a better points per game ratio out of the top five divisions.

I know the thoughts a lot of Charlton fans had late last night and this morning. We are going up. I had that dream too.

1      Leeds United      18      27      45
2     Charlton     19     17     39
3     Norwich     19     16     35
4     Colchester     19     14     33
5     Huddersfield     19     19     31
6     Bristol Rovers     19     -2     31
7     Walsall     19     6     30
8     Millwall     19     9     29
9     MK Dons     19     -2     29
10     Swindon     17     1     28
11     Hartlepool     19     -2     23

The positives for us include being four and six points clear of third and fourth. Nine points into the playoff places. The top ten have also broken away from the rest of the division. It's difficult seeing a promotion contender coming from outside that group. We have also already played away games at Leeds, Norwich and Colchester. It would seem our toughest games of the season are already done and dusted.

On the field we have shown we can cope with an injury crisis and at least until the new year we seem to have a decent striking partnership. We can put out two formations 4-4-1-1 and 4-4-2 and still expect a decent result.

On the downside we have two potential problems mainly outside of our control - Leeds and Norwich. Only two teams go up automatically and a betting man would put his house on Leeds being one of those. Norwich have recovered from a poor start to the season. But they always had a strong group of quality players and now they are starting to show it. Both these teams also have natural goalscorers, playing in a division which is beneath their ability. They will find it easier to difficult away games when everything else fails to click.

Financially Leeds are in the most stable position and this is an important issue to consider. They will not be seeing any newspaper articles warning of their demise in the coming months. Charlton and Norwich may not be able to say the same.

If needed Leeds have the funds to buy quality players in January. Charlton and Norwich might struggle to hold onto what they have.

At least Norwich can fall back on squad depth, whilst Charlton it seems would not be able to rely on Dickson, McLeod, Fleetwood or Tuna. Sure we have the numbers, but they either no longer breathe or believe in the Valley way, are not good enough or are to young and inexperienced.

What will we do if Mooney and Akpo Sodje return to their respective clubs? Would we have to bed in new loanees? Rely on what we've got? Without them would we be able to gain promotion? Could we even afford to sign them permanently?

So despite our deserved spot in an automatic promotion position the directors job is far from finished this season.