Alex Neil is under no illusions Norwich City's Championship promotion bid hinges on beating the lesser lights.

The Canaries' resume their quest for the Premier League when they travel to Chris Hughton's Brighton on Good Friday before hosting Sheffield Wednesday at Carrow Road two days later.

Title rivals Middlesbrough are the only club in the current top 10 they have to face over the run-in, but Norwich have dropped points in recent games to the likes of Wigan and Huddersfield.

'If we want to get into that top two those are the games we really need to focus on because I feel the bigger games for us take care of themselves,' said Neil. 'We have done it quite a lot. Watford hadn't lost a game in 12 and we beat them, Wolves were on the same sort of run and Nottingham Forest, so we have done that to quite a lot of teams with good momentum who are used to winning.

'What we need to do is raise our game for the likes of Wigan when they come here or Huddersfield away and guys like that. Over these next seven games there are going to be ups and downs. I can guarantee it and it will happen with us and every other team. Hopefully we can have more ups than downs and if we do then the top two is certainly achievable.'

Neil knows it is vital City pick up the pace again after their impressive 3-1 league win against Forest prior to the international break.

'If we had lost the game people would have gained ground on us and we would have given ourselves a mountain to climb,' he said. 'The fact we managed to win just sets us up and we come back for the next batch of games on a high.

'It's still all there for us. It is a one-game swing again so if we win and the teams around us lose we can find ourselves near the top.'