GARY MacKenzie is tipping the League One play-off race to go right to the wire.

The uncompromising City centre half believes the bottom two spots in the top six are up for grabs for a pack of teams.

And he reckons it could take until the final day of the league campaign to sort it out.

MacKenzie is set to return to the fray at Notts County tomorrow as City monitor Andrew Davies ahead of Monday’s FA Cup quarter-final replay.

Davies hurt the same part of his arm that he broke earlier this season during Tuesday’s draw at Coventry. There is no fresh break but he was still in pain yesterday.

MacKenzie, who was not even on the bench at the Ricoh, is ready to step back in and knows the stakes are high.

The big Scot said: “The cup obviously overshadows the other games but we know, as a team, how important they are.

“When the cup run does come to an end, you still want to be in with a fighting chance in the league. So it’s vital we don’t overlook it.

“You need to take care of your day-to-day business in the league. Enjoy being in the cup but make sure we’re still in the mix when it is over.

“It’s so tight and every week it gets closer. There are six or seven teams who can get in there.

“I would rather there was none and it was already done and dusted. But obviously it makes it exciting.

“When I was at MK Dons we were in the play-offs with two or three games to spare and we could relax. But this one is going to go right down to the wire with a couple of spots.”

Phil Parkinson is likely to shuffle his pack with the huge televised showdown at the Madejski Stadium only two days later.

He made seven changes in the recent 1-0 win over Crawley, which MacKenzie felt underlined his confidence in the whole squad.

He added: “That was a huge result and gave everyone a wee lift about the place before the cup game.

“We’d had a bad result the previous week and needed to bounce back to stay in touch with the pack. The conditions were horrible but the lads showed they were up for it and want to stake a place for the upcoming fixtures.

“There shouldn’t be a guaranteed spot in football. Competition for places draws the best out of people who should be playing ahead of you.”

MacKenzie has started three games since arriving on loan from Blackpool on the final night of the January transfer window.

He is revelling in City’s double assault on the FA Cup and play-offs.

“It’s not a bad situation to be in,” he said. “Coming from Blackpool, when I was playing the second half of last season the pressure was always on you to win games to try and stay in the league.

“It’s a totally different pressure here. You’re going out to win to stay up there – it’s a good pressure to have.

“You’ll welcome that all day long and we need to embrace it.

“This run of league games is massive and we’ve got to look to take as many points as possible from them.

“It’s relentless, there are games every other day. But as footballers, that’s sometimes good, especially when you get a decent feel about the place.

“You’re always trying to carry that bit of momentum on. The boys are looking forward to games rather than moaning about them.”

City missed the chance to regain a play-off berth with their midweek draw but still have a game in hand on several of the clubs around them.

MacKenzie added: “I don’t really bother about what other teams are doing. If we look after ourselves, it’s down to us – we don’t need to be relying on anyone else.

“With so many teams being bunched close together they are going to take points off each other. There are going to be loads of points dropped.

“It’s such a tight division. Teams who you thought wouldn’t drop out of the play-offs are getting itchy feet – there are no guarantees for anyone.”