With just ten matches to go, just a single point separates the top five clubs in the Championship.

Only two sides can go up automatically, plus one via the play-offs, so at least two of those teams will still be playing in the Championship next season.

The pot of gold at the end of the Championship rainbow is the Premier League, or specifically the television money that Premier League clubs receive.

Bournemouth, Derby, Watford, Middlesbrough and Norwich are now tantalisingly close to the promised land and will be desperate to ensure they make it.

Thing is, it is not necessarily down to how good those clubs are now, but how good their manager’s contact list is.

Since the advent of transfer windows, the Football League has introduced the emergency loan system, which operates outside these windows. The winter emergency loan window closes on 28 March.

An emergency loan can last for a maximum of 93 days, so any loanee brought in now would be available for the rest of the season, including play-off games.

All clubs use the system, Charlton had the impressive Arsenal player, Francis Coquelin, for example. The move worked well for all parties and Coquelin has now secured a new deal at the Emirates.

Derby brought in Darren Bent on a standard loan deal in January, and the former Addicks favourite has netted seven goals in seven starts plus four substitute appearances for the Rams.

There was speculation at the weekend that, if Blackburn were knocked out of the FA Cup by Liverpool, Rovers would allow Jordan Rhodes to join Steve McClaren’s side on loan.

As the game was drawn, and the replay will not be staged until April, that move looks unlikely to happen now.

Had it gone through, the astute McClaren would have recruited two international strikers whose combined market value would have been in excess of £20million.

Had Derby bought the two players, they would probably have breached Financial Fair Play regulations.

The moves would have given the Rams a clear edge as the season enters a critical stage. The other clubs fighting it out at the top will also bolster their squads for the run in, but does it really make for a fair test of a club’s ability?

Is it time for the authorities to scrap the loan system and make clubs rely solely on their own players? An injury crisis would mean a team would have to use their own youngsters.

Older readers will remember that towards the end of the 1961/62 season, the Addicks had to play four games with John Hewie in goal. Charlton won two and drew two of those games before Willie Duff returned to the side.

If clubs knew that they may have to use their youngsters during the course of the season, it might encourage them to blood them earlier so they gained some first team experience.

The best solution of all though would be to scrap the restrictive transfer windows.