NORTH End face one of their toughest challenges of the season on Sunday when they face Kevin Keegan's Manchester City -- and midfielder Mark Rankine believes this month's run of matches will determine the club's season.

The former Wolves 32-year-old scored the equaliser to lift spirits at Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday, with North End going on to win 2-1 after Macken bagged in the 80th minute.

It was the second goal in two games for Rankine, and his team- mates believe there will be more to come.

But Rankine is adamant it doesn't matter who scores, as long as the wins keep coming.

He said: "You need a bit of luck to get a run of wins, look at Wolves when they played us at Deepdale. The league is still wide open and if we can get a few results we can be up there.

"We know we are one of the teams who can win four games in a row and if we do that we will shoot up the league.

"On a good day, we know Jon Macken, David Healy and Richard Cresswell will score goals for us."

Of course, games don't come much harder than Manchester City.

Kevin Keegan's side were pre-season favourites for promotion, but a mixed bag of results has seen them steady out in sixth place, behind the likes of Norwich, who were 4-0 victims at Deepdale last month.

North End don't appear to have any fresh injury worries ahead of the Sunday fixture, which kicks off at 2pm and is being shown live on Granada TV.

But it may be things off the field which are causing concern for fans. The decision of Bryan Gray to stand down as chairman leaves the club with an uncertain future.

Dyed-in-the-wool fan Derek Shaw has stepped up to chairman for now and is seeking talks with the club's big shareholders - like Baxi - to see how they see the future unfolding.

The Gray Years have seen North End clamber from the foothills of the league to within sniffing distance of the Premier League.

The new chairman will know he has a tough act to follow - and the rumours linking Chorley multimillionaire Trevor Hemmings to a more pro-active role in the club have yet to be quashed.