KIERAN O’REGAN doesn’t expect to win the London Marathon.

In fact, the former Town star and now respected pundit, would be happy to get round the capital without need of the air ambulance for which he has previously raised plenty of cash.

But he is putting in the hard yards, just like the Galpharm club, and when he reports on Town’s exploits at Charlton the day before the event – which will be run on Sunday, April 17 – he fully expects Lee Clark’s side to still be firmly on track to win their own marathon of achieving automatic promotion.

The BBC Radio Leeds summariser – who has formed an entertaining and informative partnership with Paul Ogden on air – feels Town have the right squad focus and talent at their disposal to see them through the final 13 matches, starting at Yeovil today.

“The run-in is obviously vitally important and it’s about winning matches,” said the former Republic of Ireland international who played 199 matches in Town colours.

“It’s not about playing fancy football when you get to this stage, it’s about digging out results any way you can.

“Tough games are coming up thick and fast in what is a busy and hard month, but certainly the Town squad is good enough.

“You only have to look at the quality on the bench for any given game to see that. Other managers must look at what Town can bring on after, say, 60 minutes of a match to change the emphasis and they must know they are going to be up against it.

“The important thing is to keep picking up points. People have said to me they were disappointed Town didn’t pick up at least a couple of wins in that run of four draws, but every point is vital and you’ve just got to graft for every one of them.

“It is a decisive part of the season, and I’m just hoping that when we go to my old club Brighton for the penultimate game of the season, Town and them are one and two in the table and can’t be caught – that would be my personal best possible scenario for the season.

“It would also be a perfect party for the fans. The Town supporters have been brilliant this season and the away support, particularly, has been magnificent.

“They have an important part to play in getting right behind the team for the rest of the season and, hopefully, we’ll all get the outcome we want.”

O’Regan is stepping up his weekly mileage in preparation for the marathon, and he is receiving treatment for any niggles from former Town physio and goalkeeper Lee Martin.

When the two were playing colleagues at Leeds Road, O’Regan once went away for the summer to his home in Cork and did so much running he returned ‘flat’ for pre-season.

That wasn’t what manager Eoin Hand expected from the fittest player on the books.

“Peter Withe, who was the assistant at the time, gave us some guidelines and I think I took them a bit too literally,” he explained.

“I trained all over the summer and I did too much work. When we returned for pre-season we did some distance work and I was tailed off, which certainly wasn’t what they expected.

“To be fair to Eoin, he let me have some time with the physio, who was Wayne Jones at the time, and we did a bit of work in the gym for a couple of weeks until I got my energy back.

“These were the days when I was young enough to have six or seven pints of Guinness and then, the following morning, put a plastic bin bag on with my training kit and run seven or eight miles around Cork to sweat it all out!”

London will be O’Regan’s first marathon and he’s running it for himself because he doesn’t want to let anyone down if things don’t go to plan.

When he ran the Great North Run (a half marathon) he raised money for Town’s Keep it Up campaign to help the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, and he says people were incredibly generous.

You can tell it’s getting serious when he hasn’t had a pint since December, although he’ll have to break it during the Cheltenham Festival racing!

“I’ve always loved running and it keeps me fit, so the preparations are going okay for the marathon,” he added.

“There have been a few calf niggles and things like that, but Lee (Martin) has looked after those and we are now building up the miles.

“I do some sharpish four or five-mile runs during the week and then we do a longer one – I’m running with my friend Graham Taylor – at the weekend.

“Last Saturday morning nearly killed me though! We ran 18 miles from the Holme Valley out to Mirfield and back and, when we got to Waterloo on the return leg, I was really struggling.

“We’ve got a 20 coming up, and people tell me it’s just the psychological thing of getting past those miles. Once you do, you’re okay.

“Graham wants to do a time around three hours 35 minutes so I think I’m going to have to let him go – still I am 47 to his 33 so there is an age difference.

“If I can do three hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds I will be more than happy. Just to beat the four hours would be great.”