For Leicester City, February brought 15 points from seven games and a surge up to fifth in the Championship.
For attacker Paul Gallagher it brought a first career hat-trick and an excellent free kick to help see off promotion rivals Nottingham Forest in the East Midlands derby.
The former Blackburn man’s efforts have been rewarded as Gallagher has been named the Coca-Cola Championship player of the month. It’s the first time that 25-year-old Gallagher has won the award despite previous PFA Fans' Player of the Month success during his time at Plymouth.The Scot talks to Lawrie Madden about the current run-of-form that has put the Foxes right in the playoff mix.
Q: What are your thoughts on claiming the Coca-Cola award?
A: I’m delighted on a personal level, if you score the goals then you win these kind of awards, hopefully it’s not the last and I can win some more.
Q: Nigel Pearson has also won the manager of the month award in the Championship - how much has he helped you?
A: He’s been fantastic, he’s getting the best out of the players and we’re all enjoying it at the moment. If you can’t enjoy playing football when you’re in a winning team then you’ll never enjoy it.
Q: Do you think you have surprised a few people this season?
A: Well I suppose most people think that if you get promoted the aim is either to survive or consolidate. But we have always been confident we can do well and we just need to keep going to see how far we can take this club.
Q: After the Forest result, losing to Sheffield Wednesday must have been hard to take?
A: We were disappointed against Wednesday especially after beating Forest. We had been going on a good run at the time. For some reason we didn’t quite get going at Hillsborough but we have to put that behind us and move on.
Q: What do you make of the division this season?
A: It’s a lot tighter and better. At this level teams are better organised, have better defenders, better attacking options and so on. We have been fairly consistent this season. We have had setbacks but we have responded well. We lost three on the spin earlier in the season and then went on an unbeaten run of eight games. We seem to have the ability to bounce back.
Q: How do you see the rest of the season panning out?
A: It’s difficult to say. It will get a bit nervy, that’s for sure. We just need to keep going and see where it takes us. Everyone in the division has something to play for so there will be some strange results along the way. You either need to go on a good run or bounce back quickly in this division because a couple of wins or defeats can change the picture very quickly.
Q: Do you still hold ambitions of playing for Scotland?
A: You always want to play for your country. I am no different. All I can do is play as well as I can and then it is up to others to decide.
