Win, lose or draw

Following last night's win for Portsmouth over the great unwashed, our modest chances of survival took a big boost.

If we win, and one of either Hull or sunderland fail to win then we are safe. We'd have more points than Hull and the same number of points but a better goal difference than the mackems.

If we draw, then we need Hull to lose. We'd be on the same number of points but climb above them because of our better goal difference. (The only caveat to this is if the smoggies were to win by six clear goals, in which case they would also climb above us, but I'd have though that was unlikely). The mackems would be out of reach.

If we lose, we're in the Championship next season, sampling the hospitality of Leicester, Plymouth, Cardiff, Swansea and others.

So that's it, ideally we'll win together with Man Utd and Chelsea. Even with both of those teams now having an eye on bigger prizes, it is to be hoped that they can still muster enough to at least get draws.

In which case, we need to either win or draw at Villa. Something we've managed eleven times (6 wins, 5 draws) since the Premier League began. We can only hope that statistic becomes seven wins by six o'clock next Sunday.