Staying Up?

Everton, Sunday: Scott Carson under pressure, like everyone else.

So we move into the second half of April, and the time is approaching when all will be resolved; the promotion issues decided; the champions crowned, and of course the relegation slots occupied for the last time with no hope of escape.

This season, it is beginning to look as though everything is going to be won by either Manchester United or Chelsea, in the upper echelons of football, at any rate, so this really doesn't give supporters of all the other teams much to hope for.

And leaving aside the Liverpool and Arsenal supporters of my acquaintance, I, and quite a lot of other people, have no hopes whatsoever of our teams winning anything at all.

The latest of these is our new quiz team member Lesley, a Blackburn Rovers fan, who saw any hopes of glory she might have been harbouring dashed yesterday by the ubiquitous Mr Mourinho and his equally ubiquitous boys, whereas Antony and our beloved landlady, to name but two, are in near-despair at the thought that Leeds United might find themselves in the third tier of English football next season. Mush is just as worried about the same fate overtaking Q.P.R., and then there is my unenviable situation.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will find a list of the teams I support, and the only two who are safe from any danger of relegation right now are Cádiz (relegated last season anyway) and Clachnacuddin, who can't go down from the Highland League, as there is no down for them to go down to (though they aren't actually at the bottom of it).

But I have spent the entire season nervously watching Forest Green edge themselves away from the bottom of the Conference, and also watching Bury slide down League Two, and Burnley, who started well, then went 19 games without a win, and even now are not quite guaranteed to be safe. Alloa are having a similar, looking-over-the-shoulder, season in Scottish Division Two, and Castellón have only recently started playing well, and could slump once more even yet.

And now once again, after Charlton's heartbreaking late 2-1 defeat at Goodison Park yesterday, we are thinking once more about whether they will get out of the Fizzy Pops at the first attempt, rather than avoiding the Coca Cola League altogether, but I suppose one has to be optimistic. But it isn't easy.