Battle to avoid joining Derby hots up as Fulham start to fight.

Filed in archive General on March 17, 2008

The battle at the bottom of the Premier League promises to be every bit as exciting as the battle at the top. Derby County have been down for a long time but their battling performance in the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United on Saturday will have cheered up their fans.

Until yesterday, I would have said that Fulham were almost certain to join Derby in the Championship next season. Their unexpected but deserved 1-0 win against Everton has given them a hope that seemed to be disappearing fast.

A look at the table shows just how close it still is between the bottom nine clubs;

12 Wigan 30 -15 31
13 Middlesbrough 30 -17 31
14 Reading 30 -22 28
15 Newcastle 29 -26 28
16 Sunderland 30 -22 27
17 Birmingham 29 -12 26
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18 Bolton 29 -15 25
19 Fulham 30 -22 23
20 Derby 30 -50 10

Wigan and Fulham were the only winners this weekend and the game between Birmingham and Newcastle tonight can be seen to be a massive one. Of the other teams, Bolton were the only side who failed to perform credibly, going down 1-0 to ten man Wigan. It is certainly true that Bolton fans are starting to fear the worst.

Middlebrough got a fine draw at Arsenal despite having only 15% (Fifteen percent!) of the possession and Reading and Sunderland were a little unlucky to lose 2-1 and 1-0 respectively to Liverpool and Chelsea.

So who will go down with Derby? It's a tough one to call. The teams in the worst form are probably Bolton and Newcastle although Newcastle have a chance to put that right this evening. Wigan and Middlesbrough may just about be edging to safety and I think Steve Coppell's Reading have got enough to stay up.

It could be any two from Newcastle, Sunderland, Birmingham, Bolton and Fulham. If any team could put two wins together they would give themselves a great chance. Either Birmingham or Newcastle would be in a much better position if they can achieve three points tonight. The opposite is, of course, true for either side if they lose.

It's going to be tight, tense and exciting. I'm not a betting man, but if I was I'd say that Fulham and Bolton will probably join Derby, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was two of the others.

It'll be fascinating to watch.