Okay, about six weeks ago I said that Newcastle Will Stay Up. Probably, and showed how I thought the bottom 6 of the Premiership table would look by the end of the season.

My predictions for the bottom 6 were, I think it’s fair to say, wrong. For a start, Bolton and Newcastle already have more points than I predicted they would achieve after 38 games, whereas Fulham need 7 points from their remaining three games to match the total I’d predicted for them.

So I’ve decided to have another bash on the BBC’s Premiership Predictor, particularly now that Newcastle have beaten Sunderland. Again. I wouldn’t normally gloat (as I’ve seen enough reverses to know what it’s like on the other foot) but as I’ve heard quite a lot of comments in the last few weeks about ‘putting the Geordies in their place’, I have to gloat a bit.

Although what is somewhat taking the edge off the gloating is that our place appears to be 12th, which might be perfectly safe from relegation, but it’s hardly sparkling form. Realistically, next season I’d like to see us finishing at least in the top 8, with a push for 5th or 6th. Obviously winning the title, the FA Cup, the League Cup and indeed the World Cup would be preferable, but I’d settle for some degree of improvement…

Anyway, this is what I had predicted:

As you can see, not only had I foolishly not realised that Newcastle would pick up 10 points from their next 4 games, I had equally foolishly felt that Derby would somehow be able to pick up another point before the end of the season…

So, with the benefit of that hindsight, will my final Premiership predictions will be any better? Well, probably not, but only time will tell…

The crunch game here is probably Fulham vs Birmingham, which I’ve got down as a home win. If Birmingham can win there, they should be safe… at either Bolton or Reading’s expense…