After the 3-1 loss away to Charlton I'd given up on this season... I was ready for the world cup, I'd shut off my emotions, we were sh*te and I knew we were...

Our next match was Tottenham at St. James, I figured not a chance we'd get anything from the match... I wasn't even following it online... I checked the score at half-time... We're up 3-1! Hope comes soaring back... I scramble to the PC, log into Football Files, find a feed and spend the next 45 frustrating minutes watching 20 seconds of the game and 40 seconds of "Buffering...", but we get the 3 points!

Ok, fair enough, something to cheer about (including the glorious miss by Jenas), but still, no hope, we're adrift mid-table, forget about Europe next season right?

Then, I was reading about this weekends fixtures... West Ham face Chelsea, Bolton play Liverpool... Hmmm I thought, these are some of our Rivals for 6th/7th place... I had thought that Bolton were MILES Away from us, but they're only 6 points ahead (albeit with a game in hand), let's look at this area of the table:

Pos / Team / Pts
7 / Bolton / 48
8 / Wigan / 47
9 / West Ham / 46
10 / Everton / 44
11 / Charlton / 43
12 / Newcastle / 42

Let's look at this weekend's fixtures, and best possible outcomes:

Charlton v Everton (0-0 Draw)
Wigan v Birmingham (0-1) - Birmingham NEED to pick up points, they drew with Chelsea and beat Bolton so hey, it's possible!
Chelsea v West Ham (1-0)
Liverpool v Bolton (1-0)
Middlesbrough v Newcastle (0-1)

Then the table looks like this:

Pos / Team / Pts
7 / Bolton / 48
8 / Wigan / 47
9 / West Ham / 46
10 / Newcastle / 45
11 / Everton / 45
12 / Charlton / 44

Let's look at next weekend's fixtures, and potential results:

Bolton v Chelsea (0-1)
Everton v Tottenham (0-1)
Newcastle v Wigan (1-0)
West Ham v Man City (0-0) - Yeah, I'll give West Ham a point here!

Now looky here:

Pos / Team / Pts
7 / Bolton / 48
8 / Newcastle / 48
9 / Wigan / 47
10 / West Ham / 47
11 / Everton / 45
12 / Charlton / 44

Look at that! In 2 weeks we could very easily be level on points with Bolton, and in 8th place, still with 4 matches to play...

After these 2 weeks, here are the remaining fixtures for Bolton, Wigan and Newcastle:

Bolton:
West Brom (A)
Charlton (H)
Birmingham (A)
Tottenham (A)
Birmingham (H)

Ok, so on paper, not too tough, but remember both Birmingham and West Brom are absolutely fighting for their lives at this point, so these will be tricky games!

Wigan:
Aston Villa (H)
Fulham (A)
Portsmouth (H)
Arsenal (A)

I think Wigan will expect to beat Villa, but those last 3 fixtures are again very tricky, Fulham has done very well at home, Portsmouth are putting wins together in their relegation fight, and Arsenal are absolutely on FIRE and will want to WIN their final league match at Highbury, and will potentially NEED to win to secure 4th place.

Newcastle:
Sunderland (A)
West Brom (H)
Birmingham (A)
Chelsea (H)

We *HAVE* to beat Sunderland, they've been absolute SH*TE this season and although they'll almost certainly already be relegated in 2 weeks time, it would make their season to beat us in the derby, but I can't see it happening.
The West Brom and Birmingham matches will be tricky, no doubt.
Chelsea at Home, depending on Chelsea's result against Man United, and also on Man United's result versus Arsenal this weekend, hopefully Chelsea will have already sown up the title, and therefore, potentially have one eye on the FA Cup final, it will be Shearers final competitive match before his testimonial, the atmosphere at St. James will be MASSIVE... We beat Chelsea on the last day of last season, and we knocked them out of the FA Cup last year so especially if we've got a UEFA Cup spot on the line, I think we can do them! Also, don't forget that a certain Michael Owen could be back for those last 2 matches... Don't take MY word for it, check out HIS blog!

Ok, so it's certainly not smooth sailing, but god dammit, I've got my f*ckin' hopes up again!

H O W A Y T H E L A D S !