WHATEVER happens elsewhere, our League One status will be in the balance until the final minutes of Sunday’s game against Preston. The fight continues until the very end after two good performances this week against Fleetwood and Swindon.

Fleetwood was something else. Everyone I have spoken to seems to have been overwhelmed by the sheer tension and excitement of the last 15 minutes.

I got the shakes through a sheer adrenaline surge, which I haven’t had at a game for years. I wasn’t the only one. I travelled up with a certain BBC radio commentator who had to change microphone hands because he was shaking so much!

The performance at Fleetwood was matched by the efforts at home to Swindon, the only difference being that we didn’t get the crucial breaks when we needed them.

The manager was brave, happy to go one on one at the back in order to not be pushed on the back foot by a good footballing side.

It was brilliant to watch, and the crowd responded magnificently. The South Stand hit levels of support not heard since the Gillingham game on the day Paul Lambert’s departure was announced. They were that impressive.

The team we are now fielding is settled, but the big fear is that consistency has arrived one or two games too late.

We now look, ‘too good to go down’ much more than it has appeared during the transitional period of Tony Humes moulding his squad.

It has taken time to integrate five or six additions, as it always does. The togetherness of the current squad is so obvious and would be terrible if it breaks up during the summer.

We go into the final game at home to Preston, hoping that it proves to be one game too many for the Preston machine. Maybe, just maybe, the planets will align in our favour.

Preston are a very efficient side, but a predictable one. We know from the game at Deepdale that in complete contrast to Swindon, Preston like to get the ball from back to front quickly.

We know how effective Joe Garner is, leading the line. Cut Garner’s supply, and their alternative armoury will be put to the test.

At Deepdale in September, Garner tried every trick in the book to unsettle young Frankie Kent, usually straying on the illegal side of the line and doing much of his work while the ball was still in the air.

On Sunday a lot will depend on how he is refereed, and how much he is allowed to get away with against Eastman and Khumalo. I hope our referee on Sunday has ‘history’ with Kevin Davies, who is from exactly the same mould and is clearly Garner’s mentor of the dark arts.

In the last week we have seen virtually all of our fans at their very best. Sensational in their support at some recent games, at home to Swindon topping even the great away support at Coventry.

There are still people who are reluctant to see Tony Humes succeed, and even some who don’t want to see it.

Every club has these people, those hoping to see the team fail so they can have a good old cleansing moan, trying to make themselves feel better.

There was a time when managers were analysed by every person who had played the game at any level. Things have changed, and now a few games on FIFA are deemed sufficient to offer advice on formation, tactics, substitutions, and transfer policy. Seriously!

Ironically, we look a better side than we have at this stage of the previous two seasons, which would make relegation evener harder to take.

So far, I am in denial and haven’t come to terms with the thought of relegation.

There is a chance we won’t have to, and in which case Sunday will be one of those days which will be talked about in 50 years’ time. There’s a nice incentive for every man-jack in the ground on Sunday to play their part.