Last Sunday we witnessed a footballing great escape of which Steve McQueen would have been proud.

West Brom, bottom at Christmas and seemingly doomed to go down, managed to claw their way to safety in the most dramatic of fashions thanks to a 2-0 win over Portsmouth and a combination of other results.

Baggies manager Bryan Robson described it as the best day of his managerial career and it’s not hard to understand why. And the scenes of celebration at the Hawthorns showed just how much it meant to the fans as well.

Obviously West Brom’s survival meant the demise of the other three who were all fighting for their lives on the final day, most notably Norwich who, pre-kick-off, had their destiny in their own hands.

But it seemed as if Norwich became overawed by the possibility of avoiding relegation and conspired to sink to their heaviest defeat of the season. Conceding six to a Fulham side that had been struggling to score at all in recent months was something few could have predicted.

The most traumatic relegation was that of Southampton which ended their 27 consecutive years in the top flight. And, although their fans will hate me for saying this, I think of the three who went down they deserve it the most.

Chopping and changing managers like they did was a stupid and desperate attempt to survive, marshalled by an even more stupid and desperate chairman Rupert Lowe, a man who has displayed over the last 12 months an almost total inability to run a football club.

Some may argue that appointing Harry Redknapp was a good decision and it probably was. But the damage to the club had already been done by then and somehow you just knew they would be playing Championship football next season long before it was actually confirmed.

The final club to take the unwanted plunge was Crystal Palace who, if truth be told, had really been living beyond their means this season anyway. You have to admire Ian Dowie for getting his team to put up such a passionate fight, but not having spent much money on players it always seemed like they had little real ambition to stay up but were, instead, just looking forward to receiving their parachute payments they will get now they are relegated.

With the downs now all settled, attention will turn to the ups or, to be more accurate, the final promotion spot.

Of the four teams in contention Preston seem the most likely to at least make it to the play-off final and my money would be on Ipswich joining them at the Millennium Stadium. At that point it is anybody’s game although, again, Ipswich are without a doubt the team which deserves to go up.

Thanks to the sheer financial bliss of the top flight these days, promotion to the Premier League is actually worth more than winning the Champions League. So the prize on offer is, to say the least, considerable.

If it is Ipswich that make it, the irony will be that they will be swapping places with their bitter local rivals Norwich. Preston, on the other hand, have been out of the top flight almost as long as Southampton have been in it.

Both have plenty to play for, as do West Ham and Derby. It should be an interesting contest to watch but, if nothing else, at least it helps postpone the close season by a few more matches....

David Moyes

Unlike previous years there have been many genuine contenders for manager of the season this time round.

Jose Mourinho for guiding Chelsea to their first title in half a century, Sam Allardyce for turning his collection of cast-offs into European footballers and Benitez for taking Liverpool to the Champions League final in his first season. All were in the running as would Bryan Robson surely have been had he not joined West Brom late in the season.

However, few will be able to argue with the League Managers’ Association’s decision to give the prestigious award to David Moyes. Before a ball was kicked in this campaign, Everton were favourites for the drop. After losing Wayne Rooney and then losing their opening game of the season 5-1 to Arsenal, favourites looked like too generous a word.

But instead of throwing in the towel and accepting their alleged destiny, Moyes rebuilt his Everton team on the pillars of effort, tactics and spirit. And guided them to fourth spot and next year’s Champions League. And he did it all while spending very little money.

A lesson for all those teams who chop and change managers or spend big looking for success....

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