BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.........

in case it comes true. So the old saying goes, and it`s surprising how often its wisdom is vindicated.

For some time now, I have been sanguine about the chances of my team, Southampton, achieving promotion back to the top flight of English football. At least I have been consistent in my assertion that, whilst from the financial point of view, promotion would be hugely beneficial, nevertheless from a football point of view, maybe the league we are currently in is more interesting.

Even at this late stage of the season, with only eight or nine games to go, it`s still possible - at least mathematically - for any of nine teams to be promoted and any of about the same number to be relegated. Contrast this with the awful predicatability of the Premiership, where in reality only one of two clubs are going to win it and maybe three of four clubs are going to go down.

I went to the game on Tuesday evening and saw Saints take a 2-0 lead, only to be clawed back to a 2-2 draw by Cardiff City. Last night, before a world-wide TV audience trying to escape the ravages of Comic Relief, Saints lost 2-1 to Colchester. Given that it was only the third home defeat of the season, maybe it wasn`t a reason for too much despair. However, it more or less put paid to any real chance we had of reaching promotion even through the dubious `play-off` system.

I think it means that my philosophical prediction of remaining in the Championship for at least another season - and enjoying the competitiveness and the unpredictability - will come to pass. And so the dream of returning to former glories - and remember that we went for 27 years before finally being relegated from the top flight - must remain a dream. But at the end of the day, that`s football and at least I have my cliches to console me.