AS the Premiership enters the final quarter of the season nerves are beginning to become frayed at the edges for many clubs and it is not just the managers and players who are worried. In their executive boxes, chairmen and owners alike sit and ponder the unthinkable that they may be relegated and not be involved in the football gravy train next season.

Life in the Championship and beyond is not an enticing thought, less glamour, less quality and less money - a lot less money. Mention Leeds United, Nottingham Forest or Southampton to any of these men and they are likely to come out in a cold sweat in front of your very eyes.

This year there are more involved than ever as the Premiership table is completly divided down the middle. There is an eight-point gap between 10th place West Ham and 11th place Tottenham Hotspur. Whilst it is difficult to imagine Spurs joining the relegation fight given their improvement under Juande Ramos, culminating in last week's Carling Cup win over Chelsea, it cannot be completely discounted, especially after Saturdays 4-1 defeat at Birmingham.

It may be the last time the Spaniard gives his players permission to go out on the town if this is the reaction he is going to get. This was a dreadful display against a workmanlike Birmingham. The Midlands club themselves are only one point off the drop zone and it is likely they will be in the running for relegation for most of the remaining weeks of the season but this was an important win for them and could be the start of a short run of success that can see them safe.

Derby County on the other hand are doomed, Paul Jewel knows it, the players know and even the fans are coming to terms with it. It needed a miracle before Saturday's game but a 0-0 draw at home to Sunderland just underlines their journey to the Championship.

Sunderland, meanwhile, have played better recently and the results have backed this up. Even they are only two points clear of safety. They are heading in the right direction and if they can pick up some points away from home their home form will carry them through.

Steve Coppell, however, is going through his bleakest period as a manager with eight straight defeats with Reading and things are not looking good for the side that so surprised everyone last season.

He may well look back at the end of the campaign to Middlesbrough away when Reading won 1-0 with a last gasp winner to stop the rot. As ever he was honest with his after-match assessment that his team are fortunate there are so many other sides struggling as much as his team. One swallow does not make a summer but at least Mr Madejski can look forward with some degree of optimism that the club he has invested so heavily in might well avoid the drop.

On Tyneside any such optimism is difficult to find as Newcastle United are yet to win under Kevin Keegan and another home defeat on Saturday to Blackburn, is a growing concern. Six good chances created, none taken and more importantly three fell to Michael Owen who failed to convert any of them is worrying to say the least.

Much talk was about the improved performance but as the season is nearing its end these may be hollow words as eventually they will run out of matches to win enough points. I still expect them to stay up, mainly because of the other teams around them, but this is certainly not the quiet six months rebuilding project 'King Kev' planned when he first arrived.

Given that Fulham are six points adrift, which is a significant gap to bridge, it means that the others are fighting over one place and it is likely it will come down to either Reading, Birmingham or Bolton to fill it.

That does not mean that one of the others may not be drawn in to the battle come May 11 and of those, it is Middlesbrough who should be most worried.

Fixtures away to Aston Villa, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs as well as home games against Manchester United, Portsmouth and Man City mean they probably have the toughest set of games out of any team in the bottom half. They will be relying, as are Newcastle, on other teams bailing them out from a pretty desperate season.

Whoever it is knows they will get their parachute payment to help assist their return but plenty of clubs have wasted this in the past, so it is no guarantee of a swift return. But - and this is probably the crux of the matter - there is no longer talk of disappointment about not being able to challenge at the highest level. There are only tears of lost revenue.

It is said that football will one day eat itself and if it does there is no better place to satisfy the glutton's appetite at present than the English Premiership.