If I said at the start......

In roughly six weeks time the goalposts will be taken down, the pitch will be dug up, and the turnstiles at St James' Park will be closed for another season.

It's looking likely that when they open back up in August that NUFC will once again be flying the Premier League flag high above the East Stand after the victory at the weekend gave us a bit of breathing space between ourselves and the relegation pack.

We're not safe, not mathematically anyway, but we are just about there and could probably get by with a point of three between now and the end of the season if needs be. Obviously the club should be trying to get as many points as possible, but it's nice to not have to go on some random run of victories to preserve our Premier League status.

Still, it could have all been very different, and whilst I am glad that we look like surviving I also have a sense that we could have done so much better. This is strange when you consider;

- We've put six goals past Aston Villa in our first home game back in the Premier League.

- Sold an inexperienced youth for £35 million.

- Beat the Mackems 5-1 and played them off the park in their own gypsy site.

- Taken part in the greatest comeback of Premier League history.

- Scored more goals at home than any other team apart from Manchester United.

- Won in London - including the 1-0 at Arsenal, 2-1 at West Ham and the 4-3 Carling Cup victory over Chelsea.

- Unearthed one of the bargains of the season in the shape of Cheik Tiote.

When you look at it like that it's been one hell of a season, with a hell of a lot of bright spots, some of which never made it onto that list like the victories over Everton and Liverpool.

Survival was the name of the game at the start for many, and it looks like survival is going to be on the cards, but did you really, honestly envisage us having so many high points throughout the season on the way to safety? I know I certainly didn't.

It's been up and down so far, although looking back I would say that a lot of it has been up. Maybe that will continue in the final few weeks of the season? Who knows?

So next time you sit there wondering what could have been if we never sold Carroll, or what what if we'd have won this game or that game, think about what we have actually done this season. We've (almost) completed our goal, and we've had some bloody good times along the way.

How's that for feel good?