With nine games left, the League One finish line is in sight for Bristol Rovers and although they have gone a long way to securing their status, the job is not done yet.
A burst of seven points from three games against Oxford United, Barnsley and Forest Green Rovers represented a huge leap towards their goal of 52 points, but they are still seven points short of that target, albeit with a 10-point cushion to the relegation zone.
With five teams beneath them before the dotted line, the Gas are – at the moment, at least – very much an afterthought in the minds of the bookmakers and statisticians when it comes to predicting who will go down.
However, Rovers do face the toughest run of every team in the bottom half of the table when they return after the international break off the back of successive league defeats, meaning thoughts of well-earned summer holidays and next season are a tad premature.
The Gas face five of the top seven in the run-in with awkward away trips to Fleetwood Town, Port Vale and Shrewsbury Town thrown in, meaning they absolutely have to be on their mettle until the final whistle on the final day, something goalkeeper James Belshaw promised to Gasheads after Saturday's defeat to Portsmouth.
“The gaffer wouldn’t let anyone come off the pedal for any one second,” Belshaw said. “As soon as you’re looking like you’re coming off the pedal or your standards are dropping, you’re the first to know about it.
“For us, we don’t want the season to peter out, we want to get to the 50/52 points - whatever it may - as soon as possible, secure our status in the division and then have a right good go these last few games; play with freedom and entertain.
"The cliché - ‘on the beach’, you don’t want to be part of teams like that. It’s a very backward way of thinking and it can cause bad habits to creep in that then become hard to eradicate."
With plenty to play for at both ends of the table and in between, have a go at forecasting how every remaining game in League One this season – and, as a result, the table – will play out using our predictor below...
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