In almost any other season, Sunderland would have already crossed the line. Their emphatic 5-1 victory against Cambridge United saw the Black Cats reach the 80 point mark, which would have been sufficient to secure a third-tier play-off place in 33 of the previous 35 seasons since the play-offs were introduced.
Only in 1995 and 2003, when Huddersfield Town and Cardiff City respectively, finished sixth with 81 points, has the bar been set higher. In some seasons, clubs have made the play-offs in this division without even reaching the 70 point mark.
But as things stand, and depending how other results go, Sunderland might yet need four more points from their remaining two games to be certain of a place in the end-of-season lottery - and six points could even bring automatic promotion, although the chances of that coming to pass are so vanishingly slim that they can be effectively discounted. Ever since his arrival, head coach Alex Neil has insisted that he does not look at the league table, but following the win against Cambridge United he dropped the pretence.
READ MORE: Sunderland boss Alex Neil hails 'top notch' Lynden Gooch for excellent performance vs Cambridge
"I'll be honest with you, this league table is doing my head in," he said. "We keep winning, but we’re not moving much, are we?
"We've won seven games out of the last ten, and we've still got work to do."
He's right. Sunderland do still have work to do.
It could be job done on Tuesday night if they beat Rotherham on Wearside - although the scenario would also require an unlikely defeat for Sheffield Wednesday at relegation-strugglers Fleetwood Town, whose solitary win in their last 19 games came against basement side Crewe. More likely, regardless of results on Tuesday, this play-off battle will go to the last day of the season when Sunderland visit Morecambe.
As of now, it is still a four-way fight between Sunderland, Plymouth, Wycombe, and Sheffield Wednesday, for three available places. But, after Saturday's win, Sunderland are in the box seat.
They sit fourth in the table, ahead of fifth-placed Plymouth by virtue of goals scored, and ahead of Wycombe on goal difference, and with a game in hand of both. The Owls are seventh, one point behind the others, but like Sunderland they also have two games to play.
Nerves are jangling loudest on the South Coast and in the Home Counties. This weekend saw Sunderland steal a march on their rivals, with Oxford ruled out of the running after their defeat at Rotherham, Sheffield Wednesday slipping to defeat at Wycombe, while Plymouth were held to a draw at Wigan, to climbing from seventh to fourth.
Sunderland were always favourites against Cambridge, even though the U's had rested players in midweek to give themselves the chance of completing a North-East double by following their FA Cup win at Newcastle with a league win on Wearside. Any chance of that evaporated inside 15 minutes, when defender Lloyd Jones was shown a straight red card for denying Ross Stewart an obvious goalscoring opportunity, and Stewart tucked away the resulting penalty.
Both Neil and his counterpart Mark Bonner agreed that the penalty was justified, but that the red card was harsh. Sunderland quickly took the game away from Cambridge, with Elliot Embleton scoring a brilliant free-kick from a seemingly-impossible angle, and while Paul Digby scored almost immediately to bring the U's back into the game, it was a brief respite with Stewart adding his second and his team's third before half-time.
Lynden Gooch was outstanding throughout, providing a series of precision crosses and from one of those deliveries Nathan Broadhead made it 4-1 just after half-time. And inside the final 20 minutes, Danny Batth headed his first goal for the club to complete the rout.
Neil said afterwards that his side could have reached double figures, and Bonner admitted that the scoreline 'could have been anything'. With goal difference and goals scored potentially in-play when it comes to deciding the top six, to score five goals was a major boost - to add more would have been a bonus.
The only downside for Sunderland was the loss of two key defenders to injury. Dennis Cirkin was absent from the teamsheet, while the consistent Carl Winchester limped off after ten minutes with a groin problem.
Neither are likely to feature in the last two games of the regular campaign, and Neil can only hope they will be fit to play a part if Sunderland qualify for the play-offs.
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