Roy Evans’s team can certainly not be seen to be taking things easy, though having long since qualified for Europe, through winning the Coca-Cola Cup, they may have subconsciously relaxed. And that might actually work in their favour against opponents racked by tension.Yet Blackburn’s destiny remains in their own hands. They know what they have to do; if Dalglish and his coach, Ray Harford, can convince them to go at it positively, rather than hoping or waiting for things to happen, they will be worthy, if uncharismatic, champions.It’s also judgement day at the foot of the table. Assuming that Sheffield Wednesday take at least the point they need – and they receive the bottom club, Ipswich – Crystal Palace supporters will be left to hope for an unlikely double. A win for their own side at Newcastle, where only Leeds have succeeded in 16 months, has to be accompanied by defeat for Aston Villa at relegated Norwich.Brian Little, who made a habit of becoming embroiled in last-day dramas at Darlington and Leicester, yesterday summed up the emotional mangle through which everyone involved will go tomorrow. “It could be close to being the best or worst moment of my career,” the Villa manager said.”You end up driving yourself round the twist thinking ‘if they do this, then so and so will happen’. So when I heard West Ham were winning 3-0 in midweek, I went straight to bed.”Palace’s prospects are scarcely enhanced by the fact that Newcastle need three points to have any chance of preventing Leeds claiming the last guaranteed Uefa Cup berth.

The Yorkshire side face a tricky finish at Tottenham, but buoyed by Tony Yeboah’s decision not to follow Klinsmann back to the Bundesliga, ought to make their point.. The letters expressing sympathy and support describe an ever-increasing pile on the manager’s desk It is as though there has been a death in the family. After 11 years in which he has filled just about every role on the coaching staff, Alan Smith is preparing to let go of Crystal Palace and it is all ending in tears. A love affair between a football man and his club reaches its only logical conclusion tomorrow. In the last bitter weeks of impending separation, the two principal characters, Smith and the Palace chairman, Ron Noades, have grown more and more distant. The game at Newcastle will most likely send the south London club back to the First Division.

What is no longer in doubt is that, whether Palace survive or not, it will be Smith’s last game in charge.
For the diehard Palace supporters the fall-out between chairman and manager has been almost as distressing as events on the field of play. Smith, one of the most likeable managers and one of the game’s best media communicators, has made obvious his dissatisfaction with a situation in which he feels he has not had Noades’s full backing. Noades, forthright and belligerent, has retaliated publicly and so a tawdry tale has dragged on.With so little harmony apparent elsewhere it is little wonder that the players have fallen out among themselves as their hold on a Premiership place has become increasingly tenuous. They have done well to carry the fight this far but if they do not win at Newcastle that will be it.Too much has been said for Smith and Noades to continue working together. The manager’s contract has two weeks to run but it is unlikely to run the full distance.

Smith wants the end to be dignified and executed in the best interests of the football club. Survive or demise, a board meeting will take place on Tuesday to which Smith has been summoned. It seems certain Noades will sack his manager, but in any event Smith wants out.In many ways it is surprising the relationship has survived thus far. Smith hardly broke down the door in his rush to become manager. He had seen the toll it had taken on Steve Coppell and an initial reluctance hardened when the chairman indicated a desire to take overall responsibility for the youth team. That was smoothed over and in Smith’s first season Palace raced to the First Division championship, seven points clear of Nottingham Forest .All was not as it seemed, however. Smith says that “we have been flimsy all season” and you feel he is talking about things inside the club as well as on the pitch.