So, having gone out of the FA Cup without kicking a ball (if the media slavering over an Arsenal v Chelsea semi-final over the last few days is anything to go by), we really can concentrate on the Premier League.
And you know what? I reckon if we win this weekend we're safe.
Newcastle United, our favourite opponents this season (played three, won two, drawn one, scored three, conceded one) come to the KC Stadium with not only a poor recent record against us, but also a relegation threat far more severe than ours, a manager convalescing from heart surgery and a main striker who refuses to sign a new deal while also claiming that their visit to us is their "cup final".
How the (high and) mighty can fall.
City's win at Fulham may have been dramatic and unexpected but it was still as good a three points as any other gained this season. However, there is a monkey on the backs of the Tigers squad - form at home. Specifically, it's the ability to transfer the raucous, all-in-it-together feeling of away fixtures into games at the KC where, sadly, a good chunk of fans are there for the occasion rather than the team and don't understand that moaning and barracking is distinctly unhelpful.
Bulletins report this morning that the game is a sell-out. This is good, of course, and with Newcastle's fans, admirable for their numbers if not for their delusions of grandeur, taking up a large section of the North Stand it was a predictable announcement to make. However, it also means that a lot of newer City supporters (many of whom will not bother next season, irrespective of which division we are in or even if Cup success takes us to Europe) will be turning up, arms folded, expecting to be impressed after forgetting all about the Fulham game until they flicked on Sky Sports News the following morning and saying: "Oh, did City win then?"
Those sort of fans are too prevalent and need to be brought into line, educated about how to support a football team. If they're here for rubbernecking, for occasions, then they're no better than all those Koreans we saw buying unofficial, misspelled tat outside Old Trafford and then taking photographs of Cristiano Ronaldo as he took a corner, rather than watching where he put the ball.
Fans, as Phil Brown himself has acknowledged, play mega roles in a team's success. Away from home, as proved at Fulham last week and other flagship occasions under this manager, the fans and the players are as one. If the newcomers - who we all wanted to come along when it was 3,500 for a defeat to Barnet at Boothferry Park - can embrace this style of supporting rather than turn up as a cynic and a customer, then a victory against Newcastle and a major stride towards safety should be ours.
With potential for safety, of course, comes a cleared pathway for a right go at the FA Cup.
Let's hope.
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