So the four Must Wins are over and out of twelve realistic points we garnered just four. Before this sequence of winnable fixtures began I prophesised that any less than six points would see us dead and buried.

The draw against Fulham was certainly a crashing disappointment after the glimmer of hope offered by last week's victory over Hull and nothing new there: how many times in the last few months has the emotional tone of these entries veered wildly from one result to the next? And yet, somehow, things don't seem quite that gloomy around Teesside.

Probably the biggest factor is that we don't look dead. Saturday's point took as above Newcastle, and their loss against Spurs kept us there. Granted, last weekend we were two points from safety while the gap has grown to three at the end of this weekend, but we're now 18th. Hull are absolutely plummeting down the table, and their main hope will be that the season ends before they fall right the way through the trapdoor, while Newcastle don't look like escaping either.

So, on paper, it's simply a case of gaining three more points than Hull and fending off Newcastle to finish in 17th. Simple, eh? Of course, the run-ins for all three sides is very tough. We have to play Arsenal, Man United and Villa between now and the end, while there's the increasingly massive Tyne-Tees derby on May 11th to come. Hull's run-in is just as hard, and Newcastle's barely any easier.

A lot has been said recently about momentum, whether it's Man United's faltering performances, Liverpool's hot-on-the-heels pursuit, Arsenal's consolidation of 4th place or Villa's wilting chase. Newcastle's momentum is encapsulated by a return of two points from the past six games. Hull and Boro both have five points from the last six games, which indicates similarly poor form shown by both sides. On the face of it Newcastle are heading straight down while Hull, despite sliding down the table, are playing no worse than us and will limp over the finishing line.

So why don't things seem quite so bad? Well, firstly, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, most Boro fans have made their peace with relegation now and are half-expecting it anyway. Secondly, going above Newcastle is significant and their wretched form means that it looks, right now, like there are at least two teams in the league worse than us. Thirdly, the fans haven't actually seen Boro lose at home for nine games now, which is a mark of solidity.

Finally, one of our two wins this calendar year was against Liverpool. There is a long-running trend of Boro losing to the lower sides and then turning up against the big boys, and so Man United at home to us is hardly much less winnable than Stoke away. We drew 2-2 with them last season and it wasn't that long ago we thrashed them 4-1 at the Riverside. It's much the same with Arsenal away: Boro haven't lost against Arsenal since Southgate took over, which is considerably more than we can say about Bolton. Furthermore, both these matches come in close proximity to the Champion's League semi-final ties the two teams will contest against each other. With Arsenal safely in fourth but nowhere near third and Sir Alex Ferguson prioritising European glory, these fixtures are softer than they might appear.

So, enough about the run-in. How was the game? Open, in a word. Southgate stuck with the uber-offensive formation that beat Hull last week and the result was plenty of chances at both ends. Boro started off stronger, faded and then had a second wind in the second half, while Fulham stood up to what we threw att them. Their resilience, inevitably, owed no small part to the heroics of Mark Schwarzer. The Aussie keeper and long-time Boro stalwart left for free in the summer after a shakey final season at the Riverside, but he's been reborn and back to his best since joining Fulham. He made spectacular saves against Tuncay, McMahon and Downing in the second half to earn his side a point.

Fulham were far from push-overs though, and Andy Johnson hit the inside of the post with a deflected effort in the closest chance of the game. This is the same side who, this time last season, were in even deeper trouble than we are now and yet managed to survive on the final day. They've become a real force since then, and now they've started getting points on the road they're contenders for a place in the ridiculously named Europa League. In many ways they're a better team right now than Aston Villa, who haven't won in twelve games and who we play in the run-in. With that considered, a point wasn't a bad result after all.

Overall, we played well. Defensively we looked quite solid, with Matthew Bates throwing himself in front of a late Zamora shot to emphasise that the performance, while ultimately only worth a draw, was far from the limp and submissive display we saw when drawing 0-0 with Wigan a few weeks ago.

Five games to go. Bring on the Arsenal and let's see what happens.