Southampton have two league games to negotiate before the play-offs.
After suffering consecutive defeats – the latter a 5-0 hammering by Leicester City – any slim hopes the Saints retained of automatic promotion have gone.
Now, Russell Martin will have to pick up his players ahead of the play-offs, with a place in the Premier League at stake.
We are at the stage of the season that football fans love, where teams’ fates are decided and there are big games everywhere you look.
Whilst you could argue Southampton have two meaningless league games remaining, these fixtures could be crucial in finding some form ahead of the crucial play-off clashes.
However, in terms of league position Southampton’s results are likely to have little impact.
This is far from the case for a number of other sides in the Championship, though, with teams sweating on their futures.
Former Southampton coach Danny Rohl in relegation scrap
One such club is Sheffield Wednesday.
The Hillsbrough outfit were successful in last season’s League One play-offs, earning promotion to the Championship at Wembley.
Their troubles started not long after, with manager Darren Moore leaving after a falling out with the owners.
Moore was replaced by Spanish coach Xisco Munoz ahead of the season, but the 43-year-old lasted less than three months with Wednesday suffering their worst ever start to a season.
This is when the Sheffield club took a real risk, as they appointed ex-Southampton coach Danny Rohl for his first ever managerial job.
Whilst he has never been the main man in a senior dugout, Rohl boasted an impressive career; especially when you consider he is just 34-years-old.
The German worked closely with former Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl at RB Leipzig before following the Austrian to the south of England in December 2018.
He departed the Saints the following summer to take up the same role under Hansi Flick at Bayern Munich, before following Flick to the German national side.
Rohl had been out of work after leaving Germany in September 2023 and was the surprising appointment Wednesday made with the club routed to the bottom of the Championship table and just three points.
Rohl working wonders at Sheffield Wednesday
The job Rohl has done at Wednesday with limited resources has been nothing short of remarkable.
In his time working with Hasenhuttl, many accredited a lot of the manager’s success to Rohl’s input.
Now that he is left to fend for himself, the man who retired as a player aged just 20 according to Transfermarkt is showing he could have a bright future as a manager.
Applying the high-intensity principles he shares with Hassenhuttl, Rohl has masterminded three draws and two wins in Wednesday’s last six Championship games.
The last of these results, a 3-1 win over Blackburn Rovers on Sunday – saw him steer Wednesday out of the bottom three for the first time since August.
Now, the unlikeliest of escapes looks to be on, with Wednesday 21st out of 24 but anyone up to 17th still in danger of relegation to the third tier.
If the Championship had only run from when Rohl was appointed on 13th October, Wednesday would be 16th in the table and comfortable going into the final two fixtures.
Southampton, incidentally, would be second in the same timeframe.
It is a great story and, who knows, perhaps Rohl will one day return to the club he coached under Hasenhuttl as the number one.