Double Or Quits: The Glorious Cliche Of The Relegation ‘Six-Pointer’

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports UK.

When Stoke host Sunderland at the charmingly named Bet365 Stadium on Saturday, it will be the first of this season's relegation six-pointers. It might only be mid-October but, with the former second-bottom of the table and the latter a point and a position below them, things already look dire for the struggling 'S' teams.

As such, both before and after the match, the platitude of a 'six-pointer' is bound to be trotted out at every opportunity, from Soccer Saturday and Football Focus to Final Score and Match of the Day. Since the introduction of three points for a win at the start of the 1981/82 First Division season, the phrase has, year by year, become more prolific. It has now seeped its way in the national consciousness, whether or not it has much significance beyond that of a fond old cliche.

On a fundamental level, the cliche of the relegation six-pointer plays on a mutual feeling of scarcity. Two sides, both of whom are performing poorly, come up against each other, and find themselves in desperate need of a finite commodity in the form of league points. Points are to a bottom-five team what basic nourishment is to the starving man; there is a ravenous sense of want at the wrong end of the table, a frenzied need to sustain the side's existence rather than succumb to the slow death of relegation. The 'six-pointer' is an illusory feast, thrown between two famished, wild-eyed football teams. They must now fight to the death over the portion presented to them; share, and they both starve, but force one's opponent into submission, and survival seems almost guaranteed.

The relegation six-pointer is anything but a promise of survival, of course. It might seem the be-all and end-all of the league season in the semi-delirium of chronic deprivation, but it often turns out to be a temporary triumph, a small delay to the coming of the inevitable. In the Premier League, a team cannot survive on victories over their nearest rivals alone. There have been numerous sides who have done well against their fellow strugglers over the course of the campaign, only to succumb to long barren spells against the teams above them. One of the reasons the Premier League is so unforgiving is that, several times a season, the smallest sides have to find a way of besting far superior teams.

So, during the 2014/15 season, Burnley picked up 14 points (out of a possible 24) against the other sides in the bottom five. That represented just under half of their points for the season in total, and is an impressive return for a side that finished 19th. Unfortunately, the rest of their fixtures provided slim pickings, and they eventually succumbed to the soothing finality of the drop. That came despite them winning two so-called six-pointers against Hull and QPR in the middle of the season, proof that a metaphorical six points is worth nothing if it doesn't inspire a prolonged upturn in fortunes and a sustainable resurgence in form.

The promise of the six-pointer can be deceptive, then, and the supposed salvation of such a result often turns out to be a mirage. In their desperation, a team will celebrate not only the succour of three points, but also the three-point privation of their vanquished opponents, only for both sides to be overcome by fatal destitution come May. That was the case last season when Norwich beat Newcastle in early April, only to go on a four-match losing run and fall through the Premier League trapdoor regardless. The same could apply to the bitter clash between Owen Coyle's Bolton and Steve Kean's Blackburn back in March 2012, which saw the former triumph in toxic conditions only to dwindle away over the last few weeks of the season and slip down to the Championship on the final day.

Every now and then, a relegation six-pointer will live up to its billing. While the majority of such clashes are far less significant than the name might suggest, there have been one or two which have proved the difference between survival and extinction. In April 2000, Bradford took on Wimbledon at Valley Parade, with the hosts and the visitors going into the game on 32 and 30 points respectively. There were three games of the season to go and, with Watford and Sheffield Wednesday already out of contention, there was a straight battle between Bradford and Wimbledon to escape the icy death-grip of 18th place.

Wimbledon were by far the better side on the day, by all accounts, but the scrap for a metaphorical six points requires a team to be ruthless, cruel and rabid in their pursuit of victory. Bradford were just that, carving Wimbledon open on three occasions and so clambering above them in the league. Peter Beagrie and Dean Windass got the goals, while Dean Saunders put in a decisive performance for the West Yorkshire outfit in what was a crushing result as far as the relegation battle was concerned. Wimbledon would go on to finish three points behind their vanquishers, and their dramatic collapse into the Championship heralded a barren period for the club which would eventually lead to further deprivation and an ignominious move to Milton Keynes.

As results go, they don't come much more consequential than that. Bradford's win over Wimbledon was worth far more than six points; it signified the permanent decline of one club, and a spell of penury and distress which was far more acute than anything suffered by their fellow relegation candidates that year. That said, Bradford did go down the following season, prompting their own financial struggles and barren spell in the footballing wilderness. They faced a multitude of apparent six-pointers against Manchester City, Derby Everton and Coventry that year, losing almost all of them and hence rendering the idea moot once more.

There have been other famous top-flight six-pointers over the years, not least the clash between Bolton and West Ham at the end of 2002/03. West Brom and Sunderland were as good as down, leaving Bolton's home clash with West Ham in April looking like a vital fixture. It turned out to be just that, with Wanderers' 1-0 win giving them a Premier League lifeline. The mercurial Jay-Jay Okocha popped up with a beautiful individual effort just before half-time, leaving Bolton with a two-point cushion over their East London rivals once the Hammers' season had sputtered to its disastrous end.

More often than not, however, a relegation six-pointer is a full-blown dud. It either ends in an underwhelming draw, or the result is nullified by games elsewhere. Last season, a clash between Newcastle and Sunderland in mid-March was billed as a last-gasp, must-win match, before the two sides played out a 1-1 draw. That looked like it might condemn both to the drop, but the Wearsiders found form away from the bottom five of the table. Newcastle continued to flounder, while Big Sam's men secured crucial draws against Stoke and Arsenal, before beating Chelsea and Everton to preserve their Premier League status for another season. The so-called 'six-pointer' was meaningless in the end, even if it provided Sky Sports with an easy selling point on the day.

While the idea of a double-or-quits match is a convenient one, a relegation six-pointer in its truest sense is a rarity. There are few cliches which get quite the same usage, but the description falls flat more often than not. Stoke and Sunderland might look set for a six-pointer this weekend from the perspective of the present, but only hindsight will tell whether or not the result actually matters. Like most so-called six-pointers, the game will likely fade into obscurity, barring something spectacular in the spirit of Okocha's endless, mazy run.

@W_F_Magee