My hand is halfway in my pocket after taking up a charity bets challenge some weeks ago.

A couple of followers on Twitter disagreed with my view that 90 points would be enough to get Albion promoted.

They look firm favourites at the moment to be right - but I am keeping my hand where it is for now.

Because week in, week out, results in the Championship are impossible to predict.

Who, for example, would have thought Nottingham Forest would stuff Albion 3-0, their only victory in their last seven matches?

Or that Newcastle would take one point out of six at home to Bristol City and Fulham, either side of beating the Seagulls at the Amex and Huddersfield on their own turf?

 

Note that Huddersfield, the other contenders in the two-from-three automatic promotion race, do not warrant a mention as the victims of a surprise setback.

You have to go back to New Year's Eve and two points dropped at home to Blackburn to find one.

So far in 2017, David Wagner's team have won nine league games out of 12, a powerful surge which has carried them to within six points of Newcastle and Albion with a game in hand.

More to the point, they are on 71 points already with ten games to go. A total exceeding 90 appears to be well within their grasp.

Then again, appearances can be deceptive in the crazy environment of the Championship.

We are getting to the stage of forensic analysis of the run-ins facing each of the three candidates.

Albion have three of the bottom four in their remaining four games at the Amex, where they are so strong. Easy pickings eh?

The Argus: Or maybe not. The closer teams get to the relegation trap door, one or two invariably and inexplicably find form to save themselves, like Albion's Great Escape under Russell Slade (above left) in 2009.

On paper, Newcastle have the hardest run-in, on paper being the operative word.

Form indicates they are well capable of winning at sixth-placed Sheffield Wednesday and losing at home to fourth-placed Leeds or play-off outsiders Preston.

Huddersfield, unlike Newcastle or Albion - who go to Leeds on Saturday - have none of the other teams in the top six to play.

They still have some tricky assignments, such as Friday's visit to Bristol City, fresh from a crucial win at fellow strugglers Wigan on Saturday and with free-scoring Chelsea prospect Tammy Abraham back from injury.

The conventional wisdom is that sides not involved in either the promotion or relegation fight are the best ones to be playing as the finishing line approaches.

This can work both ways too. They have the flip-flops on, or play with more freedom.

Games against Norwich and Derby will be especially dangerous for Huddersfield now that under-achieving duo are involved in managerial changes.

It is difficult to envisage Norwich being as poor as they were in their thrashing at the Amex at October, likewise Gary Rowett's Derby following the lifeless defeat on Friday which proved to be the death knell for Steve McClaren (below centre).

The Argus: Two of Albion's final three games are at Norwich and the other big let-downs, Aston Villa, so you would hope the job is done by then.

That is doubtful, particularly as Huddersfield's game in hand at Wolves is not until the penultimate midweek of the season.

I am inclined to think that is helpful to Albion, although again it is hard to tell. Where will the Seagulls' Good Friday hosts Wolves, currently in relegation peril, be by then?

The permutations are infinite, but there are two certainties.

The first is Albion, after accumulating 89 points last season, will be desperately unlucky to better that tally and miss out again.

The second is goal difference will not be a factor this time, unless Albion and Newcastle are the ones fighting to be runners-up. Huddersfield are lagging way behind the pair of them in this regard.

So 90 points would be enough for Albion if Huddersfield end up level with them. Increasing the chances of me being right after all!