HIC! Safety assured, the champagne drunk and it seems the only danger now might be suffering a nose bleed as we move onwards and upwards towards the mid table respectability we enjoyed in the early weeks of the season.

We could in fact finish as high as ninth with six points from the remaining two games.

Sunday's game at Goodison was one of the most one-sided Premiership encounters I've seen in a long time.

Everton were desperate. There was a massive gulf in class between the two sides on the day.

Yet not for the first time this season our inability to finish teams off left the result rather needlessly in doubt. This is an aspect of our game we can undoubtedly improve on next season. I went to the game with a friend who in gambling terms has to be the unluckiest punter of all time.

He would struggle to pick the winner of a two horse race. Unbeknown to me and much to my disgust, at half time he placed an odds-on bet on Rovers to win over his mobile phone.

True to form within five minutes of the restart we contrived to hit the post from a yard.

Everton went straight up to the other end and, from a corner that should have been a goal kick, scored with a back heel that didn't actually have enough steam on it to hit the back of the net.

Thankfully Everton were just so poor not even my friend's legendary bad luck could prevent us from eventually returning with the spoils.

Although I did wonder when David Dunn's effort hit bar, then post and came out.

Thanks also to Van Nistelrooy's antics the previous evening the result of our game had ceased to be of life-and-death importance. However a couple of things struck me during the match. Matt Jansen reportedly lost a stone in weight due to the stomach bug which kept him out of the England reckoning.

I didn't realise he had that much weight left to lose. He was also supposedly on a drip for most of last week.

All this while apparently playing with a double hernia. In the circumstances he provided a performance of unbelievable quality, his non-stop pace and movement proving far too much for the lumbering Everton backline.

By comparison Andrew Cole was perhaps not quite firing on all cylinders. However no matter how he's playing I always feel as though he's likely to score a goal at any minute and I'm sure the opposition defence feel the same.

Sure enough he scored for the third consecutive game. If a certain Mr Ericsson has had time to watch any football recently, given his hectic extra curricular activities, hopefully it's not gone completely unnoticed.

As a partnership the pair have been fairly prolific since Cole's arrival and I am tingling with anticipation at the prospect of them playing a full season together next season.

I see no reason why barring injuries they should not notch around 35 goals between them.

For now there are two games left to the end of the season. Although the natural tendency would obviously be to take the foot off the gas, I hope we can stick with it for a little longer.

A few places higher up the table could make a big difference financially and pay the wages of a new recruit or two next season.

And Liverpool and Fulham really deserve a sound beating. Liverpool for their whinging about rearranging the fixture (twice).

Fulham for their undeserved victory in last season's corresponding home fixture. Go to it lads!