The Valley this Saturday will showcase two sides playing for a goal that is, on every level (including financially), a higher plane to those that are generally battling for column inches and television screens.

Alan Pardew and Neil Warnock, two managers who are well-known for their ability to get more from their seemingly average pack of players, will be working overtime prior to kick-off in order to prepare their players for a relegation fight which is in many ways far more of an interesting match-up than any of the Manchester United-Chelsea meetings that are in the pipeline.

As a supporter of a lesser club (i.e. one who has never pensively awaited a Champions League draw and is never likely to), I can tell you that the meeting between the Addicks and the Blades is one that seems a far more mouth-watering prospect than May 9, May 19 and quite possibly May 23 (yawn) - the dates for United and Chelsea match-ups.

This game is also a chance to prove that there is life outside the top four, that there are 16 other teams in the Premiership, and believe it or not, hundreds of other sides in the UK alone that meet regularly to play a game of football (some even have thousands of spectators who can, on occasion, sound far more audible than at Old Trafford).

It seems that the race to milk the cash cow that is football has in many ways created a monster, one that tramples over both history and the 'other' side of football. Recent references to the creation of feeder clubs and the hosting of 'B' sides into the football league structure have shown the blinkered view that emanates from within the bigger clubs in the football pyramid.

However. the creation of a Promised Land philosophy that came with the birth of the Premiership does create an enthralling set of fixtures each year between sides desperate to stay in the elite club of sides who ultimately run the game.