Bassett: Why relegation still gives me the shivers

That's what I wrote in my autobiography a few years ago and it's true.

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It is the worst word in football. Well, perhaps with the exception of "sacked".

At the start of that day in 1994, we were favourites to stay up out of the teams down there.

We were sixth from bottom and Everton, Ipswich and Southampton looked more likely to go down, along with Swindon and Oldham.

But it turned out to be one of those days when football kicks you in the guts. With seconds remaining of our game at Stamford Bridge we were safe.

We had conquered our nerves, had played like men and deserved a 2-2 draw.

Then Mark Stein scored. I was sitting in the stand so as not to transmit my nerves to the players.

The last thing they want is to see their manager shaking and sweating on the touchline.

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As soon as that goal went in I knew. I just closed my eyes and thought, "S**t! We are gone."

It was a hammer blow but it shows what can happen and serves as a reminder to those managers facing the same task on Sunday that anything can happen.

It just takes one bounce of the ball, a mistimed clearance, a bad tackle or a missed chance. One thing goes wrong and you're down.

When I look back there is still part of me that gets angry. Everton came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and there were always suspicions over the role Wimbledon keeper Hans Segers played that day.

No wrongdoing was proven but if I was Segers I would be embarrassed by the way the final goal went in.

And if I was Paul Robinson at Tottenham I wouldn't listen to a word Segers says about keeping goal!

But it's wrong to dwell on that. A draw would have been enough and we couldn't do it. Nathan Blake had two chances to make it 3-2 to us.

Had he taken them, the game would have been over. But you can't blame one person. We all make mistakes.

I do take pride in the way the players handled themselves. They dealt with their nerves and played with courage.

That is what the likes of Paul Jewell, Neil Warnock and Alan Curbishley will want on Sunday.

You need real men who won't freeze, who will play with assurance and take control of their own destiny.

If you have those players, you have a chance. If you don't, you may as well not bother.

I fear for Wigan. They must have played rubbish to lose at home to West Ham and then Middlesbrough.

But they are the team that know they have to win. A draw is no good, so they will want to go searching straight away.

That could work for them and prove Sheffield United's undoing.

Whoever goes down, I feel for them. Relegation changes people's lives and affects careers. It still makes me shiver just to think about it.