Matt Maher: West Brom are mathematically safe - with an invisible asterisk

It should really all be over.

Tuesday’s 3-0 win over Watford should have been the moment months of tension built during this most stressful of Albion seasons was released for good.

Instead, it remains as we wait for an independent commission to rule whether the Baggies are indeed guilty of breaching profit and sustainability rules and if so, what punishment they will face.

Mathematically safe, with an invisible asterisk. That is Albion, who are eight points clear of the bottom three with just two matches to play but cannot yet relax.

Tuesday should have been the night to fully acclaim the remarkable job performed by James Morrison since he took interim charge, at a time when everything was beginning to point toward League One.

Yet the cheers which greeted goals from Isaac Price, Daryl Dike and Danny Imray at The Hawthorns, as Albion extended their unbeaten run to nine matches, were tinged with a little bitterness and frustration.

Songs which emanated from the Smethwick End about the EFL and a possible points deduction are a little too coarse to be reprinted in a family newspaper but it was hard not to sympathise with the sentiment.

The issue is not so much guilt - though the Baggies insist they are innocent of any transgression - than the timing.

How on earth have the league allowed a situation where the final fortnight of the season is being played under such uncertainty?

It isn’t fair on anyone. Not Albion, who were robbed here of a bigger celebration. Nor Oxford, who cannot be sure who they are still chasing. How much longer will everyone be left in the dark?

The good news, from a Baggies perspective, is everything points to the survival party having only been delayed.

Even if Albion are hit with the two or three point deduction expected, it would still require an unlikely set of results for them to be overhauled on the revised tally.

More importantly, Morrison simply has them playing too well to think they will not add to the current haul over the final two matches, even if their next challenge is to face promotion-chasing Ipswich.

Watford, admittedly, were dream opponents, a team so close to being on the beach they should have played the match in flip-flops. They probably could not have played any poorer if they had.

But take nothing away from Albion and particularly Morrison. This nine-match unbeaten run since he was placed in charge until the end of the season has seen the Baggies collect 17 points, the same number claimed in the 21 Championship games which preceded it.

A team which had kept just four clean sheets since the start of November has kept six in the last seven matches. Whichever way you square it, Morrison has underseen an incredible turnaround.

Regardless of what the commission decides, it would be a huge surprise now if he did not keep the Baggies up, an achievement which would surpass everything he managed as a player.

Morrison, you suspect, might not see it that way. There’s no sense he is getting carried away by the success. At the final whistle he took only a moment to shake hands with opposite number Ed Still before disappearing down the tunnel.

Afterwards he refused to be drawn on whether he would like the job full-time but all indications are he would be very keen. For Shilen Patel, who made a trip to the dressing room after the game, the decision is surely becoming more obvious with every passing match.

Patel wore a big smile as he watched from the directors’ box. This has been a bruising campaign, for which the owner must take a bulk of the responsibility.

Yet in Morrison, he and the Baggies found a saviour in their darkest hour. It’s just a shame official completion of his triumph may take a little longer than it should have done.