Much of the footballing world was distracted for a day or two this week by the actions of a few clubs to appoint themselves the unassailable aristocrats of the game.

Watford fans had much more important things on their minds.

In the space of a few matches that had sports reporters kneading their brows as they explained to the unenlightened, the Hornets went from a team for whom things still might go wrong to (hopefully) a shoo-in for promotion back to the Premier League.

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An unhoped-for win over Norwich City, Brentford drawing at home against Cardiff City and Swansea City beaten at home by Queens Park Rangers removed many of the tricky variables from the equation.

Bournemouth have now gone above Swansea in third, but the Hornets have an eight-point cushion with three games left to play.

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In short, promotion has almost been secured and one more win will make it certain.

It has been an at-times anguished season, but Xisco Munoz’s men are within touching distance of being back in the top flight.

And unlike those teams who threatened to put themselves permanently beyond the reach of the rest of us, Watford will have earned it.

However, their goal difference is far inferior to the Hornets' so doing even that would likely not be enough for them, unless they can swing that difference in their favour by 14 goals.

Brentford meanwhile remain the most likely competitors for second place, with a game in hand on both Watford and Swansea, but their failure to win this evening means that they are now ten points adrift of the second automatic promotion spot.

With 12 points up for grabs for them, the Bees could catch and overtake the Hornets, should they win all their remaining games and Watford fail to pick up more than one point from theirs.

However, one more win for Watford would take them to 88 points, one more than Brentford can accumulate by picking up victories in all four of their final fixtures, and would send them straight back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.