Wanderers have eight games to play in their bid to beat the drop and appear to have hit form at just the right time.

But they still need all the help they can get to ensure that their efforts on the field are matched with a level of support that shows that Bolton means business. From today until the final game of the season at home to Middlesbrough on Sunday, May 11, the Bolton Evening News will be urging Wanderers' fans to channel every ounce of effort into ensuring that the town will be hosting top flight football for a third successive season.

A record crowd of 27,409 saw Wanderers draw with Manchester United in their last appearance at the Reebok and it would be of great inspiration to the players who kept their survival hopes alive with an impressive victory at Sunderland last weekend if that record came under threat at the five remaining home fixtures, starting with Monday night's showdown with Glenn Hoddle's Spurs.

The rewards are staggering. The difference between survival and relegation is at least £20 million - manna from heaven to a club with debts in excess of £34 million.

That handsome slice of the Sky TV payout would enable Wanderers to not only consolidate but to build on their two seasons in the top flightl.

One season of Premiership football transformed the finances of Burnden Leisure, Wanderers' parent company, trebling turnover from £10m to £30m and giving Allardyce the financial scope to attract world class stars such as Youri Djorkaeff and Jay-Jay Okocha.

But the repercussions of relegation from the top division - more frightening now than at any time in the history of league football in this country - can be seen by the unprecedented turmoil at clubs whose shattered dreams have left them with recurring financial nightmares - last season's relegated trio of Ipswich, Derby County and Leicester and previous victims of the drop, Barnsley and Bradford who are languishing in the Second Division. Sunderland, effectively resigned to the drop after Saturday's defeat, will receive a "parachute" payment of £5m for the next two seasons but are bracing themselves nevertheless.

In financial terms, Wanderers have never had it so good but the club's directors are well aware of the pitfalls and have taken a cautious line since securing promotion via the 2001 Play-offs. While attempting to stay in the Premiership they believe they have taken the precautions that, should the worse come to the worst, they would cope better than most.

Nevertheless, they would almost certainly lose their star players - neither Djorkaeff nor Okocha would relish playing in the Nationwide League, even if the club could afford to keep them - and, for all his bargaining skills and persuasive powers, it is hard to see Allardyce attracting the quality of N'Gotty, Campo and Mendy who have been recruited on loans that could only be described as masterstrokes.

Attendances would surely plummet, commercial revenue would be decimated ... even the town would suffer if the Bury and Bolton Chamber of Commerce is correct in its estimation that Premiership football is worth an extra £20m to local trade.

Big Sam and his Wanderers have what it takes to survive - but they still need all the support they can get.