TEMPERATURES are reaching boiling point in the Blue Square Conference Premier, a division that now seemingly matches the Championship for out and out unpredictability and excitement.

The table makes absolutely fascinating viewing, not least for the three-way tussle at the top, two proper teams battling it out with the Conference’s newest cash cow Crawley Town for an automatic passage into the Football League.

It might seem churlish, an accusation already thrown at me in conversation with others, that I find myself being so anti-Crawley, but it just comes so naturally.

In a free society, particularly in an industry as money-orientated as football, there is nothing wrong at all with buying success and using wealth to not only maximise your potential but to indeed change the parameters of what your potential ever could be. I’d do well to remember that.

Crawley Town are only a big club in waiting in the sense that Basingstoke Town or Gateshead are a big club in waiting, namely, a fairly large town with a solid supporter base of several hundred loyal fans.

To compare them with a Luton Town is innapropriate, because Crawley will never even be the biggest club in their region, however many millions are pumped into them.

Crawley are never going to be in a position – should they continue splashing the cash – of having the chance to meet the proposed financial sanctions being imposed on clubs, because there will never be a supporter fanbase to match their expenditure.

If the 9,000 fans who are travelling to Old Trafford for Crawley’s FA Cup tie stuck with the club, rather than the 200 or so who often travel to Crawley away matches, then maybe it would be a different story!

But the reality is that Crawley are going to continue to draw resentment from others, particularly in the non-league, because it’s easy when you can’t afford to keep your best players to get a touch of the green eyed monster.

What we can probably all agree on is that with games in hand and serious squad depth, Crawley are the likely champions, ahead of the big boys of the division Luton Town and AFC Wimbledon. The champions certainly come from those three.

We should also be giving full credit to Deano for a superb job, his first managerial post in non-league football initially leaving him looking bewildered and with fans calling for his head, only to totally turn things around.

In this instance we aren’t talking Holdsworth but Saunders, because Wrexham look a great bet for the playoffs after a superb run of form.

Which leaves one remaining playoff berth.

And for that all important fifth spot in the league, look no further than Newport County, because any other analysis will make your head spin, at the very least half-a-dozen sides right in contention for that spot, with all to play for in the remainder of the campaign.

County’s squad looks as strong as it has been since the start of the campaign and Exiles supporters shouldn’t have given up just yet on a trip to Manchester City’s Eastlands for the playoff final.

They must get back to winning ways, that goes without saying, because 2011, results-wise, has been nothing short of horrendous, both under the current and former managers.

Tim Harris has done a wonderful job of rebuilding morale and refining his ranks and the Craig Reid deal ticked all the boxes in terms of respecting a players’ wishes but also not significantly weakening your own hand.

Which brings me to the key point and one that you’ll see emblazoned upon the top of this page. This next seven days or so for County is absolutely, positively make or break.

The might of Luton at home, a revenge mission next Tuesday at Twerton Park and then a trip to Kettering Town, a minimum target of six points, certainly no less than five, absolutely required.

What better fixture than to get back on track with than Luton tomorrow night?

Forget anything that has gone before, because this is the biggest game of the campaign.

Firstly, because Luton don’t just pay lip service to the label of being a big club in non-league football, they will be bringing upwards of 500 supporters tomorrow, which will help to create a fabulous atmosphere.

County have a fully fit and firing squad to choose from and showed more than signs of life at Mansfield last time out, in truth they were a rash challenge away from a win we’d all have been rightly raving over.

There is an element of freshness about Newport now and who knows, the acquisitions by Harris could yet end up making all the difference.

The race for fifth starts now, first stop, Luton Town at home tomorrow. See you all there.

Some other random thoughts: How absolutely preposterous that Glenn Hoddle was forced to apologise for a ‘joke’ about Fernando Torres controlling a ball badly on Monday, comparing him to a fictional Chinese player called Knee Shin Toe.

The newspapers jumped all over it in light of the Andy Gray/ Richard Keys drama, but this is nothing like the same thing.

I detest the expression "political correctness gone mad," nearly always used, in my opinion, to justify beliefs that are far more sinister than the issue being debated.

But in this instance, surely there is no case to answer?

Hoddle’s only apology should have been for telling a terrible joke, because however many times he tries, Hoddle just simply isn’t funny.

But he is a good pundit and, hopefully, common sense prevails.

And finally… heard the one about the 33-year old Italian "Dog," (thanks Graeme Souness) who headbutted a 60-year-old man on Tuesday night?

If you haven’t seen the Gennaro Gattuso versus Joe Jordan incident, seek it out because it’s absolutely shocking.

Gattuso should have the book well and truly thrown at him, but my question to readers is this.

How many of you enjoyed the incident, believing it to be Jordan finally getting his comeuppance?

Because I am pretty positive Jordan wouldn’t exactly get a hero’s welcome in Wales!