THE race for a Champions League spot will come to a head this afternoon. Fourth-placed Charlton travel to sixth-placed Newcastle. Seventh-placed Birmingham are also in the North-East - at Middlesbrough - while fifth-placed Liverpool will hope to continue their revival at struggling Wolves.

One point covers four sides who are all desperate to achieve a top four finish this season.

In short, it should be everything the Premiership is all about. It should be - but it isn't.

England's top-flight is constantly held up as the most exciting league in the world. But there's nothing exciting about being the best of the rest.

It can be dressed up in as many different ways as you like, but the battle for fourth place will always be something of a let-down.

It's either the chance for a big club to gloss over their failures or the opportunity for a smaller club to claim their 15 minutes of fame.

And this year, more than ever, it's provided pretty miserable fare.

The Champions League is meant to be the leading club competition in the world, so let's examine the merits of the teams hoping to represent England in it next year.

First up are Charlton. Now I know there's something to be applauded in smaller clubs rising up through the ranks and getting among the big boys.

It's happened before - Aston Villa and Norwich finished second and third in the Premiership's inaugural season, while Blackburn thrillingly went all the way to the title in the mid-1990s.

But Charlton simply do not have the quality to match any of those sides and, sadly, the fact they are currently fourth says more about the sides below them than anything else.

The Addicks have won just 12 out of the 28 games they have played so far this season. That's not even half and yet they still find themselves just ten games away from joining the European elite.

Their only stand-out player, Scott Parker, couldn't get out quickly enough when Chelsea offered him the chance of an escape from The Valley and, while Alan Curbishley has done well with scant resources, imagine Charlton trying to hold their own with Lazio or Deportivo, who are currently fourth in Italy and Spain.

Don't rule out that prospect either because, from the word go, no-one has seemed to want to beat them to fourth spot.

Newcastle and Liverpool were always expected to be the two sides battling it out but both have flattered to deceive in spectacular fashion.

Newcastle's 12 draws smack of a side who have lost the killer instinct that made them so effective last season and, to the eyes of most neutral observers, the Magpies have gone backwards over the last 12 months.

Liverpool have been even worse and, after the season they've had, it's a surprise to see Gerard Houllier still in a position to trot out excuse after excuse following yet another defeat.

But both sides still have every chance of getting aboard the Champions League gravy train. And that's before we even get to a Birmingham side who have made Sunderland look like world-beaters on two separate occasions already this season.

The battle for the Champions League has become a farce. It's a financial fight devoid of any meaningful glory or success.

Club accountants might be enthralled, but there won't be many Newcastle fans queuing up to cheer an open-top bus through the streets if Sir Bobby Robson's side achieve a fourth-placed finish this season.

But we're being asked to latch on to this four-way tussle because there's been nothing else to keep us enthralled this season.

Arsenal's sensational form has glossed over what has otherwise been one of the worst Premiership campaigns in history.

The Gunners have been so far ahead this season that the title race has been little more than a procession since the start of the year.

For years English football fans have derided their Scottish neighbours because of the way their title is decided by four crucial games every season.

We haven't even had those this year. Arsenal could lose to Manchester United later this month and still win the title by a street.

Sir Alex Ferguson's side highlight just how poor the overall standard of this season's Premiership has been.

United have been as bad as they have been for a long, long time - but they still find themselves 15 points clear of anyone challenging their position in the top three.

Should one of the three best teams in the country really be played off the pitch by a dreadful Manchester City side who had won just one of their last 18 League games?

The battle to avoid the drop is no more exciting either.

It's not a case of Leeds, Wolves, Portsmouth and Leicester battling it out to see who's the best side.

It's a case of one of them eventually being shown to be the least poor.

So all we're left with is the fight for fourth. A second-rate showdown at the end of a second-rate season.