Crystal Palace skipper Michael Hughes

Crystal Palace skipper Michael Hughes has felt the pain of Premiership relegation once before but has a gut feeling it will not be a sensation he has to endure this season.

The Eagles enter the last day of the league campaign with their top-flight status balanced on a knife edge - they need at least a point against Charlton and must hope results go their way elsewhere.

Hughes found himself in a similarly fraught situation with Wimbledon in the 1999-2000 season but the Dons' job was significantly easier that day as their destiny was in their own hands.

Victory over Southampton would have been enough to secure safety as they had a superior goal difference to Bradford but as Hughes recalls, the afternoon ended with a heartbreaking conclusion.

"I have to admit that it was a totally different feeling back then compared to now because we didn't think Bradford would beat Liverpool, so it didn't really matter if we lost to Southampton" said the 33-year-old midfielder.

"Looking back it was wrong to think that way. I had broken my leg so I watched our match against Southampton in the bar. It was a double whammy to find out Bradford had beaten Liverpool and we were going down.

"It was something we had never envisaged the whole season. We were never really in trouble because we made a decent start but then we had a terrible run and ended up down the bottom.

"We felt like stone. We went into shock and started asking did that really happen to us? I didn't speak to anyone for two days. I had some friends down afterwards and I asked them to leave because I wasn't very good company."

Palace's fate on Sunday would have been in their own hands had Daniel Higginbotham not fired an injury time equaliser for Southampton at Selhurst Park Saturday. Now it is 17th-placed Norwich who are in the driving seat.

"You have to think about your own game and your own team and not rely on other people to get you out of these situations," said the tenacious midfielder.

"It has been very frustrating for us that our destiny was in our hands until 30 seconds of the end against Southampton.

"I'd be lying if I said that result wasn't still on my mind. It's very hard to forget something like that. We could have got rid of one of our rivals to stay up and that's one of the hardest things to take.

"Now we must see what other teams do. But we believe we can get a result at Charlton and stay up. I have a strange feeling that if we win it will be enough."

Palace could draw at The Valley on Sunday and remain in the Premiership - provided Southampton, Norwich and West Brom all lose.

Boss Iain Dowie does not want to be informed of events in the other crucial matches, even though his players may need to react to changing scorelines elsewhere, but Hughes sees it differently.

"We must do what needs to be done so there is no point not hearing how the other games are going. We'll find out what's happening at half-time and you tend to get a vibe from the crowd," he said.

With the title race effectively decided months ago, the relegation battle will supply the climax to the season in what promises to be a nerve-shredding finale full of twists and turns.