I'm pretty certain that we're now second. I don't say this lightly. My view is based on assiduous research.

The latest table was flashed on the TV screen on Boxing Day and both my Wednesday newspapers supported the evidence, as did the Evening Argus.

I was still not absolutely convinced, which is why, visiting friends' houses this week, I sought out copies of the Sun, Mail and Guardian - I have a wide range of acquaintances - to check their tables.

On balance, I am now reasonably satisfied. We're second.

Staring at tables of figures is one of the strange rituals of being a football supporter. Whilst the rich crawl over the stock market indices (Rolls Royce rose six points on Wednesday) and travellers check out the temperature in Perth, footie people look at their own tables.

They don't just look; they analyse.

Whilst the word 'Brighton' at the start of the second line is satisfying, each of the subsequent digits is of vital interest. Take the first one. This week it has been 22.

One less than Chesterfield's, which is good, but one more than Cardiff's, which is not. Would Cardiff's game in hand be at home or away? The table tells us that it's away. That's another good.

Then of course there's the whole business of working out the tie-breakers. This is the main reason I don't get out as much as I should. What you do of course is subtract the sixth figure from the fifth and the 11th from the tenth and then merge the two results. This gives you the goal difference. Could be important later on. And later on is what it is all about.

As the season progresses, the calculations become more frenzied, until, eventually, all printed tables show those three dreaded horizontal rules, the swords of Damocles inserted below the third, seventh and 23rd lines, hinting at the glory of promotion, the desolation of the Conference or, in the case of the dotted one, the lottery of the play-offs.

Tables might not lie but they do mislead, especially in mid-winter.

One December day in the late Seventies, I was at the Goldstone to watch us take on Orient. I can't really remember it, but I know I was depressed. We had lost to Notts County the week before and John Vinicombe had announced in the Argus that we weren't going up.

The table said we were 12th but the history books were to tell us that the season finished with triumph at Newcastle and a majestic entry into the premier division.

That was one of Albion's six promotion seasons.

In only one of them - the first, over 40 years ago - did we occupy a higher position in December than we do now. That may be a good omen, but for true table afficionados there is an even better one.

Just once, in 1976-77, we sailed through December in second place. As now, our manager was a young man on the up, goals were coming from all over the place and in our front line was a jewel of a player who was putting them away by the bagful. We set the league alight, gained promotion and launched ourselves into the most glorious years of our history.

All newspapers present their tables in different ways. None is perfect.

The Argus one is rather small, but has the virtue of putting the important name - ALBION - in capitals. The Sunday Times is great because it includes goal differences but unfortunately Rupert Murdoch's obsession with the Premiership means that it doesn't separate home and away results in the Nationwide divisions.