Victory for Durban City in their last Betway Premiership clash of the season could still see them finish sixth in the standings, but if they do so, they will still fall narrowly short of the record for the best-performing newcomer in the league.
City sit in eighth place with one fixture left this season at home to AmaZulu in a Durban derby on Saturday.
If they win, and other results go their way, they can move up to sixth on 42 points, which combined with their Nedbank Cup win would ensure a dream season for last season’s Motsepe Foundation Championship winners.
Seven Stars (1998/99) and Free State Stars (2007/08) have been the most successful promoted teams, finishing fifth in the season after coming up.
There have been 46 teams promoted to the Betway Premiership since 1996/97 and 13 of those have gone straight back down to the second tier.
That means a little over one in four of the sides who come up go straight back down, a fate that could befall Orbit College, who are the other promoted side this season and sit second from bottom with one game to go.
Jomo Cosmos have had the worst of it, having been promoted three times between 2010 and 2015 and relegated bottom of the league on each occasion the following season.
AmaZulu have also come up and gone straight back down on two occasions. A 47th team, Thanda Royal Zulu, were promoted in the 2017/18 campaign but sold their status immediately to Usuthu and never competed in the elite league.
Ten of the 46 clubs who have come up finished in the top eight, roughly one in five.
Five clubs have finished in the play-off positions after being promoted, with three managing to salvage their top-flight status and two heading back to the second tier.
Only twice before have two promoted sides finished in the bottom two places in the Betway Premiership – the first was in 2009/10 when Jomo Cosmos were 16th and Mpumalanga Black Aces were 15th, though the latter survived the relegation play-offs.
In 2016/17, Baroka (15th) also survived the play-offs, but Highlands Park (16th) were automatically relegated.
The most recent promoted side before this season was Magesi, who claimed the Carling Knockout trophy in their maiden top-flight campaign and ended 13th in the league thanks to a late surge in results under coach Owen da Gama. They are now three points adrift at the bottom of the table and if they do not win on Saturday will be relegated.