As Sylvester Stallone in his role as Rocky Balboa would have it, it’s not about how hard you can hit, but about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward.

Juve Stabia, to continue the boxing metaphor, have shown a chin of granite this season.

Dismissed as a flash in the pan after racking up eight points in their first four games, the Stabians established themselves as hopefuls for the play-offs as early as October and not even a seven-game winless run as autumn made way for winter managed to derail their season.

Another minor wobble in February looked to have checked their momentum, but the Wasps responded again to a three-game winless run by rattling off three consecutive wins to cement their top-eight status.

It came as no surprise, then, that the Stabians banished memories of a 1-0 defeat against Sudtirol with a commanding 2-0 win over fellow play-off chasing Catanzaro on May 1.

Nicola Mosti opened the scoring as he headed in Niccolo Fortini’s cross halfway through the first half, before Leonardo Candellone scored his sixth goal of the season from the spot just before the break.

The win over Catanzaro consolidated fifth place and almost mathematically secured a top-eight spot with Guido Pagliuca’s men five points clear of the Calabrians and Palermo with three games to go and nine ahead of eighth-placed Bari.

Bar a major collapse, however, Cremonese look to have all but secured fourth place and a bye to the semi-final as they are five points ahead of the Stabians, who would host Bari in the first round of the play-offs if the season were to end now.

A second promotion on the bounce would be an extraordinary achievement for the Wasps, who have never featured in Serie A and returned to calcio‘s second tier after a four-year absence.

“We need to be good at not taking anything for granted,” Pagliuca said after the win over Catanzaro.

“The lads have achieved something extraordinary in these two seasons. After last year’s promotion, we managed to secure safety, and now we find ourselves playing for something incredible thanks to this fantastic group of players.”

Andrea Adorante has been key to their fairytale with 14 goals in 30 games, accounting for over a third of the Stabians’ goals this season. Among the teams in the top half of the table, only Bari have scored fewer than the Wasps’ 41.

It is hardly a figure to inspire optimism ahead of Sunday’s trip to Brescia, with the Rondinelle boasting the best defence of any team in the bottom half of the table with just 45 goals conceded.

Gennaro Borrelli scored the only goal of the game as Brescia won away against Cittadella on Thursday, snapping a month-long winless streak and climbing up to 38 points, which could currently earn them a place in a relegation play-off against Sampdoria.

Brescia host Reggiana, who are currently safe and ahead of them only on head-to-head record, on the final day of the campaign, but face a difficult run-in with a trip to play-off chasing Modena to follow the visit of Juve Stabia.

But considering Brescia have won three times in 15 attempts since the turn of the year, the fact they are still in with a chance to avoid relegation is a miracle in itself.

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