Money for nothing and your chicks for free !

Saints fans debated how well Adkins would spend big money in the January transfer window, it was something he was not used to doing, however they neednt have bothered because despite rumours of Charlie Austin and Craig Mackail Smith the only permanent signings made were Chaplow & Guly who had their loan deals made permanent and the arrival of Jonathan Forte who looked what he effectively was a Scunthorpe reserve striker who Adkins didnt pick back then, clearly for whatever reason the Club seemed to want to give the illusion that they had money to spend but were loathe to spend it, if Austin was plan A and Mackail Smith plan B then surely there was something between Forte who was something like Z  strange !

A promising start to january didnt do a lot for our league position come February,yes missing two games for the FA Cup run didnt help, but a poor home draw with Nots County aligned with another game thrown away because of individual error at Tramere left us going into the second month of the new year floundering a little, the season was poised, we neede to go on the type of run Norwich had done the previous year and start to steamroller our opponents.

In truth February was mixed, a last gasp win at exeter papered over a few cracks, again individual errors at Peterborough cost us dear and after another error gave Walsall a 1-0 home win on March 1st, our six game spell had yielded 11 points but it was not enough we needed a better points per game ratio to play catch up with the top six clubs   

But then in March Saints started to click a little, with 15 games left and the top three of Brighton, Bournemouth & Hudderfield showing no signs of letting up, we had to click into top gear now or find ourselves running out of time, it is fair to say at this time the play offs looked more likely than automatic promotion and the ramifications of failing in those did not bear thinking about, in dark days the five year plan in getting back to the premiership was oft quoted, but that plan did not equate to taking three years in getting out of league one, many things hung in the balance as we headed into the final third of the season, not least the fact that we had to squeeze 15 games into a little over 8 weeks, it would be fair to say that Nigel Adkins job was still not secure in the long term at this point.

To be continued........    

Photo: Action Images

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