Southampton Football Club now has its eyes on only one aim for the rest of the season, nothing else matters, everything fades into insignificance if we dont achieve this aim.

Four months and nineteen games ago when I implored Saints to keep winning and build up an unassailable lead in the race to promotion, I was quite often hit with the responces that I was wrong to deman this, that we were eight points clear, that it was the best time ever to be a Saints fan, that I should just chill out because we didnt expect to do this well anyway and several other more choice phrases, we then had an awful ten game run and some of the same people again retorted that I was wrong to berate our form, that it had been a great season watching great football.

Well whilst i can concur with some of their points, the plain fact of the matter is that football clubs are there to firstly win games and secondly to try and win Leagues and Cups, it doesnt matter what level you are playing in, what matters is how you do, managers dont sent out teams to firstly entertain, they sent them our to compete, win and if its attractive football then thats a bonus.

So here we sit top of the league and on the cusp of a return to the Premier League, its tense now and how we wish that we had gained even a couple of more points from that ten game run that added only eleven to our points total, thirteen would have been a poor return, even fifteen, but if we had them now we would have so much more breathing space, of course that chance to storm to the league title has gone, but we now have another.

So in these final ten games we need to focus on only one thing, winning, of course we wont win all ten games, but if we win five of them plus a few draws then that should be enough, not certain to be enough, but if we can win those five games sooner than later then the pressure on West Ham and Reading will be immense, as it stands now Reading have to basically win one more game than us, so if we win five out of ten then they have to win six, same for est ham, assuming they win their game in hand then they have to beat our points total by at least one, so for instance if we win five and draw 3, then they have to either win six and draw 1 or win 5 and draw 4, and whilst we have to concentrate on our own form as its totally within our hands at this point, every game that our rivals fail, brings us a step nearer promotion.

Promotion is now all that matters, thats what this season will ultimately be remembered for in the long run, long after we have forgotten who was player of the year or individual games, we will remember either the great promotion run or how we blew it, we have to make sure that its engraved in the history books as the former.

So like last season, its knuckle down and tick off our wins and Reading and West Ham's dropped points, every game will make the race a little bit clearer, but lets remember what we are hear for and thats to win promotion, nothing else, nothing more, we are not here to single out individual praise or perhaps more poignantly individual abuse on the field, we are here to support a team effort and that means doing our part as supporters, getting behind the team during games not just when we are winning and when its easy, but when they really need it and thats when they are struggling, but being a supporter doesnt stop there, we need to help fill St Mary's, encourage more people to go to the games, last season its surprised me that in the run in we got nowhere near filling the Stadium till the final game,we dont want that to be the case this year, in truth it probably wont be in the fact that Doncaster and Pompey are twinned so should be relatively full, Reading will be a crunch game and with Coventry being on the last day it should be full, but we wstill need to turn the atmosphere into a positive one, on all fronts.

So we know what we need to do both on and off the pitch, lets concentrate on our goal for the season, Markus Liebherr had a dream there should be 32,000 people now at every home game helping it being achieved

Photo: Action Images

SuperKelvin added 10:27 - Mar 14 Top points, just because we have done well so far doesnt mean we shouldnt be trying all we can to achieve promotion, it may be our only chance for another few years. Home and away total support starting from Millwall, turn it into a home game. COYR
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SaintNick added 10:38 - Mar 14 absolutely, lets have no excuses for not going to games (other than the usual broke or distance)
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Vreg added 10:57 - Mar 14 Maybe staying until the end and applauding your team, might help.
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nobby added 11:10 - Mar 14 It's going to the wire and it's a case of holding our nerve. All teams can look back and point out where they could have picked up more points.WHU think that they should be coasting it if they had not dropped so many home points - over 20 I think. Even Reading who had such a poor start to the season, so let's not dwell on that 10 game bad spell, the rest of the season starts now! I fancy Leeds to beat WHU on Saturday - what a blow that would be to the Hammers.

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TallSaint added 11:25 - Mar 14 West Ham have a tricky run-in to the end of the season... Aways: Leeds, Burnley, Posh, Barnsley, Bristol City, Leicester Homes: Boro, Reading, Brum, Brighton, Hull I expect Hammers fans much more anxious then we are at present.
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richardmdcooper added 12:55 - Mar 14 Good article and agree with the most of the points. I think the thing that rubbed people the wrong way earlier in the season was the constant negativity after every game that we didn't win (or even some we won). Apparently, we were on a continous downward slide (even though we never dropped out of the top two). And even a couple of weeks ago, you said it was more luck than anything else we were still in the top two! - not quite sure how it's luck that we've been there all season! It's been a great season so far and I'm confident we'll finish the job. Agree, it will be nice to see some full houses at St Mary's in the run in!

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bstokesaint added 12:58 - Mar 14 Nick your tone almost suggests we didn't try hard enough when we led with a gap. I think more's the case that we exceeded ourselves at the start of the season and this was levelled out with the dip. This was not helped by injuries to key players at the same time. All in all I think the players have pretty much given everything they can so far. Would love to see the job finished off now. Would make me unbelievably proud to be a Saint (more so than normal) and to fulfill that part of ML's dream. The team deserve to play in front of full gates and away allocations for the remaining games. 6 wins will do it, let's just believe it. COYR.

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SaintNick added 14:28 - Mar 14 I didnt suggest that we didnt try hard enough, merely that many seemed content to say we exceeded ourselves at the start of the season, OK I can accept that, however why did we go from so good to so bad, 11 points from those 10 games, is completely the polar opposite from our form before, a dip is acceptable but that was a collapse and only just above relegation form, we missed a real chance to get points on the board, even an extra 4 wouldnt have made the period great, but we sure could use them now

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tiptop added 18:36 - Mar 14 We did have a bad run and it is frustrating we couldn't grab a few more points during that period especially after our earlier blistering form! Lets look at the positives. I think we have done exceptionally well to steady the ship after that bad run and get on another role while remaining top. Luck? Maybe some but the table doesnt lie. The team (management included) will have learned lessons from that and Saints will be stronger rather than weaker as a result of that poor run. We made the step up and grabbed the initiative in a very tough league. Look at Brighton. L1 Champions, same ambition as us, award winning manager!-They are realistically looking at making the play-offs at best. As you say its all about the now. Last season will hold us in good stead still. Cant wait to get on the road for the run-in!! COYR's!!!

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1962saint added 18:47 - Mar 14 TallSaint is right to draw attention to West Ham's run-in of fixtures. Saints with everyone fit and plenty of players to rotate should match, or exceed, the points total of both West Ham and Reading.
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Fordy added 19:00 - Mar 14 We had a bad run, but there are plenty of reasons. 1) Other teams found us out a little. Likewise Brighton - if anything their "blip" was much worse than ours but both clubs have bounced back. 2) We really hurt when either Lambert and/or Lallana are injured. Lallana also had a bit of a dip in form. 3) Our away form has been average all season (although crucially we have managed to draw crucial games) when the home form dipped at the same time as the away form it made things seem pretty bad. 4) We have been fairly light at the back all season. Jos has been good but took a little time to bed in. With hindsight we should have bought Gorkks as was rumoured and we would probably be up now. There were probably other reasons but I think the thing is it's done now. Ideally we wouldn't have had a poor run and had a bit of a cushion like QPR did last season. But even so it's been a hell of a season.

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SaintNick added 21:23 - Mar 14 It will only be a he'll of a season if wet promoted, does anyone remember 2006/07 with any fondness, we had some great results and made the playoffs but all we remember now is the disappointment of the derby game away
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bstokesaint added 08:38 - Mar 15 Nick, looking back that season was for the best and we wouldn't be where we are now. We have a far stronger squad this time around. I take your point though this will all be forgotten if we miss put out on promotion now.
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Fordy added 20:08 - Mar 15 No, I think it will be a hell of a season regardless. The 2006/7 season was very different. We were in the last chance saloon with the parachute payments going and important players about to finish their loan periods or leave. This time we will be even stronger next year.
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