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Southampton At Ipswich Town The Preview

After the disappointment of Saturday's game against Middlesbrough, Saints get back into it quickly and travel to Portman Road knowing that anything less than a win will see our hopes of automatic promotion all but ended.

I am starting to sound like a broken record these days, but again on Saturday we paid the price for not having our strongest defence on the park, crucially in the final stages of the game.

No one is pointing any fingers at Jack Stephens directly, indeed he had a reasonable enough game against Boro, however he is not the best player to play in a central pairing, that has to be Jan Bednarek & Taylor Harwood - Bellis.

So all eyes will be on Russell Martin and this will be a test of his own leadership, is he strong enough to recognise just what it was that built the foundation of a 22 game unbeaten run.

The manager often cites Jack's organising and leadership qualities as why he seemingly will play him at any chance, however in the final minutes of the game on Saturday, just when you need to keep things tight, there was little sign of any sort of leadership or organisation and of game management, to put it bluntly we just kept on playing as if we had 30 minutes left on the clock.

We needed to change tack a little and look to close out the game, but instead we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot and Boro were pulling us all over the place at the back.

So in what is the first of what hopefully will be a couple of more last chance saloon's we go to Ipswich knowing that defeat will all but finish off our hopes of automatic promotion as it will leave us 13 points behind the Tractor Boys and possibly more behind Leeds.

Our best side has to be put out for this one, that means KWP at right back, Bednarek & THB in the middle and Bree at left back, if he has to shoe in Jack Stephens then it has to be at left back, but no manager should be shoeing in players at this point of the season.

Jack Stephens has been the butt of much criticism of late and it is no secret that I am not his biggest fan, but I do give him credit where it is due, he played well on Saturday and showed that as a squad player he is a good alternative in several positions, but good squad players should not play in front of those who are better than them, especially in a game as tough as this.

I would say that the team for this one should pretty much pick itself, that means Bednarek back in for Stephens, the starting midfield trio from Saturday and then Ryan Fraser on the left, Adam Armstrong in the middle and David Brooks on the right.

Get the game under our control and then keep control of it.

So judgement day for Russell Martin at Portman Road, hopefully he will be judged well and we will live to fight another day.

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