Saints supporters need to show their backing for their team with a display of colour and noise to match some of the great days of the past.

The game against Aston Villa will see the completion of Saints 14th season at St Mary's and the stadium has seen its fair share of ups and downs in that time, but it has also seen many memorable days when everything has clicked both on and off the pitch.

Southampton Football Club need one of those days again if they are to beat Aston Villa and take a giant step to a place in the Europa League.

In short the team have given us some great performances and now is the time for the supporters to show they appreciate that, but in addition sometimes the supporters have to give something to the team to help them capture their best and Saturday's game is one of those occasions.

When Saints run out against Villa it needs to be a sea of red & white and a cauldron of noise and that needs to be kept up throughout the game, at risk of repeating myself and i know I have mentioned this quote before, but Lawrie Mcmenemy often said of Saints supporters when comparing them to his native Newcastle fans, that up in the North East the supporters do their bit and then the team chip in whereas down here the team have to give something to the fans and then the fans chip in.

In many respects that is true, but I truly believe that the Saints supporters are more colourful more passionate and more louder now than back in McMenemy's day, although it has to be said that sometimes they still need the team to produce the goods first before they get St Mary's rocking.

But that is not always the case and there have been some great days at St Mary's both a decade or so ago and more recently when the Saints fans have turned up in turbo mood and have been determined not to let their side waiver one bit, examples would include.

2008 V Sheffield United for a crunch relegation battle
2011 V Walsall for the game that rubber stamped the promotion to the Championship.
2012 V Coventry for the game that saw promotion to the Premier

These are just three final day games at St Mary's where the crowd has turned up with their colours and their voices determined not to see a defeat.

So the fans are needed again, bedwetters and those who like to scream abuse at scapegoats need to either stay at home or put their prejudice's to one side, make no bones about it, the season has faltered and this is now a very important game, if we want the team to do their bit we have to create the atmosphere to do it in and that means total support for the whole of the 90 minutes even if we suffer setbacks.

So wear your stripes with pride if you havent got a Saints shirt or stripes wear something red, create that sea of colour, create that cauldron of noise and Southampton Football Club can take another step forward and make sure that the times ahead are as good if not better than those that have gone.

Photo: Action Images

no7saint added 13:04 - May 15 The best teams play without fear and the crowd's influence can't be emphasised enough in aiding this process. Too often we hear loud groans when passes go astray or the goalie has a wobble, this makes them more nervous and can lead to dangerous indecision. Another thing: can we stop yelling "shoot" whenever one of our players is within 30 yards of goal, I know we have been a bit shot-shy of late but I've seen a couple of occasions recently where a player has instinctively obeyed and wasted it when a pass to someone in a better position would have far more likely resulted in a goal.

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