Southampton travel to Bournemouth on Monday night, hoping that results over the weekend will mean they will still be in with a chance of getting out of the relegation zone, but for Russell Martin the stakes are higher.
Many years ago an ex Saints manager, commenting to me on one of his successors who was under fire, told me that in the modern game a manager at any given time is only 3 defeats away from the sack.
That had some substance for most teams, although these days I can't see Manchester City sacking Pep Guardiola if they lost 3 games in a row.
Russell Martin this time last year was under fire after 4 straight defeats after a promising start to the season, the complaints back then were very similar to those being levelled by Saints supporters a year later, a stubbornness to play certain players, a lack of leadership on the pitch and rigidly sticking to the possession football game.
So on the face of it his critics will say that he has learned nothing in 12 months.
However although the situation was slightly different last year, there are many comparisons to be drawn.
Firstly Martin was hampered by the transfer window last year and it has been a similar situation this time out and secondly the date 30th September is going to be crucial for him
A year ago he was bedding in his new signings and that has been the case this year and after his 4th straight defeat, all caused by overplaying, poor marking and favouritism, he almost got it right in the 5th game of the run, there were plenty of causes for optimism in the draw with Ipswich and with two minutes less injury time we might well have been talking about the Saints manager in a different context now.
A year ago Martin went into the game against Leeds United on 30th September with his job on the line, we will never know, but it would have been hard to see him surviving a fifth straight defeat, but it was a fine 3-1 win over the Yorkshire side and that kick started a 22 game unbeaten run in the League.
Now we go to Bournemouth on Monday and a look at the calendar shows that it is another day of destiny for Russell on 30th September.
The draw against Ipswich has perhaps bought some leeway for Russell, but with a trip to in form Arsenal only days away after the trip to the Cherries, it is probably fair to say we are probably not going to go on another 22 game unbeaten run this season (I'm hoping to tempt fate here)
Beating Bournemouth would pull us to within a point of them and drag them into the relegation dog fight, but defeat could leave us cast adrift at the bottom.
So losing to Bournemouth could push the Southampton board to a change, 5 defeats in 6 games with most of them avoidable would see most managers sacked, losing to Arsenal on Saturday would make it 6 out of 7, I don't know the stats but I would hazard a guess that there are few managers who survive runs such as this.
Ian Branfoot did at Southampton in 1993/94 winning just 1 game in the opening 9 of the Premier League season, indeed just 5 points from the opening 11 fixtures, but he held on to January and after the arrival of Alan Ball we achieved survival.
Perhaps a more direct comparison though would be Dave Jones in his first season back in 1997/98, he lost his opening 3 Premier League games, won the 4th and after 9 games had just 4 points.
Again Jones survived and so did we at the end of the season.
So Saints have history of giving managers a chance after a bad start to the season, however it could be said that Martin had that chance last season and he has learned little from it, the mistakes of a year ago have been repeated now, a good manager adapts his system to the players that he has to hand, Martin has not done that in the opening 4 games and although there is some evidence he did against Ipswich, but that is still too little too late for some.
So a big big night at the Vitality Stadium on Monday night and Russell Martin will be hoping that for a second year running this will be a lucky day for him.