We thought that relegation six pointers were a thing of the past, but the game at Swansea City tonight is most definitely one of those.

The permutations are simple, it will go down to the final day and it is looking like being one out of Saints, Swansea & Huddersfield for the final relegation place, tonight will decide whether Saints will be really profusely sweating on Sunday or just sweating.

Beat Swansea this evening and Saints will be virtually safe, however given the teams that both will play on the final day, Swansea turning round a minimum 9 goals is not as far fetched as it might seem.

Simply we have to go there and win, the key is whether Swansea will be up for it as West Ham where a month or so ago or whether they will be overcome on the occasion.

For me Mark Hughes has to stick with the tactics that he has done lately, keep the game tight and then look to impose ourselves on it, this has worked well, what hasn't been on our side has been refereeing decisions and luck as was shown against both Chelsea and on Saturday against Everton.

Bluntly we have to do it tonight plain and simple.

I think we have the quality to do it, the problem is though we are weak in defence and concede late and soft goals, this has undone us all season and is the one singular reason why we are in trouble this season.

On a plus point SWansea along with Huddersfield are the worst attack in the Premier League, they have both scored only 27 goals, but we have a defence that always has a mistake in it, the question is whether we can get away with the inevitable lack of concentration and errors or whether we get punished.

Perhaps the biggest thing on our side though is that the pressure is on Swansea and that may give us the freedom to hold them at the back and then go quickly with pace as we did at times at Everton.

Toniht needs to be all about unity, the team and the fans all playing their part, Swansea is a ground that we have a decent record on, by 10pm tonight we will won't know definitively whether we are up or down, but we will have a big clue

Photo: Action Images

DorsetIan added 11:11 - May 8 I think we are in the best position to win another 'must win' game as we have been all season...but who knows what will happen. I do know, however, that if we do win tonight, we will be safe. It is more likely that Boufal will score a hatrick on the final day, than will Swansea overturn their GD disadvantage. Similarly, if we don't win tonight, we will be very unlikely to survive. It's a play-off final.

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SanMarco added 11:43 - May 8 Yes - it is sh!te or bust. Swansea will be happy enough with a draw as they will be confident of doing better against Stoke than we do against City. Huddersfield removed our 'two draw' possibility on Sunday so a draw tonight would leave us with the nightmare scenario of having to beat City. As Nick says it is all down to our shaky defence. Three bad defensive errors in the last few minutes at Everton led, or the last one did anyway, to the loss of two vital points. I will be behind the sofa if we are one up near the end tonight. My nerves are shredded and unless we win we will have it all again on Sunday...

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bstokesaint added 12:30 - May 8 Agree with Dorset. How many "must win games" have we had? Arguably this is actually the only one we truly do need to win. We didn't win the other "must wins" and we still have this golden chance. I'm hoping Swansea will be caught in two minds and concentrate on keeping it tight. They'd be happy with a draw, whereas ideally we need a win and one of a margin of +2 or +3 to be able to enjoy the last game of the season. I can't see Swansea thrashing Stoke and Man C (based on their result against Huddersfield) have probably started thinking more about Russia and/or their summer holidays. We need to put all the pain from this season, the woeful officiating (how many of us said I hope that two points dropped at Watford as a result of the 'hand of nobody' didn't cost us?) and the reported disruptive tactics in the lead-up to this game behind us and actually have something for the fans to be happy (very relieved about). Once that's done we can have an open and frank discussion on what went wrong this year and where we go next! Hopefully that's not The Championship.

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LordDZLucan added 12:45 - May 8 I'm not sure I can bear to watch tonight as I know the last 10 minutes (at least) are going to be agonizing. I may choose the Sky Plus it and go and do something else for 2 hours option only bothering to watch the match if we win!
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NZsaint added 12:47 - May 8 I think we will thump Swansea,it’s on the card that we gonna take are rage out on someone soon and I think it’s them,3 maybe 4 1.my gut tells me we ain’t leaving this one down to the refs,they will want a KO
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DPeps added 18:10 - May 8 I'm not the most optimistic fan but if we continue in the same form then I'm hopeful that we'll beat Swansea, who look out of ideas. Although a draw is ok for Swansea, they won't want to leave it all until the final game. The performances of Tadic and Redmond are key - eeek!
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IanRC added 22:19 - May 8 Wow that was nerve shredding. Not sure what was worse, standing watching the last 20 minutes at Everton or watching that on Sky. Fingers crossed for Sunday but whatever the result we need the club management to take a good hard look at the way they have been running the club to ensure there is no repetition next season. Changed my mind about Hughes, seems to have the passion and we should certainly consider at least sticking with him.

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