Back in November Saints fans were looking over their shoulders rather than up the table, even as late as mid December, a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal saw us on a downward slope, but suddenly things changed.

Those Saints fans walking out of the Emirates just over two months ago on 15th December were not in a happy mood, we had been well beaten and had taken only two points in the past 5 games.

A few days later at Crystal Palace with half an hour gone things were looking even worse, a goal down after only 2 minutes and Palace should really have been 3-0 up at this stage and were cruising.

But then came 2 goals in 4 minutes, James Ward Prowse's trade mark free kick and Armando Broja changing not only the game but the course of the season.

Since that defeat at Arsenal we have lost only once in 9 outings, something that was unthinkable in that awful opening half hour at Selhurst Park.

Now though things are far different, we have found a team spirit and we have found a way of playing to our own strengths and we are now looking more at the top 10 than the bottom 3.

After the victory on Saturday against Everton we cemented our right to be in the top 10, Leicester have games in hand, but after their defeat at Wolves only two and to overtake us they need to win both.

So we have managed to put a gap between us and 11th, but perhaps more importantly we have closed what was a 4 point gap between us and Brighton in 9th and after last weekend the Seagulls had a game in hand.

They lost that in midweek at Old Trafford and now we are very much in their rear view mirror just a point behind them and on the same number of games.

We have the chance on Friday evening to jump above them by beating Norwich City, if we do that then they would need to beat Aston Villa the following day to regain 9th.

Sadly at this moment in time at least it is hard to see us finishing any higher than 9th, as it stands at the moment we are 7 points behind Spurs who sit in 8th position on 39 points, but crucially have 2 games in hand on us.

Wolves a point above them in 8th also have a game in hand on us.

That makes it very hard to see anyone breaking into the current top 7 by the end of the season, so although we can speculate about 9th, I think that is going to be the highest we can achieve , we will rue several thrown away games this season, not least that late equaliser at home to Brighton, take just that one kick out of the equation and we would now be 9th on 34 points two clear of the Seagulls, with perhaps a slight chance of catching Spurs or Wolves.

But for Saints every season is a step at a time, the first target is to stay out of relegation trouble and we have done that this season, we are perhaps only one win away from what will be safety or thereabouts come the end of the season, a look at the 10 seasons since we returned to the Premier League shows that only once has it needed more than 36 points to stay up and I think this season will be no different.

It is actually a very interesting picture in the bottom 7 and without those 5 points in the run of death against the two Manchester clubs and Spurs, we might well have been still looking over our own shoulders at this stage.

Before the weekend the current bottom 3 all looked dead and buried, but although Norwich lost at Liverpool, they are still not dead and buried, however shock wins for Burnley at Brighton and Watford at Villa suddenly have made the clubs above them look up and take notice.

17th place and safety currently occupied by Newcastle on goal difference from Everton who are both 4 points above Watford is a big gap , but a not insurmountable one.

Burnley who have been very hard to beat this season and have lost only 9 only 1 more than West Ham in 5th, if they start changing their draws into wins then they could well stay up.

I think Newcastle have shamefully and for that matter shamelessly bought their way out of trouble, Everton have problems, I'm not sure Lampard is the answer there, but they like Newcastle will stay up.

But the two clubs above them, Leeds and Brentford could well get caught.

Brentford have only taken 1 point from their last 7 Premier League fixtures and won just once in their last 10 , four points out of 30 is worse than relegation form and if they repeat that in the next 10 they could well go down.

Leeds are almost as bad, they too are on a downward slope, their poor form goes back even further, since the start of November in a run of 14 Premier League games, they have taken just 13 points, they are keeping their heads above water but only just and their next two games are Liverpool & Spurs.

Isn't it nice to discuss the relegation zone without worrying about it too much, but back to happier things, on Friday we have to do our job, go out and beat Norwich and hit 9th place, if we do that then it will be a moral victory as well as the 3 points from an actual one, we have chased down Brighton all season and they will be feeling the pressure now.

They have been the draw specialists, bizarrely they have won just 3 Premier League games since 19th September, a run that spans 20 games, over half a season, in the first of those games if they had won at Palace they would have gone top, they drew thanks to an injury time equaliser, but have gone to pot since, although 12 of those games have been draws.

But they have lost the last two and suddenly find themselves on a bad run of only 6 points from the last 6 games, a period that has seen us cut what looked an insurmountable lead into just a single point.

So some exciting times coming back to St Mary's, OK we won't be challenging for Europe, but we are still in with a chance of our first top 10 finish since 2017 and that shows the progress we have made.

Ralph Hasenhuttl has built up a great squad, it is very much a squad and not a team and everyone has a role to play, as the fixture list hots up, we need everyman we have to keep the momentum going, just as we found on Saturday when Shane Long, a man who has had some unfair criticism from some showed that in the modern game, you have to have people who can close a game out, it was a bonus that he scored and in some respects made his role for the last 10 minutes redundant, but he was there to do a job, something he has been doing well of late.

Hopefully another near full house on Friday night and hopefully we will leave the stadium in the same spirits we did on Saturday and 9th in the table.

Photo: Action Images

redwight added 11:20 - Feb 21 No rotation for the cup please. With absolutely no danger of relegation, let's really go for it. Has Romeo ever had a better game than he did on Saturday? What a combination with JWP.
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dellboysaint added 11:30 - Feb 21 Our form has improved with Fraser Forster providing much more confidence to our defence. He makes saves McCarthy would let in. I do not want McCarthy as first choice ever again after the Brighton fiasco. Wel done, Fraser, you look the part.
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beynali73 added 11:42 - Feb 21 We now seem to have got to the place where the players know what they are doing individually and within the team. I was concerned in the first 4 months of this season that we were in serious trouble and believed that Ralph had had enough time to fix the issues over the previous few seasons without success. But it has clicked in the past few months down to Ralph, the players and the board - and of course the fans who have been brilliant on the whole over the last few (5?) difficult seasons. I agree that Ralph should not make wholesale changes for the cup but more importantly after the hard work to get to this stage of progress we really need to keep this squad together for as long as possible. We are well aware that we are minnows in terms of wealth and if we are offered silly money for a player we should take it (especially if a players head is turned) but we cannot see a repeat of the sell off in 2014-2016 where pretty much the whole first 11 were sold off. Ending on a positive note - well done Ralph, what you have done to the club, particularly over the past few months, has been incredible. COYR's

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AirFlorida added 12:05 - Feb 21 "just that one kick out of the equation and we would now be 9th on 34 points two clear of the Seagulls, with perhaps a slight chance of catching Spurs or Wolves". How? If we'd won, all events, actions and results of others games would have been completely different. Good uplifting article but that's getting just a bit too carried away :-D
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A1079 added 12:59 - Feb 21 I think our recent form has been a joy to behold, a pleasure to watch and after that awful game away to Arsenal you would have had to have been a super optimist to believe we would be where we are now. But, I cannot be carried away with our recent form. May be it is the 40 plus years of supporting Saints and even under Ralph we are just as capable of a good run being replaced by a bad one and vice versa. I take nothing for granted. If we finish around where we are now at the end of this season then it will be progress. Those at the bottom will cause us a different problem. Recently we have played teams that give us space to play but teams like Burnley that stop you playing first have on occasions been our nemesis. I am enjoying this spell and I don't want it to end but it is an old football cliche - just take one game at a time.

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EvertonSaint added 13:13 - Feb 21 My first game after emergency surgery in January and it was so good to see the Saints play attractive and crowd pleasing football. There was no doubt that the crowd were entertained and most importantly no goals conceded. My only real disappointment was the way SFC refuse to let the fans have their own end. How many other clubs allow visiting supporters to dominate ‘our singing’ end. When are the club going to show respect to our supporters.over and over again the club has praised the noise from the Saints fans, but imagine what St Mary’s would be like if the whole of the Northam End was purely for Saints fans. Moan over….as a supporter for 70 years, I went home on the bus to Lymington with a smile on my face. COYR

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PaleRider added 13:25 - Feb 21 A1079 - I share your pessimism when it comes to Saints! I think key difference now is that everyone from the new owner down to the fans seems to be enjoying Saints! There will be bumps along the road - after all we are Saints - but I feel more confident now!
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Colburn added 14:22 - Feb 21 Fair and accurate summary of where we are. I tend to agree that 9th is probably the best we can hope for, however, I don't really fear any team at the moment and if we beat Norwich and can continue our form from there, we have a good chance of putting pressure on the he likes of wolves, West ham and spurs. Wolves play Arsenal and W Ham this week and a couple of draws would give us the opportunity to close the gap to something which would put pressure on them. It's often easier to chase than remain ahead. Wolves have also had a lot of luck and that doesn't tend to last a whole season. So we should still be aiming for 9th and above, you never know.. We can certainly go for it in the cup and if we beat West Ham, we should not fear anyone else.

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underweststand added 14:50 - Feb 21 A good run of form and with 13 matches left we have just 3 " big home" games ( Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool) whilst, (aside from Brighton), the remainder of our fixtures are all against clubs below us in the table. Finishing in the top half gives a psychological boost, (and a few £ mill. more in Prem. bonuses), but even if we continue this good run of form we're unlikely to make it into the top 6, which won't yield any sort of Euro. place... BUT an FA Cup win certainly would. I can't see us showing less determination in our remaining Prem. matches, but we really do need 110% effort to win 3 more Cup games, and to get to the Final. Last years Semi-final was a real disappointment, but we often seem to fall at the last hurdle and can't quite make it to Wembley. Let's hope we can enjoy some more Prem. wins, but many of us dream of another Cup win - as 1976 really was a long time ago.

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SanMarco added 14:57 - Feb 21 We have got a pretty good core of a dozen or so players and if they all stay fit and on song then 9th is virtually guaranteed with 8th as a possibility if one of the ones above fades badly. That is of course a big if - say Romeu, JWP, Armstrong , Salisu and Broja all got injured we would be back on the very fringes of relegation trouble. Barring that I think we are in the 9th to 12th area now. Only Leicester and Villa could possibly overtake us and Brighton the only ones we can realistically get above. The third relegation place is interesting. Assuming Norwich and Watford go I think it is Burnley vs Brentford for the final place and I fear for the bees. I know Newcastle, Everton and Leeds are down there too but they will survive. The only slight doubt is Leeds who are a bit kami-kazi for a relegation scrap!!

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dellboysaint added 16:05 - Feb 21 In reality, games against the bottom 6 will be harder than playing sides with little to play for. We must not underestimate the likes of Newcastle, Watford, Norwich etc. We are in danger of being a side with little to play for except mid table status.
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Centurion added 17:18 - Feb 21 Agree. I am sure we were complacent against Norwich at Carrow Road. Went 1 up and became impatient for a quick second and didn't defend well. Have also to say that our goalkeeper was awful as well.
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worksopsaint added 19:31 - Feb 21 Yes it’s great to be talking the way you have compared to the pessimism around in late Nov. McCartney seems to get the blame but he’s not the only change in the line up. Moreover we had a run of 11 pts from 5 games ( inc Chelsea away) prior to the Norwich defeat. We then had a run of defeats as well as draws we should have converted to wins ( Brighton, Leicester and Burnley). Other changes to our current line up include S Armstrong and the dropping of A Armstrong and Tella for more Broja and a little more Elyonoussi And of course Walcott is no where to be seen these days. The upshot is that we have more staying power where we can play higher up the pitch in the last 20 mins or so , and that was a clear factor in throwing away two points with Brighton as much as keeper error.

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