Saints take on Aston Villa in a game where a win would see them back into the top 10 after two straight defeats in the Premier League, but another loss could see us looking over our shoulder.
There are two thoughts on Saints fans minds ahead of this evening's game against Aston Villa are what team will Saints put out and what time they get in the sweepstake for when Jack Grealish will throw himself theatrically to the ground after brushing an opponent.
Those with times between 90 seconds and 2 1/2 minutes have the best chance of picking up the prize money, which is a great shame because if he stayed on his feet I think Grealish could become a truly class act, instead of a figure of ridicule to most other than Villa fans.
The good news for Saints fans is that Ralph Hasenhuttl has some of the injured returning to his squad, notably Oriol Romeu and Moussa Djenepo and this will give him more options, especially on the bench where experience has been in short supply of late.
But he will be without Kyle Walker Peters again and also long term casualty Jannik Vestergaard, although the good news is that the Danish Central defender will return to full training next week.
The real dilemma for Ralph though is the defence, Ryan Bertrand will return at left back, so does the manager stick with Jan Valery who in fairness had a decent enough game against Arsenal or doe he try other options.
He could for instance put Ibrahima Diallo at right back and restore Oriol Romeu to the centre of midfield, this might not be a bad option as Dallo is fast and has quick feet and that could be an advantage to combat Jack Grealish.but the Austrian expressed concern about Saints getting caught out of position and for pace last weekend and he could think a little bit outside of the box.
That could see Romeu slotted into the centre of defence in place of Jack Stephens, although that itself could trigger a re shuffle in that Stephens can also play at right back.
Further up the field I would not be surprised to see Nathan Redmond restored to the left of the midfield with Theo Walcott dropping to the bench, the loanee has struggled to find an end product of late, he is still getting some good runs and work, but that final ball whether it be a cross, pass or shot has been lacking.
Otherwise I think Ralph will try to keep the shape of the side and keep changes to a minimum.
Up until recently I have always said the bench is key, we have options, that hasn't been the case of late, but today that will all change , if things are going right Ralph will have options and if they are going wrong instead of kids he will have the likes of Djenepo or Walcott/Redmond to bring on.
WE have to get back to winning ways, the injury crisis has cost us dearly, but the season is still there for the taking, in the Premier League it is tight, but we are still in the mix, we have a great chance in the FA Cup .so there is plenty to play for.
We are in a bad patch at the moment but still pulled out the odd result or two, now is the time to end the rot and get back to winning ways whilst others have a bad patch to come.
We can go into this game with more positivity about the available squad than at any time in the last six weeks or 7 games, time to get back on track