Its been a season of highs and lows, but two straight home wins would almost certainly see Saints finish 8th in the League and secure our best ever run of top flight finishes.

The Dichotomy of this season has been that although so many consider it down there amongst the "worst ever" due to some dire home matches in the Premier League, it has also seen some magnificent highs.

The casual observer would look at Saints and think that this was a great season and the supporters would all be happy, after all take out the top 7 and every other club in the country would have preferred our season to their own.

But it cannot be argued that at times the football has been dire, yes there have been some reasons beyond the control of the manager, but he also has to take a chunk of the blame for his team selections and judging by the side he put out at Middlesbrough on Saturday he still has some weird and wonderful ideas about what constitutes building a successful and perhaps more importantly consistent season.

But the quality of the squad is still good enough to see us up there in the top ten with two wins to go and after the teams around us dropped points at the weekend, it means that now we could finish as high as 8th but conversely as low as 12th.

That could slightly improve this evening, if Watford should fail to win at Chelsea then they would be unable to catch us and 11th would be guaranteed.

Tomorrow our chances of finishing 8th could improve if Manchester City can beat West Brom up at the Etihad, if they can do it by two goals then we would move up into 8th with a better goal difference, but the more they can score the better our chances of staying above the Baggies.

On Thursday Leicester host Tottenham and we must hope that Spurs win to dent the Foxes chances of catching us. By then we could already be guaranteed 10th though, a win over Manchester United would give us a goal difference of at least 7 better than Bournemouth who ironically travel to Leicester on the final day.

So the task for Saints is to do something that they have not managed once this season, that is win three games in a row, if we can beat United and follow that up against Stoke City then almost certainly that would see us achieve 8th spot, at worst we would be 9th on goal difference if West Brom did manage to beat City and then win at Swansea on Sunday.

If we manage that, then despite the issues this season, this would still unarguably be up there as one of our greatest seasons in our history.

Firstly it would see us achieve four consecutive top ten finish for the first time ever, secondly it could then be said that only 1976 was a better season in terms of achievement.

That year was unarguably our greatest given that it represents our only major trophy win.

So what other seasons could be considered better than this one, in terms of league position there are a few contenders, but perhaps not as many as some would have you think, but in my book the second best season would be 1983/84 when we finished 2nd and nearly won not only the League but if we had won the FA Cup semi final we could have done the double.

So after that its debatable, but I would say that after these two you have to look at league position and then add on a major final to make it a season where we came close to winning something.

So that leaves just two other seasons in contention, the first 1978/79 and the second 2002/03.

These are the only other two seasons where we got to a major final, the first saw us finish 14th in the League and then lose to Nottingham Forest at Wembley to the same 3-2 score we lost to United this year.

The second saw Gordon Strachan take us to Cardiff for the FA Cup Final losing 1-0 to Arsenal to add to the 8th place finish in the Premier League.

There are those that would argue that perhaps last season's sixth place because it had European qualification was a better season than this, but whilst I would agree given style of play and enjoyment, I think we have to go on how near we came to a trophy to judge.

So given the two other contenders for 3rd place in history I would say this year will be above 1979 due to the fact that we will finish higher in the league than back then.

So its a straight fight between 2003 and now, I would say that 2003 just about edges it in that at the moment we haven't obtained 8th so can't compare just yet, but even if we could an FA Cup final is a better achievement than a League Cup one.

So although some do not wan't to hear this (That is sad in itself and tells you something) this season could end up us the 4th best in our history since joining the league in the 1920's.

The sad thing is that it could have been and should have been so much more, it cannot be argued that there have been many issues both in our control and beyond it, from the Jose Fonte situation and the failure to replace him, injury issues and of course the managers system.

That has left a feeling of "what if" rather than the euphoria that our accomplishments this season should have brought, three years ago finishing 8th was seen as brilliant despite the fact that there was not only not a cup final but no European qualification either.

Now there is a feeling of doom around the place even though it is our 4th best season ever, a feeling that with a good squad in place we have done it despite Claude Puel not because of him.

Wherever Saints finish this year it has been a good season, not one that has entertained, although I would say that there has been more than a air share of classic games, Inter Milan for example and given that most League seasons only have about 4 true great games in them anyway, I would have traded a season of Premier League classics for the Liverpool semi, Prague and Inter Milan.

The board have a big decision to make, Claude Puel on the face of it has had a good year, one that would have seen Mauricio Pochettino or Ronald Koeman hailed for, yet he is under fire, to be blunt he is under fire for good reason at times his team selections have been appalling and Saturday showed that he still has strange ideas about running a squad, yes he got a result, but the result isn't the be all and end all when looking at his own personal performance as manager of Saints.

If Claude Puel can now for the first time win three games in a row for Saints we should be 8th, however although we should step back and consider that the seasons has not been as bad as we have perceived, that does not mean that all is well at the club and that changes do not need to be made.

Photo: Action Images

St_Guido added 09:24 - May 15 I still regard 1983/84 as our "best ever". Runners up to Liverpool & a cracking cup run, including that great win at Pompey.
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petedoors1 added 09:32 - May 15 Good report Nick. But its Puel out for me. We will never win anything with CLOWN PUEL at the helm.
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forest_saint added 10:10 - May 15 Bye bye Puel
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saintpp added 10:21 - May 15 Thats better Nick a balanced review. But as you say some dont want to hear it which IS sad. Puel hasnt been the disaster some said he would and if we were told at the start we would lose RK fonte vvd austin and have yoshi and stephens as our cbs i would have feared the worst.But would have taken 8th place and a cup final in a heartbeat.I am sitting on the fence regarding Puel but i beleive he deserves another crack at it,the last thing we need is more upheavel.Fans are moaning bout entertainement and they are entitled to but rather that than playing pretty football and in relegation battle. But what gets me is the refusal of fans to even consider the thought that Puel will have learnt about the PL and his players and give him a chance that next season the football will be better. Ditto Boufal why are fans writing him off cant they consider he too will get better under Saints guidance as so many players have. This stubborness is annoying so many blinkered fans have made their minds up and refuse to give either a fair chance.

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ThereIn76 added 10:27 - May 15 Having seen Hull's abject, disorganised surrender in a must-win game at Crystal Palace yesterday, is there seriously any Saints fan who would prefer Marco Silva to Puel?
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saintpp added 10:29 - May 15 petedoors1 We were a crossbars width and robbed by a ref from winning the EFL which is nearer than we have been to winning anything for donkeys years. How many teams apart from City Utd and Chelsea have won anything in a decade. . Give it a rest mate nobody can predict next season,some might think they can but we dont know he might suprise you.
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saintpp added 10:34 - May 15 Therein76 Worse was the 0-2 loss to Sunderland which really cost them losing to an already relegated side at home. Fans go on about Silva but i dont think they won an away game under him and i rather think their home form was down to the passionate supporters.
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SonicBoom added 11:13 - May 15 Very odd season, the facts seem to suggest we have been decent. That said there are several factors . To me we've seemed like a side that should be 12-14th due to our chronic lack of goals. The fact we can finish 8th possibly says more about our rivals like Stoke, West Ham, Watford etc. I would have expected them to pull away from us but they've all been shit. I struggle to see who Puel has really improved this year and I can't see any pattern or logic to team selection. I think that behind the scenes we have some very disgruntled players. So overall I think we've done reasonably well despite Puel rather than because of him. He inherited a good side from Poch and Ron so no reason to expect the season to be a disaster. I do believe though that he could have done better with the resources he had available.

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SaintNick added 11:37 - May 15 Sonic's post is very similar to my own, if you had asked me three months ago I would have said that he appears to have learnt his lesson, but since Wembley he has made some strange decisions. To make seven changes on Saturday was just plain baffling and gambling with achieving a top ten finish for no apparent reason, especially since defeat could have seen us drop five places and that is £10 million in terms of prize money Likewise his substitution to bring on Charlie Austin with three minutes to go, I cant see what purpose this served, especially when we were only leading 2-1, bring off the work rate of Long and replace it with Austin who is good at what he does but chasing back isnt one of his strengths. The obvious choice would have been JWP. I want to like Puel, but I am afraid I cant see what he is doing and he is definitely causing issues withing the squad who just dont seem to know what they have to do to keep their place, as soon as he finds a winning formula he seems to scrap it

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SanMarco added 11:38 - May 15 Interesting that the 2002-3 season is remembered fondly by many. My memory is that we had a great 4-0 vs Spuds in the cup then the luck of the draw to get us to Wembley where we were poor. A lucky win in the last game at Maine Road jumped us up several places to 8th with approx. 52 points. This season, especially if we finish with two wins, will look pretty similar in many ways - However, Strachan is very popular in memory, Puel is unpopular. Surely the difference is expectation. We were in trouble and then all groaned when WGS took over - he was an unexpected success for a season and a half. Puel took over a side that finished last season playing great football and came 6th. Puel followed Koeman, WGS followed Stuart Gray....

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saintmark1976 added 12:08 - May 15 Nick, if you can't see what he is doing then let's try and help you by looking at the evidence as to what the manager has actually done. If results go badly for us in the next two games the lowest we can finish is twelfth. If results go well then eighth. We narrowly lost a cracking cup final at Wembley against Man United. Both the above mentioned were achieved after losing two proven goal scorers in Pele and Mane and with no replacements in place. In addition the club captain throws his toys out of the pram and arguably the best centre half in the Premiership is injured for getting on for half of the season. In addition all this has been against a background of months of speculation as to ownership of the club by a want away owner and a frankly almost invisible chairman. Honestly,the fact that you can't see what the manager is doing is irrelevant given his achievements this season.Put simply,the facts speak for themselves. As for the suggestion by others that the club dispense with Mr Puel's services and replace him with the manager of a team where whilst in charge he could not win one of nine away games, words fail me.

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saintpp added 12:32 - May 15 SaintNick well about the changes we have been had a lot of games recently and its possible some fatigue set in and really whatever 11 he sent out at Boro would be good enough to beat them and so it proved. We have some fresh players for the tougher game v Utd. Fans wanted to see Caceres they got that,some wanted tadic dropped they got that they wanted Long to play they got that they wanted classie in they got that allowing davis a rest ditto jwp and hojbjerg. Maybe bringing Austin on was to give him a boost to actually be back on the pitch. Had Shane scored it would have ended 3-0 or maybe more but personally i wouldnt let him anywhere near a penalty. The guy has good work rate but he has reverted to type with his lack of scoring and being continually caught offside. I read today we are only 12 goals shy of this time last year which means our away scoring must be better as its at home we have struggled. As for his winning formula well we havent won that many recently and fans were on his case for setting up the same every game.Dont know of any issues in the sqaud but for sure those that came in saturday would have been happy to be back on the pitch. I think his team v Utd will be forster cedric stephens yoshi bertrand romue davis jwp tadic gabbi redmond. 6 of those have been rested and Nathan ony played half a game. Tho Id play caceres again but i doubt he will and dont know why he hasnt tried him before.He may play him v Stoke. Win these two and we will have 52 points not too shabby ALL things considered.

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saintpp added 12:36 - May 15 Someone did say he inhertited a good side from RK but the fact is it was minus Pelle Vic and Mane and for half the season VVD and Austin. Thats nearly half a team missing.
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bstokesaint added 13:06 - May 15 Good point made by SanMarco and it goes to prove how expectations have changed. I loved having WGS as manager. I thought we played some great football under him, although arguably we now expect a better level as standard. I still remain on the fence with Puel. I am not necessarily of the opinion that offing managers at the first chance is the best long term strategy for a club. And until it is proved otherwise, I’m not going to entertain the idea that all of our players are unhappy, even though the fact that team selection doesn’t appear logical to supporters, suggests this could be a fact. The one thing though WGS had over Puel is an abundance of charisma. You also understood what he was saying (just) and you could tell that the players lived off his every word. I’m not sure Puel will ever get that same respect.

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SaintNick added 14:34 - May 15 Im glad to see that Puel has some support out there, I stuck up for him all season, but I.m afraid his selections have me baffled at times, yes there are reasons that can be given for all of them, but of the side is fatigued it is because it has played too much and given the results gained (or not) in that time, it should have been changed subtly a lot earlier. Seven changes was not good management it stunk of desperation im afraid. There are loads of excuses for Puel, I have used most of the all season, but ultimately he has not shone in adversity, every tactical change seems to fail and when a team is good one week and poor the next there is a problem somewhere, the biggest thing missing is consistency and that is from the managers selections

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SaintBrock added 15:04 - May 15 I'm waiting Nick for an article from you extolling the great season that Maya Yoshida has had with the Saints culminating in the Fan's Player of the Month Award for April.... Not holding my breath 'though!
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SaintBrock added 15:27 - May 15 Why carp on about Puel's team selection against Middlesboro? We WON didn't we so surely it would be far more fair minded to acknowledge that he judged it exactly right and by resting key players has given us a much better chance of doing well in the final two games this week. Let's not quibble about this either Romeu, Tadic & Cedric badly needed a rest and I thought Bertrand looked ragged at the end of the previous match as well but presumably Puel had no confidence that he could be replaced without jeopardising the match outcome. Finishing 8th will give little satisfaction to me and probably many others as having been fed from above by a constant stream of propaganda extolling our vision and single-mindedness, "We March On!" that understandably encourages us to have expected more; 14th, 8th, 7th, 6th... think of a number lower than 6 and therein lies our season. Once there was a big four but we were not part of that but aspired to be, now there is a big six and we are not part of that and accept that we are not, so have we settled for being part of a big eight and be content with that as our vision? We shouldn't be wasting our time on what Puel can or cannot do next season when all the problems start and end in the boardroom. Do we need to be reminded that our junior sides have failed as well. Be honest this has been a season of failure but if the problems upstairs are not put right quickly, we'll be here next season having this same old debate about whoever is in charge then.

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SaintBrock added 15:30 - May 15 ...oh! and a big shout out for M-A-Y-A Y-O-S-H-I-D-A Fan's Plays of the Month for April
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the_saint added 16:17 - May 15 The one thing this season that I'm not happy about is the boring negative football any other entertainment industry you would be asking for my money back. But I really do not understand people not renewing there season tickets I've had mine in the dark days of div 1 back up to the premier and I will renew mine every year regardless of league or who's in charge saints are a big part of my life I might not be happy with puel but I would not stop going because of him

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SaintBrock added 17:58 - May 15 The dark days of Division 1? What about the dark days of Division 2 and the old Third Division. If your talking about loyal support hanging on in there in the fifties and sixties was no picnic I can tell you. Now that was madness. Season tickets were a hell of a lot cheaper then 'though. Terry Paine was our saviour.
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Saint88 added 20:02 - May 15 Hull were not brilliant against Sunderland and were stuffed by Palace, when it counted they fell away. Marco Silva was manager, so has to accept he came up short when it was in their hands and when it counted.
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the_saint added 20:57 - May 15 Bit before my time Saint brock but my dad did tell me about them
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SaintBrock added 21:06 - May 15 LOL
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GeordieSaint added 11:09 - May 16 I liked the year under Dave Jones when David Hirst was playing and we scored lots of goals and played good football. When I was growing up we usually seemed to have a fun team under Chris Nichol and that season Alan Ball was there for the full year was great too.
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