So far most of Saints points on the road have come against sides in the bottom half of the table, this now needs to change and fast if automatic promotion is to be achieved.
Even after Saints great win at Watford their away record is average at best, only Birmingham and Leicester in the top half of the table have worse records and indeed the brummies could equal our points tally if they win their game in hand on the road.
Of our five away wins Watford on Saturday sitting 17th were the highest placed club at the time of our visit and this has to change in the final quarter of the season, we have to go to some well placed clubs and more to the point we have to take all three points, on Saturday we go to leeds in 10th, of the eight who sit in front of them apart from ourselves, we have so far visited five and taken only three points all through draws, the bright spot is that those draws all came against what are now the highest placed clubs we have played, although in fairness Reading were pretty lowly when we visited back in October.
But the statistics dont lie, to take it a little further and add in Burnley & Leicester to encompass the whole of the top half of the league, we have played seven out of eleven possible games and taken only four points out of 21, this cannot be dressed up in any other way than appalling.
On Saturday we have a chance to beat a top side away from home for the first time this season, regular readers know I have always stated that a promoted side needs to win 8 on the road minimum and as we enter the business end of the season my prediction from ugust is still bang on track, we cannot change our appalling record on the road during November/December/January, however we can win at least three of the remaining eight road trips and the sooner we rattle off those trio of wins needed the better as it gives us a distinct advantage in the promotion race.
Of course its not essential that one of those three wins comes against our four opponents in the top ten, of course we do have four visits to bottom half clubs where we can rack them up, but beating a promotion rival is much better as its the proverbial six pointer, but its more than that, go and destroy a rival on their own patch and its a big psycological blow to their own promotion hopes, we have shown in recent weeks we can handle tricky games at both Birmingham and West Ham, we need to now show that we are more than flat track bullies on our own pitch or when we come up against a lowly side in a bad run