When Saints take on Burnley on Saturday its time to put the recent poor form behind us and start to win games that will keep us in the promotion frame.
Lets be perfectly frank, over the past 12 games and the best part of three months, Saints have been poor, yes there has been the odd win here and there, three to be exact, but in the main 13 points from 12 games is not acceptable to any team, let alone one that harbours hopes of automatic promotion.
It cannot be called a blip, a blip is 2 or 3 games, not 12 which is over a quarter of a season and not that far off half of the games we have actually played so far, in fact its relegation form or as near as damn it, our average over this period if spread over 46 games would have given us 49 points, in the Championship last season Doncaster were fourth from bottom on 48, if that doesnt put this run in perspective then with if we continue in this vein of form then at the end of the season we will end up with 70 points, last season that total would have seen us eight in the Championship and not in even a play off spot, so lets not underestimate the severity of this current situation.
Many will turn round and say 8th was as good as we expected anyway, so we should be grateful to still be second, well I dont buy that argument, we played our way into a great position by mid November, we dont want to see that blown
Yes there have been the odd game when we have had an excuse, injuries and suspensions hit most sides at some point, but we had problems in the early part of the season when Richard Chaplow was suspended and then Dan Seaborne injured, we played through that then, we need to start doing so now.
There have been many fine words spoken during this near three month period, I hear much of how everyone is on the bus or rowing in the same direction, yet i dont see much of that on the pitch, I see a team that is directionless, leaderless and at times unsure of just what formation it should be playing.
This might seem a harsh critical view of manager Nigel Adkins and i can see why some would think that, but I like him as a manager and i truly hope that he goes on to become one of the greats in our history, but and its a big but, he has to start to turn this season back round and he has to do it fast, otherwise this could turn into one of the biggest downturns in Championship history, as was stated back in December, only one team in recent times has lead the league at Xmas and failed to get promotion, unless we hit form fast then we will surely be the second.
In recent weeks we have looked a little better, in the second half against Cardiff we played well and against Birmingham we were tight although we offered little threat up front, in some respects i dont include the cup debacle against Millwall, but it cant be ignored in that side were players who should have stepped up to the plate and didnt.
So its down to Nigel Adkins now, we know we have the players at the club, to be frank when a side is so good as we were in the first 17 games and then suddenly turn into such a poor side, you have to say its not the quality of the players, its something else and again to be blunt, this is where managers earn their corn.
In those 12 games we have not won two in a row, indeed for most of it we havent been able to go two games in a row unbeaten, this needs to change, its about small steps, beat Burnley and that gives us a good springboard to go to Upton Park, even a point would be good there, perhaps not in the short term but definately in the long, if we can do that we can look to built a run of winning games, no one behind us has really dont that themselves yet, hence we are still 2nd, but make no mistake someone will do soon and we need to make sure that someone is us
So in closing, this is not a rant about Nigel Adkins or a call for his sacking or anything drastic, I have every confidence that he will turn this round, however if we hadnt gone on this terrible run of results then I wouldnt be needing to write this article, a win on Saturday would be a big step in the right direction, lets take it