Saints head into Sunday afternoon's clash with Fulham aiming to pull themselves out of the bottom three.
Saints dropped back into the bottom three on Saturday afternoon with Reading picking up a point at Swansea, but they now have a great chance to pull themselves out of it by beating Fulham at St Mary's.
A win if results go our way in two of the other games being played today, could see us rise to as high as 14th but even a draw would at least give us the morale boost of not going into the international break down in the relegation places.
But to be blunt a draw isnt good enough, Fulham are not a great team on the road and if we have any intentions of staying up, with respect to Fulham its teams like them we have to beat at home, having lost to Wigan, a result that even at this early stage would make a big difference to both ours and Wigans position, its essential that we beat the Cottagers, yes I can hear some people say its not a must win game because there is another 31 to go after it, thats mathematically true, but at the end of the season its games like this you look back on and realise they were the difference between staying up and going down.
For their part Fulham are flying high in 9th, but they are still only on 9 points, 6 of them gained in two home wins and the other 3 in their solitary away win a 2-1 win at Wigan. their results so far this season have been steady, they have lost the games you would expect them too, but more importantly won those that you would expect them too as well, in short we have nothing to fear, but it will still be a tough ask.
Their goals for and against column shows that they are more than capable of notching a few, but as West Ham proved a few weeks back, they can be brittle in defence.
But at the end of the day its about winning and with both sides not registering a draw so far this season, although Im tempting fate, I still feel that it will be a win for one of them and we have to make sure that it is us.
At home i think we can get away with playing Adam Lallana as a wide player, although I stick to my guns and say that in many games especially away from home, this is a weakness area that the opposition will exploit as Everton showed us last weekend, this being the case i would like to see Gaston Ramirez played outb wide on the left and Lallana moved into that central role.
I also think its important on the other flank to play a genuine wide man, that being the case it has to be Puncheon or Guly out there, or of Nigel Adkins doesnt think either are up to the task consider playing Richardson and Clyne as a pair, although both essentially full backs, both are good attackers and it would firstly give us the defensive qualitys we are lacking but secondly not detract too much going forward.
On the left the only question is whether Danny Fox is fit after being unavailable through injury last week, however groin strains are difficult things and the longer rest you get the better, with a two week break coming up I personally would prefer to see Ben Reeves given his chance in the position, although his first team games have been mostly in midfield, he is essentially a left sided player who played most of his non first team games at left back, his ten minute cameo appearance at Everton suggested he could be the answer on the left, again long term possibly in conjunction with Fox. However although I see the Clyne/ichardson & Fox/Reeves parnerships viable away from home, I do think that perhaps at home we should be more adventurous.
There are rumours abounding that some of the team selections may not entirely be Nigel Adkins own doing and to be fair some decisions like the playing of Jay Rodrigues at everton when it was clear that A. he didnt fit into the line up and B. even if he did the playing of so many essentially attack minded player at Goodison was suicide. Managers live and die by results, if that is going to be the case then at least die due to your own decisions, if Nigel is solely responsible for some of the selection faux pas this season, then so be it, but if he isnt then he has to stand up and do what he thinks is best for the team.
Today is a vital game, one of the most vital of the season, the fans will flock in when United, City, Chelsea & Arsenal are in town, but the truth of the matter is whether these clubs visit again next season isnt down to the games we play against them its down to games like these when you have to pick up points and gain advantages, I hope im proved wrong but it will probably be one of our worst crowds of the season and thats wrong.
Saints are capable of winning this game as they showed against Aston Villa and I do feel that our ability to score and win games will ultimately keep us up, the likes of Reading will probably not lose as many as us, but they wont win as many either and two wins in six games is better than one win and two draws, but we have to win those games !