A few weeks ago all the talk was of top ten finishes and pushing on next season, however after having to look to Wigan to lose games it has emphasised just how hard the Premier actually is.
After the arrival of Mauricio Pochettino in January, all the talk was of the next step and many Saints supporters forgot that we needed to complete this seasons step before we could talk of next. A trio of wins saw us soar up the table, but then our current four game streak without a win saw us start to look nervously over our shoulders, so much so that a Wigan win last night at home to Swansea would have seen them and indeed the final relegation place only one point below us.
The events of the past few weeks have highlighted that we are far from the finished article in the Premier, its a league where every season anyone of perhaps 15 clubs could find themselves battling relegation, after all Newcastle are living proof of that, fifth last year above Chelsea, Everton & Liverpool, yet this year they are now fourth from bottom and would have dropped into the bottom three if Wigan had won last night.
In the January transfer window we took an almighty risk by failing to strengthen the squad and one has to ask the question how much was our transfer strategy affected by the change of manager, clearly it was hard to chase players whilst Nigel Adkins was still in charge and he had no input on the arrival of Forren who was announced literally in the same breath that Adkins sacking was made public.
Now we sit virtually safe, it will take a big swing in other results now to send us down, but perhaps now is the time to find our form again and show that we truly do have the basis of a side to take that next step next season, rather than one that is no better or worse than another dozen clubs, now would be a good time not to wait till next Tuesday and rely on Wigan to drop points at Arsenal to cement our safety, but to finish with a flourish and achieve that under our own steam.
A win at Sunderland is very achievable, the pressure is still on Sunderland to a degree, like us their goal difference is worth a point to them, however a win there will send us right up the table and if we can follow that up with a win in the final home game against Stoke then finishing as high as 11th is achievable.
If we finish with a flourish though, perhaps we should learn our lessons from the past few weeks, this is a tough tough league, just having ambition doesnt mean that its easy to achieve, all we will have done is shown that we have the foundations to survive a second season and that with the right players brought in, perhaps we will be able to take that second step and establish ourselves in the mid table challenging for a top half finish rather than a constant battle against the drop, which to be blunt much of this season has been except for a few weeks in early April.
So lets see a flourish, but lets not get carried away and see it for what it is, a decent end to the season, one that we would have all taken this time last year.