Southampton have now played all the other teams in the division and who would have thought back in mid September that we would go into the final game of 2023 unbeaten in the three months in between.

Another big day for Saints in the final fixtures of the calendar year, it is a full Championship programme this evening and a win over Plymouth Argyle could potentially see us make up more ground on the teams around us.

Leicester travel to Cardiff City, Ipswich host Queens Park Rangers & Leeds go to West Bromwich Albion.

There could be points dropped in these games, Cardiff harbour their own hopes of getting into the play offs and West Brom are in 5th and will want to cement their own play off spot, sadly it is hard to see QPR getting anything at Portman Road, but you never know.

But all we can do is keep winning our own games and from this perspective Plymouth are the side in our way.

Back in August it took a last minute winner to give Saints all 3 points at Home Park so it won't be an easy game and Russell Martin needs to make sure he puts out a strong side.

That sounds a little silly, after all why would he not put one out ? The answer is because having played only 3 days ago and facing Norwich in 3 days time, it will be tempting to tinker with the side a little.

But I would hope that he would not do so too much, we have to grind down the other sides around us and that means taking each game as it comes and getting it won and then worrying about the next fixture.

So I would hope that there will be not much deviation from the starting line up against Swansea on Boxing Day.

For most of the game we seemed to play with a back 3 with the two full backs pushed on, then a central trio in midfield leaving Adam Armstrong and Sam Edozie playing wide roles up front.

It worked well so I would not want to see much deviation on this, although it is good that several of the players who came off the bench for this one showed that they are chomping at the bit for the starting line up.

The Wee Man is perhaps first in the queue, Ryan Fraser has become something of a super sub, but as his stamina improves after what was a long period in the wilderness at Newcastle, he could well be starting a game in the next weeks.

Charley Alcatraz is a talent and will show us what he can do on a more consistent basis I'm sure, Will Smallbone is solid and reliable and we have a plethora of youngsters chomping at the bit for a chance.

But the first things is to, as we did against Swansea, is put the game to bed early on and concentrate on making sure that we don't give anything away and that is what Saints have become very good at, now we are one of the meanest defences in the division.

So it will be interesting to see what Russell Martin does in this game, I have always stuck with our manager since his arrival, but I am also aware of his failings and one is to get a little too complicated at times, when he keeps it simple we win games, when he tries to be a little bit too tactical, it can cost us with multiple substitutions at the wrong time costing us late equalisers.

However this is harsh and if it is the worst I can say about Martin, then that shows how hard he has worked to build this side.

So another full house, or at least full house in Saints flawed ticket system terms will hopefully get behind the team and roar it on for the final game of the year, if we make it 7 straight home wins and in doing so 17 games unbeaten we will have truly posted our intentions for the second half of the season and perhaps only Leicester can consider themselves a better team.

Photo: Action Images

felly1 added 09:59 - Dec 29 Patience could be keying this game. Nine goals scored and none conceded in our last two home matches will likely mean we'll be facing a massed defence and the potential of alot of sideways passing and probing which I appreciate is to not everyone's taste. Im a little worried that their winger Whitticker (12 goals) will get behind our defence on the counter... 2-2 tonight for me.

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Frank_Xerox added 10:18 - Dec 29 I'm not sure Russell Martin needs much advice picking the team at the moment. Playing Jack Stephens and KWP where he did against Swansea was a gamble and the first substitutions seemed to take some of the steam out of the performance. Yet it turned out ok. If it hadn't, he would have taken some stick. Haven't we got to accept that he'll know things about injuries, attitude, the need to bring some players up to fitness and to ease off a little on others, that we don't? And that some decisions will work out and that others, for whatever reason, won't. We should judge him on results over a run of games and otherwise trust him to do the right thing. Given the run we're on, I'm prepared to let him get on with it. He seems to be doing quite well at the moment!

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Bowlercow added 13:10 - Dec 29 Because of recent results this game could be considered easy but they have players who will want to prove they are a championship team and deserve the promotion they got last term Some players may want to impress any potential new manager so we cannot take it easy October 1965 was my first game at the Dell and we beat Plymouth 3-1A repeat of that will do nicely
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