Starting at 20.00 hours tonight the following 26 hours will define whether Saints are going to be comfortable in the final two weeks of the season or its going to be tight.

Saints fans will be looking up to the North East tonight to the tadium Of Light and Sunderlands game with Stoke City, given that Stoke are a poit ahead of us and probably just about safe, there is only one result we want and that is a Stoke win that will leave the Mackems still two points behind us and the side most likely to be overtaken by a Wigan resurgence, A Sunderland win however will leave us very exposed to Wigan's late surge, it would leave only Newxastle and Norwich behind us and all eyes would now go to Wigan on Tuesday night for their home game with Swansea City.

This game should not be underestimated, if Wigan win their game in hand over us they would overtake both Norwich and Newcastle and be only a point behind us, but more importantly they would be a side with momentum and given that they are in the FA Cup final on Saturday, they will be able to sit back and watch the weekends proceedings knowing what they need to do.

If both sides win it will be a big problem for Saints, of course our fate is in our own hands, but on the back of two straight defeats and four games without a win things woukd be very very tight.

Ideally both will lose although the chances of that happening are not as great as two home wins, but if it did that that relieves some pressure off of Saints, although the problem is that we would travel to a Sunderland side on Sunday who would be in a desperate position.

I have always said that in a relegation fight if you are more than three points away from dropping into the bottom three then thats a good thing, a Sunderland & Wigan double in the next 26 hours could leave us open to being in the bottom three going into the final game of the season as Wigan dont play at the weekend then that wont happen over its course, although with Norwich hosting an up and down West Brom side and Newcastle at QPR its likely they might overtake us on Sunday  but it could happen on the Tuesday night when Wigan make up that game in hand, the only good thing being that it is at Arsenal so unlikely.

Whatever way we look at things though its not good, a couple of weeks ago people were talking about tenth and above, now most of them would take 17th.

Photo: Action Images

ExiledSupporter added 10:23 - May 6 I'm afraid that I think we are in real trouble, two points out of the last twelve with only one goal scored is amongst the poorest form of the half dozen or so clubs scrambling to avoid the third relegation place. Glad to hear that there was genuine commitment from the players on Saturday, but can't help but feel that a complacency descended on the players, the management and a significant proportion of the supporters writing on this site that has now proved totally misplaced. Our squad is limited and lacks depth, nothing has really changed on that front since last summer and a run of form against some of the better teams in the league has not made up for some poor results in the 'six pointer' matches. I am not at all confident of getting a result against Sunderland, hope we have Schneiderlein back for this game. Several weeks ago I said on this site that Saints have always been able to seize disaster from the jaws of success and am now worried that this is about to happen

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SanMarco added 10:27 - May 6 Before the West Brom game I remember saying that we would only go down if all the remaining results were hand-picked by a Pompey supporter. Sadly that has, just about, been happening ever since. It still needs a fair few results to go against us though - we may assume Wigan are certs against Swansea, Newcastle at QPR etc but as our WBA game showed it isn't that straightforward. Not all results will go against us and the side I saw at Spurs on Saturday should be able to get at least a point on Saturday. As long as Chelski beat Villa and Arsenal beat Wigan then that one point is all we need... PS I wish I believed myself though.

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LennyJam added 10:41 - May 6 thought we played excellently at SPurs
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saint22 added 10:49 - May 6 I disagree. Wouldn't a Sunland win mean that our chances up there are improved as they would be virtually safe too We need two pints from two games against two poor sides, we don't do that we deserve to godown
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saintandy11 added 12:02 - May 6 'We need two pints from two games against two poor sides, we don't do that we deserve to godown' we seem to have a team of players who are more than able to turn it on against the big teams who let us play football, but are not interested when it comes to playing against those who play rugby not football. Step forward Sunderland & Stoke, two teams who could give the Harlequins a good game. As we don't have any players who can mix it physically I can't see us getting a point out of either game.

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slynch added 13:19 - May 6 I think the we learnt a lot from the Tot game: Boruc is average, which is ok. That was the best back 4, Yosh makes good cover which is good. The whole back 4 tilt off axis when Shaw isn't playing so someone 80% as good as him required, which is urgent. The mid field play as good with Spiderman as without which is good. Guly is better than everyone says cos he's probably going? Which is bad. People who have been up all night having babies need to stay in bed, which is commonsense. Need a new Lambo. If he gets injured Saints have had it which is bad. Saints will end up 12th which is 6 below where they will finish next season which will be good. Miss Leiber needs to spend 25million which is bad. Miss Leiber can afford it which is great!

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sidsaint added 14:49 - May 6 The way Swansea are playing and without Michu I would think Wigan should get 3 points tomorrow. Sunderland v Stoke will depend how Sunderland react after the Villa defeat, they will be fired up by their manager that's for sure but Stoke's defence is usually pretty solid.
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stmichael added 15:27 - May 6 Chelsea v villa is key. They have to beat villa arsenal have to beat Wigan and we have to get a point at Sunderland. We are then safe. That's why Chelsea's win at Man U was bad although few on here would have realised it. If Chelsea beat spurs weds they qualify for the champs league and I would expect villa to take a point off them if this happens. If it goes to the last day it will be in the lap of the gods. One bad referee decision can send you down. And stoke would enjoy it make no mistake!

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redblooded added 15:49 - May 6 Sorry to read such a lot of doom and gloom. Our destiny's in our own hands, we are not dependant on what other teams do. Yes admittedly it is nice to see teams below us lose, but regardless, Saints are more than good enough to gain a point at Sunderland, and a win at home. Even in the worst case scenario and Saints lose there remaining two games, who believes that Norwich will get anything either? They have games homes to WBA, and then away to MC, hard to see how they will get anything from those two, except a point possiblly at home to WBA! And with a considerably worse GD that will not be good enough. Newcastle also have a hard run in, away to QPR, who are playing well and home to Arsenal who are fighting tooth and nail for CL spot. So the bottom line, it is good to. Worry and it will hopefully give our players the edge they need for the run in. But of the bottom seven clubs, I bet all the others would want to be in our position and playing our games. Our more worrying problems are the lack of regular goal scores, and those getting the chances not taking them. The game Saturday summed up a lot of PL games; ie, one of few chances. We had more than Spurs, but they had a player to score there one half chance. We need player/s to do the same for us. Chances come infrequently they need to be put away, but who do we have to do this?

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aceofthebase added 17:06 - May 6 The POX is taking us down. We are not scoring goals anymore. Looking forward to playing against Bournemouth and Reading
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BlackRod added 17:57 - May 6 I have a vision of our future, based on our performances so far: We score mid-way through the first half at Sunderland. Then one of our central defenders gives away a penalty/scores an own goal just before half time. The second half is hard fought and looks like it is going to a draw when Sunderland score five minutes from time. It's do or die against Stoke, but this is much tougher opposition than we faced on the last day of last season. The boys come out all guns blazing, peppering the Stoke goal with shots while MoPo urges them on. Then Stoke hit us on the break and score. Dismay! Then they do it again. Disaster! But hurrah, Newcastle have lost too and they go down instead. Huge cheers and sighs of relief. The customary pitch invasion. We were safe all along but we like something to worry about.

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Jesus_02 added 21:33 - May 6 Don't Panic!
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BoondockSaint added 22:07 - May 6 Sunderland, down to 10 men got draw from player who only scored once before for them! What are the chances?? Why did I check the score before the match was over and get my hopes up?
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bigmart added 22:30 - May 6 Just watched the Sunderland/Stoke game. Both teams were very poor, we shouldn't have too many problems getting the points we need. But then again, we do like to do things the hard way. Lets just hope the MoPo Flow is top notch on Sunday. On another note, if Newcastle get relegated, that will be a trio of ex-Saints managers to go down.No doubt, this will be headlines in the Echo soon.

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aceofthebase added 22:48 - May 6 If we go down it will also be a trio of saints managers going down
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