Saints fans should be pleased with the fifth position occupied, as we go into the Christmas programme nicely poised to push on in the New Year.

There is an air of disappointment around some Saints supporters at the moment, although we sit 5th in the table there is that suggestion that it should have been that much better.

That does have an element of truth about it if you look at where we were a month or so ago, however sometimes football fans have short memories and we would be better served thinking back to the start of August and where we thought we were going to be in the coming season.

Of course the disappointment at Sheffield is a blip on the horizon, but we have to put that aside and look to be stronger in the second half of the season.

Can we be stronger in the second half ?

I would say yes, firstly we will have a squad that will now be used to playing together and getting to grips with playing in the Premier, it should be remembered that the core of our starting XI had little or no experience in the Premier.

Secondly we have a group of youngsters coming through who are showing that they not only have a part to play but can be relied upon to do it to the levels needed.

Thirdly we have players coming back from injury, Jay Rodriguez will be a bonus as will be the likes of Jack Cork.

Fourthly is perhaps the most important and that is our ability to bring in players in the transfer window and this could be crucial.

Ok we wont be able to compete with the likes of City, Chelsea and Man Utd if they chose to flex their muscles, but we will be able to match most other clubs and that has to be good.

So I would suggest that we Saints fans should be happy with the progress we have made this year, sitting in 5th is no mean feat given the number of sides who are challenging for a top six place this term, our job now is to make the second half as good if not better than the first half and i think we have everything in place to do that.

Photo: Action Images

davidhosey added 10:37 - Dec 22 It occurred to me that our poor run of five games may be to our favour in that it may have cooled off some "bigger" clubs desire to steal our best players away in January. Can you imagine winning those five games and being joint top now? The press would be on fire with speculation about six or seven players leaving for the same old clubs !! Instead we may still lose Morgan but after watching Harrison Reed on saturday I feel a lot more confident again. COYR

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