For many the game against Crystal Palace is last chance saloon, fail to win it and getting out of the relegation zone will be almost impossible, but it seems that although the game against Manchester City was sold out, some are not bothering for a game that really matters.

A quick look at the official club website shows that there are still around 1,000 tickets left for the game against the Eagles on Saturday.

That is a little disappointing when you consider just how important that this game is to the club, a win would be a big boost for the fight against relegation and defeat would see us cast adrift with only 7 games left to play.

Whilst I can appreciate that many supporters are disillusioned after what has turned out to be a disappointing season and indeed one that should really not have happened given the money that we have spent, but you would hope that in the hour of need the fans would rally round, put their gripes to one side and fill the ground to try and spur it on in it's time of need.

In the past that has usually been the case, of course at the Dell it was easy to fill the stadium, but back in 2005 at St Mary's when we played Aston Villa on 16th April , 31,926 turned out to watch the team take a 2-0 half time lead and blow it in the second half in 17 minutes of madness caused by some dubious substitutions by Harry Redknapp, ironically it was future Saints legend Steve Davis who scored the winner.

A couple of weeks later and it was truly S*** or bust when Norwich arrived and twice took the lead before going down to a last minute winner from Henri Camara in a 4-3 thriller, this time there were 31.944 there to see us keep our hopes high.

Back then there was growing tension between the fans and the club, there was plenty of moaning and groaning on social media and message boards, but when it came down to it both games were sold out, it was a case of putting personal feelings to one side and getting behind the team

It would be good if the game against Palace was to be another of those special games, one where St Mary's is jumping, it's vibrant and a sea of red & white and that come the final whistle we are a step nesrer safety.

Photo: Action Images

Bowlercow added 12:04 - Apr 13 Do or die Sink or swim Sh## or bust Live or die Hit or miss There used them all in one post I will be glad when it's done one way or the other
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saintmark1976 added 13:51 - Apr 13 Maybe it’s a game which isn’t attractive to the hoards of tourist fans who flock to St Mary’s when the likes of Man City are the visitors. Their reason for attendance is a complete mystery to me given that they spend most of the match playing with mobile phones and taking photos of themselves. Next season if we are in The Championship their non appearance will be a further benefit together with more games, no V A R, match day dates not constantly being changed for T V and cheaper season ticket prices.

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Colburn added 18:06 - Apr 13 In 2005, we had more hope and the points tally was better than other seasons when we have stayed up. We were unlucky that year. This time, our points tally is woeful at this point and most fans I speak with don't see the starting line ups of late as our strongest line up, with our most potent players on the bench. I don't have faith that Selles will pick the right side and judging by last week, hasn't managed to get the players to get certain basics right, like getting out quickly to stop crosses coming into the box instead of jogging. We are bad enough defensing set piece deliveries so it's vital we stop the crosses. I'm tired of hearing 'we need to do this' and the 'process'.. Perhaps these are the reasons why there are tickets left...

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Block8 added 19:26 - Apr 13 Tend to agree with Colburn here and perhaps add the woeful standard of play has an impact? Setting up not to lose and maybe score late on, is shot to pieces when we inevitably go behind from a free kick or corner. Lets be honest we don't really look like scoring and we have a 6' 7" striker that doesn't play and, in the time he has actually been on the pitch, has had four decent crosses, one of which he hit the bar with. I will be there as usual but I think many of our fans have become totally disillusioned with our dreadfully poor, slow and boring style of play.

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1951saint added 20:21 - Apr 13 I can't remember where i heard this but was told there some sort of watered down version of var being used in the championship next season
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SanMarco added 22:50 - Apr 13 We only got 32 points (6 wins) in 2005 Colburn and had just 28 with 3 games to go. I fully agree with all your other suggestions though!!
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