The focus has shifted in the last few days from automatic promotion, to making sure that we don't drop out of the play off spots, a win at Blackburn Rovers could put us within one win of guaranteeing a top six finish.

A week ago Saints supporters would not have been too bothered about the result at Blackburn, but what a difference the Easter weekend has made, the 5 points droped whilst not completely ending our automatic promotion hopes, has made it very very difficult to see how we could actually make it into the top 2 come the end of the season.

Last Saturday Blackburn lost 1-0 to Ipswich, a result that made it 9 games without a victory in the Championship, yet on Monday they destroyed Sunderland 5-0 up at The Stadium of Light, meaning that all of a sudden they have momentum and we have lost ours.

No we have to pick ourselves up and make sure that a drama doesn't become a crisis.

But before the doom & gloom merchants come out, we should take stock, 8 months ago many were predicting a mid table finish for Saints, some even suggested that it was going to be a relegation battle, yet now we see 4th place in the division as failure.

Yes from an automatic promotion perspective it is likely to be so, but we are still in a strong position, beat Blackburn and beat Coventry and we could find ourselves confirmed for a top 6 finish with still 6 games to play.

So that is now the first task get ourselves back to winning ways, what will be will be, but if we can do that then we can go into the play offs full of confidence.

There is no reason why that should not happen, that is of course if Russell Martin takes a long hard look at what pushed us up to such a strong position just a few games ago and what has suddenly pulled the rug under our feet.

Of course we are all football experts, but I have yet to speak to many people who don't feel what has cost us dearly has been the manager's determination to tinker with what was a rock solid defence for 22 League games.

That culminated with a fine attacking performance at Ipswich being undermined by a woeful display at the back, how could Kyle Walker Peters be left out for such an important game, how could we expect to be organised when only 1 player in the back four remained in the same position that he had played on Good Friday, what possessed the manager to make so many positional changes.

But that is now done, we have to get back to business and that means getting back to basics.

Stick with Gavin Bazunu, he was solid during our 22 game unbeaten run, he more than anyone has suffered from losing perhaps the best centre back partnership in the division to tinkering and a back four changed for changes sake week in week out.

Re instate the back four that got us through that period, Kyle Walker Peters, Harwood Taylor- Bellis, Jan Bednarek & dare I say it Ryan Manning.

Stick with the defensive trio that anchored the centre, Flynn Downes, Stuart Armstrong & Will Smallbone and play our best attacking line up.

Che Adams has been the whipping boy of late, but with 11 Championship goals there are still only 15 players who have got more.

Russell Martin has to recognise what got us to the top echelons of the league and stick to that formula.

Blackburn may have hit Sunderland for 5, but they are not a great team, if they had lost up in the North East then this would have been a must win game for them on Saturday, they would have been just 2 points off the bottom 3.

This has given them a bit of a jolt and they pulled a result out of the bag, now we have to make sure that we don't let them make a habit of it.

They are the second worst defence in the division, only Rotherham have let in more, we have to make sure the second best scorer in the division, catches up the 3 goal gap on the top striker, Blackburn's Sammie Szmodics.

We have to let them have the backlash of the last two games, indeed if I am honest the last couple of months.

Their home performances have not been great, won 6, drawn 5 & lost 9, the goals for of 26 is average, but 31 conceded is the worst on home turf aside from Plymouth.

This is a game that we can win, should win, but it is all in the hands of Russell Martin, can he see where it has all gone wrong and put it right, we will know at 5pm on Saturday.

Photo: Action Images

IanSouthstander added 11:45 - Apr 5 Stuey is out. He got concussed on monday and will miss the trip to Blackburn.
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DellBoyWally added 14:47 - Apr 5 "This is a game that we can win, should win" ??? We have been saying that for ages. And guess what? We don't! We must drop Bazumu. His shot-stopping is just not good enough. Nothing to do with poor defending. His ability to get to attempts is one of the poorest in all four divisions. Time to give Joe Lumley a turn. We had a great unbeaten run. But even then we didn't catch the 3 teams ahead of us. Because we drew too many games "we should win"!! I worry for the play-offs with RM in charge. The teams we are likely to face have already beaten us and with RMs tactics and subs we face a real possibility of failing. Joe Egg suggested Steve Cooper. I'm not a fan but feel he is likelier to pull us through the play-offs than RM but wouldn't want him as our PL manager. I can see us dropping more points tomorrow.

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TimSaint added 14:05 - Apr 6 Your opinion reminds me of Spurs fans after they finished 3rd in a 2 horse race. The title was within their grasp, they missed out on 2nd place to Arsenal but still claimed it was a great season to finish 3rd and get Champions League, as they didn't expect it at the start of the season. We had an automatic place in our own hands not that long ago, but our form over the last 7 games or so has cost us. Sure many expected the play offs (some worse) and that is what will we probably end up with, but it could have been so much more.

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