Saturday is a big big day for Saints, with just 8 games remaining they need to win and win well against Crystal Palace to not only get three points, but to post a notice of intent that their fight against relegation is still not over.
There can be no doubt about how important the fixture against Crystal Palace is, a week or so ago the relegation was between 9 clubs, but Palace along with Wolves, West Ham & Bournemouth have won a couple of games and turned it into a 5 club battle and that could get smaller after this weekend's fixtures.
Saints task over the next few weeks is simple, they have to beat Palace, Bournemouth & Fulham at home and probably Forest away as well as picking up a point or two elsewhere, of course this is not an exact science, but it is the minimum that we need if we are to keep our fate in our own hands and more to the point still keeping getting out of trouble a realistic proposition.
So Saints have to go out and beat Palace and preferably win well, if they do that then the Great Escape is still on, we will hopefully get nearer the 4 clubs above us and start to find our confidence.
If we fail to beat the Eagles, then mathematically we won't be relegated and there is still a chance of getting out and as I have often said, we should never give up the fight until it's over, but it will be hard to be optimistic.
Older fans will tell you about the Great Escape season of 1998/99 and it was on the same weekend back then that the tide turned for Saints, Blackburn arrived at the Dell on April 17th themselves in relegation trouble, but knowing that with 5 games left beating Saints would put them on the cusp of safety and leave Saints in big trouble.
Rovers rushed into a 2-1 lead in 25 minutes and when just after half time they made it 3-1 and Saints looked dead and buried and destined to be relegated, the Rovers players sensed this and having silenced the crowd preened around and even took the p*** out of the fans when taking throw ins etc.
This suddenly changed the mood, the crowd would not let the players give in, they started to raise the roof and Blackburn were suddenly uncomfortable, on the hour mark Mark Hughes scored and Rovers were on the ropes, with 9 minutes left new signing Marian Pahars scored and Blackburn were hanging on.
They just about managed to hold Saints frenzied end to the game, but the season had changed for Saints, we suddenly believed and the rest as they say is history.
Can Southampton supporters replicate that afternoon 24 years ago against Crystal Palace and more to the point can our team show the spirit that our side did that day, certainly Saints Director of Football designate Jason Wilcox will remember that day well, he was not only in the Blackburn Rovers side that afternoon, but he was the man who scored their third and almost put the final nail in the coffin.
On Saturday we need a united effort, make St Mary's a cauldron, get behind the team and stay behind it.
There will be the cynics who will say St Mary's isn't the Dell, but truth is we have had better League seasons and reached cup finals etc in the first two decades of St Mary's than we achieved in a similar period before we left the old ground.
A football ground is what you make it, it is about the fans, not the concrete and steel.
This cpuld well be Saints last hurrah this season, the Crystal Palace game could make or break us, we need to be focused on what the task ahead is, the Manchester City game was never going to be the defining game of the season, but this one against Palace could well be !