When the game kicks off at 8pm Saints will know whether they still have a feint chance of pulling out of the bottom 3 or that defeat could virtually condemn them to relegation, with only goal difference delaying the inevitable.

With Leicester at Fulham & Brighton at home to Everton ahead of the kick off at the City ground, those Saints fans who still hold out hope of a miracle winning streak to the end of the season, will know whether those hopes are still there or almost at an end with still 4 games of the season left.

Forest go into this game knowing that if they win, then they will be on 33 points and that is a total that Saints can only match and not overtake.

The problem is that we go into this game in a complete mess, we are like rabbits stuck in the headlights, we have no leadership or organisation and Ruben Selles doesn't know what his best line up is from start to finish.

However we showed at Arsenal and in the first half at Newcastle that we can play and give the top sides a game, but then we throw it all away with appalling defending and strange substitutions.

So what can I say about this game, if results go our way preceding the game then a win would be a boost and we would have a chance, but recent weeks tell us that we are likely to give a way a goal cheaply and that will play into Forest's hands.

However their form is worse than ours, in their last 13 games they have won just once and drawn 3, our two wins and 3 draws just about trump that.

So from this perspective we should go there without fear, but that won't matter one iota if we go without leadership and organisation as we have done in most games lately.

To be blunt I can't be bothered sticking a pin in a piece of paper with our squad list on it and I have just as much chance of getting it right in predicting the starting line up that Ruben Selles will select, as I would have if I spent 2 hours pouring over the stats of our squad.

All we can ask is that our players have some pride and put in a display, as they did at Arsenal, where they looked the part, in spite of their manager rather than because of him.

One part of me hopes that we might mount a late surge towards safety and if results go our way today then a win today would offer genuine hope, but another part of me just wants this relegation confirmed and the season over and then we can start the rebuild.

This situation doesn't have to be terminal, it can actually be beneficial. we can reboot and trim the squad and we have the foundations to come back stronger than before.

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 10:26 - May 8 I fully agree with this - we still 'hope' for a late surge to safety but we 'know' it won't happen. Relegation certainly doesn't have to be 'terminal' but the low levels of trust in SR's capabilities will be making a lot of us apprehensive. As for this evening - I suppose it will be a scrappy game with not much in it. On the law of averages, if nothing else, aren't we due to win a game like that? Probably not but the heart will keep flickeringly beating the head until the final nails are driven in.

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Centurion added 11:34 - May 8 Agree with you Nick. Having said that, it is shit or bust. We may as well go out all guns blazing but there is little evidence that this will happen.
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Mattsgrandad added 11:35 - May 8 Let's just get this awful season and situation over with , then clear the deadwood including manager and coaches and get someone with a football brain to start again. We can then look onwards and maybe upwards.
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davidargyll added 12:35 - May 8 What’s that saying about despair and hope…? We probably need to win all last four games to have any hope. And when was the last time we won that many in a row?
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