 Sunday, 1st Jan 2012 17:29 Saints either have to start winning away from home in 2012 or face seeing promotion slip away. In the first half of the season as I bemoaned the less than average away record in previews, I was constantly told that I was being negative, that our home form was brilliant and anyway what had i to whinge about, we were top of the leage, well we are still top, but only just and if we dont start beating a few sides on their own patches then we wont be for long. So far our away form of 13 points from the 11 games is to be frank not good enough, and when you consider that six of those points were gained in the opening two away fixtures then 7 points from the last 9 games is actually pretty appalling, make no mistake about it, in our next two games wwe either have to win both games or i fear we wont only not be top anymore, but worse. For their part Brighton are slipping badly, like us they started well and this is keeping them in mid table and up to a week or two ago on the verge of the play offs, but that opening burst at the start of the season is giving a flase impression of their form in the last three months, add to that the fact that they have a crisis on at the moment with injuries and suspensions the blunt truth is if we cant go there and beat them now, I struggle to think of where we will get another away victory. The Seagulls have lost the last four on the bounce, the honeymoon at their new stadium is over, But the problem for Saints is that we seem to have lost our way, we cant seem to kill games off at the moment and something has to change, in many respects it is a similar situation to that of last year, at the start of January we had won only three away games, we then got our act together and won nine in the New year and stormed to promotion, we did it the hard way and it looks like thats going to be the case again. Like last season we have to install a killer instict into the side and a more direct style at times, yes we can pass the ball for long periods, but we dont create that possession into goals especially away from home, The balance of the side still isnt right, Steve De Ridder is too incosistent to start games, yes his pace can cause problems, but too many times he seems to have no control on where the ball is going to go, sometimes it can go just where its needed as in the first goal against Palace, but then at other times it goes far from where it should go, this in turn causes confusion in the forwards, instead of making runs to where they KNOW the ball is going to go, they start to wait to see where it ACTUALY goes and there lies the problem, the advantage and that extra yard are lost. Its no coincidence that Fox, Richardson, Lallana & Guly have the most assists along with Lambert, whereas SRL gets his from knock downs, these four can cross a ball accurately more often than not and our forwards know just where they are going to put it. This being the case Nigel Adkins has to freshen things up now to win this game, I would restore Connolly to the front line thus allowing Guly to go back to the midfield role, if Connolly is not ready to be risked at the start of a game, then we need to consider playing Danny Butterfield at right back and pushing Richardson into the right midfield. Nigel Adkins isnt short of options here, indeed he still has Lee Holmes, having tried several of his options he now needs to try something different. The fact is Saints are a good team, but over the past six weeks we have not been firing on all cylinders, we have lacked leadership both on and off the field in the past six games, we have got too complacent in both team selections and on the pitch, this has to stop now and the same winning attiude that we had at the end of last season and the start of this restored to the squad. Of course the real problem is that we are on a steep learning curve, our manager and most of the squad havent been in this position before and are having to learn some harsh lessons and of course this means making mistakes, the crime though isnt to make those mistakes but to not learn from them and make them time and time again and there lies our problems in the past month or so. But when it comes down to it, its all about winning games and we wont have a much better chance on the road than we will get at the Amex on Monday, a side ravaged by injury and suspension down to the bare bones and on a losing streak, when fate hands us a good chance we have to grasp it with both hands. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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