Yet another big game for Saints as they travel to Welsh Wales and Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium.
Swansea isnt the happiest of hunting grounds for Saints, since our promotion to the top flight in 65/66 we have only played them in three seasons (plus this one)and each trip to either the Vetch Field or the Liberty Stadium we have been beaten.
Indeed you have to go back to 1961/62 to find the last time we registered a win at Swansea, so its about time we changed all that.
This is a crucial game for Saints, I know i say that most weeks, but such is the congestion in the bottom half of the table, it still continues to be the case and this could be a weekend where we either pull away from the drop zone or at worst case scenario find its tentacles dragging our feet again.
We are capable of winning at the Liberty Stadium though, however we need to keep things tight and hopefully with in form Jay Rodriguez recovered get back to our usual game that was missing something against West Ham.
However we should hopefully take notes from our away win at Reading, at the Madejski we gifted the home side three gilt edged chances plus a reasonable penalty claim in the early stages, with better finishing from them we could have found ourselves three nil down to the bottom club before we even got out of the blocks, all from sloppy defensive play and that should tell us that in recent weeks our back four might not have let much in, but the cracks that were there earlier in the season are still there, they have just been papered over a little.
That being the case we need to keep it tight at the back, keep concentration and then do what we do best and thats score goals, Swansea do concede at home, only four teams in fact have let in more than them in the Premier division, but they do score them as well, outside of the top seven clubs, no one has scored more at home than the Swans, so tomorrows game could be full of goals given that only three clubs have conceded more than us on their travels but conversely only four teams have notched more.
There are a few questions to be asked about Saints line up, I would expect Jay Rodriguez to return, but who does he replace, will MoPo opt to drop Steve Davis to the bench to accomodate Ramirez, or will it be Ramirez himself go out or perhaps even Adam Lallana, beyond this little puzzle perhaps the only other decision needing to be made selection wise will be if Luke Shaw is fit again.
So our task is quite clear, if we are to avoid getting dragged into the relegation dogfight again and dispel all lingering doubts, we need to take a minimum of two points from our next two games and ideally three, the sooner we do it the better so a win at Swansea would be just what the doctor ordered, the sooner we dispel those worries the better and then we can start planning for next season properly, the only downside of having a tight first team where the starting XI almost picks itself week in week out means that our fringe players dont get too much of a look in on a regualr basis, once we are safe we can then give them a bit of a run out and see who is up to it and who isnt, truth is our squad has too much deadwood at present and assuming we are in the premier league next year then we need to cut some of that adrift and replace them with players who can truly add to the quality and options available.
I can see us nicking a win here, although years of following Saints have instilled that cautious note in me and I just have that nagging feeling that our shortcomings at the back will get found out and we will suffer our first defeat in six games.