Saints head into a crucial period.

There will be those that say that no game is a must win game, that there is always an escape clause right up to when it become mathematically impossible to achieve your aim whether it be winning the title, promotion or avoiding relegation, pedantically they are right, but a look back over most seasons usually shows that at certain times the season changes due to certain games and certain results.

Saints are coming into one of those periods, they arrive at it after a disastrous set of results and if anyone doesnt call 5 points out of six games for a side seeking promotion dissastrous then Im amazed at their standards.

Yes of course we are still top, but we are hanging on in there by the smallest of threads after this poor run, suddenly from a fairly comfortable position less than two months ago we have thrown away a great chance to surge clear at the top and to pu automatic promotion within 6-8 wins of being achievable.

We thus go to Nottngham Forest knowing that anything less than a defeat will probably see us lose top spot, but could also see us drop to fourth and with games coming up after that against fast improving and big spending Leicester, it could get worse.

So a bad run could see us on a downward slide and as many sides will tell us, when you are on that slide its hard to stop it, to be blunt so far its an eight game slide in total, if we have another three straight poor results then its virtually a quarter of a season and we will have to face facts that we arent as good as we thought.

The alternative is that we stop that slump now and win the next three games in a row, if we manage that then not only will we almost certainly be top but the momentum will be back with us and we will have gained ground on Cardiff at least.

The revival has to start somewhere and that has to be at Forest, we cannot afford to keep dropping points on the road, one win on the road in five months is bad enough at the moment, fail to win at the City Ground and it will become one win in almost six by the time we travel to Birmingham, it cant be put in any other way except the strongest terms, this is not acceptable to any side and the question has to be asked as to how we are so strong at home one week and so poor away the next and make no misteke our away record is more than just poor after 3 defeats in four games its worse than Forest's who as we know are in the bottom three, we have conceded more than Pompey away from home and indeed only six teams have got less points away from home than us.

So make no mistake Nottingham Forest is a must win game in the fact that we must prove to ourselves we can win on the road not to mention the welcome three points, in fact that goes for everyone of the next three, their is no room for error, by the end of January we will either still be up there or we will be looking back at almost three points of poor results and having to accept that something is badly wrong. 

I have stated recently that Nigel Adkins is the man for the Saints job, this is one of those periods when he has to earn his corn.     

Photo: Action Images

Toussaint added 15:48 - Jan 9 Now is the time to shut up shop away from home 10 behind the ball and short passes all day long then at home attack like crazy our normal way ... Celtic have rejected a bid from Southampton for striker Gary Hooper. (Sunday Mail) Anybody heard any more about this i know he has previously played for our manager and scored alot of goals,he seems much better than Billy Sharp

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stmichael added 19:00 - Jan 9 I stated on here before the season started that our away form will not be good enough to achieve our ambitions and I was right. As always nick!! I cannot see us winning at forest. They gave themselves a life line by winning away from last time out and sat is huge for them. Add to that Ricky is out and Adkins is baffling the he'll out of players and supporters with selection and tactics I will be surprised if we bring home a point. I think we have lost a huge opportunity in the last half dozen games. We should have a huge cushion but now I think it's a battle to make the play offs.

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Jackflash1975 added 19:45 - Jan 9 What has happened to teams in the past that have made promotion on subseqent season? Genuine question as to they have done and can we learn from them?
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saintBob added 19:55 - Jan 9 No team in recent years that has gained promotion from the championship has suffered such a bad run like we have and I'm not sure if we can turn it around. Reports say that we had 13 players unavailable for the Coventry cup game, why on earth was that?
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sidsaint added 21:48 - Jan 9 Negative things often come together at the same time, a bad run, injuries , a red card for the main striker, its at times like these that a club's strength in depth is tested. It has been and we have been found wanting. The academy boys and a Japanese import will not do it for us. We have to get the quality players we failed to get in at the beginning of the season before we slide down the table. We have to show the commitment the likes of Leicester are showing or the fabulous first half of the season will have been wasted.

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bstokesaint added 13:14 - Jan 10 B1oody hell!! I've been out of the country for a week and every single Saints fan on the forum seems to have been gulping handfuls of negativity pills! We're still top of the league and the window is now open. Surely the fact that we've got this far and seen off the competition until this point means we can now strengthen and move on from here? Instead it seems to be a competition to see which fan gets credit for the closest guess to a team capitulation. I'm guessing that the Brighton game must have been the main catalyst for all this negative feeling, but from what I've heard from other Saints fans this was largely down to very poor refereeing decisions, which on another day would have left us with the same result as we got at St. Mary's. I accept our recent 'form' has been poor, but by virtue of the fact that no-one else has gone above us, then surely our title contenders are also faltering. I think now is the time to strengthen where we can, draw a line under the past few poor results and push on. As I've said many times before we play the best football in this league and have nothing to fear. Maybe we just need to believe that again.

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saintBob added 21:33 - Jan 10 bstokesaint : It may have escaped your notice that the other contenders have caught up! We only lead the Champ by 2 goals. Pray for a win against Forest!
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bstokesaint added 12:20 - Jan 11 Bob I suppose that would boil down to whom you consider the contenders to be. Personally I still think West Ham and Middlesbrough possess the biggest threat and they haven't exactly seized the opportunity to pass us. I have noted Cardiff's rise to form, but they don't exactly have a history for going the distance. I can see on paper it looks a fairly open Championship now, but my main point really is that given our recent run no-one went above us, and now it's all about getting over this blip and taking advantage of that fact. Forest will be another real test, and I will be praying we can get an improved show on the road.

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