Saints defeat at West Bromwich Albion was marred by appalling abuse handed out to certain individuals in the Saints team.
Whether some supporters think that screaming "Pelle you are a F***** p****" at the top of their voices is going to achieve anything I am not certain, however i do know that it is not "supporting" the team.
On Saturday at West Brom Graziano Pelle and Dusan Tadic were the subject of some vile abuse from their own supporters, their crime being being unable to score against another football team.
Now I can understand the frustrations of some supporters but whatever the reason for Pelle's inability to score at present and Tadic's struggling to find the form he did in the first half of the season Im pretty sure that they were not doing it deliberately.
In fairness to them neither hid, both looked desperate to get a goal and get their confidence back, players like Pelle and Tadic rely on that and at the moment its not there, but in football sometimes it comes back unexpectedly, a lucky goal and suddenly its there.
But some of our own supporters baffled me on Saturday, I understand their right to not rate a player or feel that he is playing badly, but there is a time and a place to express that disatisfaction and it is not in the middle of a game that we are trying to win.
The ironic thing is that we are not battling relegation we are playing for European football, this hasnt been a season of discontent, this has been shaping up to be our best season since the mid 80's and both Pelle and Tadic have played a big part in that happening, whatever they are doing now without their efforts in the first half of the season we would not be where we are now, it was only six weeks ago when both players combined to set up and score the winner at Manchester United, some people have short memories.
A week or so ago much of the talk before the Liverpool game was about not letting the abuse that was going to be thrown at Lambert, Lallana & Lovren get out of hand and affect our chances of winning that game, well some need to consider that abusing players still at the club also affects things, it is harder for a team to play when the crowd is on its back, if its behind you then it can carry you along and keep you going, Pelle and Tadic need support now not abuse, do we want them to do well or would some people prefer them to continue to misfire in front of goal and see us drop down the table.
Personally I want the former, I dont care who is playing for Saints I want them to do well, I like anyone have those that I feel are not good enough, but I always respect that they are trying their best and although I may express an opinion on them on here on the message board or in the pub, when they are playing for the club I want nothing more than for them to do well.
I have seen some tough times at this club over the past couple of decades, but even when we were going down to League One we never abused the players to this level, indeed I found it ironic against Liverpool that Adam Lallana a player who stayed loyal to Saints when we did go down to the third tier when it would have been easier for him to walk away had thousands of people screaming Judas/Traitor at him, given that our average gate then was some 10,000 lower than now he perhaps may have wondered where they all where in Saints time of need.
On Tuesday we play Crystal Palace, we need a win, but we also need everyone behind the team to achieve that win, over the years it sometimes needs something lucky to happen, it might be a deflected own goal in the last minute for a 1-0 win, it might be a stunning strike in the first minute that leads to a comfortable win, but something needs to change, there will be a far better chance of it happening in the last minute or indeed the 30th, 47th, 60th or any time you care to mention if the crowd are supporting the team rather than screaming abuse at certain players.