Saints go into tomorrow’s vital six-pointer against Nottingham Forest in the knowledge that they’ll be backed by the biggest attendance of the season.

More than 25,000 tickets have now been sold, which already beats the season’s highest of just under 19,000, and the majority of them will be hoping Saints can start to put an end to a wretched run of results in front of the St Mary’s crowd. Forest, meanwhile, are unbeaten in their last 5 away games, although 4 of them have been draws, and they’ve failed to score in their last two games.

Saints’ main problem at home this season has been converting long periods of possessional and territorial dominance into goals. Forest’s defence isn’t particularly solid, only 5 teams (Saints being one of them) have conceded more goals in their 23 league games, and much like us, they have particular problems at the other end of the field as they’ve only found the net 19 times. Only Doncaster have scored fewer goals.

As I mentioned in my article yesterday, there are numerous rumours doing the rounds suggesting Forest boss Colin Calderwood needs some sort of positive result from tomorrow’s game in order to keep hold of his job, which could put additional pressure on the visiting players.

Nathan Tyson and Joel Garner (who signed from Carlisle United in the summer) will probably lead the line for the visitors. Former Saints keeper Paul Smith started the season in goal, but has since lost his place to Lee Camp, who is on loan from QPR. It’s noticeable that they’ve only conceded 12 goals in the 12 games since Camp joined the club - they conceded 20 in the previous 11.

Midfielders Lewis McGugan (thigh strain) and James Perch (suspended) are unavailable, while Joel Lynch is in contention for a place at left-back with current incumbent Julian Bennett after recovering from a dead leg.

Morgan Schneiderlin misses out for Saints which will probably mean a switch into midfield for Jack Cork with Alex Pearce regaining his place alongside Chris Perry at the back. Winger Lee Holmes is set for a surprise recall after his recovery from a knee injury. It was thought he wouldn’t be ready for a first-team return until after Christmas, but he has responded well since returning to training and will hopefully provide the width and final ball that we’ve been lacking for a while.

Those either collecting or buying tickets before the game are advised to allow plenty of time before kick-off as the ticket office is expected to be very busy.

Amid all the fuss about the FA Cup third round draw, it would be easy to forget that Saints have a league game tomorrow, where they welcome Sheffield Wednesday to St Mary’s.

Wednesday have been very hit-and-miss so far this season, in fact they have a symmetrical record in that they have won 8 and lost 8 in the Championship, and indeed their home and away form are direct opposites (6-2-2 at home, 2-2-6 away). While their away form overall is poor, they did win their last game on their travels - a 2-0 win at Blackpool - but like us, they seem to struggle to score goals.

Their leading scorer is Marcus Tudgay with six league goals, four of which have been scored at Hillsborough. At the other end, they have conceded 25 goals in 10 away games so far, which is the worst away defensive record in the Championship by some distance. Meanwhile, Saints have kept two clean sheets in a row and are unbeaten in three league games.

Jermaine Johnson is sidelined for the Owls with a knee injury but they could be boosted by the return of Tommy Spurr, Frankie Simek and Wade Small from their respective injuries.

Saints will again be without Michael Svensson, but Olly Lancashire could feature after he came through a reserve outing in midweek. Jason Euell is now available again after serving his three-match ban. Jan Poortvliet isn’t expected to make many changes from the team that started the goalless draw at Charlton, although Jordan Robertson may make way for Alex Pearce or Lancashire to allow Jack Cork to play in midfield.

Saints face a tough trip to the Madejski to play free-scoring Reading tomorrow afternoon. The Royals have only dropped two points at home so far this season (a goalless draw against QPR recently) and are averaging 3 goals per game. Not a statistic you really want to be seeing, but one that we’re going to have to overcome if we’re to get anything out of the game.

Saints have only played one competitive game at the Madejski Stadium since it opened in 1998, which was a 2-0 defeat that came as part of Reading’s incredible 33-match unbeaten run to earn them promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history in 2006. We’ve also played a number of pre-season friendlies there, and Saints maintain an unbeaten record in those, but it’s competitive games that count, and we’ve lost on the last three trips to Berkshire - that match in 2006 and two cup upsets in the mid-90s. Overall, our record at Reading isn’t too shabby at all. From 19 league and cup games, we’ve won 6, drawn 5 and lost 8, although with the exception of the 2006 meeting, the two teams haven’t met in the league since 1960.

Reading boast the Championship’s leading scorer in Kevin Doyle. The Irishman has scored 14 goals, 11 of which have come on home soil. The Royals recently paid his former club Cork City an undisclosed sum in settlement of a sell-on clause in his contract in order to save themselves a bit of money in the long-term on the assumption that he will command a hefty transfer fee should they choose or be forced to sell him. Fellow Irishmen Stephen and Noel Hunt have been their other key contributors, weighing in with 5 and 6 goals respectively.

Reading manager Steve Coppell is expected to name an unchanged line-up from the 2-0 win at Sheffield United last week. Centre-back Andre Bikey is expected to have recovered from a knock which prevented him from playing for Cameroon this week.

Alex Pearce, who has already scored two goals for the Saints from centre-back, is ineligible to play against his parent club. Chris Perry will probably replace him. Olly Lancashire is also a doubt after being forced off against Wolves last week, with Paul Wotton his likely replacement if he’s ruled out. Michael Svensson is probably out of contention after being struck down with illness, as has Oscar Gobern.

Jason Euell is also definitely out as he begins a three-match ban after his appeal against the red card given to him last week was rejected. Jordan Robertson and Romain Gasmi are in contention to feature, and Bradley Wright-Phillips will probably get a chance after impressing as a substitute last week.

Saints will be backed by more than 3000 fans after Reading agreed to give us an extra allocation of tickets. The last chance for Saints fans to buy tickets at the normal rate of £23 for adults is at 3pm this afternoon. Any unsold tickets will be available from the Reading ticket office, but with a £4 increase on that price.

An Alex Pearce goal wasn’t enough for 10-man Saints to get any points from yesterday’s game as Chris Iwelumo and David Jones gave 13-man Wolves the points in a controversial but thoroughly entertaining game at St Mary’s.

Saints made two changes from the side beaten by Bristol City last week, with Jason Euell and Morgan Schneiderlin replacing Jake Thomson and Paul Wotton in midfield. Wolves started with Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Chris Iwelumo up front, leaving fellow strikers Andy Keogh and self-confessed Saints fan Sam Vokes on the bench.

Saints started brightly with Oscar Gobern and Rudi Skacel linking up well on the left and Adam Lallana and Jack Cork doing likewise on the right. The visitors, six points clear at the top of the table before the game, barely had a touch of the ball in the opening exchanges apart from clearances. However, with their first foray into the Saints penalty area, they opened the scoring. Michael Kightly’s far-post cross was cleared to relative safety, but Carlos Edwards worked himself a bit of space and put in a deep curling cross. The defence had stepped up to play for offside, and Iwelumo found himself unmarked 8 yards out to head into the far corner. This is the first of many decisions made (or not) by the officials that could certainly be argued to be “contentious” at best. My spies in the Kingsland stand told me after the game that Iwelumo was “miles” offside, so I’ll be waiting for the highlights later with baited breath…

As I mentioned in my match preview on Friday, Wolves have opened the scoring on 9 occasions this season, and on every occasion they went on to win the game. With the visitors having opened the scoring for a tenth time this season, Saints were obviously going to be facing a battle. However, battle was exactly what they did. David McGoldrick and Jason Euell exchanged a neat one-two which gave McGoldrick a clear sight of goal but Carl Ikeme pulled off a decent save although arguably McGoldrick probably should have done better.

Wolves had a fantastic chance to double their advantage when a flowing move (on reflection, probably their only such move in the entire game) which started with Michael Mancienne at the back and involved Stephen Ward, Ebanks-Blake and Edwards, with the ball finally falling to Kightly who had time and space to pick his spot, but that spot was inexplicably wide of Kelvin Davis’ right-hand post.

The visitors weren’t to be denied a second goal for long, though. Iwelumo flicked a header wide to Edwards whose clever pass found David Jones and after taking a good first touch, he hit a left-foot shot past Davis into the far corner.

Frustration was creeping into the home supporters at this point, with a lot of dissatisfaction and outright abuse being hurled in the direction of the directors’ box. The players, however, appeared to be focussed on their task. Lallana forced a corner and took it himself and found Alex Pearce completely unmarked on the six-yard line to power a header past Ikeme to bring Saints back into the game. Wolves manager Mick McCarthy would have been absolutely livid with the slack marking, particularly given that Pearce had scored an identical headed goal from a corner only two weeks ago at Preston. Chris Perry also scored a similar goal against Birmingham at the start of the season - it makes a pleasant change for us to be scoring rather than conceding such simple goals.

Jones had Wolves’ only other real chance of the first half, hitting a dipping volley from 25 yards which Davis did well to acrobatically tip over the bar. McGoldrick then created a bit of space for himself just outside the area and spotted Ikeme off his line but got the lob attempt completely wrong and the ball flew comfortably over the bar.

The real turning point of the game came two minutes before half-time. Jason Euell and Richard Stearman both slid in for what appeared to be a fair 50/50 challenge, with Stearman coming off worse from the tackle. Referee Lee Mason blew for a free-kick to Wolves but then to the amazement (and considerable anger from the majority of those inside St Mary’s) produced a red card for Euell. From my seat in the Itchen stand it appeared to be an absolutely outrageous decision and if the TV highlights allow people to draw the same conclusion as I did at the time, I’d expect an appeal against the decision.

The half-time whistle blew soon after, to choruses of boos from the Saints fans, not particularly at the scoreline or performance of the players, but because the referee (and, arguably, his assistant on the Kingsland side for Wolves’ first goal) had produced what appeared to have been a wholly unjust red card which seriously diminished the chances of Saints getting anything from the game.

Saints made a change at half-time with Bradley Wright-Phillips replacing Oscar Gobern in a like-for-like swap on the left wing. Wright-Phillips was immediately involved as he danced past two defenders but then scuffed his shot wide from long range.

Jan Poortvliet was forced into a second change almost immediately after Olly Lancashire was on the end of a very late challenge by Carlos Edwards which went unpunished. Lancashire was replaced by the experienced Chris Perry. Arguably, that challenge was actually worse than the one that Euell was sent off for, which only served to increase the level of frustration and anger from the home fans. However, the apparent injustice seemed to galvanise both the fans and the players as they tore into the league leaders for the majority of the second half.

Wright-Phillips had another effort from the edge of the area after good work by Cork and Lallana down the right, but his shot rebounded off the inside of the post and away to safety. The best chance Saints created came shortly after. Wright-Phillips’ cross was met by McGoldrick and Ikeme together, and the ball ran loose to Lallana who attempted to guide the ball over two covering defenders and into the empty net, but somehow he managed to lift the ball over the goal.

Saints were starting to get more and more frustrated with decisions that were going against them. Andrew Surman picked up a booking for disputing a decision by the linesman on the Kingsland side when he had dribbled away from Ward but the flag indicated the ball went out of play. Shortly afterwards, Rudi Skacel also saw yellow when he challenged Kevin Foley by the corner flag. There appeared to be little contact, if any, but Foley went to ground and the referee gave the free-kick. Skacel showed his clear disgust with the decision and found himself in the book.

Lee Mason appeared to be completely losing the plot with 15 minutes to go when he failed to award Saints a free-kick for a blatant trip on Surman on the edge of the area, and seconds later gave Wolves a free-kick for a foul by Schneiderlin, yet somehow Mason produced a yellow card for Wolves captain Karl Henry. Shortly afterwards, he then gave Wolves a free-kick for an identical challenge to the one that wasn’t punished at the other end!

Rudi Skacel then played McGoldrick in through the left channel and his run was abruptly ended by Mancienne in the area. A penalty seemed the obvious decision, but then everyone remembered the complete farce that they were dealing with, and the obvious decision therefore was for the referee to completely bottle making another big decision.

After 4 minutes of injury time, the referee blew the final whistle to more boos, all aimed at him. To their credit, most of the fans stayed behind to applaud the players off the pitch after a gutsy performance, and rightly so. They also stayed to make sure Lee Mason was left in no doubt as to the opinion over his performance.

In summary, I can’t fault the majority of yesterday’s performance. It would have been very easy for the players to crumble both at 2-0 down and also when Euell got sent off. It speaks volumes for the character that the young players appear to be developing that they completely outplayed the league leaders with only ten men for 47 minutes. However, the bare statistics will say that we lost 2-1 and collected no points from the game.

I’ll reserve the final word for today’s referee, Lee Mason. I’ve seen some incompetent performances in the years I’ve been supporting Saints, but I don’t think I’ve witnessed anything quite so inept for a very long time. The FA have made a big deal about their “Respect” campaign, suggesting that a lot of the criticism aimed at the men in black has been unjustified. Unfortunately, yesterday’s “performance” is a perfect case study demonstrating why referees fail to get the respect they want. It’s not a case of players and managers not respecting the referees and the difficult (but well-paid) job they do - when the game starts there is respect, but while some claim respect has to be earned, I would actually argue that respect has to be maintained by the referee. Mason lost the plot yesterday, and his bizarre (to say the least) decision-making lost him the respect of the players.

Things don’t get any easier for Saints as we now face a trip to free-scoring Reading. Backed by nearly 4000 Saints fans, however, who knows what might happen. Perform like we did for most of the game yesterday and I think we’ve got a chance of getting something out of the game.

Saints staged a fantastic second half recovery to come back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 thanks to a last-minute winner from David McGoldrick and earlier goals from Andrew Surman and debutant Alex Pearce.

The away side were without ever present Adam Lallana, who missed out with an ankle injury – he was replaced by Ryan Smith. Elsewhere Oliver Lancashire replaced Paul Wotton; after completing a two game suspension and new loan signing Alex Pearce started at the expense of Jason Euell, with Cork and Surman moving forward. Furthermore Chris Perry, Joseph Mills and Tomas Pekhart were missing from the squad with flu.

Preston started the brighter of the two teams and it was the home side who dominated chances wise early on. Their first chance was slightly edgy. A corner was deflected goal wards and dropped inches wide, with keeper Davis under pressure from the large stature of Jon Parkin. However their second effort on goal was something of a warning sign to the Saints.

Lloyd James was caught napping in the middle of the park and Ross Wallace took advantage, stealing the ball away from the right back and running down the left hand side with intent. The Sunderland loanee then put in an impressive cross, which was chested down at the back post by Parkin, who steadied himself well and hit a fierce drive at goal, which was well parried by Davis.

Parkin appeared to be in the thick of things early on and after appearing to dive in the box, he was later cursing the lineman’s flag, when he slid home Sean St Ledger’s pass. The full back had timed his run too early against the Saints rearguard though.

The home side perhaps should have done better when Stephen Elliot twisted and turned past Oliver Lancashire, before dragging his shot wide. While the away side were also guilty of poor finishing when James’ cross was glanced wide by David McGoldrick, who slid in too late.

The Saints were seeing plenty of possession in midfield, but were looking short up front; something the fans seemed a little uptight about, with urges of shoot common – Morgan Schneiderlin answered the calls, but saw his long range effort sail wide and the Saints would soon be cursing their luck when Thomson’s cross from the right was spilled by Preston number one Andy Lonergan at the feet of Andrew Surman, who couldn’t react quick enough.

And it was the home side that showed a clinical edge in front of goal, as they raced into a twp goal lead just before half time…

A ball into the box wasn’t dealt with well by the Saints defence and the ball rolled to BILLY JONES on the edge of the box. The midfielder took a touch before unleashing a low drive through a crowd of player s and into the bottom corner of the net.

The host doubled their lead not long after when another ball wasn’t dealt with just inside the penalty area and STEPHEN ELLIOT lashed home with a low unstoppable effort that oozed confidence.

And while the first half was drawing to a close, it could have been game over when St Ledger rose to head Barry Nicholson’s corner just wide of the goal.

Half time: Preston North End 2-0 Southampton

Changes were needed for the second half and manager Jan Poortvliet duly responded. The Dutchman bringing on Bradley Wright-Phillips for Lloyd James and academy youngster Oscar Gobern for Ryan Smith.

The changes seemed to work a treat for Saints who were boosted by the added injection of pace in the side. First Wright-Phillips cut in and had a tame shot at goal, which Lonergan was equal to and then linking up well with McGoldrick, before curling an effort just wide.

Again the pair linked up well, with Wright-Phillips’ low cross just too pacey for Thomson to connect with at the back post. But Preston could have made sure of the three points when Elliot broke through the middle and passed to Wallace out wide, but the winger cut in and curled his effort wide, which was to prove costly, as soon the Saints were back in the game…

Surman swung in a corner from the left hand side and debutant ALEX PEARCE rose highest to thump a header home, game on…

Momentum was proving vital and  ANDREW SURMAN had a goal to his name, as well as his assist, just moments later when Thomson’s deep cross was volleyed back across goal by Gobern for the midfielder  to score from close range with a diving header!

Southampton continued to press and were desperately unlucky not to score again soon after, when Wright-Phillips played in McGoldrick, who in turn flicked across goal for Oscan Gobern, but he took too long to compose himself and saw his shot blocked and the youngster; making his first team debut, had another chance to net a debut goal when he saw his free header well saved.

Ross Wallace almost spoiled a well earnt point for the away side moments from the end when he saw his shot fizz over the bar, but it was Saints who managed to complete a stunning comeback in the last minute of the game!

DAVID MCGOLDRICK picked the ball up some way out, but surged goal wards, beating Brown for pace and then side stepping Mawene, before slotting the ball past the onrushing Lonergan with deadly composure to send the away support into delirium.

Full time:  Preston North End 2-3 Southampton.

Summary

A stunning comeback indeed. Credit goes to the manager and players, who managed to turn things around, when at half time they looked well and truly dead and buried.

The substitutions made were very beneficial as both Wright-Phillips and Gobern impressed, particularly the latter who fitted into the team seamlessly, despite being thrown in at the deep end. The midfielder was hard working, but useful and made some good runs, deserving his assist and he could have scored too.

I must stress though, that the first half performance was quite poor. Again we looked short in the final third and David McGoldrick looked a little shaky upfront on his own. (but much better when linking up with Wright-Phillips in the second half).

In defence, Pearce gave a very solid performance and deserved his goal, although Lancashire looked a little rusty and possibly could have done more to prevent at least one of the goals we conceded. At full back Lloyd James again looked exposed and deserved to be sacrificed at half time – Cork looking a lot more solid with the role, while Rudi Skacel put in a decent shift and in goal Kelvin Davis made a notable save.

In midfield we kept possession relatively well, but with McGoldrick often dropping back, it was a little crowded and we need to stick to the formation asked. In the second half we pressed better and looked more effective with the midfield formation.

Upfront I still think we need to play two strikers, as we looked very short, but second half it looked spot on as McGoldrick and Wright-Phillips linked up very well, with McGoldrick looking far more confident and taking his goal nicely. In terms of man of the match, I feel Surman deserves this award as was one of the few that played well for the full 90 minutes – In the first half he often made runs through the middle but had no-one to pass to, while in the second half picked up a great goal and assist combination. Special mentions must go to Pearce and Gobern who both put in very good performances under the circumstances.

Preston were half decent and deserved their half time lead for sure, but they lacked a little professionalism as they let a comfortable lead slip. In the second half they could not handle the momentum and confidence Saints possessed that particularly came with our first goal. I think one of the things we could learn from Preston is the fact that their forward line looked a threat – upfront Elliot drifted out wide and put in lots of effort, in the comfort of knowing his strike partner Parkin was in the box. However if we choose to continue with one striker upfront, if McGoldrick drops back and works hard like Elliot, we don’t have anyone waiting in the box.

Anyhow, this was a great comeback and one that I and many others will savour for a long time.

Saints have moved to address their defensive frailties by signing 19-year-old centre-back Alex Pearce on loan from Reading.

Pearce has made 8 first-team appearances for the Royals this season and has scored one goal - in a 5-1 Carling Cup win against Luton Town. He made 22 appearances in the Football League last season in loan spells at Bournemouth and Norwich City.

He will be here until 1st January, but will not be eligible to play when Saints face Reading at St Mary’s next month.