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.

Saints head to Burnley tomorrow looking to atone for Monday night’s defeat at Crystal Palace.

In the three meetings at Turf Moor since our relegation, we’ve won twice and drawn once, but that good record will be put to a stern test tomorrow afternoon as Burnley are currently flying high in the Championship table. With ten wins from their 22 games, they currently sit in 4th place, six points behind Reading and just ahead of Sheffield United, who they beat 3-2 last week.

Typically, Burnley have made a good start to the season in the Championship only to fall away around this time of the year, and our 3-2 win last season was the beginning of their familiar slide down the table. They ended in 13th place, which was fairly comfortable, but finished only ten points ahead of relegated Leicester City, which goes to show how close the bottom half of the Championship was last season.

They have reserved their best form for in front of their own fans this season, unlike us, and have only lost once on home soil, which was their first home game of the season - a 3-0 defeat against Ipswich. Since then, they’ve won 6 and drawn 4, scoring 17 goals in the process.

If we’re to get anything from the game, we’re going to have to make sure we defend properly from set-pieces, something we failed to do on Monday night for Craig Beattie’s goal which was probably the strike that knocked the stuffing out of us.

Burnley are sweating on the fitness of Michael Duff and Chris McCann, but otherwise manager Owen Coyle has a full squad to choose from. Their goals have mostly been shared between Martin Paterson (signed from Scunthorpe in the summer), Robbie Blake and former Manchester United winger Chris Eagles. They are the key players to look out for tomorrow.

For Saints, Morgan Schneiderlin is expected to come back into the side, possibly in place of Alex Pearce with Jack Cork moving into the centre of defence alongside Chris Perry. The whereabouts of Jason Euell seems to be a bit of a mystery after he was expected to come straight back into the fold after serving his three-match ban, and Anthony Pulis may be on the bench for the first time after recovering from a broken foot.

Saints make their first league trip to Swansea since 1982 tomorrow hoping to follow up Tuesday’s goalless draw at Sheffield United with more away points.

Having made five changes to the team on Tuesday night, it’ll be interesting to see whether Jan Poortvliet sticks with the same system again. One player definitely missing from the starting lineup at Bramall Lane is Olly Lancashire who starts a two-match ban, with Paul Wotton set to deputise. Adam Lallana will face a late fitness test after picking up a calf injury in that game, and he has sat out training this week.

Morgan Schneiderlin could get a place on the bench after an outing in the reserves on Wednesday, but Michael Svensson is still no nearer to a return. Jason Euell and Romain Gasmi both featured against Brighton’s second string at Staplewood but aren’t likely to be in contention for a first-team place for a week or two.

Swansea have selection problems of their own with first-choice keeper Dorus de Vries out after suffering a broken jaw in a challenge with QPR’s Martin Rowlands on Tuesday night. Roberto Martinez took a gamble by not having a substitute keeper on the bench, which left defender Alan Tate to don the gloves for more than an hour. 19-year-old Pole Artur Krysiak - on loan from Birmingham City - is likely to make his debut, although he has already publicly shown that the prospect is making him nervous. With this in mind, it’s hardly surprising that the Swans are also on the lookout for another loan keeper, preferably (for them) one with a bit more experience.

Our record at Swansea, obviously all at the old Vetch Field, is mixed. While overall we have a decent record against the Swans (won 27, drawn 12, lost 17), we’ve only won 6 out of 28 league visits there (with 13 defeats and 9 draws), and our last win there dates back to January 1962.

Swansea are currently unbeaten at the Liberty Stadium this season, although four of their six home games have ended in draws, but that shouldn’t faze us too much as Sheffield United were (and indeed still are) also unbeaten on home soil.

The hosts are odds-on favourites (4/5) according to the bookmakers, but Saints can be backed at a not-too-shabby 7/2 or the draw at 5/2 - all with Ladbrokes.

Saints go into tonight’s match against Norwich at St Mary’s in good spirits following Saturday’s 2-0 win at Doncaster. However, Norwich will be intent on spoiling the party in the knowledge that victory for them will almost certainly move them into the top half of the table, whereas a Saints win would see us leapfrog the Canaries and drag them into the mix at the wrong end.

So far this season, they’ve collected 10 points from 8 games, including two wins (against 10-man Plymouth and a last-minute winner against Sheffield United). They have kept just two clean sheets in those 8 games, both in their last two matches, compared to Saints’ three shutouts.

Former Arsenal striker Arturo Lupoli, currently on loan from Serie A side Fiorentina, is their top scorer with three league goals, so he’ll be the one to watch alongside a player who seems to always score against us, Jamie Cureton. Other players of interest are ex-Portsmouth captain Dejan Stefanovic and Gambian striker Oman Alieu Koroma, who is on loan from our “friends” down the road.

The head-to-head record between the two sides is fairly even, with Saints holding a 32-29 win advantage in league games (23 draws). 23 of those 32 league wins have come at home, with a 3 out of 4 win record since we moved to St Mary’s. Norwich’s only win at St Mary’s came last season when a Ched Evans goal on the stroke of half-time proved the difference, although on another day Saints would have scored 10. Stern John blazed a penalty over the bar after Gary Doherty handled and numerous other excellent chances were spurned to leave everyone wondering how we’d lost the game. We’ll need to be a lot more clinical tonight if we’re to get the three points.

As far as Saints are concerned, Stern John will miss out after picking up a hamstring injury early on in the win at Doncaster. Morgan Schneiderlin is a doubt after he hobbled off in the second half of that game. Tomas Pekhart is expected to start up front with Paul Wotton moving into the midfield holding role and Chris Perry filling the gap in the centre of defence that is strangely starting to look a bit more solid, at least as far as the goals against column is concerned, with two consecutive clean sheets.