east-stand-nic

OK then. So, let's look at the next 8 games taking us to the end of February. Southampton v Sheffield Wednesday 3 Swansea City v Southampton 1 Southampton v Hull City 1 Rotherham United v Southampton 3 Southampton v Huddersfield Town 3 Bristol City v Southampton 1 West Bromwich Albion v Southampton 0 Southampton v Millwall 3 Some very winnable games in there, but also a couple of potential losses/draws. I have feeling we will start to drop a few points here and there, which to be honest has to start happening sooner or later. Perhaps a bit negative with the draw at home to Hull, but as I say, sometime sooner or later we will start to drop a few unexpected points. This is 15 from 8 games, so almost 2 points per game still. Will it be enough to get us into second?

Almost spot on there. We ended up 51 points from 25. Great run. Now need to focus on the next run of games.

And for me there lies the most important factor. We saw with the West Ham cup game just how breaking winning momentum can have long term effects. We have seen many times also, just how after an international break we are sluggish. It is not like an extra game. It is in place of a normal Saturday game. Play your strongest tea, replace loads after an hour if we are 3 or 4 up. This game worries me, because if we struggle with a totally second string team, I truly believe we will lose momentum. I know we are not going to win the cup, but we should treat this as another league game and keep the confidence high.

Be good also is WBA can beat Leeds.

I'd rather the Leicester game was a draw, assuming we win. Leicester will have a bump at some point so we need to think of catching them also, as unlikely as it might be.

Interesting line up. I guess 3 at the back or will Jack be more CDM? Interesting to see how this goes.

For all those who often say a draw is not a bad result, think on this. The reason Ipswich and Leicester are so far ahead is because they DON'T draw games like these previously. To finish top two u have to keep on banging out the wins against all the lower sides. If we want to be top 2 at the end of the season, these are games u have to win. Without knowing the line up it is always hard to predict, but RM has to want this one very badly. It has to be a win. I am hoping for something like 3-1. Get that GD up and up!

It really needs to be 51, but I would not die if we ended up with 49. If we can finish second, great. But if not us, I want Leeds second, and Ipswich with us in the playoffs. If the two of us finish 3rd and 4th, we might meet in the final.

Plymouth have a really bad record away from home so far. No wins at all. Do I not hate games like that. Plymouth 11 0 4 7 7 19 -12 4 Two homes games this week, six points a must as it will put us right up there with Ipswich as I reckon they will lose against Leicester, and maybe only get a point with QPR as after a couple of defeats in a row they may be a bit fragile. Anyway, we cannot control their form, but with six points we go to 51...and if they fail to get more than say two points from their two games, we would be just three points behind them. Question is, can we get those six points from two games that on paper, look very winnable. Or, will we do the usual win one and draw one and drop two crucial points? Come on RM, get them points this week!

They have the second worst home record in the division, so most would say away banker. And let's be honest, it should be. But once again, it is only a matter of waiting until we see the line up and style of play/tactics. We have been keeping clean sheets of late and conceding far fewer in general. Think we will need to score 2 to win this one, and will indeed thus go for QPR 1 - 2 Saints. QP Rangers 10 2 3 5 10 16 -6 9

Indeed, but sadly he will tinker and will end up back to keep ball next game. This is why it is such a frustrating season. Yeah yea yeah, we are doing well and all that, but look at what could have been if he would eat humble pie and quit with the silly over passing stuff.

I suspect and would put pretty good money on Burnley and United being top 6 if not better once again. Not sure about Millwall. My point is that there will always be three clubs with bigger money than the other 21 that have just come down, but those 3 always struggle to stay up as the EPL is such a huge gulf of class apart now. This is why which ever of us goes up, will need to spend very big in the summer to even consider safety from relegation. The top 3 and bottom 3 will I think start to become the yo-yo teams every year.

The problem is the manager and the style of play book. This squad, with any of the other top 6 managers would have more points on the board now and a better GD. We are better than we think, we are just not going to be able to show it under RM.

I think this is a sign that the Championship is starting to become like the EPL. The three sides that have come down are coming down with better and better quads and on top of that the parachute payments, making it harder and harder for the others to get anywhere near them. The obvious exception being Ipswich, but every season there seems to be one of these. I did not think we would finish in the play offs, but if we do, I hope Leeds win second place as i think we would likely have a good chance against all the others.

They have a very good home record. It will be a tough one if they are indeed still in form and a draw would not be a bad result, though again I would say if we really do want to push on into the top 2, we have to be winning these games. Their only two home defeats were against Boro and Blackburn, which is a bit odd. Since the last of those two defeats they have won 3 and drawn 1 and lost 0. Let us hope their form is about to dip. Watford 10 5 3 2 21 10 +11 18

Well, 13/15 points so far on that list of 11 games. If we can do the same again from the next 5, I think we will be 3rd and pushing Ipswich.

These leftist woke LGBT people are just so easy going, tolerant and fair mined are they not.

Some one alluded to this being potentially the start of a bleak period for us, after the dropped points at Huddersfield. I tend to agree and think we will lose or draw this one and same again on Saturday for Cardiff's visit. Sorry, but I think this will be our season. Good runs, followed by blips and a point per game ratio for a few games. Until RM accepts we need to be more incisive and put teams to the sword (which he won't do enough), this will be our season I'm sorry to say.

Just saw on a Facebook post that in our promotion year of 1977, after 17 games we had this record P17 W9 D4 L4 GF26 GA18 PTS22 Position 3rd (two points for a win system of course) An almost identical record, save for the GD of course. I would have saved the image of the league table and posted it but still cannot figure out how to add pictures on this forum.

We are 4th IN-SPITE of RM. If we had a decent manager who played to our squads strengths we would be higher. Yes we are 9 games unbeaten, but two of those draws were against bottom 4 sides, games a top 2 side would win. I said at the start of the season we will finish 9th. Indeed, I may be wrong, we may well be top 6, but we will not go up. I also predict within 2 years from now we will have dropped this possession football stuff and gone back to a more traditional style.

To be honest, I am not sure anyone should bother. They are all pretty much the same in terms of how life will be for the normal working class person. Sadly, boycotting the vote does not matter either as the winners will not care if there is a 30% turn out or a 60% turnout. I cannot see anything other than a Labour win in some fashion, be it outright or coalition. Something has to change. We cannot keep going with the current government.

I have to concede a lack of in depth knowledge here in terms of how we set up and where RS plays. I don't think he is the same type as KS or SA, so I can really only see AA being dropped, but that would not make any sense in terms of giving us more firepower. Will RM therefore change his set up in someway to accommodate them both and thus we have to lose some creativity?

Good manager Darren Moore. He will soon make them harder in defence. Add this to the fact we don't hammer teams and seem more to win by the odd goal and it looks likely something like 0-1. I really wish we could start to put teams like this to the sword. 0-3 by half time sort of thing, ending 1-4 would be nice. It might all come down to whether or not RS is fit enough to play at least 30 minutes. Starting him from the off might be hard....who would we drop to fit him in?

I have noticed this kind of thing happen to Saints a lot over the years. Fixture list luck. We never get it. We never get to play teams when either they are off form or we are on form, it is usually the other way around, as you have pointed out. It can make a huge difference to a seasons points tally.

Well, that was IMO, the hardest of the 11 fixtures i posted about. So, really now from the last 9 of those 11, we should be on for at least 7 wins. I don't wish to disrespect the opposition, but we should be winning all of them really.