If Saints can beat the Baggies and virtually ensure safety from relegation in the process, then they will have come the full circle since a dire November night at the Hawthorns.

After Saints lost 2-0 against West Bromwich Albion in a televised game at the Hawthorns on November 3rd last year it was perhaps the low point of the season and not many gave much hope for our survival in the Premier league at that point, be they the bookies, television pundits or even Saints fans themselves, the stark reality of the Premier League had hit home and after this 10th game of the season, well over a 1/4 of it and approaching a 1/3, we only had 4 points to our name.

But it wasnt just the low points total, it just didnt seem to be a Saints team out there, the spirit was gone and not only did rumours persist that the manager wasnt in complete control of team selections, but that same rumour mill suggested that he was about to be sacked. This was rubbished in a lot of quarters with Adkins still enjoying god like status and many supporters on message boards indignant with rage that anyone could think that the Chairman and manager were at loggerheads, perhaps history now shows us they were.

But this defeat seemed to be breaking point for Adkins himself, he seemed to realise that he was heading for the exit door and had decided if that was the case then he would go down doing things his way, in the subsequent weeks our form changed but Nigel Adkins had passed the point of no return and his days were numbered although most refused to believe that at the time.

The following week saw a home draw to Swansea, on reflection a good point, but then came two straight wins and comprehensive ones at that, suddenly Saints were off the bottom and out of the relegation zone although ironically a home point against Norwich was not only a disapointment in that it was a sloppy goal conceded in a game we dominated, but Villa leapfrogged us to drop us back in the bottom three, but crucially the four game unbeaten run had given us hope that we could survive and more importnantly belief, what Nigel Adkins didnt know though was that he was in his last six weeks of the job and his replacement was already being lined up.

The next half dozen games looked difficult on paper and even harder on grass, but the six points garnered from them were a good haul, to take us into a vital six pointer clash away to Aston Villa, a hard thought win put us ahead of the game, so much so that we had risen to 15th and pulled two points clear of the drop zone, a 2-2 draw at Chelsea where we recovered from two down at half time was seen as a sign of the resurgence under Adkins as it took us another point away from danger and this was perhaps why there was initially so much anger at the way Adkins was treated, make no mistake after a difficult start he had turned things round at this point.

So began the Mauricio Pochettino era at Saints, ushered in with a speed that shocked all of the football world, in truth it was a bit of a slow start for the Argentinian, but he grew into the job and carried on where Adkins had left off winning some games that will be long remembered by the supporters.

So here we are 24 games later since that defeat at Albion, two dozen games that have seen 35 points gained and more off the field drama than most clubs see in five times that number, but that is Southampton FC.

Those 24 games have seen ironicall an equal split between both managers, Nigel Adkins gaining 18 points from his dozen games and Mauricio Pochettino only one less with 17 points, this perhaps emphasises the role played by both, it has been the case of late to perhaps downplay Adkins achievements this season and trumpet Pochettino as the saviour of the season, but these statistics show that both men are on an equal footing, for various reasons both had different problems to contend with, but the end result is the same since we last met West Brom

Adkins Played 12, won 4, drew 6 lost 2. Goals For 16. Against 12

Pochettino Played 12, won 4, drew 5, lost 3. Goals For 17 Against 14.

Surprisingly almost identical stats, although one myth is debunked and that is that the defence has improved drastically, although it has to be said the bulk of the goals in the Pochettino era came in the first half of his reign.  

But the sum total is that in those 24 games we have pulled things round and what looked like certain relegation on that cold night back in November now sees a different proposition for the Baggies to come up against than they did that night, but as shown we have two men to thank for that Nigel Adkins and Mauriccio Pochettino.  

Photo: Action Images

thedelldays added 08:41 - Apr 26 what a load of crap adkins said time and time and time and time again that all team selections and everything was all him.
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SaintNick added 08:58 - Apr 26 Naivety don't you just love it
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thedelldays added 08:58 - Apr 26 unless adkins was lying?
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SaintNick added 09:06 - Apr 26 Yes he could have been, but I prefer to believe they are all honest men they just get confused sometimes like when a statement was issued by the Chairman in May 2010 berating the local press for suggesting that Alan Pardew was going to get sacked when actually Chairman and manager were totally focused together, Pardew said similar things to Adkins back then, its something to do with clauses in contracts apparently lol

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thedelldays added 09:11 - Apr 26 I dont doubt adkins and NC fell out. Adkins (IMO) looked like a complete fish out of water in the prem, His 442/diamond formation saw us get ripped apart in games and the defensive side of the game was a shambles. His exclusion of Boruc was just plain baffeling. I agree he started to get some results, but we DID have a run of games where we never played anyone of note until the chelsea away game, where to be fair it was a cracker of a result. But the points thrown away at home to swansea, norwich, fulham etc etc were just terrible. Gazzaniga alone cost us silly points and it was Nigel who kept faith with him with boruc sat in the stands. people will say Boruc was not match fit. but HAD we put him in sooner/stuck with him he would have regained his fitness sooner. In my opinion, adkins would have taken us down or at very best, we would be sat where wigan/villa are now. hope he does well at reading and it will be interesting to see him compared to leeds. Reading have a far better squad and more money so the pressure will be on

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SaintNick added 09:22 - Apr 26 Pardon me for being rude, but did you actually watch the first four games of the season when we got ripped apart, we played a lone striker formation with five in midfield and the defensive side of things were dire because we failed to sign any central defenders or a new keeper, Gazzaniga was a kid thrown in because Davis was out of his depth Boruc had to go out of the side, he was dropped for throwing a water bottle into the crowd and disciplined, I like Boruc but not sure he was fit back then and actually just after dropping him we got 11 points out of the next 7 games, conceding only 6 goals in the process. As for not playing anyone of note till Chelsea away, if we are talking about his last 12 games, West brom were riding high at the time, then there was Liverpool away still a tough place to go, not to mention Arsenal at home. Things even themselves out and in the last 12 games we have dropped as many silly points due to defensive errors, Wigan being one example

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slynch added 09:40 - Apr 26 St Nick, would like to publish the average goals against per game and average points per game for the Adkins era and compare that for the same in the Pochettino era. And then perhaps we will have a clearer idea on which myth to debunk, or can we ALL just cherry-pick what ever games we like to back up our dodgy theories?
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SaintNick added 10:49 - Apr 26 slynch, I didn't just cherry pick the games, I took Adkins last 12 and pochettinos first 12, probably about the most accurate measure given they were back to back, when I started the article I hadn't looked at the figures, I didn't realise that out of the 24 games that it was split exactly half and half between the two and I truly expected pochettinos stats to be much better. You can cherry pick stats to justify any argument, for instance Poch's stats against the top half will be better than Adkins, but on the other hand Adkins stats against the bottom half will be better than Poch's

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thedelldays added 10:50 - Apr 26 pardon you, sorry nick but yes, remember times where we had games with Ramirez and lallana on the wings with lambert in the hole with rodriguez up front on his own davis, then gazzaniga, the boruc then davis then boruc in goal.. you could not make that up. Fish out of water the run of games like sunderland at home, norwich at home, swansea, fulham were terrible yes we played alright at times, so have reading.

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SaintNick added 11:08 - Apr 26 Rodriguez rarely played up front on his own and when he did it was when Lambert didn't start ie Man City & Chelsea away. The rotation of keepers was not good, but was that Adkins fault, none of them excelled, to be fair to Pochettino at least he inheirited an in form Boruc. Ive been accused of cherry picking on this thread already but you have done so, yes that run of home games wasn't good, but then again you fail to mention the 5 match unbeaten run at the end of his tenure when we played four away games and drew 3 and won 1 and drew with arsenal at home. As I discovered when I looked at statistics, take out the nightmare opening four games and overall things have been fairly consistent since in any given period

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thedelldays added 11:14 - Apr 26 evertone away, reading at home spring to mind where lambert played in the hole to rodriguez up front. Im sure there are others. the rotation of keepers was appalling really and gazzanigas mistakes alone have cost us being next to WBA. and they were appalling mistakes for any keeper of any professional level to make. I guess we will never agree, I felt those draws towards the end of adkins reign, like fulham away were the absolute maximum of his level with us. I really feel that had he still be here we would be right where wigan and villa are. the sunderland at home was one of the worst games I have ever seen at saints in recent years. clueless on every level from the players and manager. I knew then that his time was up

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 11:44 - Apr 26 Good article Nick. Clearly shows the improvement seen under Adkins in his last 12 games in charge. Its just a shame we only got 4 points in our first 10 games. I think that defeat at home to Sunderland in December was the final straw for Cortese. He couldn't risk Adkins taking us down. Personally I think Adkins would've kept us up, although we'd probably still be sweating a bit right now! At the moment it looks like Cortese got the decision right and Pochettino is the man to take us to the next level. Top 8 next year!!! (As long as we don't get to the group stage of the Europa league)

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SaintNick added 12:25 - Apr 26 Yor right dell days we will probabaly never agree, but im interested in how many of Gazzanigas games you actually watched live and im also a bit concerned about how you are willing to crucify a keeper who was totally inexperienced and thrown in at the deep end through no fault of his own. So Adkins absolute maximum level was a draw at Chelsea the champions of Europe a team whose home league record reads won 10, drew 4 lost 2. Was the QPR game better than Sunderland ? I would say not and I have seen far worse in recent times in both the Championship & League 1

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ExiledSupporter added 12:40 - Apr 26 Good for you Nick, stick to the evidence based commentary; some of your critics seem to start with a bias and then assemble some facts which suit their arguments which is a bogus approach. Removing Adkins in favour of Pochettino was always going to be a massive gamble (and taken in circumstances where the result trend was improving after a difficult start where Adkins options were limited by misjudged transfer priorities); but one which nevertheless seems to have been successful, although the statistics have not been significantly different. The team unsurprisingly has taken time to acclimatise and I wonder whether Pochettino's results would have been any better if he had been i/c in the first ten games of the season (unproveable, of course). I completely agree with an earlier correspondent who cites Boruc's very positive contribution recently and I also think one of Adkins consistent failings had been his unjustified confidence in Kelvin (whose form has over any extended period been erratic) but don't blame him for giving Gazzaniga his opportunities - the latter also seems to have come in for rather unforgiving criticism (hope he's not going to become the focus of negative crowd attention in the future - Adkins had little choice until Boruc got himself together. Personally I feel that MP's performance in the first dozen games of next season will indicate whether we have really moved up a level and this will depend heavily on what we do in the transfer window, both in terms of priorities and quality of players bought/sold.

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TimSaint added 17:25 - Apr 26 Statistics can be manipuated to prove many theories and I work with people like this on a weekly basis !! But - why pick the last 12 games of the Adkins era and compare them against the first 12 for MoPo ? Yes I know it was 24 games since the WBA game (our opposition tomorrow) and both have been in charge for 12 games each since then....... However, as both managers were making their Premier League debuts, surely it would have been fairer to look at the first 12 games for both managers ? I'm sure this would make totally different reading :o) Either way, we cannot change it, so lets just get on with it, get behind the team (and the whole squad) tomrrow and for the rest of the season and we can hopefully guarantee premiership survival by Monday and then start looking upwards to the mid-table places.

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