Saints head into the last five games of the season knowing that if they win against Cardiff City then they have taken a big step towards cementing 8th place.

This wont be an easy game for Saints though despite the Bluebirds (or are they Dragons now) lowly league position, defeat for the Welsh side will leave them with a mountain to climb as they would be at least six points from safety with only four games left and it could be as much as eight, if that was to be the case then they would be almost out of their misery.

Given their final day fixture is at home to Chelsea they will note that they really need to pick up points in the games preceding that, starting at St Mary's and those of us who watched the team back in the 90's know that this is the time of season where teams in the bottom either find hidden reserves or sink towards relegation.

So on Saturday Cardiff fans will find out of their team has any fight in them or if they are to go down with a whimper, from their point of view they will see this as a winnable game, the Cardiff players will see a Saints side facing them on the back of a traumatic time at Manchester City and with the double whammy of having lost Jay Rodriguez their top scorer, if they have any character at all they will come into this fixture with a do or die attitude as we did many times in the 90's when it turned out that every season we had that character in us, only failing in 2005 when Harry Redknapp had beat that spirit out of us.

From a Saints point of view the first question for Saints supporters will be whether Artur Boruc will be fit or not, Paulo Gazzaniga had a torrid time at the Etihad but he was in good company as not many of our defenders could hold their heads up either, if Gazza plays Saints fans should get behind him and try to instill confidence in him, not ironically cheer each time he collects a back pass or catches a cross, they should remember that he is still young and that we have had many reasons to be grateful to him over the past two seasons including this year when he faced Cardiff away from home, we should all remember we are supporters and that being the case do we want to leave the stadium talking about a great Saints win, not goalkeeping errors, that being the case lets "support" everyone in the team not just the elite.

Other than that from the light hearted training session pics posted on line this morning everyone else apart from J Rod seems to be fit although Gaston Ramirez does have an ankle problem that kept him out last week, perhaps significantly or perhaps not, there were no pictures of the goalkeepers, although they could have been working on their own session.

Mauricio Pochettino's quandary now is how he sets the side up, one thing we know about him is that he is rigid in his formation, however without J Rod we are struggling to be able to play it as we don't have an attacking wide player with pace that is crucial to this formation working. That is unless we look to one of the untried youngsters that we hear so much about in the academy, is it time to blood one of them.

If we do the likes of Omar Rowe or Harrison Reed have been mentioned, but also in the background is Josh Sims who by all accounts plays a similar role in the academy sides, however only turning 17 a fortnight ago, perhaps Pochettino may feel that he is a bit young to come into the side just yet, however it has to be said that this didnt stop his predecessors playing Theo Walcott, Gareth Bale or Alex Oxlade Chamberlain.

If he doesnt throw a youngster in then the formation will be unbalanced, it will necessitate Steven Davis or even JWP playing in a wider role and as good as they both are they are not the attacking type of player that is needed, th question is can the manager adapt his system or will he try to make it work without the right tools.

Given our need to adapt hope that Pochettino doesn't try to change things too much, Wanyama is back and fit again and historically the manager has always dropped Jack Cork, this would be wrong as Cork has played so well, as we saw at Fulham recently we need to play in form players not shoe horn in certain favourites just because they are fit, there could be room in the side for both, indeed perhaps an option for Pochettino is to play Jack Cork on the right of midfield a position he can play and switch Adam Lallana to the left.

But under normal circumstances this should be the easiest home game for Saints all season, with due respect to Cardiff City they have the worst away record in the Premier league winning only once in addition to only four draws and eleven defeats, they have scored only 11 goals and conceded 32, from an away form point of view we should beat them, however as mentioned there is the factor of they really need to scrap for their lives now, did their home drubbing against lace last week completely demoralise them or has Ole Gunnar Solskjaer managed to install the siege mentality now needed if they are to survive.

If we do win then if that is aligned with Newcastle failing to win at Stoke City then we should be within sight of securing 8th place for the season and that has to be our goal in the final games, if we do then this has been a very satisfying season.

Photo: Action Images

slynch added 11:39 - Apr 11 boruc/gazza chambers/clyne, fonte, lovren, shaw spider, wany/cork davis/jwp lambo gallagher, lala seems most likely?
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