Whatever position Saints finally achieve this season there can be no doubt that they have done so by having to stare adversity in the face not once but on several occasions.

This season started with uncertainty, no one can deny that Saints suffered more upheaval than just about any club in the history of the Premier League not only losing their manager but half a dozen of their first team regulars with speculation that more would follow, indeed this was all on top of a complete restructure of the club internally after the departure of Nicola Cortese, a blow some said that the club would never recover from.

If Saints fans thought that the start of the season and indeed the closing of the transfer window would bring respite they would be wrong, the knives were still out for Saints from certain areas of the media and they continued to be plunged in even after a great start to the season.

But the great start was not a smooth ride as autumn and winter arrived and it was to the teams credit that they kept the run going despite a crippling injury list that seemed to get longer with every game played and that was not helped by the odd suspension or two.

But we continued to battle through adversity and indeed continue to do so, in some respects after another transfer window that saw more media frenzy, it seemed like we might implode, but we still carried on regardless.

In fact in terms of points this season it seems like the first half of the season saw us in form and since the New year we have not been as good, the reality though is somewhat different, in the 19 games up to the end of 2014 we earned 33 points an average of 1.73 per game, in the 13 games since the turn of the year we have amassed 23 points an average of 1.76 per game.

So with all the rumours flying around along with the odd bad game it seems like we are not as good in the second half of the season, but statistics tell us otherwise, of course the frustrating thing is it could have been that much better if we had changed the odd draw into a win.

But as transfer speculation once again hots up stoked by a London media who are desperate for Spurs to finish above Saints, as a club we need to stay focused, Ronald Koeman today has spoken of that need with regard to the Stoke game ahead of the visit of Tottenham, but it is far more reaching than that.

We now need to close ranks together, the club, its players, its supporters and indeed the local media, we need to create a winning mentality by all kicking in the right direction metaphorically speaking and this season will become one of the best in our history.

Perhaps it does seem like a little anti climax in some respects as we dropped out of the top four, but the reality is we have still taken some big steps forward and we are building something that will last, it won't always be steps forward in that it will be very hard to break into that top four given the resources that some of the clubs ahead of us have, but we can put ourselves in the position to challenge for those positions every year and also to challenge for a trophy in one of the cups.

But for the moment it as to be every game as it comes, we have to go to Stoke first and that is the focus, after that we take on Spurs and that will be a big big game, we need every voice behind us, at Stoke we need to let the team know we supporters are behind them and against Spurs we need to take the energy that will be aimed at Mauricio Pochettino and turn it into a positive, show him what he is missing and then beat his side and enforce that point more.

Now is the time to focus on what we are trying to achieve and that means forgetting transfer rumour, there are many who would like that to upset our preparations and help us fail and we must not let it.

We March As One as the latest Saints slogan says, there will be plenty of time in the summer to talk about transfer rumours or the performance of certain players, we wan one thing and that is three points in every game (Ok thats 6 things) lets all try to help Southampton Football Club achieve it.

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