Here it comes Southampton Football Club's date with destiny, will we live to fight another day or will our dreams be dashed.

Saints have spent most of the season in the top six, indeed up until a few weeks ago the chances of Swansea City only being a point behind us with two games to go looked extremely remote, however an appalling run away from home has seen the Swans breach that gap and instead of going into this game looking over our shoulders at Spurs or Liverpool or at worst guaranteed 7th place, we find ourselves in a dogfight that in two games time could still see us in 5th although highly unlikely or could see us as low as 8th.

There are two redeeming factors going into this do or die game against Aston Villa, the first is that our home form is good, secondly perhaps the extra pressure that Saints have on them now Swansea are in our rear mirror will spur us on to find our form.

What we do need to do though is cut out the errors at the back, the worrying thing is that although the usual suspects have been blamed by some, the issue has been with the experienced players losing concentration and conceding goals and given that the likes of Jose Fonte has been a rock this season I have every hope that he can put his spell of poor form behind him and put in a match winning display that will see us being to build on a solid performance at the back.

If we do that then we should hopefully be good to turn over Villa, Ronald Koeman has called for a high tempo start and it needs to be the same in the stands as well a red hot atmosphere that blows Villa out of the water before they get in their stride.

Villa themselves need the points or should i say rather worryingly a point and that could see them not be very inventive and try and shut up shop.

We need to get an early goal and make sure that is not an option for them, but even if we don't then the crowd needs to be behind us even more, it is a game of 90 minutes and till the final whistle is blown it is not won or lost.

I cannot say much more than I have in other previews, keep it strong at the back with our strongest line up and then we have plenty of options to take the game to Villa whether that is at the start or by the use of substitutions.

The time for experimentation is passed, it all comes down to this one game to make sure we still have a fighting chance of the Europa League going into the final day.

Photo: Action Images

schatfield added 13:06 - May 15 this game makes me nervous....Villa have got the confidence back and Benteke is playing well. Saints, please no sideways football tomorrow!
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beynali73 added 14:19 - May 15 Tomorrow has to be about looking at the bigger picture and reflecting about what an excellent season it's been. We've all been frustrated of late about results, performances, tactics etc but that is down to the how low expectations were 9 months ago. Hopefully there is a positive atmosphere tomorrow and Marcus Liebherr gets several mentions throughout the match from the terraces - together as one COYR's.

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DPeps added 14:44 - May 15 I can't see Villa playing for a point. Over the season they've become much more attacking-minded - getting rid of Paul Lambert helped with that. Their strengths are in attack not defence, so I fancy it'll be a decent game and very different from the yawn-fest at Villa Park. Also, hope Big Vic has the house alarm on this time
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SanMarco added 16:15 - May 15 I am looking forward to this one. I will be disappointed but not devastated if we end up 8th but a win might just give us a shout for 6th. I just hope we are solid at the back - my belief is that we have suffered at the back in recent games due to a lack of confidence in the keeper - add that to the goals directly lost to keeping errors and there you have it. Villa of course was the site of Forster's one real howler. I just hope people make Gazza feel welcome as his performance could be the key one tomorrow.

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saintmark1976 added 16:42 - May 15 Win,lose or draw my only wish for tomorrow is that the manager and players at the very least "turn up". Clearly they owe the fans a better display than last Saturday's feeble effort.The majority of Saints fans know when their team has given everything and will accept a defeat as long as the team give their all for the cause.It really is time to stand up and be counted.

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simmo400 added 17:18 - May 15 This has a draw written all over it. Let's hope they don't score more than 2 otherwise we will loose.
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corkcitysaint added 20:05 - May 15 How we start this game I think will be key. If we are tentative and slow paced I can see it being very comfortable for Villa and we'll again have the possession but no end product. We need to grab the game by the nuts from the off and have some pace about us in attack. Time to get stuck in and go for it. COYR's.
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