Two Games That Shape Our Season
Saints season will be shaped by the next two games, both at home and against fellow strugglers.
It could be said the destiny of Southampton Football Club rests on the nexy fortnight or so, whilst it cant be disagreed that overall even if they lost these next two games Saints would still have 63 points to go for and therefore a long way off being dead and buried, the fact is that certain times in a season shape the rest of it and this is one of those periods.
Saints wins so far have come against teams where we would have been expected to get a result, we have yet to nick a win against a team above the bottom seven yet and that is the difference between us and say Norwich, the Canaries in 12th are seven points ahead of us, six of those points came in unexpected home wins against Arsenal & Man United and this is where we have failed to perform so far this season, against the bigger clubs.
This being the case it is essential that when we play fellow strugglers, especially at home that we get three points and especially in these next two games, get those six points and we are well set up for the second half of the season, lose them both and we will almost certainly be well adrift of safety.
But its not just our league position or points total that are going to be the issue here, to be blunt if we lose both then I fear that Nigel Adkins will no longer be manager of Southampton Football Club at Xmas, in fact if we were to lose to Reading that I think his fate would be virtually sealed rightly or wrongly.
So these results could change the future of SFC in that a new manager could be in place very quickly if we were to suffer a defeat in even one of these games, especially the Reading game, some would say its harsh to judge a manager on the result of two crucial games, but the real problem is the 15 games that have lead up to these two making them so crucial.
To those who say that we would still have those 61 points to play for and that there is plenty of time, I would still point to how we have perfomed against the top half of the table sides and our failure to win even a point off a club in the top half at the time of meeting them, to stay up in this division we are going to need a minimum of 38 points to be sure, that means getting 25 points in the remaining 23 games, its all about getting the bulk of those points against the sides down their struggling with us, we have already been beaten at Man City and Arsenal and I dont fancy our chances of wins at the likes of Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge.
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