Are Saints starting to hit form at just the right time as leaders Brighton falter.

Saints have shown their strength in depth in recent weeks as Nigel Adkins has fine tuned his side and looks to make it six league wins in a row at St Mary's against the Seagulls and sevn in all competitions. Starting by beating Bournemouth at home at the beginning of that run Saints have won five league games at home, one on the road with only the two disapointing defeats at Huddersfield and Carlisle blotting the copybook, Adkins will know those defeats should have been avoided but overall will be pleased with the progress made but only if the Sussex side are dispatched.

Saints look set to be unchanged again with Lee Barnard having trained on Monday and in form, but once again it could be the firepower off the bench that could tip the balance, Brighton like many in the division have a fairly small squad or at least a small part of it thats truly up to the task and as injury and suspension starts to bite they are finding it hard to keep the run going and that could suit Saints

As on Saturday though it needs the crowd to get behind the home side from the off and stay with them, with Brighton bringing a big away following it will make for a great atmosphere and its the job of the Saints supporters to drown out the visitors.

One visitor who will be welcome though is ex Saints physio Jim Joyce who is currently in that role at the Withdean and he is sure to get a warm welcome should his trademark sprint be seen once again on the St Mary's pitch.

A win could see Saints right up on the fringes of automatic promotion, in fact it guarantees to be within five points of Brighton at the top and when you look at how far we were behind the Withdean side just a few weeks ago that must only help as they start to look over their shoulders and see their lead being cut, but that victory could also push us within one point of second, however that would need to see Bristol Rovers go one better than they did at Brighton on Saturday and beat Charlton, elsewhere Bournemouth are at home to Yeovil in what could be a tough game in that the West Country side came within a minute or so of holding Charlton themselves on Saturday and Sheff Weds look to have a straight forward home win against Walsall, the hope being that the Saddlers have a new confidence after beating Carlisle, so if Saints do win it could be that the positions wont change much, but what will have changed is the balance of power and those clubs like Bournemouth who have been crowing for much of the season will now start to look over their shoulders and worry about Saints      

Photo: Action Images

Spot51 added 08:20 - Nov 23 I thought worrying about Saints was our job?
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Saintpaul120 added 13:11 - Nov 23 We need to win tonight, and I think we will, to stamp our authority on this league and to show that we are ambitious enough to go and grab one of the auto promo slots, maybe even get promoted as champions - phew, what an achievement THAT would be!! If we win against Brighton other teams will be petrified of coming to SMS and that's an advantage already. Couple that with the twelth man, us, and we're almost winning before setting foot on the picth - happy days! Come on you Saints - onwards & upwards! I shall be there and look forward to the Northam end leading the chants!

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