As Saints dropped to the depths of League One, we survived by having a siege mentality, we need to recapture that spirit on Saturday against Aston Villa.

When Saints failed to look anything like Promotion hopefuls in 2009/10 season, despite being the biggest spending club in League One, the supporters stayed with them and stayed behind them .

There is a lot of romantic notions associated with those times and the fact is that in that first season under Markus Liebherr's ownership we only averaged 20,982, a great average for that division, but there were 11,000 empty seats or more for most games.

The following season didn't start well and it was a long time before we got our promotion push going and it wasn't till the final stages of the season we looked like going up automatically , again with an average of 22,181 there were plenty of empty seats for most games.

But the hard core stayed behind the team, they stayed with it as they believed in what the club was trying to achieve and knew that it was not going to be done overnight, the supporters had not forgotten the dark days and were grateful that the club was moving up again.

Now after the disappointment of the defeat to Liverpool we need to take a reality check again, social media has been full of knee jerk comments predicting doom and gloom.

But the fact remains that we are moving forward all the time, we are chasing a third consecutive top ten finish and if we achieve that we will be succeeding, if we finish 7th or 8th again it will be even better.

But we supporters have to manage our expectations a little, last season and again the Capital One Cup has blinded us to how well we are actually doing, of course last night was terrible and a big let down, but in the grand scheme of things we are on target, we have just missed out on exceeding our own standards.

Therefore on Saturday the supporters need to do their bit, this is a time when we have to thank our manager and team for all they have done over the past 16 months or so by staying right behind them and supporting them all the way.

If we get on their backs then things could get worse, if we stay right behind them and show our support then we can get back on track and kick on.

This is not a time for recriminations, it is a time to be a supporter, to remember what the long term aim is, we need to forget the past, those players who have left are gone and support those who are here.

From the very moment Saints run out on Saturday we supporters need to show them we are right behind them from the first whistle to the final, we need to be the 12th man and the 29,878th man and all in between.

6 years ago we sat 21st in League One after our 10 point deduction and 5 years ago we sat 8th in the same division, if we had been asked back then whether we would have liked to be sat in 2015 10th in the Premier League with two consectutive top 8 finishes in the previous seasons plus two League Cup quarter finals behind us we would have been delighted, so there is no need to get overdramatic about it now.

Lets get behind the team on Saturday, we have some important games coming up, win them and we will rocket up the table, lose them and we will lose ground. We have to ask ourselves what do we want, if what we want is to get satisfaction from another defeat so we gan froth at the mouth about certain individual players, then the answer is to scream abuse at them from the opening minute to the final whistle, then we can all go home with a smug smile and say I told you so.

But if what we want is to see our team win football matches, then we need to show just what the word "supporter" actually means, we need to back our team, all our team and help them through a sticky patch and come out at the other end.

We did that last season at a similar time, we now need to do it again.

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 15:59 - Dec 3 Always sound advice to avoid knee-jerk responses whether in football, war or anything else. The key line in this article is "But the fact remains that we are moving forward all the time". I think a lot of supporters (including those that were there in the third division days cited) are wondering if this is really true. From simply watching matches I feel we are not as good as last season, nor as good as the season before that. I believe we are weaker in certain positions and I also believe that there will be another summer sales spree - cheaper replacements will come in and yet again continuity will be lost and the 'rebuilding' will have to start all over again. I thought all this before last night - I am not even saying it is all the club's fault but all this chopping and changing is spoiling my enjoyment and Koeman is now verbalising his annoyance for the first time. I know that ins and outs are part of the game nowadays but they are a TOO BIG part of our game...

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A1079 added 18:20 - Dec 3 Nick, I usually find much of what you say balanced, careful and considered, but I am sorry but I am not sure that you have got it right this time. Last night was abject, pathetic and goes much deeper than a bad defeat. The signs have been there all season (except possibly Chelsea away) and this is in a season when the Premier League is not great. We are where we are not because we have been good but because the league is largely distinctly average. Consistently this season, our performances have at best been good for 45 minutes. Even Koeman almost match after match has struggled to understand the lack of fight and intensity. We lack team spirit and last night seemingly motivation or the ability to dig in. Koeman's tactics seem suspect. His purchases this summer have not been great (Van Dijk apart). If Clasie is learning, then why not Reed. He may not have made any difference but in all honesty, would he have been worse. Our squad looks paper thin on quality and it has been showing. I sense that some players do not want to be with us and do not have the appetite for a fight when a game gets difficult. Koeman himself is trotting out the same excuses. What annoys me, yet again for the umpteenth season now, we have shown a lack of fight in a cup competition. I thought Sheff Utd last year was a low in our cup performances. This site banged on about people turning up and making it a full house. It was, and that is how we were repaid. I did not actually expect us to win. The performances in other games, the upturn in Liverpool, all pointed to a defeat, but to collapse like that, to make so many errors, to show so little fight and to be so tactically inept suggests either one of two things - they didn't want to go through to the next round or there is a fundamental underlying problem. 2 players who did try and keep going are Wanyama and Mane. One other thing. We as fans have to stop this pointless barracking of former players and coaches. I cannot think of single time recently where it has worked in our favour. We talk about moving on from a result like this, it is time we accepted that they have moved on and they made a career choice. We got plenty of money from it and it was up to us to have gone out and replaced them with quality. Too many sub standard continental players who are no better than can be found at home making it into the PL teams.

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simmo400 added 18:51 - Dec 3 This team cannot handle going behind. Apart from Chelsea game. The heads drop as soon as the going gets tuff. Too many players gave up at 1-2 last night. The belief went confidence was sapped. Midfield went awol and didn't seem up for a fight. Villa is a big game now and if we go behind the whole team will need to show the will and fight to get back. I'm sure the crowd will be there as usual but will the team have the resolve ? RK will need to get this team back on track pretty quickly I feel the characters to pull us though from yester year are very thin on the ground.

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A1079 added 19:01 - Dec 3 Absolutely simmo. When things are going well we are ok, but as soon as the opposition get on top we slump. This suggests something wrong with the team motivation, confidence or willingness to fight and dig in. Dutch players are renowned for not being able to dig in and if you see Koeman, he stands out in the technical area when things are going well, but then slumps in his seat with little expression when the tide turns. I am not suggesting for one minute that Koeman is a bad manager or for heaven sake I would want him to leave, but he has some real issues to address, even if we do get a result on Saturday. You are right, we will be there on Saturday and support and get behind them, but they have to put in a performance at least and they have to show more stoicism.

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BoondockSaint added 19:27 - Dec 3 The really good teams, if they give a rare lack-luster performance, know they are going to get the hairdryer treatment from the manager and the team leaders are going to throw a few things around the locker room. You never get a sense of that with the Saints and it shows in the inability to kill off games when we get the lead. It's frustrating.
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redwight added 19:41 - Dec 3 For some time now Nick, you have been emphasising how much greater strength in depth we have and how this is proof of progress. For what its worth, my feeling is that we have quantity yes, but not the quality of last season or the one before. This is not self-evident progress - just mediocrity across the board. With memories of the 2nd halves against Bournemouth and Leicester in mind, last nights disaster had been coming for some time. WMO, but I think we've taken a wrong turn. So does RK it seems.

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bstokesaint added 20:13 - Dec 3 I'm actually going to go against what seems to the majority and agree with you Nick. I'm quite lucky that most of other the Saints fans I know are fairly grounded, knowledgable folks and I don't have to experience too many knee jerk reactions to bad results, despite the very obvious disappointment. It's far too early in the season to be giving up on our boys, which it feels like a number of fans have done already. We definitely have a lack of cover in certain areas of the pitch, but we're certainly not struggling. Our players just need a lift. This is the time for the supporters to get behind the team and quit lambasting the board, the manager and the new signings. For God's sake judge them at the end of the season not every time we lost a couple of games to the likes of Liverpool and Man C. I've said it before some of the tantrums I've read are almost as embarrassing as last night's performance.

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leighsaint added 19:26 - Dec 4 Where is the replacements better or as good as the players sold VVD excepted. Where are our Academy players coming through? We don't seem as fit as we used to be, the bench just seems to sit there as if they don't care. Sammy Lee use to be jumping up and down now he just sits glum faced. We might be 10 th now but if we continue to play as we have done in the past few weeks who knows the position in the new year.

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