Saints go looking for their first home win of the season against Norwich City.

Saints look to make it four league games in a row unbeaten as they take on Norwich City at St Mary's, they also look to end the dubious distinction of being the only Championship side without a home win.

Saints problems last season arose from their inability to take many points from sides like Norwich, last season saw two defeats including a 1-0 loss against the Canaries at SMS in a game that could have turned the season for Saints, in fact if saints had won it it would have turned the season for the Canaries, they would have been relegated even though they never got dragged into the mire, so close was the melee down at the bottom, that saw them finish only one point above Saints.

This season hasnt fared much better for the East Anglian side, ten points from the opening eight games is solid yet unspectacular, they have only lost two games so far, one both home and away, but a draw at Barnsley on Saturday now sees them balanced finely, a win will take them up to the play off fringes, yet a defeat will see them looking towards the bottom with Saints overtaking them, a draw would be disapointing to either side.

The win at Doncaster for Saints showed the doubters that despite their tender age this side have spirit and a willingness to learn as they go along, after the defeat at Rotherham there were many predicting a collapse at the Keep Moat, but Saints proved that they might get beat from time to time, but they do have the spirit to bounce back.

Jan Poortvliet has to get it right again on Tuesday night, so far his season has been a series of selection blunders aligned with some wholesale changes along the way, now he has the chance to show that he, like his players has learned his lessons and he needs to get it right against Norwich.

Perhaps Saints biggest opponent though is the fear of playing at St Mary's, they have to overcome the mental block of being able to win in front of the Saints home crowd, if they can do that against Norwich then its a mighty step forward and it will have nipped the lack of a home win in the bud before it becomes a real complex.

As for the Saints support, this season although the numbers are down the level of support has been great, and it needs to be more of the same, the fans need to help the players through the game, anyone that says thet the crowd doesnt affect the players has truly never caught the football bug and the tingle in the spine of seeing a truly great game with a team spurred on by the crowd, we have had many nights like that both at the Dell and St Mary's, the problem now though is that we have to create that atmosphere in a stadium with banks of empty seats, in the past it has been fuller houses that have changed game, but Saints fans can make it happen.

Of course it would be nice to see a few more people turn up tommorrow night for several reasons, but its interesting to look at the crowd last season, OK it was the first game in the league for Dodd & Gorman and back in January no one thought we would have a relegation fight on our hands, but the gate of 18,004 was low, it will be interesting to see how it compares this season, those who say Lowe has cost us 6,000 fans arent quite right, the real decline started back in December as the crowds dipped below 20,000, in truth St Mary's has seen low gates but the true comparison can be made this week against Norwich.       

Photo: Action Images

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