Saints have two crucial games against Liverpool & Aston Villa this week that will go a long way to defining whether this season is on course to exceed last term or whether it is one of less excitement.

Saints have two vital games at St Mary's this week that will direct the course of the season, if they can win both of them, not only will they have their first true cup semi final for 14 years, but they could well sit as high as sixth in the league going into a run of highly important games against teams who at present are around them in the League.

It has to be one step at a time though and perhaps the first against Liverpool is the most important, the Capital One Cup offers Saints not only their best chance of a trip to Wembley and glory, but of a Europa Cup place next season.

This is the biggest game of the season so far and many would say our biggest since the last day of season 2011/12 when we secured promotion back to the Premier League, yes a year ago we lost to Sheffield United at the same stage, but this is Liverpool at home and the chance to not only secure that semi final place, but show a couple of our old boys that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.

It needs a passionate full house at St Mary's on Wednesday night and to be frank I cannot believe there are still some tickets still available.

Then on Saturday we take on Aston Villa, this is a potential minefield, Vlla are bottom of the table with only 5 points, but as they showed with a draw against Manchester City a couple of weeks back, they can compete on their day, ideally we would repeat our performance of last season, but the truth is 3 points whatever the score is just as good.

A win could put us up to 6th if results go our way, but given our next 4 opponents after this game it is important that we win against Villa to give us a good foundation to go into a tough period in December.

So these two games will go a long way to defining our season, if you haven't got a ticket then go and buy one, if we as supporters want success for our club then we have to show that we are behind Katharina Liebherr and her board, if we want her to invest further in our club, then we also have to put our hands in our pockets and at £18 for an adult ticket Wednesday night is not expensive.

Photo: Action Images

schatfield added 10:43 - Nov 30 nick, not all saints supporters live in Southampton anymore, so a mid-week game can make it near-impossible to get down there, no matter how cheap it is. That could be why it's not a sell-out (and why i can't make it).
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SanMarco added 10:49 - Nov 30 Look at number 3 here (its not just the Mail that shafts us: http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/nov/30/premier-league-10-talking-p
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SaintNick added 11:23 - Nov 30 schatfield, I know not everyone lives in Southampton and i do appreciate that for some its impossible to make, it is not them the comment was aimed at. The fact is that there are more than enough who can make it and who don't seem to be bothering, we had a sell out for the Villa game and that was midweek
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TimSaint added 12:43 - Nov 30 Just an observation, but perhaps the fact that the tickets availalble are in the family centre is why we have't sold out. Firstly it could be that younger kids (and maybe their parents) are not going this time round, as it is not half term this, unlike the Villa game. Secondly and perhaps more importantly, are adults able to buy tickets in the family section, should they not be accompanied by kids ? Usually there are all sorts of rules in place for buying tickets for the family section, so I wonder if these are dropped in order to sell the last 200 tickets ? Do potential paying adults want to sit in the family stand, or would they rather get £18 worth of beer and watch it on Sky in the pub ? NB - the above are only thoughts and observations and as usual, I will be attending with the usual gang and family members. COYS

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SanMarco added 13:01 - Nov 30 Surely as long as the game sells out it doesn't matter when the last ticket is sold?
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bstokesaint added 13:02 - Nov 30 I feel totally deflated after the last two games which is a bit surprising because I'd have been very satisfied with 2 or more points. I think it's just the fact that I'm not used to us getting turned over these days. If we can win both of these games I think it is fair to say our season will be firmly back on track.
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IWOZTHERE added 13:09 - Nov 30 After the last two performances I hope we're set up to win the early battle to gain the initiative BEFORE we start playing the 'pretty' stuff.
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SaintBrock added 17:35 - Nov 30 Nah! There's another bigger cup to win and we're having a rubbish season anyway. Even Strachan's bunch of journeymen did better than this.
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SaintBrock added 17:39 - Nov 30 The paper's is full title is "The Manchester Guardian" so what d'you expect? Mane isn't going anywhere, ask Les!
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IWOZTHERE added 19:09 - Nov 30 Dear old Les???.....Anyway, Strachan's Journeymen were much more than a 'bunch'. They were a tight 'team' and incredibly fit as I recollect. The squad was really short of numbers but all knew their jobs, worked hard, and significantly? were played in their correct positions. Ok they too faded towards the end of the season and lost in the Cup Final, but I've always thought that today's big squads and the 'chopping and changing' doesn't produce the same level of 'togetherness' and team spirit.

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