Saints get a chance to avenge their shock defeat at Ashton Gate a month ago.
The defeat at Bristol City on November 26th sparked a month of poor form from Saints, before bristol they had earned 16 points from the previous six games, in the six starting from that 2-0 defeat has gleaned exactly half that number, however Saints looked good against Crystal Palace so the hope is our rough patch has been played through and we can surge forward.
City arrive with not just injury problems that include Saints target Liam Fontaine who now looks set to be out for six weeks, but unrest in the camp with Nicky Maynard refusing to sign a new deal meaning not only will he leave for nothing in the summer unless the Robins can squeeze some cash out of somebody in January but he might not play against Saints, if he does its likely his own fans will give him abuse.
From a Saints view hopefully Nigel Adkins leaned a few lessons in the rough patch, two of those should be not to change things just for the sake of change sake and also dont put square pegs in round holes and ruin the balance of the team, against Palace he seemed to have learnt this and I would hope that the starting line up would be the same as against Palace as although Steve De Ridder isnt best suited to starting games as has been well documented, he has earned his right to start on Friday night, but more than that the team needs the balance of a genuine wide player.
So I would go with the same starting line up and a bench consisting of Bialkowski, Martin, Connolly, Hammond & Holmes, this gives us good attacking options should we need to keep pressure on or chase the game at any stage, a positive outlook is needed, in truth for my liking the bench against Palace was too defence minded, against sides of the calibre of Bristol City, with all due respect, we dont need two defenders on the bench, we need attacking options.
This is another must win game, Im sorry but they all are now, we cant afford to take our foot off the gas any more, we have a tough January with two consecutive away trips after this game, we need to keep the momentum at home going and start picking up wins on the road, the division is tight there is now little room for error, every time we fail to win a game we are a step nearer dropping out of the top two, with every game we win a step nearer the premier league, win games and we keep the pressure on, if we can always keep a gap between us and third place where it takes more than one defeat for us to be overtaken then that should be our first aim.
By the end of January a few very important questions will be answered, if we want those answers to be good news then we have to dsspatch Bristol City and do it well, we have to make sure that not only do we stay ahead on points but that our goal difference is worth another point to us as well, it was last season and that helped to put the pressure on Huddersfield in the run in, put Bristiol City to the sword and we not only gain revenge for our defeat a month ago, but we make our promotion rivals wonder when we are ever going to slip up, all wins now are crucial, but the next month more so than ever, if we hit that two points per game average over the next six games then promotion will be well within our grasp.