So far this season all of Saints points have come from sides that, at the time of playing them at least were firmly in the bottom half of the table, if we want to stay up this has to change.
Saints are not in the relegation zone for one reason and one reason alone and that is they have picked up points from the sides around them at the bottom, QPR won for the first time on Saturday to haul themselves off the bottom, a sobering thought though and one that shows just how tight it is down there is that if they had beaten us at Loftus Road then they would now be above us in the League.
But if Saints are to avoid relegation they arent going to do it by just beating the sides at the bottom, they are going to have to pick up a win or two against sides in the top half of the table, Aston Villa leapfrogged us on Saturday by beating Liverpool at Anfield only two weeks after we went there and were lucky to get nil as the old saying goes, Villa won in a way that we didnt look like doing at Anfield or anywhere else bar QPR for that matter and that has to change.
To emphasise the point about what is needed if we look up the table to Fulham in 13th as being possible relegation candidates, then we have eight games left against our rivals down the bottom at time of writing, that equates to 24 points of course, in black and white if we were to win all of those games that would give us a total of 39 points come the end of the season if we took no points from elsewhere.
But the reality is we wont win all of those eight games and frighteningly six of them are actually away from home to make that task even more unlikely, so the start reality is we have to start beating those top half sides.
So those who say we can stay up just by beating those around us are sorely mistaken, as Aston Villa showed on Saturday the sides that stay up will be those that not only remain unbeaten against their fellow strugglers but who pick up results against the form book, so far that hasnt been us, we have not seen one result go our way when the form book suggests otherwise.
The next few weeks will be crucial for Saints, we need to win one of those two remaining home games against fellow strugglers, the Sunderland game being a must win game in anyones book, then we have to go to Fulham and drag them right into the relegation dog fight, after that Stoke is the first of several games where the form book points to defeat, what better place to start to turn it upside down than there.