Saints need a super sunday results wise to push them a step closer to Premier League safety by 6pm tonight.
Its a big afternoon of football in the Premier league with all four matches having interest to Saints for various reasons.
Perhaps the biggest one though is Wigan V Newcastle, in some respects whatever the result will benefit Saints, for their part Wigan have to win, they start the day seven points behind Saints, but they have two games in hand, anything less than three points today and their chances of catching either us, Sunderland or Villa will look fairly slim, in some respects a draw wouldnt be too bad, as that would also keep Newcastle within our sights, as would defeat for the Toon, but we need to be focused on what our true aim is, that is survival and for that to happen a Wigan defeat is far better as it stands at the moment, if we had three points more my view might be a little different, but for now its about survival first and foremost.
The second game that has a real bearing is Sunderland V Norwich, the North East side are now below us by a point and a draw will put them back on top courtesy of a goal difference that is one better than ours, Im afraid that I fancy the Black Cats to devour the Canaries on this one, but again whatever the result it still has a benefit too us as a Norwich win would be perhaps the best result, but even if they lost they would still be well within our radar being only two points ahead.
Perhaps not so important is Chelsea V West Ham, the hammers are now only two points ahead of us, but a good drubbing at Stamford Bridge would keep them there, the problem is when you are flirting with relegation looking down always looks scary, but the truth is at this stage I cant see the Hammers getting dragged into the mire and being those two points ahead of us it perhaps shows us how close we are to pulling away from it ourselves, football is all ifs and buts, just a shame we didnt hang on at Wigan, the table would look very nice this morning we would be 12th and ten points clear of the bottom three.
Last and definately least is Spurs V Fulham, the only real interest we have in this is that defeat for the Cottagers at the Lane would see them stay on 33 points, again no one has mentioned Fulham and relegation in the same breath this season so it emphasises just how close we are to safety, it galls me to say it because I have struggled this season to want Spurs to win games, years of managers like Redknapp or Hoddle in charge have always made it hard for me to like them, however I like AVB and the way he works, so with gritted teeth a Spurs win would give us a good chance of starting to look to move up the table in the final weeks of the season.
Saints fate is now firmly in their own hands, but defeats for our rivals is only of benefit to us, so lets all hope the results go for us.