Saints look to return to action with a home win.
The fixture against Leyton Orient could suffer from the emotion of the occasion in front of a big St Mary's crowd, most Saints supporters will be predicting on a home banker, but as those who witnessed both the Plymouth and Bournemoth games will testify, teams are coming to SMS and looking to keep a clean sheet first and foremost and then see what they can get.
Saints supporters need to be two things, loud and patient, Alan Pardew expressed his concerns about the crowd after the Carling cup tie against the Cherries, he could sense that the crows grew impatient when Saints hadnt scored in the first half, in fact thats an understatement seeig as the team were booed off the pitch, against Orient we have to realise that although the emotion might mean a tidal wave hits the visitors and sweeps them away, juts as likely is that Saints might take some time to settle and that being the case, the fans will play a big part in what way the game swings, they need to get behind the team and staybehind it, even if things dont go to the script.
On the field its virtually a full squad for Pardew to pick from with the only injury being long term casualty Fraser Richardson, from that respect the lack of a game last week has worked in favour of several players, not least being Rickie Lambert who should make his first start of the season.
So the first question will be whether Saints will line up 4-4-2 or 5-4-1 and the second who will play at left back.
In that position it looked like Ryan Dickson was the man for the place after starting against Bournemouth, certainly with everyone fit in midfield, it looks like both Dickson and Harding wont figure in the starting line up so its a straight choice between then for the left defensive position. My view is that Pardew has to give Dickson the nod, he bought him for a reason and he has to give the ex Brentford man a chance to show his quality.
But on a serious note it is now back to business, to be blunt the defeat against Plymouth was not good, to fail to win in a second home game although not a disaster would not augur well for our promotion hopes and would raise the spectre of whether Alan Pardew is walking a tightrope with Chairman Nicola Cortese.
Saints should win this game and win it well, Orient were well beaten by Charlton in their lst league outing and look set for a season of mid table at best, these are the games we have to win and win with style if we are to start to justify our position of promotion favourites.