Saints take on Burnley at St Mary's on Saturday knowing that only three points will be good enough and anything less will see their hopes of a Champions League place all but end.

Saints take on Burnely seeking revenge for a defeat at Turf Moor back in December that saw Dusan tadic miss a penalty that would have given them the lead in a game they dominated from start to finish, but saw the home side snatch a winner in the 73rd minute with a goal that took a big deflection past keeper Fraser Forster.

the 60% possession that we enjoyed on that day along with the 15 shots we had is likely to be the same story at St Mary's this weekend, however the result has to be different this time and Saints the victors.

I suspect that Burnley will come and try to do what many sides have done this season and that is keep it tight at the back and try and nick a goal from somewhere and to be frank too many sides have got away with it of late.

But hopefully the win against Palace along with the draw at Chelsea have restored Saints confidence and with a full squad to pick from Ronald Koeman certainly has plenty of options not just for a starting line up but off the bench as well.

The key therefore will be an early goal, if Saints can get that and get their noses in front then they will control the game and it will mean that at some time Burnley will have to come out as us and give us a chance to expose them at the back and use our pace.

Hopefully Shane Long will get another well earned start, I say that not just because of the shift that Long put in at Chelsea, nor because Graziano Pelle perhaps needs to enjoy another well earned rest, but because Long's harrying style and the pressure he puts on defenders is something that we could well use in the early stages of the game rather than being used as a last resort.

Variety though is the key and Ronald Koeman has to look at the side he put out against Chelsea and consider what if any changes he will make, last time out he put in Steven Davis for his battling style and it paid off, but Koeman may want to restore Eljero Elia to the team if he is fit again and will have to consider whether he will drop Davis or Dusan Tadic to restore Elia.

If Elia is fit then Koeman will not only have dilemmas in the starting line up but also on the bench where someone will have to drop out, at Chelsea he opted for three defenders, but he will surely not want that against Burnley, Yoshida is slightly ahead of Gardos at present so it will be Gardos or Matt Targett who will lose out I suspect.

But whatever happens on Saturday and one thing we know of late is that Saints do keep going to the final whistle, we have the firepower to win the game from any position, so again the supporters need to stay with the team till the final whistle, as was shown against Palace if the fans remain patient it helps the side and enables them to score late in the game.

The real objective though is three points and from that point of view it doesnt matter how we get them as long as we do, obviously we would prefer a big win that would help boost our goal difference but the truth is it doesnt matter as long as we ge the three points.

For their part Burnley are not a side noted for their defensive qualities, in total only QPR have let in more than the 47 that the Clarets have conceded and on the road they have let in 28 in their 14 games so far.

Scoring wise they arent great either only scoring 12 on their travels.

But the worry is that Burnley seem to have an ability to dig in, if they can keep a game tight they can get something out of it, although they only have a solitary away win, they have drawn another 5 and lost 8, that doesnt sound great but it does show that they can get a result on their travels and they have lost less than most of their rivals at the bottom end of the table.

Scoring wise on the road they have 12, that is less than a goal a game and again perhaps highlights how they look to set themselves up on their travels, if they survive and I hope they do, then it is going to be on their home results rather than away.

What Saints do need though is a full house roaring them on tomorrow and as of Friday afternoon although ticket sales are already over the 30,000 mark, there are still around 1,000 seats left, whilst its true that these are all in blocks usually reserved for away fans and have been returned by Burnley, at a time when some speak of stadium expansion it is this sort of game where the casual supporter needs to show that demand is there.

By 5pm Saturday hopefully Saints will have three points in the bag which will mean that with Liverpool playing Manchester United on Sunday they will have made up ground on at least one of the teams above them and hopefully more.

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 23:00 - Mar 20 Burnley drew at Chelski and Man City + won at Stoke so they will not be pushovers. We are due a productive home performance so I for one am quite confident...
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WestSussexSaint added 07:10 - Mar 21 The first 20 mins will be critical. Too often this season we have been content to ease our way into games, controlling things from the back. This is fine against the better teams but against the lower teams in the PL it also gives them time to feel their way into the match. I hope we throw everything at Burnley early on in search of that early goal. Get one and I think there will be more. Fail to score early and it could be a long afternoon.

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