Last year Saints powered over the line into sixth place with a late run of wins, can they repeat something similar this season to secure another top 8 spot.

The irony of this season's issues is that in terms of points total we are only 4 points shy of the number we had at the 30 game mark last term, back then we had our best finish in years to take 19 points from the last 8 fixtures to end up on 63 points.

But this has not always been the case and the in fact Ronald Koeman's first season was the mirror opposite ending of his last, two years ago after 30 games we sat on 53 points and in sixth place and within striking distance of a Champions League spot, however in the final 8 games we amassed only 7 points to end in 7th.

Both of these seasons had their high points and their lows, but for some reason they are remembered a lot more fondly than it looks like this one will be, despite a number of great European nights and of course a Wembley final appearance.

Sadly though barnstorming finishes haven't usually been our forte, but can this one go some way of repeating that of a year ago.

Everton's win yesterday against Leicester perhaps put paid to any lingering hopes that we might have had about overhauling them in the final run in, they are now 14 points clear of us and in reality that is too much, even if we were to win all of our last 8 games 64 points is the most we can get, the Toffee's should get somewhere near that total even with a poor finish to their season.

But beating West Brom on Saturday has enabled us to set our sights on 8th, it is still a tough ask, but it does give us something to focus on to ensure that we don't peter out in the last ten games and get overhauled ourselves.

The target has to be 8th spot and that will be a great achievement, it will be the first time we have ever finished in the top ten for four consecutive seasons in our history and those whinging about this being a poor season should acknowledge that and realise that you sometimes have to look at consolidation and that will certainly be that.

If we achieve that then I would contend that outside of the big six clubs and perhaps Newcastle and Blackburn from the 1990's then few other clubs have actually achieved since the Premier League started in 1992.

Looking at this morning's table I would say that 4 wins would guarantee us 10th spot and that should be our first target, in deed it could be as low as 3 wins given that most of the clubs below us only have 6 games left, Burnley in 12th are 4 points behind with only 6 to play.

Our current spot of 9th should be well within our capabilities, but we want more than that and West Brom are now only 4 points ahead and we have two games in hand.

A look at our fixtures shows we have 3 very winnable games in Hull and Stoke at home and a trip to Middlesbrough on the penultimate weekend which by the look of it will have seen Boro already put down and with nothing to play for.

Then it is not quite so easy, we have to play 5 of the top six teams, Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal at home and then Chelsea and Liverpool away.

On paper this looks tough, certainly a lot tougher than most of our rivals have to play, however although our record against the top six has been poor so far this season, Spurs at home aside when they scored two late goals against our ten men to make it look a lot easier than it was, we have competed against all of the top six.

We should not be afraid of taking them on and we have the advantage of players returning from injury to boost the squad.

We have taken 7 points from the last 9 without Manolo Gabbiadini and he is likely to return against City, add to that Charlie Austin approaching fitness and the squad will be boosted further, not to mention if Virgil Van Dijk could make a return at the end, although that looks unlikely.

So this season has the potential to end with a feeling of success and satisfaction, there will be no European qualification, but there will hopefully be the awareness that we have consolidated the last three years and can keep moving forward with the aim of cementing our place as one of the biggest clubs outside of that big six.

But it does need all the fans to realise what we have achieved over the last few years and to stay behind the club and what it is trying to achieve, supporters should realise that reality is that we cannot compete on the same terms as the big six, but what we can do is compete on our own terms.

Those ho say we can't keep selling players every year, should realise that we can as it is the way we have achieved success, we don't stand still, yes it would be nice to keep a squad together and then invest another £80 -100 million in it every summer as the big six do, but we cannot do that, so we have to do it our way.

Funnily enough all the other clubs are now trying to copy us, I wonder why !

So we have the opportunity to have a great ending to the season, lets get behind the team help them to a top ten finish and then look forward to what we can do next term, a season that hopefully will not have the injury issues, the distractions and indeed it certainly won't have the sheer number of games, that being the case we can have a real shot at another trophy and hopefully a fifth consecutive top ten finish that will see us acknowledged as one of the top clubs in England.

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 12:10 - Apr 12 Whiteknight - I fully respect your 'glass half full' feelings - calling your fellow fans 'so-called supporters' is also of course a negative comment. I don't think anyone on here always posts negative stuff. People's posts should reflect how they see things. If you are saying people who wish to ask questions of the 'prevailing wisdom passed down from above' should simply shut up, or pretend they are content by posting cheery comments, then fine - sounds a bit authoritarian to me. The variety of opinion and the civilized debate are what makes TUI a pleasure - long may it continue.

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SaintBrock added 13:24 - Apr 15 If we finish 8th in a season which most will concede has not been our best of recent years let alone with the loss of so many key players last summer and through injury this season, what does that tell us about the EPL? 12 really crap teams is the answer and any half decent side with "ambition" should have done the same. This is the very least we should have achieved so no progress at all in reality. It may look like consistency in history books and memories fade pretty quickly but don't let's kid ourselves that all is well and that this season's sun is setting on shimmering seas.

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