 Tuesday, 5th Apr 2011 09:14 Winning our home games is the key to promotion. Whilst it wont be enough on its own, winning our home games is an absolute must if we are to achieve automatic promotion, with four left a maximum points haul would give us 80 points and that would take a big burden off the five away trips, not to mention the pressure it applies to our rivals for that second spot. Indeed a win tonight for Saints puts them two points behind Huddersfield with two games in hand and that would put Saints in the driving seat, this weeks fixtures see a number of permutations available, including Peterborough being pushed out of the race if they fail to win or worse at Dagenham tonight and the big one at Hudderfield on Saturday. But for the moment its to St Mary's tonight and Saints have to do what they need to do clinically, if they failed to win it would not be a disaster, indeed we could still overtake the Terriers with the two games in hand, but the onus would swing back in their favour, but a win for us puts the pressure on them for their big game on Saturday. Nigel Adkins will be considering what his options are, clearly things were not great for a while on Saturday, although on reflection Saints were in control of the game they just failed to create and score chances till after the changes. Biggest question will be in midfield when he has to consider replacing Chaplow with Dale Stephens, Chaplow hasnt been in great form of late and the side does need freshening up, so I would not be surprised to see this change made. Other main issue could be whther to start Guly or not, I dont think Guly was as bad as some would make out on Saturday, he put in the graft it was just it did not come off for him and it could be said he was no worse than Lambert at the time he departed, on first thoughts a straight swap with Forte might be an option, but is the former Scunthorpe man an impact player best left to be brought on in the last 30 minutes or so, people speak of Antonio in almost hallowed terms sometimes, but the fact is he had a lot more bad games than good, when startedhe was often appalling, being subbed just after the half hour mark at Wycombe for example, but in the last 20 mins of a game he could have a real impact and i feel Forte could be a similar sort of player, starting him tonight could be a big mistake Another started could be Frazer Richardson and my worry at the moment is that our second choice defenders have not had enough pitch time lately, one option could be to bring in Richardson and put Danny Butterfield into the right of midfield, certainly his cleaver passing and intelligent play could be a big asset and create chances, not to mention the opportunity to open out overlapping play from Richardson. When it all comes down to it though what really matters is the three points, nothing else, we need to get goals early, not give Charlton the chance to get anything out of the game and use our substitutions well, away to Charlton it was this that cost us, we dont want to let it happen again. Hopefully the fans will turn up in numbers and stay behind the team as they did on Saturday even if it doesnt go well at times, as we showed against MK Dons and other teams come to that, we are a side that is never beaten. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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