After a long season it now all comes down to one game and ninety minutes of football, this is no time to lose our nerve now either on or off the pitch.

For the most part of this season I have talked of the need to treat every game as must win, of how if we do that we will achieve our aims long before the final day of the season, throughout that time i would often be lambasted by those who would tell me that I was stupid, that it would be a long season and that we had plenty of games left to achieve promotion and in any case In Nigel They Trusted ! or words to that effect.

So here we are approaching the last game on the final day of the season and if we want to be absolutely sure of promotion being in our own hands, then we need to win it, Im sure the pedants who picked holes in me all season are now in a real dilemma, do they have a smile on their face for showing me just who is right, or are they wringing their hands in anguish for Saints leaving it so late and allowing West Ham back into the game.

Already Im seeing messages both on the home page and the message board with various people getting very worried, in some cases from those who where so confident months, even weeks ago, yet now they are trembling in their boots as they start to realise we are going into this game on a bit of a slippery slope.

All season I talked of the season being a little mini leage where we split it up into six games segments and concentrate on getting a two point average, for the most part of the season we succeeded in this, however in the last six it has gone badly wrong with only seven points gained out of the last six and its been this lax performance that has seen us let West Ham back into the final day promotion frame, now is the time to do what we have always managed to do on every bad run so far this season..... and that is end it.

Yes everything comes down to this one game, yes two points average may not be enough, so we have to get the full three, but why are some panicking now, the stark truth is any neutral observer would still say we are in pole position, I would not swap our position for West Ham's and as I have said, if we had the choice of a team we had to play in this do or die game, then it would sure as hell be Coventry at home, of course nothing is predictable, but all things being equal, here is a team with the worst away record in the division, with the lowest goals scored and just about the most conceded, what more do some Saints fans want.

So now is the time to hold it all steady, believe in the manager and the team, all Nigel Adkins has to do is not panic, look at his team and prepare them properly, if he does this then there is no reason why we should not take a grip of the game from the very start and make sure that it is won a long time before the final whistle, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

This starts at the top, if the manager exudes quiet calm and confidence, that will pass down to the players, if they walk onto the pitch in that mood then it all comes down to us the fans, we have to have that belief from the moment the players appear, we have to show them we believe and that we are right behind them, by this i dont mean the arrogant cocky attitude that many of our supporters have displayed for most of the season with the "We are top of the league" "Do what we want" "Never play you again" chants that have been prevalent for much of this term and which now seem very redundant, but the way in which we used to conduct ourselves, when we as fans remained focused on being right behind our team, it was a spirit that carried us through some big releagtion battles in the 90's and indeed our great cup run of 2003, back then we werent arrogant, we were merely confident in our ability to win a game of football, we didnt taunt Watford at the FA Cup semi at Villa Park before or after the game, we quietly knew what was needed and got it done, we need to do this on Saturday.

So now is not the time for anyone to lose their bottle or doubt our ability, its not about TV jinxes etc, after all when we beat Leeds at home on the opening day of the season live on TV no one spoke of jinxes then, so we dont need to start now, cometh the hour cometh the man and by 2.30pm on Saturday we shall see the answers to many questions asked this season.

Photo: Action Images

geezershoong added 09:52 - Apr 24 According to the Sky Sports site the final game is TBA. Please, please, not us.
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ThereIn76 added 09:55 - Apr 24 At any other stage of the season all fans would have been confident of us beating Coventry at home but it's all or nothing on Saturday so nerves are understandable. You're absolutely right though about staying calm and focused - that applies to the fans as well as the players and management. It's a cup final so let's all get right behind the team. we want the players to give their best for 95 minutes so it shouldn't be too big an ask for 30,000 Saints fans to do the same.

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stmichael added 10:18 - Apr 24 To be honest Nick it isnt us that have blown it its WHAM. Somehow we find ourselves in this unbelievably good position but it is down to WHAM and their home record. Even if they had won at Bristol City we would be in trouble now and they must be kicking themselves inwardly. The big worry is for me is bad officials. We lost at BORO because of bad officials. Where there is money there is a fiddle and the FA(Trevor Brooking) are not clean in my opinion. Worse still we get bent officials.

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michaeljoycetf added 10:33 - Apr 24 you are sooo smug.
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Sanguin added 11:00 - Apr 24 Looking ahead, regardless of whether we get promoted or not I’m a little worried about how we’ll start next season. We carried our form through from the end of last season into this one and it’s the points we got last year that have given us this chance of promotion. Now we’re limping towards the finishing line, it’s not a good platform to make a good start in the Premiership or to challenge early for promotion from the Championship next season.

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Horndeansaint added 11:04 - Apr 24 St Michael, that is so conspiracy theory it is unbelievable. Indeed the decision on Saturday not to send off Hines was a bad one and may have turned the game, indeed probably did but to hang your hat on just that one incident and bleat about supposedly bent officials kind of misses the point of all the things we did not do as well as we should have done. We had chances to avoid conceeding. We had chances to score several goals. We were presented with the ball on more times than I can remember and did not capitalise. I sometimes wondered if the Boro chant was right "you're only here for the Parmo!!"

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patred added 11:04 - Apr 24 "here is a team with the worst away record in the division, with the lowest goals scored and just about the most conceded, what more do some Saints fans want." could we have a couple of them sent off, and 3 penalties in the first 10 mins please ? that might calm some of the nerves a bit
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stmichael added 11:30 - Apr 24 Pat I dont need to remind you of this but I'm going to give you a few reasons why we should be concerned : WIGAN 1-0 MAN U ARSENAL 1-2 WIGAN MAN U 4-4 EVERTON PETERBORO 3-1 READING and more recently SAINTS 2-2 SCUMPEY. This is no forgone conclusion and even less so given the enourmity of whats at stake. A bad or worse bent official can cost us the lot.
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bstokesaint added 12:55 - Apr 24 I've just spoken to a Coventry City season ticket holder and he makes the majority of fans on here look like the most confident fans I've ever met. In his own words his club are currently in turmoil and look to have all but given up. There is also a well publicised internal rift at the club at the moment. I'm not saying they will rolll over for us, but they are a team for the taking. This is not galvanising stuff. We need to get out there and just do the thing that got us second in the league. I'm not dumb enough to completely write Coventry off, but like Nick says the facts are there. We have the better team and if we play without fear like we did when forced to bounce back against Palace and Petersborough (both better teams on paper) then we will be fine. Maybe it was the pressure in these particular games that motivated us. That is a positive in itself. Let's face it every time we have a cushion we tend to take our foot off the pedal. On a less positive note I don't think being quite so smug is really of any benefit. We all know that we've dropped key points, but I don't think it's through a lack of effort on anyone's side. This is a team that has come up only this season and outscored everyone else to get to this position. Frailties were always going to creep in at a higher level (where mistakes are punished more) and there's a lot of inexperience in this team because of the double promotion push. Now comes the time where we need to back the manager and the players and get behind them and not on their backs. They won't need any additional pressure. We need to get into that position where news is filtering through to Upton Park that it doesn't matter what they do. We're at home, let's make it feel like it.

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VeloSaint added 13:35 - Apr 24 this tv hoodoo is complete rubbish. We could not ask for a better opposition (FFS would you prefer Hull at home???), we should be confident and get behind the team. The management has to get their minds right, on the pitch our XI vs Cov's should win out no problem.
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Webbinho added 16:06 - Apr 24 Completely agree about TV hoodoo. Look at the games we lost on TV. Blackpool away (no Lambert and up against a very good side IMO), Leicester at home (no Lambert and looked like defeat when the teamsheet came out)... I could go on, but also consider Birmingham away where we got a fighting point in the snow and could have won it, Leeds away where we defended like Lions, certainly no hoodoo that day, quite the opposite. Then think Coventry at home. All of our TV games have been against top top sides in this division, many away from home. Whilst I don't think we will waltz through Coventry, I think we should have enough to win by a couple of goals.

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BlackRod added 16:28 - Apr 24 Smug beyond belief. It's the fact that you have been labelling almost every game since last November as 'must win' that brought so much ridicule. We would all have liked promotion to be in the bag before Christmas but this is a tough league - look at the number of teams who's challenge fizzled out. Despite all the must win games that we lost we go into the last game 1/12 on to gain promotion (bet £12, win £1). It's like trying to pick the winner of the Grand National 100 yards from the finish. If we do a Devon Loch we don't deserve to be promoted.

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rjh added 19:31 - Apr 24 If two years ago somebody had said we would need to beat a relegated team at home on the last Saturday to gain promotion to the Premier League we would have thought they were mad and bitten their hand off. We will beat Coventry and do it.
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