This time last week it was all doom and gloom in Saints World, we were out of the FA Cup and had only won once in two months, now it's all changed.

Two straigh home wins in a week plus the signing of Charlie Austin have worked wonders for the morale of supporters of Southampton Football Club, a four day period changed the mood from one of depression into positivity.

This season's Premier League is a funny one, it is highly condensed in that if we had lost both of our two home games this week we would be 14th in the table with the possibility that if Swansea win tonight then we would be only four points off of relegation.

But that did not happen and the six points catapulted up to 10th place, but more imortantly within striking distance of the top 7 and not too far behind 6th, 5th and even 4th to emphasise just were we could be if we had just had a poor run instead of an appalling one.

Hopefully Watford will fail to win at Swansea this evening and we will still be in 10th come 10pm.

But it was not just the two wins, nor the manner of them that has ut the faith back into Saints supporters, the signing of Charlie Austin showed that the club is serious about keeping moving forward and that was a big boost.

Sometimes it is all about perception and in the space of a few days the perception of many supporters was suddenly changed about where the club is.

We are now looking at moving up the Premier league again and as a glance at the league tables show, there is no reason why we should not emulate last season's 7th place.

Suddenly from a current form perspective of only four points from six games we are now up to nine from the last six and in the current form table that puts us 7th.

Ok we have two tough away games coming up, but after that we get a decent run f games, the job now is to keep focused and keep aiming at the top six and see where we end up.

We have good reason to be optimistic though, we have not only come through an appalling run of late, but also a tough start to the season where we were ravaged by injuries, with those players now back and fit including Fraser Forster, plus the addition of Charlie Austin we have every reason to believe that we can have a far better finish to the season than start.

This time last year we were third with 42 points from 22 games, still 10 ponts from the leaders, this year Leicester who are being touted as in with a chance of winning the title sitting joint top have 44 from the same number of games, perhaps emphasising just how great the first half of the season was last year for us.

But we fell away badly in the last 16 games, we only got 18 points from the last 16 games and we are capable of beating that, with everyone beating everyone else in this seasons topsy turvy league, it will take less points than last year to achieve 7th place so that should be our minimum.

But I have always maintained that last season would be hard to beat and therefore a top 10 finish would be a triumph, with losing key players last summer this season was always going to be one of consolidation in many respects, bad timing given so many of the big clubs are failing to dominate, but next season we could again be the surprise side, in that we have built a squad that the likes of Leicester, Palace, Watford, even West Ham do not have.

That means that although the depature of one possibly two players for big money is inevitable in the summer, we should in fact be welcoming it as another chance to build up the squad, Wanyama and Mane have been attracting alleged big money offers, but the stark truth is that they have not been worth anything like that value to us this season, Wanyama and Mane on form would be in our side every week, but not for the performances they have been putting in so far this season.

So there is a lot to look forward to both this season and next, yes there has been plenty of disappointments this term, but we have to learn from them and use those lessons to move forward.

Some Saints fans should learn that patience is a virtue and every club will suffer poor form and traumas in a season, that does not mean that the club is in turmoil, stay behind the team have faith in the strategy the club is adopting, sometimes it is not all about current form, but about more long term aims and things that will make us stronger.

This club is far stronger and better run than it was two years ago when Katharina Liebherr took over.we are still paying the price of the financial follies of that time and with the departure of Gaston Ramirez it will free up a big chunk of wages to bring in quality signings, this club runs itself properly and it cannot just write off £5 million in wages per year lightly, make no bones the last two years have been restricted by the cost of money wasted on both Ramirez and Osvaldo, it is strong because of money bought in from transfers, it enabled us to rebuild and compete.

It's now time to look to the future and not the past, we cannot keep on harking back to it whenever we have troubled times, the mood now is positive, let's keep it that way !

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 12:23 - Jan 18 I admire the upbeat nature of this. My only word of caution would be that in the same way that a couple of bad results shouldn't have us all wetting the bed (and let's face it we had more than a couple recently) then two good performances against lower-middle ranking teams should not have us hailing the new golden era. I will only believe that we are truly progressing when a statement like " the depature of one possibly two players for big money is inevitable in the summer..." is not standard in such pieces. I think we are more than capable of coming 8-10th and that would be great but another round of disruption in the summer will simply have us starting next season with the same 'rebuilding' exercise. And re the title of this article - if we lose the next two will it "suddenly look bad again"???

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bstokesaint added 12:39 - Jan 18 I couldn't agree more Nick. The last couple of months have been pretty hard for most Saints' fans to absorb. Only the most hardened ones have (like yourself) have managed to stay truly optimistic. I have to confess that although I didn’t see us as relegation candidates, I did think with the cup exit this season was going to fizzle out to nothing more than a lower mid-table finish. Now though, I feel we can turn it around and make up some places above up above us. After watching the Man U game yesterday I don’t think we have anything to fear from them next weekend. I was struggling to think of more than 3 of their players I would take into our team to improve it if I had that option, and one of them was Morgan – who looks like a player surrounded by averageness. You also touched on Austin and the feel-good factor from that signing. For £4m that is an incredible bit of business. With something like 120 goals from 180-odd starts that is the kind of player we’ve been crying out for. Whatever level a player has scored goals at a record like that shows he knows where the goal is. I heard we have put more crosses into the opponent’s box than any other team in the PL (well over 400 crosses) so on paper this is the perfect signing. It also shows how our current frontline have not been performing. What’s more he’s a niggly player and won’t let defenders settle easily. And he won’t be scoring against us anymore!

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bstokesaint added 12:52 - Jan 18 Actually not sure where I read Austin's goalacoring record before, but understand it's more like 130 from 240. Still a great scoring record though. Would like to know how that compares against career goals of other strikers..
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Whiteknight added 14:15 - Jan 18 We are only one point off where we were 2 seasons ago! If we can avoid falling away like last season then there is cause for optimism. To me the biggest cause for optimism is the way that we have played over the last couple of games - much better. I would like to take credit for the mini-revival as I put 10 quid on Saints to get relegated last Tuesday (at 40/1)!
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Alehouse added 14:57 - Jan 18 Things are definitely looking up. Ron's decision to go for 5 at the back with Targett and Soares playing attacking roles has been a great success, giving us solidity at the back and an added dimension in midfield. Targett is benefiting from receiving the ball in more advanced positions when he also has a bit of space and can cross early. I agree with the post in a previous thread which pointed out he is not exposed defensively in his new position with Bertrand able to double up. My word of caution would be to do with the lack of good back-up defenders. If one of our first choice defenders are injured we will find ourselves back where we were a few games ago. . Wanyama is not an automatic choice as defensive miidfielder in my view. Romeu has a much more rounded game. Good at breaking up play but confident on the ball and able to move it forward. Mane remains our most dangerous attacker and can unsettle any defence with his pace. He must stay. I have respect for Pelle as a player but when he leads the line we play the long ball to him too much as against Spurs. We look much better with Long and Mane running the channels giving Steve Davis options to thread the ball though.

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halftimeorange added 16:23 - Jan 18 Completely agree with Alehouse's comments. If Targett can be coached into beating his man then crossing the combination of him with Bertrand behind him is a winning one. Cedric is doing it and can cross with either foot. As far as defenders are concerned, Gardos was said by RK to be pushing for a place before his injury. He looked reasonably assured on the ball in the few games he did play and must be seen as a long-term solution to our aging captain who this term isn't quite up to the standards as he set last season. If we maintain the Targett/Soares system playing them as wingers then Pelle actually might benefit.

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SaintBrock added 18:30 - Jan 18 I agree with Alehouse up to a point but don't forget we trashed the Gunners playing our normal system so the jury must still be out on which is the best way forward. What is positive is that we have two equally viable good systems that we appear to be expert at so should be able to switch at will. Adkins used to play the diamond as an alternative to regain possession when we were under the cosh and it usually worked but we don't seem to have that one in our armoury these days. The current system stops a lot of the aimless cross field passing that often slows up our game and allows packed defences to form up by not allowing opponents the time to do that if their attacks break down. Sorry Nick but we are still the Saints and you know from experience that we are just as likely to lose the next 3 as we are to win them so talk of being on the up again after two good results is tempting fate a bit. Still you always have to beat the teams around you and we have done that this week so a draw next weekend at the Manure heap will be a good result for us.

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TeamCortese added 21:32 - Jan 18 Things are certainly indeed looking more positive! I for one didn't see the Charlie Austin transfer coming. Some very, very shrewd business done by Les Reed and co. From reading this forum I gather people are cautiously optimistic about our chances this season and rightly so. The last couple of matches only reinforce the need for consistency. One major positive note is the form of Shane Long. He has really stepped it up this season and has proved his doubters wrong--myself included. Shane ran his socks off the last few games and has really made a case to the gaffer to become a first team regular. This can only be good for Koeman as it give hims more options in attack. For me personally I think if we can keep Pelle (at least till the summer), Mane, Tadic, Davis and Shane Long injury-free for the rest of the season, as well as bed in Charlie Austin and Jay Rod into the team then I believe we have the strongest attack outside of the top 5 (Arsenal, Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool). After those teams there isn't much that separates us from Tottenham, Leicester, Everton and Stoke. The aim for us this season should be a top 6 finish. We should be the best team after those bracket of clubs. That's the only way we'll attract better players in future seasons. We also need some backup in defence (especially RB and CB). Hopefully as Nick mentioned Ramirez leaving will free up the wage bill and allow us to get in better players. Lastly, I want to say I for one am quickly becoming a Matt Targett fan. His left-foot is delicious and reminds me very much of Gareth Bale. I think we should look at making him a winger. All he needs to do is to bulk up, learn how to dribble and pick up some pace #COYR #WeMarchOn.

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SaintJez added 09:24 - Jan 19 2 very good wins, 2 clean sheets for the returning Forster and an excellent signing in Austin. The guy is a proven goalscorer and will add a finishing touch that we've been missing to date. It's very rare that Saints actually sign the player you want them to so I'm over the moon with this one! The other one I'd like is Januzaj and he showed his class against our u-21s last night (2 goals and 2 assists in a 4-0 win I believe). Come on Saints, work some magic and sign him up too! By the way, what formation do people think we are playing? I keep reading things about 5 at the back / wing backs but we seem to be lining up as a back 4 with Targett left midfield from what I can see?

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