Saints hopes of a second away win in a row have been boosted by the fact that Stoke City have an injury crisis in their back four.

Those Saints fans who have been lambasting Saints for their lack of goals since the season started will be thinking that if they can't score against Stoke then we can't score against anyone as The Potters look very short in the centre of defence for our visit to the Bet 365 Stadium on Saturday.

Their three top central defenders look set to miss the game, captain Ryan Shawcross, Bruno Martins Indi and new £18m signing from Tottenham and former Saints target Kevin Wimmer look set to be missing from the team.

But if that is not bad enough Geoff Cameron who can play in a variety of positions but has been used as a centre back frequently in the past also looks likely to miss the game having been injured for the last two games.

Last week Chelsea came saw and conqured 4-0 against a defence cobbled together by Mark Hughes that saw him revert to a back three with right back Glenn Johnson playing out of position and getting caught out.

With Bruno Martins Indi getting injured in that match it is anyones guess what line up Hughes will be able to put together for the visit of Saints.

So if there is a game that offers Saints a good chance of getting back to scoring form then this is it.

The last two games have seen us put in decent performances, Mauricio Pellegrino has got us playing in the style he wants and knows that the next step is creating chances and finishing them, whilst some supporters think the issue is not playing two strikers up front, the manager disagrees and feels that it is about the fact that we are not creating enough decent chances rather than not converting them.

Hopefull on Saturday we can prove his theory right by putting a makeshift Stoke back four to the sword and recapturing the goalscoring form of the first part of last season, when it did not seem to be a problem to the final 8 games or so when after averaging around 1.24 goals a game, comparable to the previous two seasons at that stage, we only scored 4 times in the final 8 and continued that into this season where so far our 4 goals in 6 is not yet as bad as the final part of last season but unless we score in the next couple could start to go from a drama into a crisis.

Photo: Action Images

A1079 added 12:36 - Sep 28 We have got no excuses then.....................
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SaintPaulVW added 12:56 - Sep 28 ...the pressure is really on...
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saintmark1976 added 13:47 - Sep 28 "The Potters look very short in the centre of defence". Yes, and if we start yet another game with only one forward then we will be very short in the centre of attack won't we Nick? What will it take for the management to try something different,dropping into the bottom three perhaps?
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SaintBrock added 13:48 - Sep 28 We are not Chelsea, right now we would find it difficult to score against Sholing Reserves. Nick's 3-1 prediction takes optimism to a new level of incredulity. We can't score and we have enough in defence to stop them getting anywhere near our goal. How can it be other than 0-0?
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TimSaint added 09:44 - Sep 29 Time for 2 up top then - but we will probably get the usual away performance of keep it cagey for the first hour and then maybe go for it a little.
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