The Saints marched on with a win against Blackburn making it 18 games unbeaten in all competitions and 15 in the Championship, which with Ipswich losing at Portsmouth, meant we are within spitting distance of automatic promotion.

Cameron Archer pulled his bow back and fired the arrows that propelled Saints to the verge of securing a play off spot and also an outside chance of automatic promotion.

Tonda Eckert once again shuffled his pack, leaving key players such as Ross Stewart, Caspar Jander & Leo Scienza on the bench with Finn Azaz rested completely, but still his starting line up was far too strong for the Lancashire side.

It was not a surprise to find that the visitors had not come to attack, even though they had included ex Saint Nathan Redmond for his full debut, thus the early stages did not see too many clear cut chances, but in the 24th minute the scoring was opened when Cameron Archer latched on to a lovely through ball from Kuryu Matsuki and crossed low and hard perfectly to Cyle Larin who fired home from close range.

That put Saints in command, but they didn't double their lead until the 43rd minute and the goal had a bit of luck about it, Shea Charles crossed from the dead ball across and a poor clearance rebounded off Ryan Manning and into the net.

There was a suspicion that the ball was going wide and went in off a defender and thus an own goal, but it was credited to Manning and nobody cared as Saints were now two up.

The second half was pretty much the same as the first, although you sensed that Blackburn had heard that Pompey were 2-0 up and they now seemed to have an urgency about them not present in the first half.

Saints were in control and the only real scare came midway in the half when Blackburn had 3 shots in quick succession, rattling the bar in one of them.

At the other end Kuryu Matsuki blazed over when it looked easier to score.

But Saints had more in reserve and even a raft of changes did not weaken the side and it was fitting that the final goal fell to Cameron Archer who probably had his best game for the club, finishing with aplomb to put the game beyond any doubt in the 86th minute to add to his first half assist.

It highlighted the strength in depth that Saints have these days and how they have built a squad that is arguably the strongest in the division and has marched from mid table in January to 4th place and within 3 points of Ipswich in 2nd.

The Tractor Boys have a game in hand so are still favourites for second place but that game in hand is essentially going to be on the 25th April when we play Arsenal in the FA Cup semi final.

In the meantime Saints just have to keep on winning and hope that Ipswich drop a point or two.

There final 5 games are Middlesbrough home on Sunday, Charlton away next Wednesday, the game in hand on the 25th West Brom away, followed by their trip to St Mary's in the penultimate game of the season on Tuesday 28th April.

That would leave them with the final day of the season where they take on Queens Park Rangers at home, whilst we are at Preston.

So this season could yet go down to the wire,

Tonda Eckert will be taking every game as it comes, concentrate on winning our own games and then worry about what is happening elsewhere, this has proven to work well in the last 3 months.

Personally in unbeaten runs it is the League that counts and with 15 unbeaten and 6 wins in a row, we are coming up on the rails and Ipswich must now be looking over their shoulders with a nervy glance.

All Photos Via Reuters