Saints cannot afford to drop many more points if they are to achieve the goal of making the play offs, the away game at Queens Park Rangers was where it all started for Tonda Eckert, now he needs to get his side back on track against the same side.

QPR arrive at St Mary's level on points with Saints but still in the bottom half of the table in 13th place, that shows how condensed this league is given that both teams are only 4 points off Wrexham in 6th.

Eckert's reign has been one of ups and downs, a run of wins being followed by a run of defeats and now another good run.

So there are some who will say that we are due another bad run, but perhaps we are already in that run, but we have improved so much that we can make a bad run good, the first half performance at Leicester was our worst half of the season followed by our best half, the Charlton game saw us get in a winning position and then give it away.

So the question is have we got our bad run out of the way but we have still been racking up points ?

So we have to get back to winning ways against QPR this evening .

Tonda Eckert again has some decisions to make, he is likely to again be missing those who missed the draw against Charlton through injury, but on top of that with 3 games in the space of 7 days he is having to manage the game time of several players carrying fitness issues.

Firstly we have Ross Stewart, since Eckert has taken over his issues have been managed well, he has not been overplayed and used sparingly and Saints have reaped the rewards and the fans are finally seeing what a good player he is at this level.
But is it a game too far for him tonight, at least in the starting line up.

That could mean a start for Cyle Larin up front with Stewart dropped to the bench, not a bad solution to a tricky problem.

In midfield Shea Charles has only recently returned from injury and his game time has been managed, that is why he came off so early in the game against Charlton, that backfired on Saints on Saturday, Charles was one of the best players on the pitch, if he had done another 10 minutes the result might have been different.

I think that Charles will start tonight, as will Leo Scienza who himself is nursing a groin injury, I think with both players, Eckert will prioritise getting tonight's game won and then worry about Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.

James Bree is also another one on the injury list, although he is expected to take his place on the right side of defence this evening.

There will be an ex Saint in the QPR side, Ronnie Edwards departed in the January window after it was quite clear that Tonda Eckert didn't fancy him as a player either in the centre of defence or on the right hand side.

I think this might be one that comes back to bite us, I would rather have seen him in our squad tonight than theirs.

Edwards new team have not been in great form though, yes they won at the weekend beating promotion hopefuls Hull up on their own patch, but that was a rare win since Xmas, in the 11 games played since Boxing Day, they have won just 3 times, drawing 5 and losing 3.

Two of those wins have come in the last 5 games though, with 2 defeats and a draw making up the rest of the results.

So this tells us they are a hard side to beat, they score a lot of goals but they also concede just as many, hence a goal difference of -1, those last 5 outings are testimony of that, scoring 8 goals and letting in 8.

So Saints job tonight is clear, take our chances when they come and keep it tight at the back.

Saturday saw us fall back two points in the race for the play offs, so tonight unlike Saturday we do not have a chance of getting into the top 3, that tells us something and that something is that we cannot afford anything other than a win this evening, we have to try and cut that gap and put ourselves in a position to have a shot at the top 6 on Saturday when we travel to Sheffield Wednesday.

With just 13 games left, the Championship play off race is going to hot up and we need to keep winning and putting pressure on our rivals.

There is no reason why we cannot do that, no team has won more points than us in the last 6 games, only Birmingham can match our record of 4 wins and 2 draws, we have to have confidence in our ability to keep winning and that means not only the players but the fans.

The atmosphere at St Mary's was flat on Saturday against Charlton, it was almost a case of we all arrived feeling that we just had to turn up to win the game.

Tonight we need to make some noise, recreate those great games under the lights at the Dell that older fans like to reminisce about and indeed we had at St Mary's just two years ago in the play off semi final against West Bromwich Albion perhaps supporters don't win or draw games for a side, but they can help win them.

It would be silly to think the atmosphere that night can be recreated this evening, but it would be nice to be nearer that evening, than a few days ago on Saturday.

This is not to criticise anyone, we all choose to support the team in the way that we want to, but take note of the meaning of the word "Supporter" we have to be supporters and not "Silencers" we can all do just a little bit more to help the team get over the line, even if it is just a few words of encouragement such as "Come on Saints" at vital moments.

We can win this game tonight and once again walk out of St Mary's with a smile on our faces and something to look forward to in the last dozen games of the season.

All Photos Via Reuters