Saints fans will turn up at St Mary's with a little bit more hope than they did 7 days earlier to witness what would turn out to be Will Still's final game in charge, the victory at Queens Park Rangers showed the team had got their spirit back, can it now add confidence and make it two wins in a row.

Saints fans will hope that wins for their team will now be like buses, you wait ages for one and then two come around at once and not as it had been two come around in a season.

The victory at Loftus Road didn't please all the fans though, many pointed to the fact that we spent the last 20 minutes on the back foot and were lucky not to concede a second goal, hey ho, if you can't celebrate a win what can you celebrate.

The truth on Wednesday was that a team lacking in spirit, confidence and playing with fear, slowly found the first two and then showed they were not afraid to roll up their sleeves and fight for the three points.

Wednesday night was all about getting the win, it didn't matter about anything else, we needed to break the cycle of errors and defeats.

So now having done that, we need to keep taking steps forward, on paper this should be 3 points, after all the Owls are bottom of the pile and after a 12 point deduction only having -4 points, they would have been bottom even with those 4 points, but they would have been in spitting distance of a chance of staying up, now they would seem to have had no chance.

But that is when teams are most dangerous, they have nothing to lose and they will play without fear and with freedom.

If we had lost at QPR they would have fancied their chances, facing a home team with the crowd on their backs, but it now isn't that situation, they will hopefully face a team, better organised and with a new found spirit.

So Tonda Eckert's job is to build on the win in midweek, as he did then keep it simple and play to our strengths and get the job done.

The key will be the first goal, if Saints can get it and get it early, then they could put the visitors to the sword, they need to get the weight off their shoulders and for the first time in 18 months or so treat their fans to a League game where the win is done and dusted long before the final whistle, something that hasn't happened since our play off win against West Brom in May 2024.

Ok if you want to be pedantic and say the game against the Baggies was not a League game, then the last time we have enjoyed the final minutes of a regular season game due to being comfortably ahead, was April 16th 2024, when we had gone 3-0 up within 33 mins with goals from Che Adams (2) & Stuart Armstrong gave us the win, despite no further scoring.

Get the goals early, get the crowd back back on side and we can start to win games at home again.

I don't expect too much to change in the starting line up from QPR, its seems that Leo Scienza is recovered from the knock that saw him limp off at Loftus Road, so that is good news.

The Owls will have a familiar face in their squad, Yan Valery has been a regular in the side since joining in the summer of 2024, it is good to see him flourishing.

Joe Lumley recently joined them on an emergency loan and is one of 6 goalkeepers now on their books, including Pierce Charles, the brother of our own Shea Charles who will miss this game due to injury, both keepers are unlikely to play against Saints.

So hopefully Saints can take another step forward against the Owls, if we do then for the first time in a long time Saints fans can look forward to the future with at least some happiness and optimism.

All Photos Via Reuters

Whatsforpud added 18:46 - Nov 7 If there is ever a time to play just two centre backs, it's surely at home to the bottom team. An extra man in midfield is what most of us want.
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Bowlercow added 23:15 - Nov 7 Lumley was on the bench for Bristol tonight away to Watford
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Colburn added 10:20 - Nov 8 He probably won’t play 2 centre backs because he’s hinted that.. another who will concede the midfield to a weaker team. Why we are still deploying counter attacking football against worse teams is beyond me.. And we don’t even have any wing backs and we’re stifling the ability of Fellows. Manning is utterly clueless as a wing back. It’s madness all round. Gary ONeil plays the same system, if we employ that skate to carry on the same stupidity then SR are clearly a deep state operation brought here to destroy the mighty Southampton FC. It can’t be him. I hope we can scrape another win today and entice someone who plays attacking football, not the opposite. We looked so nervous at the end on Wednesday hopefully we have got that monkey off the back now.

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Block47M added 10:56 - Nov 8 The appointment of Gary O’Neil would be a toxic appointment for most of us and show how completely out of their depth are Johann Spors and Sports Republic. Cannot think of a worse appointment especially when they keep lauding Russell Martin whose inability to adapt his approach is own demise.
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SanMarco added 11:16 - Nov 8 One step at a time. Get a win then worry about the new manager. Choice for keeper is the most interesting one today. My four penneth on the manager: I can't stand Brendan Rodgers but he is the best of those available.
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