Its do or die on the banks of the Thames on Saturday afternoon if Saints lose will Mark Hughes be sacked in the Fulham fallout.

Mark Hughes team has problems scoring goals and it looks like they will be without leading scorer Danny Ings for the trip to Fulham with the striker only returning to training on Friday morning after having to come off two weeks ago against Watford.

They are also without Ryan Bertrand with Matt Targett set to deputise and try to put in the type of performance that he did for Fulham on loan last season and perhaps make it difficult to drop him.

At least that is the hope, Saints just lack that spark at the moment and perhaps this will be Mark Hughes last chance to try and inject it, surely if Saints lose then it will be the end for Hughes who now has a worse record than the ones that got the chop for his two predecessors.

It's hard to see what Hughes can do to change things, but I still maintain that the team is better than it's league position and they just need to turn things around and have a little luck to pull up the table, Charlie Austin shows that he has the passion and he has a knack for goals, perhaps he doesn't have the edge he had a couple of years ago, but he can still score goals if he gets the chance, he is due a goal and we could do with a couple from him at Fulham.

It's time for action from the players, they need to turn the fine talk into results, they need to find the spark from within because they aren't getting it from the manager.

This is desperation time there is no doubt of that, however we should go into it with confidence that we are good enough to pull through this period.

Photo: Action Images

1970 added 09:12 - Nov 24 I didn't realise we are without Ings and Berti suddenly are chances of victory just got slimmer, if Fulham are rejuvenated we're lose, otherwise yet another bore draw booo hughes out coyr
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DPeps added 10:00 - Nov 24 It should be win or bust for Hughes. My heart says we'll win 2-1, my head says it'll be 1-1 I don't see Bertrand as a big loss, Targett will have a point to prove. Not having Ings has to be seen as an opportunity, hopefully for Obafemi or Gallagher. Please not Long to start
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saintmark1976 added 12:12 - Nov 24 So Ings may be unable to play due to injury. Amazing how Redmond is never injured. Then again, I suppose if you make it your life's ambition never to have any proper physical contact with the opposition players and to "go missing " for at least half of every game it's not so surprising.
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legod7 added 13:48 - Nov 24 DPeps, Gallagher & Long both injured and I can’t see MH putting Obafemi in the starting XI.Probably start with Gabbiadini & Austin with Obafemi on the bench.
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KriSaint added 13:49 - Nov 24 First, hello and wellcome to fellow danish country man DSM - Hey DSM, fra Kristian (fra Furesø Kommune, Nordsjælland :-) ). I am looking forward to see who will captain Saints today, as Bertrand is suspended, and neither club captain Steven Davis nor third choice captain Oriol Romeu are expected to start the game. I see no reason not to hand the arm band to fighter Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, who has been one of our (few) decent players this season. Suffering from desperation to try something different, I´d like to see Gabbiadini & Ward-prowse on the flanks please, and, at long last, see Redmond played as a CENTRAL attacking midfielder (a position from which he got 7 league goals in his first season), supporting two "number 9´s" (Ings & Austin) - going for the jugular on the PL´s weakest defence. Elyonoussi has been disappointing so far, so I think JWP deserves a chance to play from the start. I don´t know why so many Saints supporters attack him so much (is it because he was born in Portsmouth?). Let´s not forget, he is from our own academy, has played around 200 league games for Saints, around 30 games for the national u-21 team (many of them as captain) and even 1 senior cap. We need his crosses today against a very weak defence. My starting 11 (4-2-3-1 formation): McCarthy Cedric, Stephens, Hoedt, Targett Højbjerg (c), Lemina Ward-Prowse, Redmond, Gabbiadini, Ings, Austin Bench: Gunn, Vestergaard, Yoshida, Romeu, Elyonouissi, Long, Obafemi. COME ON YOU SAINTS!

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