Yet another six pointer at St Mary's and Saints need to build on two straight wins at home and pull clear of the bottom three.

It is hard to say anything different in the preview of this game than I said for the visits of both Watford & Norwich, it is exactly the same scenario and we are in the position we are due to our continued failure to hold leads late on away from home and because we keep making individual errors and the problem is this will keep happening until we are in a position to bring in new faces.

What has changed in recent weeks is that Ralph Hasenhuttl has learn't from the error of the past three months, when he came in a year ago, he kept us up and did so by sticking to a formula, that mean't working with a nucleus of his squad and not chopping and changing.

Earlier in the season he seemed to lack direction, possibly because of the influence of his inexperienced coaching staff, now he is going with his own gut feeling and getting back to basics, he is not chopping and changing personnel even when they make errors, that must be frustrating for him after three late errors in the last three away games cost us four points that would have seen us comfortably in mid table.

So I suspect that he will not change much for the visit of the Hammers, injuries accepted, it needs to be the same intensity both on and off the pitch.

Nathan Redmond has come in for some criticism of late, but he is not shirking and still getting and making goal scoring opportunities, last season he was our best player by a country mile and as they say form is temporary and class is permanent, that is why Ralph sticks by him.

It is going to be another low attendance and we need to use that as a spur to get another three points, the crowd needs to be behind the team as it was in the previous two games and it will be helped by the absence of the moaners, sorry if that offends some, but that is the truth, an attitude seems to be prevailing in the fan base that this is a time for the tough to get going in supporting the team and for the rest to just get going as they have done for the past two.

We might be in trouble, but the best football matches are those when there is something in it and this game certainly has that, managers say to players don't leave anything on the pitch, come off it at the end emotionally and physically drained and that needs to be the same for the crowd.

90 minutes of support will hopefully yield three points and if it doesn't then we can worry about it after the final whistle.

The Hammers will be more scared of us than them, they like us are an up and down side and sit only a point above us, we need to change that in a positive way for us and leapfrog them, their manager is under fire and their players just as low on confidence as ours where a few weeks ago, we need to put the pressure on them and break their fragile confidence.

So here we go again, we need to make this one of the games we get away with our errors and win the game convincingly.

Photo: Action Images

bstokesaint added 12:44 - Dec 13 This is without doubt another massive game and from memory we don’t have great record against the opposition. I’d be delighted with three points. On the subject of “individual errors”, I think most goals conceded can be attributed to individual errors. It’s normally quite a special goal for a ball to get from one end of the pitch without any player being at blame at some point, by either failing to tackle, not closing down or being caught out of position. For me the bigger concern is simply being able to keep it tight until the final whistle. All the pretty stuff up until that point counts for nothing if you get undone by a big lump up the field in the 95th minute. I know Ralph bemoaned Newcastle for playing negative football, but if it works.. We need to play football and learn to close games out.

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1970 added 16:40 - Dec 13 "They will be more scared than us" I seriously doubt that Nick we are easy pickings with any side that has any quality to attack, we were a soft touch to them last season so we need to roll our sleeves up and get stuck in right from the start and if we do that the crowd will respond I'm sure, a must 3 points you would think but for me just don't lose coyr
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Consigliere added 17:46 - Dec 13 Up to a point 1970, I expect their manager is a bit on the concerned side!
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KriSaint added 14:41 - Dec 14 I hope we hammer them convincingly. My starting 11 would be: McCarthy (Anybody but) Cedric, Bednarek, Stephens, Bertrand JWP, PEH Djenepo, Redmond Ings, Long Bench: Gunn, Yoshida, Romeu, Adams, Armstrong, Obafemi, Boufal
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