Travelling Saints fans will be on to the weather reports first thing on Saturday morning.
At time of writing the big question is whether the game will actually go ahead, however the main problem might not be snow as most people would assume, but the cold, with temperatures forecast for -3 overnight and not expected to rise above freezing before the snow is forecast, the game is far more likely to fall to a frozen pitch than one covered in snow.
If the game does go ahead the message is clear and simple, we have to stop continually taking a step backward, if we continue to play the same players who have underperformed, not just for one or two games but over a far greater period, then we will get the same results and that is win home games against the lesser sides that will give a false impression and struggle against any side that is a little bit more switched on.
The squad is good enough, even with several players out injured, the problem is that good players at this level are not playing to their ability for whatever reason and this is costing us points that will ultimately cost us prommotion if we are not careful, if the squad is that stretched, then why the hell are the likes of Puncheon and Mills still on loan and not recalled, this might not please Puncheon for one, but he is a Saints player at this moment in time and our first duty is to our own problems and not Millwall's
The next few weeks are crucial and Nigel Adkins needs to start imposing himself on his squad, at the moment he has not dealt with the problems that we have, he has had 13 games to deal with it, in those 13 games he has ammassed 24 points at that average we might just scrape the play offs or like last year fall short, the real worry though is the last four games where we have only got four points and this is not good enough in any way shape or form in the fact that our failure has been down to the same predictable problems.
Many Saints fans are looking to the january transfer window and thinking this may be the changing of the season, but the excuses given last year for our failure were that Pardew was didnt have enough time to gel and build a side, will we be happy to allow that excuse again for this season.