Saints head to Turf Moor looking to consolidate at the top of the League
One thing is for certain asSaints head to lancashire and that is that it will be all change again after the Carling Cup win against Burnley's near neighbours Preston, with Nigel Adkins sure to restore most if not all of the starting XI against Birmingham to the side.
From this point of view any unknown injuries aside and it will be business as usual for Saints who have built their success this season on a settled side aligned with the quality of subs they are able to bring off the bench to close out games.
But the biggest worry is that we are conceding too many sloppy goals in recent games and we seem unable to keep a clean sheet, in the seven games so far we have only managed to shut out the opposition twice, away at Barnsley and at home to Millwall, in truth neither have scored many goals this season.
We know Saints can score goals, so the key to a win at Turf Moor will be keeping it tight at the back and then tking our chances when they come.
With Burnley not having made the best start to the season, indeed they are currently sitting 5th from bottom and if beaten by us highly likely to drop into the relegation zone and a difficult game at Cardiff on Wednesday, its important that we keep up the momentum with a win, as the old cliche in football goes, promotion is won, not by home wins, nor beating those up top with you, but by grinding out wins at the likes of Burnley and keeping grinding them out, we should be favourites for this game so lets prove it.
The bench is again key, assuming the same side that played Birmingham, Bialkowski, Chaplow & Schneiderlin are nailed on, I would then expect Danny Butterfield to make an appearance after coming through against Preston, but who will take the fifth place ?
All season it has been Steve De Ridder, and I can see many reasons why thatmay still be the case, but after Lee Holmes display on Wednesday, Nigel Adkins might be torn between the two, certainly De Ridder adds pace, but in his appearances so far he has yet to turn that initial skill and pace into an end product, Holmes might not have the speed of the Belgian, but he has better control and the ability to not only hold the ball up when needed, but put in the sort of pin point delivery that Lambert thrives on, its a tough choice but a good one that shows the strength in depth we have and the way the fringe squad members are pushing hard.
Its tight at the top, its one of those weekend when Saints have to just go out and get three points and show the rest of the division that this title push is not going to falter.