With the two week break hopefully Saints will have worked on their defensive frailties.
Although there can be no argument that Saints have done extremely well to sit top of the League at this stage of the season, Nigel Adkins will know that those that rest on their laurels wont stay the course for long, good managers dont accept excuses they work on the training field to make sure that they dont happen again.
Thats what happened last season where Adkins first half of last season was blighted by mistakes away from home which saw valuable points slip though our hands and at one stage it looked like Huddersfield would keep the upper hand and pip us to automatic promotion, the late run that saw us invincible did not happen by chance, it came about because of some hard work on the training ground.
Whilst some supporters are happy merely with the fact we are still top, Adkins and his training staff know there are problems with the goalkeeper and areas of our defending.
In relationsion to Kelvin Davis its mainly about his kicking and distribution, the keeper is clearly under instructions to distribute the ball quicklly and to feet and to go long only in exceptional circumstances, recently thats seen us put ourselves under unnecessary pressure, work will have been done on the training ground, but ultimately it will be hard for a keeper of Kelvin's experience to change his game so drastically so the manager will need to perhaps adjust the game a little, at least in the short term.
In the full back positions its a different problem, going forward both Richardson and Fox have been superb in recent weeks, both of them creating chances and more importantly chances that are being converted into goals, however it cannot be overlooked that they are part of a defence that are collectively gifting goals to the opposition and there are some aspects that both will need to work on to play their part in tighting up at the back.
But the main worry is in the centre of defence, so far the two central defenders havent gelled as a unit and given that they have played four games together now that is a worry.
Jose Fonte is badly out of form, some sceptics have said that this is due to him stepping up a level and struggling, but they forget he played in the Championship for Crystal Palace and was well used to it, indeed prompting us to pay big money to sign him, it is not a question of skill its something else, in a nutshell its positioning, he doesnt seem comfortable with Hooiveld from the point of view of knowing who is going for what ball and this is where the opposition are finding the gaps.
With Hooiveld its a little more complicated, on the face of it he has had the best of the form since pairing with Fonte, however if he cant play with him there are some hard decisions to be made and how quickly they are made will determine whether this is just a blip or something more tangible, Hooiveld is not a bad player, infact in many respects he is just what we need, but he is not entirely comfortable with the way Saints play as was shown by the second goal at Cardiff City.
On Saturday at Derby Saints face a big big test, after three away games yielding only one point, they really now do need to produce a result on the road and by that I mean a win to take the pressure off of the midweek visit of West Ham.
If Saints had been a little tighter at the back then they could now site a fair distance above the rest of the pack, but with three very tough games in a week starting with the Derby game, a repeat of the error strewn away fixtures could see us not only knocked off the top spot but on the verge of dropping out of the top six, the Championship is a tough league we know that from last time and this time its tight at the top, if we want promotion then we have to set high standards and keep to them, if we do then all well and good, but if we dont then promotion may be a pipe dream.