Christmas is the time that sorts the men out from the boys.

The Christmas programme is the time that seperates what are going to be the contenders and the also rans, of course in the Championship its never that cut and dried with the closeness of the division from top to bottom, but after an awful run away from home, in truth a run that has been on the cards for a long long time we now find all those dropped points costing us dear and the real risk of dropping out of the top two if we fail to pick up maximum points over the Xmas period.

Some people get hacked off when the phrase "Must Win" is used but being blunt, if we dont on Boxing Day we might not be singing "We are top of the League" that evening.

So from that point of view we have to despatch Crystal Palace and then look for others to slip up if we want to try and restore our lead, but nobody should be in any doubt, we have lost a great chance over the past few weeks to put real space between us and third position, a chance to virtually bolt on automatic promotion, but we didnt take that chance and we now find ourselves embroiled in what at the moment is a four way fight for two places and if we are not careful and we dont improve drastically, dropping out of the automatic spots and scrambling to stay in the play offs,

Our big problem in the New Year is going to be picking up points on the road, three wins is not good enough out of 11 games, but the blunt truth is that our road trips in the first half look a lot easier than who we have to face in the second half, we have to play 7 of our rivals in the top half of the table away from home, and given that Birmingham in the bottom half will be no cake walk, this only serves to emphasise how we have lost the opportunity that we had.

So its a big big game against Palace, we have no scope for doing anything else at home but winning as we almost certainly cant rely on our away form, if we cant pick up points at the likes of Bristol City and Doncaster its worrying how we will get on at the likes of West Ham, Hull and Leeds

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bstokesaint added 12:28 - Dec 21 What I love about following Saints is that there is never a dull moment. Last year when we had to turn it up a level we did it in style. I predict if we get 2-3 decent players (including a striker) in the next window we will be strong enough to hold off the threat from outside the automatic promotion spots.
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richardmdcooper added 13:47 - Dec 21 Agree that Palace is a very important game but every article on this site seems to have a negative tone. It's been a great year and a great season so far for the Saints. The fact we're still top after this bad run bodes well. West Ham keep dropping points at home and none of the others have shown great consistency. A good run after christmas and we'll be right back on track..In Nigel we trust

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SonicBoom added 16:47 - Dec 21 Nick's right. We need a reality check. We were playing great football but it has dried up somewhat certainly on the road. Away form is crucial and we need to improve over the second half. We are not getting many points away from St Mary's now so that puts extra pressure on the home games. We suffer a slight dip at home and we will quickly drop into the scrap for a play off spot at best. If we can maintain the home form and start securing away points we could still open a gap. Looking at our form over the last 4 weeks though and we havent' been great. If West Ham and others hadn't slipped at crucual times we would be 3rd at best by now. Dont look at where we are but the bigger picture of how we are playing.

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SaintNick added 17:33 - Dec 21 Why is it some people think if you try and look at a situation objectively then its negative, we have taken 13 points from 11 away games this season, that isnt good enough, 6 of them came from the first 2, so thats 7 out of the last 9. pointing that out isnt negative its being realistic, if we dont start picking up points on the road we wont be top much longer. Realistically to get promotion we need to win five more games on the road, thats not going to be easy

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richardmdcooper added 20:37 - Dec 21 Agree we need to start picking up more points away from home. Sonicboom's point though that we'd be third if west ham etc hadn't slipped up is ridiculous - they have slipped up and hence we're still top despite our recent bad form. i.e. every team has shown at least (if not more) inconsistency than we have. My point was that at least 90% of articles on this sight are negative despit this being the best season many of us can remember. A few months ago Nick, you mentioned we were on a "downward slide" - we then went and won four in a row. Hopefully, we can do the same after christmas

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richardmdcooper added 20:38 - Dec 21 site
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Scummer added 21:12 - Dec 21 We've had a poor spell and we are (somehow) still top with the best GD. Win the two upcoming home games, get Chappers and Connolly back, add a couple of players in January (striker, winger) and then bring on those tougher away games. Get a result in those and we get there points and the competition starts losing its way. Glass half full, Nick! ;O) If we get a decent run going like last year then we will be marching on. PS Hope those rumours about SRL are just that - he is too important to us, and knows he will get to the PL with Saints and would be first on the team sheet there. Better than warming the bench in Geordieland.

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