It wont come any bigger than this at St mary's this season.

Later in the season might see more vital games, but in terms of this years Championship you wont get a bigger clash that Southampton V West Ham United and that has been seen in the way that fans have flocked to St mary's for tonights game to make it only the fourth 30k plus crowd in a League game since the play offs against Derby in 2007, indeed if you take the other three, Sheff Utd in 07/08 and Walsall last term were both last day games with much riding on themLeeds in march 2010 being the other, meaning that this is the first game in a  long time where we have seen such a full house on a "Normal" day.

Of course there is a lot riding on this game, if Saints lose then the Hammers leapfrog over us to the top and to be frank they will be then very hard to catch, bt promotion campaigns arent lost on one game, they are lost over the course of a season and if we drop off the top spot then it isnt just down to this game its more down to all the stupid points we have dropped on the road in the last two months.

Saints of course have injury problems for this game in the shape of Adam lalana and its hard to see him starting if reports are true, however this team showed at the end of last season that lallana may make them tick, but he isnt the only player who can do things special and we have men in all areas capable of creating and scoring.

The real concern though will be the back four, it was tight(ish) against Watford and at least didnt concede, but at Derby it had its usual lapse in concentration and got caught napping early on and its these little faux pas we have to eradicate, we really need to start keeping more clean sheets if we want to stay up at the top.

A win for Saints would be a real boost  and open up a five point gap between us and West Ham, as mentioned I see them as the team most likely to get promoted this season, what our aim to be should be to keep them behind us for as long as possible, keep them chasing us, if we do that then we will surely be ahead of every other team in the division as well.

West Ham have the finacial clout behind them and a team packed full of premier quality players, however they are not infallible, but there awa form has been better than there home, on the road they have won 3, drawn 2 and lost none so far, our job is to inflict that first defeat on them and maintain our 100% record.

A word of caution however, a defeat tonight could see us drop to third, in my past previews and verdicts whenever i have mentioned defensive frailties its often prompted several people to tell me to shut up that we are top of the league, what am I moaning at, as I said earlier promotions are not lost in one game, if we lose tonight and drop out of the automatic promotion spots, it will be because of those dropped away points, it will also put us under great pressure with a difficult trip to Reading and the visit of Middlesbrough to contend with in the next two games, last season Saints thrived on the pressure brought on by a poor start to the season and having to chase Huddersfield down, we might yet have to do it again.               

Photo: Action Images

hortonsaint added 15:13 - Oct 18 Nick are we going to be gutted though if we don't go up? I think that is why people are telling you to calm down, not because they don't agree in principal that we could slip but that we are keeping things in perspective and many of us are just happy this season to enjoy what we are watching without the pressure to go up. Yes of course I want us to go up and we have set high standards but according to the 5 year plan promotion to the PL is not expected yet. By all means say this in two years time but I seriously feel we should just enjoy the football we are seeing given the last years of rubbish we've endured. If we are top 2 with 10 games to go then yes I'll be saying what you are and whilst there is nothing wrong with you being so ambitious, I think we all recognise that this squad is good but probably not the finshed article for promotion

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simmo400 added 15:46 - Oct 18 Well said hortonsaint. We should enjoy the game tonight. Hopfully we will win but if not lets not get on a downer. So far we have played most teams off the park and only due to lack of finishing is the reason where not clear at the top. Its a long season and everyone will get there share at the top. Personally this season so far has been great with teams beating each other, better this than Premiership football trying to scrape 40 points again. If and when we get promoted i want investment so we are competitive in the premiership not a team tipped for relegation year after year. So I dont think its a life or death this season, lets enjoy it as we have a team who compete every game and play football.

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SaintNick added 15:53 - Oct 18 I think too much is made of this five year plan, you have to take the chance when its in frontof you, Im not sure that we will be able to keep this squad together if we dont get promoted, there will be several who might attract premier attention plus a fair few squad players who might want away due to lack of games this season
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hortonsaint added 17:39 - Oct 18 Nick I hear what you are saying but we are only talking about 10 games, let's re-assess after 25-30. What is wrong with a five year plan anyway, it alleviates immediate and unrealisitic pressure in my view. You seem to want immediate and short term success. Promotion was not really talked about at the start of the season and as such I consider our position a bonus rather than forgetting the pre-season aims of consolidation and anything above that a positive. I fail to see why we can't just take each game as at comes, enjoy the type of football we are playing and see where it takes us. Re the squad ,who are at risk of losing if we don't go up, apart from AL I struggle to see premiership clubs chasing many of our players and we can see off offers from other Championship clubs as you'd imagine we'd be making a real push to go up next year if we don't this. As for squad players they will get even less opportunity if we were promoted I would have thought?

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