After Wrexham's defeat at Watford, Saints have an opportunity to propel themselves into the Top 6 by beating the Canaries, but it will be far from easy against a side who in the last 6 games are the form side of the Championship.

There are many Saints supporters who may think that after beating League leaders Coventry, despatching Norwich City will be a doddle, but the answer is far from it, over the last 2 months the Canaries are the form team in the division.

They have dragged themselves from the bottom 3 to the fringes of the play offs, with a run that started back in January when they beat Wrexham, since then January 17th to be exact, they have played 11 League games, won 9 and lost just 2.

That is a record than cannot be bettered by either Saints or Coventry, in that same period, we are unbeaten, but we have won 8 and drawn 3 games, not as many wins, but no defeats, for exactly the same points total, 27 out of 33.

In the same period Coventry have played 12 games, have won 8, drawn 1 and lost 3, taking 25 points having played a game more.

So this will not be an easy game, Norwich have slowly but surely crept up the league table and if they were to win at ST Mary's, would be just 3 points behind us and perhaps fancy their chances of a shot at the play offs.

Anything other than a win this evening would probably just about finish any lingering hopes that they may have.

So Tonda Eckert's side have to be focused on this game, it will be no easy ride, his team need to be switched on from the kick off and the supporters need to be right behind the team and stay behind them.

We are specialists of the late goal, so this game will not be decided till the final whistle.

Tonda Eckert has hinted in his pre match press conference that both Leo Scienza & Ross Stewart could be involved, he says they have both trained this week as has Jay Robinson.

However I would be very surprised if any of them will be in the starting line up, indeed I would be worried, yes this is an important game, but there are still 8 more regular season games to come after it, we should not risk both Scienza & Stewart unless absolutely necessary, we would rather them miss this one and be fit for the rest than, play in this one and pull up injured again.

We have the squad to cope as we showed at Coventry on Saturday and that means not just tonight but going forward.

So all the excitement is about the opportunity to get into the play offs, but a draw tonight would not be a disaster. we would not be in the top 6, but we would still be unbeaten and promotion still in our hands.

A League season is a marathon not a sprint, at least until the final few games, we have to keep ourselves in the mix and keep going.

What we have to avoid is the situation that happened after our win at Fulham, when we were flat up at West Brom, last week the euphoria of the win at Fulham overwhelmed us and mentally drained us.

Now we have to reverse that situation and build on the adrenalin from the win at Coventry and use it to spur us on this evening.

So anyone expecting this season to be easy against a side who have been firmly in the bottom half of the table this season had better think again.

Just 2 1/2 weeks ago Norwich were just 2 points ahead of Pompey, still looking over their shoulders at the relegation battle, 3 wins in a row in that time and they are looking at a top 10 finish, maybe higher and perhaps thinking they could be the side to gate crash the final play off spot, certainly they head to St Mary's with the confidence they can have a good go at achieving that.

So all hands to the pump tonight for Southampton FC both on and off the pitch, it is no time for complacency, if don't have a ticket for tonight, then consider going, every seat filled is another voice in support of the team, now is the time to stand up and be counted.

All Photos Via Reuters

Recent Stories