Is there something we don`t know about, why are our nearest rivals trying to give us the title. West Ham..............Drew at home to City Middlesbrough.........OK away win Crystal Palace.........Drew at home to the skates Derby....................Lost at home Hull.......................Lost a winnable game away Leeds....................Lost at home. Brighton.................Lost at Watford.
Included Brighton as an after thought, just because of what there fans were posting on here a couple of months ago.
And look at a couple of the weekend fixtures...Palace (currently 4th) away at Cardiff (currently 5th). West Ham (currently 2nd) away at Hull (currently 6th). Math isn't my strong suit, but I'm pretty sure that means that they cannot all win.
If we beat Coventry on Saturday, and I think we will, we could quite easily be 7 or 8 points clear of West Ham given they have got a tough game against Hull although this means that our run of being the main game on FLS is coming to an end oh well can't have everything I suppose!
Blackpool and Cardiff have just joined the chasing group. But, agreed, if they all keep beating each other, while we keep winning, that's got to be good. Last season, the one thing that Brighton did above all others was draw when others, with the exception of Us and Huddersfield, below them were losing. Hence they kept it going to the end. That's what we have to do.
Nevertheless, a valid point. When one side wins, the other can't. And the best result of all is a draw.
The Championship is notorious for being a very tight and unpredictable league where unusual results occur every week and it goes without saying that the most consistant side will win it. The Saints under Adkins have been the most consistant team in the whole country for 13 months, with an impressive home record and win ratio of over 70% and I just cannot see us becoming inconsistant overnight, I'm confident enough to predict automatic promotion for us even at this early stage....(cue the flak!)...
Hull v West Ham and Cardiff v Crystal Palace will make things interesting. But let's just focus on our own games, it is all in our own hands if we keep up this good form. We just need to extend it to our away form.
Seeing as we all know what needs to be done upto the New Year, here's a sneaky peek at the rest of the fixtures: January Mon 2: Brighton (A) Sat 14: Nott'm Forest (A) Sat 21: Leicester (H) Tues 31: Cardiff (H) February Sat 4: Birmingham (A) Sat 11: Burnley (H) Tues 14: West Ham (A) Sat 18: Derby (H) Sat 25: Watford (A) March Sat 3: Leeds (A) Tues 6: Ipswich (H) Sat 10: Barnsley (H) Sat 17: Millwall (A) Tues 20: Hull (A) Sat 24: Doncaster (H) Sat 31: Blackpool (A) April Sat 7: Portsmouth (H) Mon 9: Crystal Palace (A) Sat 14: Reading (H) Tues 17: Peterborough (A) Sat 21: Middlesbrough (A) Sat 28: Coventry (H) Three observations: 1] Bloody hell, what a March and April for game congestion..! 2] Why no May fixtures. It can't be anything to do with the Olympics, surely..? 3] This will be no walkover.
It's a conspiracy. They are trying to make Saints complacent. There were times on Tuesday I thought they were succeeding! The greatest obstacle for us now is the unknown - injuries, suspensions, loss of form. We've seen our rivals and know we can match the best. That fixture list is daunting, but remember when we looked in August and trembled a little. I notice that we did a little better than we all feared.
With the gap between us and 2nd and (importantly) third, the other teams have to not only match us, but do better than us. We are very consistent and unlikely to lose too many. Head to heads will be very important. If we can just pull away a bit more (which may happen this weekend) I will feel very confident as opposed to just confident.
Don't forget Birmingham as potential rivals. They're three matches behind everyone else, so I figure you got to add about 6 points to their total, which puts them right in amongst the play-offs.
They'll be times, especially away from home, when we've lost a game and a lot of sides around of us will have won - so we need to be thankful of the sort of results thrown up this week. That said, I think there's a very good chance that we could be 12 points clear of 7th place come the international break. Cardiff could easily to to Palace, Hull could easily lose to West Ham and Leicester and Leeds could easily draw each other. Hell, if those results happen and also Derby lose to away to Posh and Blackpool fail to win at home to in-form Millwall, then a win vs Coventry wouldn't just put us 12 points of 7th, it would put us 12 points clear of 5th!!!!!!!!!
Expectations have definitely risen. And I can guarantee that if we don't get promoted this season the. There will be some idiots calling for NA's head I'm a very happy and very proud Saints fan!
How are we going to fit in our FACup run and appearance at Wembley??? PS Watch out for Birmingham coming up in the inside...they're starting to their act together :-(
