I thought I was being optimistic! But your right if we want to win the league we need to win them all!
There are so many people round where I sit like that, loads complain about every sideways or backwards pass, too. Every match I point out that keeping the ball means that the opposition can't score; though admittedly sometimes we *do* play the complicated ball to keep possession instead of the simple one to get a shot when pressing forwards, which can be frustrating to watch; every goal doesn't need to be walked in, a thwack from range is also a beautiful sight!
Saw an interview with Ian Wright on BBC. Showed some of his goals....I was always a fan of his but didn't realise how good some of his goals were..one was like Tiss's (putting it over two players before shooting). The point is that he said that he preferred to shoot from distance because you could see all of the goal...being closer in meant that your target area was reduced.
During our season in the Championship, I remember us hitting a run of games where we had to play all of the sides that were tipped for promotion to the Premier League and had exactly the same thoughts as you back then. Get through that period and still be in touch with the top 4 or 5 then we could really believe promotion was on the cards. I think we ended up beating most of the teams and got some good away draws that helped maintain our position, which we kept for the rest of the season. Hopefully it will happen again.
Moving forward is important but so is knowing where you have come from, that's the whole point of tradition. Heated debates about where and when we hit safety are a tradition for Saints fans and long may they continue, but if we could carry on the current practice of putting it all to bed very early in the season (Mid january v west Brom I predict) then thats all the better.
Good luck trying..! You can't, I've tried every which way. I was going to use it to predict the Christmas Day league positions, as I still have a link. It doesn't work anymore and try as I might I can't find a new link to the Predictor. I think the BBC have taken in in-house so that only researchers/staff can use it [I happen to know someone who works for Auntie as a researcher for Radio 5], so if you find it, do provide a link, because I'd like to use it. I might do a cheat and post an old rearranged table up as a jpeg. That'll confuse a few people.
