The fashion is to re christen months hence Movember, but make no bones about it, Saints have to perform in the coming month or face being cast adrift.

As we go into the penultimate month of the year a glance at the Premier table isnt that frightening, many have been using the excuse that we arent bottom, however this is nothing to do with our performances, usually four points from 9 games would see you marooned in last place, but due to the duality of this league where some fixtures are mere formalities for the top clubs, hence the failure of our rivals for the drop to pick up much more.

But with five fixtures in Dovember, by the end of it the league will be alot clearer and Saints will either be starting to look like the Premier League whipping boys or will be offering hope that they can beat the drop with the right signings in January.

But they have to start picking up points now and fast, put bluntly we cant afford another defeat, although we arent yet bottom and are still not cast adrift, tomorrows games could make the league look a lot different, already a relegation threatened pack has emerged, the bottom eight right up to Stoke on nine points could all start to slide in November, or some of them could pull out of our sight.

But some of them will pick up points, Norwich V Stoke, Sunderland V Villa & QPR v Reading means that all or some of them will pick up points, from our point of view three draws would probably be the best result, however if Stoke & Sunderland were to win that would start to pull them clear of us unless we win at West Brom.

But ultimately Saints fate in Dovember is in their own hands, three winnable home games against Swansea Newcastle & Norwich plus two of the more winnable aways with West Brom and QPR, means its a month with not only games against our rivals, the fabled six pointers, but games were there is no margin for error, early in the season the excuse that we were playing the top teams was bandied about, by the time Dovember is over we will have played a good mix of opposition, our league position wont lie.

Ideally out of the five games we would pick up, maximum points, that of course is unlikely to happen, a bare minimum total though is nine points, again ideally they would come in the fixtures against QPR & Norwich with perhaps Swansea thrown in as they are in a position where for themselves November could either see them handily placed for the top ten or looking over their shoulders.

So the time for excuses is over, by the end of this month, the now re christened "DO"vember, Saints have to DO or DIE, they will either be showing they have the stomach for a fight or the finger will already be pointing as to why we find ourselves in this position, by the start of December Nigel Adkins will either be showing that as he has done in the past two seasons he has taken bad periods and learnt from them, or he will be another managerial casualty at this club.       

Photo: Action Images via Reuters