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All To Play For Against Fulham Tonight
Wednesday, 27th Feb 2019 08:25

With just about every result going for Saints on Tuesday evening there is everything to play for when Saints take on Fulham at St Mary's this evening.

Saints fans took a nervous look at the scores on Tuesday evening, all of those directly above them where in action and all had very winnable games.

Cardiff were at home to Everton and a victory for them would have been a massive psychological blow to Saints ahead of tonight's game, Brighton were at the very erratic Leicester City and Newcastle were at home to Burnley.

By 10 pm there were some large sighs of relief in SO postcodes, Cardiff had been beaten 3-0 by the Toffee's to make it 8 goal's conceded and zero points in two home games where they might have expected to get a minimum of 2 points and perhaps 4.

Leicester had beaten Brighton to leave the Seagull's in a position similar to our own a year ago, they are now in freefall and only three points above ourselves going into tonight's game.

Newcastle beat Burnley 2-0 at home which was not a great result for us in that although it keeps Burnley looking over their shoulder Newcastle are now joining them on 30 points and the relegation scrap is now becoming very polarised.

In the final fixture played on the evening Huddersfield surprisingly beat Wolves, but they have a mountain to climb.

So that leaves us knowing that not only will a win against Fulham pull us out of the relegation zone and leave us two points clear but it will draw us level with Brighton, it will need a six goal win to take us above them on goal difference, but it will be a big psychological boost to us over both them and Cardiff City, not to mention that it will leave Fulham with one foot back in the Championship.

But we have to win first, two straight defeats have led to a minor meltdown for some supporters, but lie last year we have to keep our nerve, stay calm and concentrate on the task ahead.

For Fulham this is almost last chance saloon, defeat for them will leave them well adrift from safety needing three wins out of their last 10 games just to get out of the relegation one assuming that no one else picks up a point.

Ralph Hasenhuttl has done a great job at this football club so far, he has taken 15 points from 12 games, that a ratio of 1.25 per game, repeat that ratio in the last 11 and we will be safe.

Those that have knocked him in the past few days should remember that if he had been here from the start of the season with that ratio we would be level with Bournemouth and nowhere near the drop zone.

This probably tells you that the problem is not Ralph Hasenhuttl but the performances under Mark Hughes.

So all to play for tonight, we need to make St Mary's a cauldron tonight and make sure that at the final whistle we have all three points and are out of the relegation zone.

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wessexman added 08:39 - Feb 27
The minor meltdown is due to the fact last season Swansea had an even bigger death wish than we did. We all knew we got desperately lucky. We all know we cannot rely on teams around us imploding again. On top of which, our defending is still suicidal at times and our sicknote attack has quite predictably broken down again. And we are supposed to have faith in it all?
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DPeps added 09:13 - Feb 27
For me, our hopes are pinned on two things:
1.) Ings returning quickly and staying fit until the end of the season
2.) Cardiff being worse than us between now and the end of the season.

I'll support the team until the fat lady sings, but tbh I'm not confident.

And how about this as a new motto for the club?
You get what you pay for (and don't get what you don't pay for)
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LordDZLucan added 09:15 - Feb 27
Given that Pellegrino, Hughes and Hassenhuttl have all experienced the same problems i.e. a leaky defence and no goals up top, the problem can't be just Mark Hughes. To my mind the problem is with the signings we've made - £22.5m on Vestergaard, £16m on Elyounoussi, £15m on Hoedt, £16m on Boufal. The list goes on. None of these players is worth anywhere near what we paid based on what we've seen at St. Marys. And no recognised striker in their midst. Ok, we've got Ings on loan but he's too injury prone to be the answer to our goalscoring problems. It's all well and good to blame Yoshida, Stephens etc. for our current problems but we paid tuppence halfpenny for each of them. We paid good money for the likes of Hoedt and we haven't got anything near what we paid for. That is where the problem lies! Let's hope that Hassanhuttl is that good that he can keep us despite our problems. Coyr!
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beynali73 added 10:18 - Feb 27
The club belongs to us and various owners, boards and players will brush in and out. Nick I wish we could inject you positivity into the players and the supporters but in top flight football passion ony gets teams so far. I'm not confident we'll stay up for a number of reasons but most recently because of the results against palace, cardiff and burnley which demonstarted our main two issues - no end product and one critical defensive error per game. I cannot see how the sitaution is going to improve in the last 11 games. Lets cross our fingers and hope.

However going back to my intial point we are the Saints and that is all I care about regardless of owners and the dividion we play in. Together as one.
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A1079 added 10:30 - Feb 27
A win tonight is the bare minimum, it doesn't suddenly make everything alright, because tonight's game is then followed up with Man U and Spurs and at the end of those games we could be back below the line.

It is an old cliche and we can only deal with this situation that we have got ourselves into a game at a time and win our own games, but even if we win, I still think it will be between us and Cardiff for that third place.

Draw or lose tonight and it will give Fulham some belief and I think it will be a critical blow to our chances of remaining in this division.

As they say, what will be, will be.
3

SanMarco added 18:11 - Feb 27
Us, Cardiff or Brighton are the three fighting it out to avoid the last relegation place. We have the weakest defence of the three and the best midfield. For me the key therefore is up front. Here, at full strength, I would say we are again best but therein lies the problem. As DPeps says if Ings can come back and stay fit then we have a great chance, otherwise Long, Austin and Redmond are going to have a score quite a few goals. No Gabbi to grab a vital one now either.

A win tonight, however we get it, will do me and if we can't beat Fulham then we really are in the mire...
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