Saints are once again playing catch up due to a poor start.

Of course we know that the opening games under Alan Pardew this season were poor, whilst our memories are fresh we will remember the reasons behind the low points tally and the turmoil in the Club, in ten years time that will be forgotten and a future generation will assume that Pardew was sacked for the poor start to the season.

Whatever the reason the reality was that with after the debacle that was Dean Wilkins in charge, Nigel Adkins joined a club with only 4 points from 5 games and that wasnt even relegation form, it could be said that like his predecessor Adkins was starting his Saints tenure way behind the rest of the field, in Pardews case it was a ten point deduction, in Adkins the fact he was around 7- 8 points behind our rivas for promotion.

But that task hasnt really got any easier in the seven games since, those games have yielded 11 points, at first glance that seems fairly decent but thats an average of only 1.57 per game.

Last season the second automatic spot was achieved on 86 points, a 1.87 average and Huddersfield got into the final play off spot on 80, an average of 1.74, if we are to even make the play offs we have a lot to do.

Taking last seasons points totals as the measurement and of course we have no way of knowing how accurate they will be come the final day, Adkins started at SMS needing 76 points from 41 games to make the play offs, thats an average of 1.85 per game, the size of Adkins task just to make the play offs means virtual automatic promotion form, which in turn means there is little room for slip ups.

With 34 games remaining to reach that magical 80 point target Saints have to get 65 points which is an average of 1.91 per game a tall order in that it means winning your home games and getting at least a draw away from home.

Of course this isnt an exact science but the message is simple and plain, we have to start winning games and remain unbeaten and we have to keep doing that for long periods, if we do we will soon start to march up the table, but the task is hard and is getting harder not easier.

As we stand if we continue with our 1.57 point ratio for the remaining 34 games it will give us another 53 points for a grand total of 64, that would have scraped us into the top 10 but as we have proved, would leave us a long way short of even a play off spot, given that even the lowest total needed for that sixth position over the years has been around 74.

This emphasises the fact that Nigel Adkins has to start improving the team and fast, we dont have the time to indulge players woefully out of form for much longer. 

Photo: Action Images via Reuters