SAINTS’ entry into the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy has been greeted with a little mirth and gallows humour by the supporters – but this is a competition worth taking seriously.

For many a long year, Saints fans have been able to look down at the Trophy, something which those outside of League One and League Two, and a few inside as well, regard as the ‘Mickey Mouse Trophy.’ It is of course a mark of how far Saints have fallen that they are in this competition at all. But now they are it is worth winning.

At the start of the season a quick look at Saints’ upcoming campaign suggested it could be.

The league will always be the top priority, but starting with a ten point deduction achieving much more than an upper midtable finish was always going to be a big ask.

With the start to the season Saints have had, as the team gel, that really does appear to be the case.

Alright, the play-offs are not totally out of reach but it will need a monumental run of form in the next three quarters of the season to get there so you have to rate it as more unlikely than likely.

Saints’ chances of winning the FA Cup are somewhere between slim and none.

The Carling Cup was marginally better but with that ship having already sailed it leaves the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

Full story in today's Daily Echo