FRUSTRATION: Bradley Wright-Phillips can't believe it as another Saints chance goes begging.
IF ANYBODY was hoping for a nice, quiet end to the season then you can forget that.
It looks almost certain to go right down to the wire in the battle for survival after Saints blew a golden chance to all but get themselves safe.
The game against Burnley always looked like a potentially decisive day. Playing at home against a mid-table team with little to play for presented a terrific opportunity to get three points on the board.
With so many of the teams around the bottom of the table playing each other over two sets of fixtures a win would have all but secured Saints' place in the division for next season. At worst they would just have needed a point from their last two games to be certain.
However, anything less than a win, and heaven forbid a defeat, would leave them staring down the barrel.
Well it was a defeat and the pressure is on in a big way.
advertisement
Anybody looking for an explanation of how Saints find themselves in this position, away from the off- field antics, need only look at their home record.
Nine defeats in the league this season is appaling. In fact they've now lost more home games than they've won, which is truly dreadful.
Their away record isn't great either and, with West Brom to come in the next fixture, Saints are going to do very well not to be in the bottom three come the final day.
That may mean their fate is out of their hands.
For now, though, it isn't and they have to remain focused and try to get something from that West Brom game, however unlikely it might seem from the outside.
Some people may see it as straw clutching but often this season Saints have got results you wouldn't have expected - doing well against the better teams and losing to the worse ones.
They are being helped by Sheffield Wednesday's inability to put wins on the board as well, but they can't rely on that remaining the case.
Wednesday's final two games, away to Leicester and at home to Norwich, look infinitely more comfortable than Saints' trip to West Brom and visit of Sheffield United on the final day.
The Burnley game summed up so many of those home defeats this season. The team they were playing weren't great; in fact, they were barely even good.
Saints dominated possession and territory for most of the match.
On paper and in practice a winnable game at home that Saints lost, which sums up the season. However, there is no time dwell on it. Saints’ fate is still in their own hands and they now have to pull results out of the bag or they will be relegated.
Adam Leitch
They were committed and tried hard but there was a dearth of quality in the final third.
That is the area that matters most and that lack of quality killed Saints.
From the back and through the midfield things weren't too bad but up the front it wasn't pleasant viewing.
There were missed chances and an inability to hold the ball up or make telling runs into the areas where it really hurts teams, but that wasn't the whole picture.
Yes, Stern John did miss a couple he should have done better with and Bradley Wright-Phillips had a bad day, but to paint it out to be as if Saints were continually carving out opportunities and spurning them would be a slight injustice to the strikers.
Burnley for their part were happy to be difficult to break down and once they got their goal they had something to defend and they did so doggedly.
All the meaningful first half action came right at the end.
Saints got their first effort on target just before the break when Andrew Surman's drilled effort from the left was saved by Brian Jensen.
Burnley went straight up the other end and Chris McCann's header forced Richard Wright into his only save of the game.
When the corner was swung in Steven Caldwell made a run across the near post, lost his marker and flicked a header past Wright for 1-0.
Saints knew they needed goals in the second half and almost got one straight away. Wright-Phillips poked the ball under Jensen but saw his effort hit the post before Caldwell's brilliant challenge denied John.
John missed his first good chance on 54 minutes when Wright-Phillips cut the ball back to him but he somehow fell over as he tried to connect with it.
Chris Perry made a great last-ditch tackle to keep Saints in the game before Saints pushed on in search of a goal but saw Jensen make two good saves.
First he turned a low Inigo Idiakez drive round the post and then tipped Youssef Safri's stinging 25-yard thunderbolt over the bar. In between Jhon Viafara had fired the ball across to John but again he couldn't connect cleanly.
It's going to a nervy, bumpy last couple of weeks. but despite everything, Saints must remember they still have it in their own hands.
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
Comment
