TO put it fairly mildly, it's been a bad week for Saints.

Having had a break following back-to-back wins over Stoke and QPR, confidence and optimism was pretty high.

After the three games in a week Saints have just had, both are pretty much at the other end of the scale.

The defeat at Watford was frustrating as Saints should have got a point at a ground where most sides will probably lose there this season.

What is far, far more worrying is the results of the two home games that followed.

If drawing 1-1 at home to Colchester seemed poor, it was put into context by a defeat to Barnsley.

Simply, if Saints have aspirations of promotion this season they cannot afford any more results like this.

It is still early days and there is no need to panic just yet, but even at this stage you can't afford to be too far off the pace.

Not many teams will put together a run like Sunderland did last season or Crystal Palace a few years earlier. Most sides that go up will be in and around the top six for most of the season.

And if Saints found it difficult at home to Colchester and Barnsley, then their next three games in eight days - away to Sheffield United and Preston and home to West Brom - aren't going to provide much relief.

There were positives to come out of the defeat to Barnsley, but they were outweighed by the negatives.

On the happier side of life, new loan signing Christian Dailly looked very good and he and Wayne Thomas worked well together.

Andrew Surman looked bright and Adam Hammill showed much promise on his first Saints start.

The negative side is, unfortunately, far more extensive.

The full-back positions remain big questions for George Burley to answer.

At right back, it seems he doesn't much fancy Alexander Ostlund but Jermaine Wright has struggled there as well.

He didn't deserve the stick he got from a few of the fans at the weekend and, in fairness to him, right back is a position he can play rather than one he specialises in.

Wright has looked fine when Nathan Dyer has been in front of him, holding back and giving him room to run - but otherwise it's been hard for him to get forward and support.

At left back Rudi Skacel has struggled for fitness and didn't make a great return against Colchester, while Gregory Vignal has been a mixed bag.

You get great things from him going forward and that is important for the team, but he has made a few mistakes, unfortunately all of which have been punished by goals.

The central midfield pairing of Youssef Safri and Jhon Viafara has done well in games but was off colour against Barnsley.

Safri uncharacteristically gave the ball away while Viafara won a lot, but there was not much purpose in terms of what he did with it after that.

Up front the pairing of Bradley Wright-Phillips and Marek Saganowski didn't work - they were just too similar, chasing the same balls, no one target man to hold the ball up.

Stern John came on at half-time to provide that, but didn't have a good afternoon.

Grzegorz Rasiak may have played two games in a few days but was missed and not introduced until after 69 minutes.

On top of that, the attacking set-pieces were mainly dreadful.

In terms of the action, the first 27 minutes were as dull as dishwater.

Then Barnsley took the lead when Grant McCann fired a 25-yard free-kick over the wall and in to the top corner.

Wright-Phillips volleyed against the foot of the post and Saganowski had an effort cleared off the line before McCann made it 2-0 with another 25-yard free kick in the top corner.

Hammill tried his luck from distance and smacked the outside of the post before Saints threw themselves a lifeline.

Wright-Phillips shot across goal and Saganowski slid in at the far post to make it 2-1.

Having got themselves back into the game, Saints suddenly had a chance in the second half with Barnsley deciding to defend deep and protect what they had.

Viafara and John both missed good chances before Saints were given a helping hand by Dominik Werling who shouted and stomped his way into a second yellow card followed by a red.

At the start of stoppage time Saints finally got their equaliser when John slashed at the ball and it came across goal to Inigo Idiakez who side-footed home.

With most of the six minutes of injury time remaining, you felt Saints could go on and win it.

But they shot themselves in the foot by conceding directly from the kick off.

Martin Devaney was allowed in on goal, Kelvin Davis blocked the first effort low down but the Barnsley man headed the rebound into the bottom corner.

It pretty much summed up the last week.

But it's one Saints have to get out of their systems immediately or risk giving themselves a mountain to climb before we even reach ten games.