IT'S surely no coincidence that consistency has bred consistency.

There has been chopping and changing all over the place in the Saints ranks this season.

Much of it has been enforced due to the terrible injury problems that have beset the squad - no sooner has the team looked settled, then somebody has had to drop out.

Some of it has been through choice as George Burley tries to find his best XI with a tendency to take a horses-for-courses approach to picking the team.

But after naming the same side for three matches in a row, Saints have a team that looks well balanced and happy with life.

We have harped on all season about Saints' need for consistency if they are to make a successful promotion push this season.

But it's also been repeated on several occasions that the only way you normally do that is by having a consistent team selection.

For Burley to have the chance to be able to do that is a rare thing with the injury jinx at St Mary's these days.

To see him prepared to do it when the opportunity arises gives much hope and is paying dividends.

The draw with Coventry made it four games unbeaten.

And in that run of three games with an unchanged side, leaky Saints have become watertight Saints, conceding just once - and that was offside.

What will be interesting, and a tester for Burley, is what he does when players start to return.

Darren Powell made it back on to the bench for the game at Coventry and Wayne Thomas could well be available for selection by the time Saints play their next game against Preston.

So the big question for Burley is whether to stick with this steady formula.

To be honest, the way things are going, you can't change it.

You may or may not think you've got the best players in the squad out there, but they are doing what is being asked of them.

The defence really is the prime example, and the most important one.

You can chop and change midfielders and strikers but you don't want to do that with your backline.

After his nightmare start, it's hard to imagine Alan Bennett would have played another game for Saints had all these injuries to centre halves not come along.

But they did, he has and he's done very well.

He and Andrew Davies have formed a good pairing and you would struggle to justify disrupting that.

In Jermaine Wright and Rudi Skacel you have two full backs playing well too.

Saints were a little unfortunate not to have taken all three points at Coventry, though in the end the draw was probably fair.

There were two very similar calls from the linesmen that helped make the difference.

In the fourth minute, Bradley Wright-Phillips' shot was saved by Dimi Konstantopoulos but Stern John was on hand to head home the rebound from close range.

However, the linesman raised his flag and ruled it out, saying John was offside when Wright-Phillips struck his shot.

On first glance it looked like the correct call.

On 18 minutes, Michael Mifsud's shot from the edge of the area struck Jason Euell and ballooned to the far post.

Leon McKenzie fired it goalwards, Kelvin Davis made the save but Jay Tabb was on hand to head in the rebound.

It appeared he was a long way offside when McKenzie shot but this time, much to the anger of the Saints players, there was no flag from the linesman.

It looked an incorrect decision and Saints were a goal down.

The Sky Blues were fairly buoyant early on after escaping administration on Friday afternoon and Saints had to withstand plenty of pressure in the first half with Davis making a few decent stops.

But in the second half Saints spent most of the time playing 4-4-2 rather than switching between that and 4-5-1, or 4-3-3 if you will, and they looked the better team.

They worked the ball nicely and it brought Youssef Safri's abilities into the game.

Saints levelledon 58 minutes when Euell crossed from the right and Wright-Phillips rose highest at the far post to steer it in.

Wright-Phillips squandered arguably an easier chance with 12 minutes remaining when he was played in behind the Coventry defence by Andrew Surman.

It was a great first touch to take it into his path but he opted to shoot early and, from the edge of the area with just the keeper to beat, missed the target.

But nonetheless it was another good performance and proved whilst consistency may be boring it can also be effective.