Saints are going to have to deal with pressure situations much more emphatically if they are to extricate themselves from an increasingly difficult looking situation.

The goalless draw against Newcastle at St Mary’s extended their terrible recent statistics, and the way it occurred suggested the pressure had got to them.

Those stats of one win in 16 at St Mary’s and no league goals in five successive games for the first time since 2001 are appalling.

But they were once again there to be ended.

Newcastle were woeful, totally lacking in any attacking ambition, as witnessed by the fact they didn’t manage a single shot on target, and devoid of any confidence, belief or cutting edge.

They came into the game bottom of the Premier League table and, for all the pre-match talk of not underestimating them, were much worse than most people imagined they would be.

To say they were there for the taking is somewhat of an understatement.

And, yet again, Saints did some good work but every time that crucial, critical, crunch moment came, players buckled, chances came and went and the poor spell goes on.

The reality of life for Saints is that things are going to get much tougher now.

Ten games into the season is normally the time to gauge the temperature of a campaign. It is pretty cool for Saints, who are floating a couple of points above the bottom three.

However, fixtures have been fairly kind to them thus far.

That is not the case from now on.

They have six games against the big six in their next 11 Premier League fixtures.

That run leads them into the start of 2019 and more than halfway through the season.

Whilst you may argue that Manchester United are weaker at the moment and maybe that game is slightly less daunting, nonetheless, you cannot expect much from those six games.

That means the pressure is heaped on the other five matches.

If you mess them up, as Saints did against Newcastle - and Watford at home and Fulham away either side of the international break now look crucial – then you are going to be in big trouble.

And given the number of games gone bv that stage you will be in a relegation fight for the remainder of the season.

It’s alright to say it’s a good sign that Saints are creating chances, even if they are missing them. But that only holds for so long.

Given the boos at the full time whistle after a dreadful match at the weekend, it seems as if the crowd have started to lose patience, and after the run they have endured it is hard to blame them.