Every game a Cup Final

Ithink this is good, saw it on The Ugly Inside.

Away from home the Saints support has been second to none (Well apart from Leeds perhaps) indeed already over a 1,000 tickets have been sold for Tuesday's trip to Bristol Rover's with the remaining few hundred going at a rate of knots.

So Saturday's visit of Charlton gives the home only fans a chance to show their loyalty in what is the start of a run that islast chance saloon in every game for Saints.

That being the case every game has to be treated like a cup final, both on and off the pitch.

On the pitch draws are no longer any good to us, in that respect I would expect to see Saints going for it hell for leather if they are on level terms going into the final 15 mins or so of a game, tactics are going to be important, if we arent winning then I would expect to see all our forwards on the pitch and if we get the lead we need to be able to adapt quickly to ensure we dont lose it.

Off the pitch its time for St Mary's to be turned into a sea of support and those banks of empty seats to be filled, OK perhaps Im asking a bit much for their to be 30,000 this Saturday, but with Charlton bringing a fair few down, surely its not too much to ask for 3-4000 stay away Saints fans to come along and give their backing and boost the crowd to around 27k plus, after all this is a promotion run in, the manager, the players, the chairman and perhaps more importantly Markus Liebherr need to see that the supporters believe in them.

This is not just another rant about crowd figures, I recognise that everyone has the right to put other priorities ahead of watching Saints and that many will have perfectly acceptable reasons not to go on Saturday be they financial or family related, however this is the most important game of the season and everyone has to ask themselves whether they are a Supporter or merely a fan.

A supporter is by the very term supportive of the team and gets behind it, especially in its hour of need whereas a fan will merely come along when it suits them, that doesnt make them any worse a human being, its their personal choice and of course sometimes by neccessity we are merely fans due to reasons of finance etc.

So with every game a "Cup Final" whilst a play off spot is achievable, its definately a time that the Club needs people through the turnstiles, of course the 44,000 tickets showed that the potential is there, but potential doesnt mean a thing in bread & butter league games, Luton sold a similar amount of tickets for the JPT last year and have the best support in the conference, although even that is barely League 1 level.

Lets show Markus Liebherr & The players that in Southampton "Support is for life, not just in cup finals"

I'd like to think we could fill St Marys for the last few matches.

Sad really. We get the happy clappers at Wembley but week in week out we get around 20,000 for home games.

As a season ticket holder I would have liked Saints to do some deals for last few home games reducing prices for kids, 2 for 1 deals to fill the empty seats. Its not cheap following your side regularly and some people would love to come to games but have other priorities and dont have the money for full prices.

Expect 25000 for saturday but if sun is shining might be around 26000

The Echo say the club are expecting 25000+ on Saturday. (see below)

Saints are expecting a bumper crowd for this weekend’s make or break play-off clash with Charlton.

The club are predicting an attendance of more than 25,000 for the game against the Addicks which is crucial if Saints are to reach the top six by the end of the season.

Charlton look likely to fill their full allocation of 3,200 as they push for an automatic promotion spot while Saints fans are desperate to see their team make further strides towards the play-offs.

Third highest crowd If Saints do manage to attract 25,000 fans into St Mary’s, it would be their third highest league attendance of the season, behind the crowds of over 30,000 that saw them defeat Exeter on Boxing Day and Leeds last month.

The only other two home sell-outs of the season were for the games against MK Dons and Portsmouth in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy and FA Cup respectively.

That underlines the interest in this weekend’s game.

With Huddersfield beating Oldham at home on Tuesday night, Saints have very little margin for error.

They may need to win all of their remaining seven games if they are going to have a chance of making the top six with Saturday’s clash against Charlton and next Tuesday’s trip to Bristol Rovers on paper their hardest remaining fixtures.

Saints are 11 points off of sixth-placed Huddersfield but have a game in hand.

The fact that Saints may now need maximum points from their remaining games is not lost on the club’s supporters.

To show what a fine line Saints are treading, if Huddersfield won four of their remaining six games, or even won three and drew two, it would be mathematically impossible for Saints to catch them.

That’s even if Alan Pardew’s side picked up a maximum 21 points between now and the end of the campaign.

And that’s not taking account whatever fast fading Colchester and improving Bristol Rovers, who are both between Saints and Huddersfield, do for the remainder of the season.

However, logic tells you that a team with 78 points at the end of the season would be hugely unlucky not to get in the play-offs.

76-point average The average needed to finish in sixth place over the last ten third tier campaigns is 76.

Coincidentally, Saints had a big attendance against Charlton at St Mary’s almost a year ago to the day.

That was when over 27,000 supporters turned up to show their support on April 4 – just three days after the club went into administration.

There was no happy ending, though – Saints lost 3-2 to the team that finished bottom of the Championship a few weeks later.

Matty I would also like to see the club do something like that. I have two st's as I take Twizzle but may end up with 3 for next season as my 6yo boy wants to go more often. How I pay I am but probably will use the credit offer that Saints run.

Tempted to move away from the Chapel tho as it can be very quiet.

SFC forever I'm in the Northam and certainly not quiet! Dont think its great for younger kids unless near the front where they do sit most of the time, we have stood up virtually all season, actually hope the stewards reach us sometimes as getting to old to stand all game!

I would go in the Kingsland North bit near the Northern end. We were there a couple of seasons ago and you get the atmosphere without the odd drunk/idiots you can occassionally get in Northam