IF ever there was an advert for a winter break in English football, the last couple of Saints games have been it.

For the second match in a row, we saw George Burley's men come within an inch, or millimetre to be more precise, of having their fixture postponed.

Luckily the St Mary's pitch is in such good shape that, once the excess water was removed, the game against Leicester was able to go ahead, albeit it was heavy going.

Against Plymouth yesterday we had a vaguely similar scenario.

The heavens opened and drenched the pitch before kick-off. But another break in the weather meant it was able to start and finish - another heavy shower probably would have done for it.

The trouble is that Plymouth's pitch is not in the same sort of shape as St Mary's. It was saturated, cut up and looked very, very hard work to play on.

We are talking about professional footballers here and, of course, they can play in tough conditions.

But two games in three days on such pitches is asking a lot of anybody.

And it showed in Saints' performance, which could best be described as leggy.

The argument against a winter break is that this is precisely the time when fans like to come and watch football - Saints' highest post-relegation attendance on Boxing Day showed that.

Also, the season is extended when England have to prepare for a major championship.

The case for a break includes the risk of burnout for the players.

The game at Plymouth, as you would expect in the conditions, was a bit of a scrap.

It wasn't really the type of ding-dong battle you can sometimes get in these conditions, though.

In truth, it was a largely forgettable game.

Saints got their 2007 off to a perfect start when they took the lead after just five minutes.

Kelvin Davis had already produced a good save from Cherno Samaba when Grzegorz Rasiak was the grateful recipient of a dreadful attempted clearance by Davis's opposite number, Romain Larrieu.

He had come flying out of the box to block Rudi Skacel's run but sliced his clearance to the grateful Rasiak who slid home his 16th goal of the Championship season into an empty net.

Saints were well and truly on the back foot for the rest of the half.

Plymouth had corner after corner - 13 in the first period in all - and Saints were devoid of any spark.

Perhaps the tiredness had already crept in because they didn't seem to be able to get themselves going.

Claus Lundekvam made a great last-ditch block in the box before Jermaine Wright had to hack a header from the totally unmarked Lilian Nalis off the line.

Then Davis needed to come into his own again, as he has done in several matches recently, and make three good saves before the break.

George Burley made a double change at half-time.

Rudi Skacel came off injured while David Prutton, making his first senior start since April, had really struggled in the first half.

After so long out through injury, playing these tough games in such close proximity was probably just asking a bit too much.

Mario Licka and Chris Makin did add fresh legs, Gareth Bale pushing to left midfield but proving why he is more effective attacking from deep as a full-back.

Though he was also tired, hopefully this proves the point as to why he should be kept as a left-back and not moved forward as some have suggested.

You can present far more danger attacking from deep if you have the engine to get up and down than you can do as a tightly-marked winger.

Bradley Wright-Phillips had a chance to probably seal the points for Saints on 63 minutes when he was picked out in space by a right wing cross from Wright.

However, with the goal at his mercy, he missed the target.

Just three minutes later Saints paid the price as Plymouth levelled.

Davis got down to turn away a drilled Akos Buzsaky cross from inside the area but the ball fell to Barry Hayles, whose half volley went through a crowded penalty area and into the net.

After that chances were more scarce.

Plymouth felt hard done by when they had a David Norris goal ruled out for offside.

They felt even worse when Hayles was sent off for a second bookable offence with six minutes left, the second yellow looking more than a little harsh.

But, all things considered, it was another decent point.