STEVE WIGLEY feels Saints are fortunate not to have been cut adrift of their fellow Premiership strugglers after their poor start to the season.

As Saints round off their crunch month of November with a huge match against Crystal Palace at St Mary's today, built-up all week to be a decisive one for the future of Wigley, just five points separate bottom of the table Blackburn and 12th placed Portsmouth.

A win for Saints today would not only lift them above Palace but could represent a decent leap up the table.

Wigley, who was on a scouting mission to watch Newcastle defeat Sochaux 4-0 in France on Thursday night, said: "I'm surprised one or two teams haven't put a run together, and I've said to the lads we've been fortunate that, while we've been picking up more points lately, other teams have been dropping points.

"But that won't go on forever. The league normally takes more shape after ten games but that just hasn't been the case this year.

"If we win today, we could be three or four places up the league quite easily.

"When you're in my position, you don't look at the league tables but concentrate on the games that are coming up.

"Crystal Palace is a massive game as they are in and around us.

"When you play such teams, you need to win those games.

"The players have always been positive - we know one result could really move us up the table.

"But that has to come now. We said if we'd have won last week, we'd have been something like 13th. But we didn't and you can't keep talking like that.

"We've got to make inroads into this league and today is a very important game."

Wigley is wary of the threat of Crystal Palace's scoring sensation Andrew Johnson going into today's game.

While Saints have scored more goals of late, they have also conceded more. He said: "You only have to look at the goal charts to see Crystal Palace's main threat.

"Johnson has got eight goals and has done very well.

"He's a threat - he's got pace and he's a 90-minute footballer. I enjoy watching him.

"When you've got eight goals at this stage of the season, you are very much a contender for being one of the leading scorers at the end of the season.

"People have compared him to James Beattie and Kevin Phillips, who haven't just done it one season but repeatedly."

Wigley added: "We've had a good week. The lads have worked very hard and we've gone over what we did badly at Norwich.

"When I looked at it, we did a lot things well and we need to pass the ball as well as we did but have a little extra quality in the final third.

"We've scored quite a few goals lately, so we've looked as though we've solved that problem.

"We had a few chances against Norwich but the big thing for me is, when we get in front, we have to hold on to a lead longer than we have done."