EIGHT league matches unbeaten might look impressive - but right now Saints are going backwards rather than forward.

In the league table they are now four full wins behind leaders Sheffield United while Reading, their opponents on Wednesday, are pulling away in second.

Suddenly they have transformed from early pace-setters to being stuck in a large bunch of teams that stretches down quite some way.

Luckily, it only needs a few wins to get to the head of that bunch and create some breathing space for yourselves.

But, with almost a quarter of the season gone, Saints are perhaps further behind than they would like.

At the start of the season with so many top players sold, so little money spent and a new league to adapt to, you might well have taken this start to the season.

Certainly stopping the rot of losing every week to set up this eight-match unbeaten run was important.

But then, when you get to this situation, you have to say they should be doing better than they are.

Generally they have played well, but five draws in a row is not really enough if you are to be challenging at the very top.

Especially not when you are performing well. Those are the times you should be winning.

At some stage of the season there is bound to be a blip where a few results go badly. It's inevitable for most teams.

The problem Saints will have when it happens to them is that they may look back at this run and feel they didn't get the points on the board they should have done to compensate for any mini-slump.

The sad thing about it all, as we seem to be saying every week, is how totally predictable it is.

Peter Crouch and Kevin Phillips went, as well as Henri Camara, and weren't replaced sufficiently.

Saints have decent strikers but more second strikers than the guys that score you 20-odd goals a season.

Again we come back to the same conclusion - the board did not adequately sort out the playing squad to rectify the problem everybody knew was there.

It's even more depressing when you see Clinton Morrison scoring for Crystal Palace every week - and when you know that Saints are probably only one missing link away from being up there with Sheffield United.

Again, you ask what the logic was?

Baffling is the answer.

On Saturday, against Plymouth, it was one of the few draws where it's hard to argue Saints deserved to win. As a team they didn't do enough to justify that boast.

Just like against QPR, Plymouth came and got men behind the ball, allowed Saints as much possession as they wanted in areas that wouldn't harm them and challenged Harry Redknapp's men to break them down.

They couldn't do that and never looked like they would.

The team worked hard but lacked invention, ideas, guile, that little bit of magic, preferring cautious build-up play.

They needed somebody - Redknapp said like Paolo Di Canio - just to add that spark to open Plymouth up.

Because, make no mistake, Plymouth aren't a good team. A draw at home against them is a poor result for a team with serious promotion ambitions.

The nearest Saints came was a Kamil Kosowski header, a Dennis Wise free-kick, a blocked Brett Ormerod effort and a miss from Ricardo Fuller.

And none of those were great chances.

Plymouth probably had the best opening of the game when, with 12 minutes remaining, Anthony Barness crossed for the unmarked Nick Chadwick to dive and stick out a leg, only to divert his effort over the bar.

It was a frustrating after- noon for the fans as well as the players.

They are seeing teams come and put men behind the ball every week. And are seeing their team fail to do enough to unlock their defences.

What the answer to the problem is with the transfer window closed is hard to say.

Saints do miss Djamel Belmadi, one man who might have that spark. Marian Pahars likewise.

The best hope is that somebody steps up and manages to fill that gap. Otherwise we'll be left with the depressing reality that a lack of foresight this summer left Saints one player short of a very good team and perhaps, ultimately, promotion.

Monday 26 September 2005