SAINTS 1 - WATFORD 3

The fact that with 15 minutes left a third of them had gone home, was even sadder.

At the start of the season, with optimism high, if you had guessed the attendance for a Saints home game in the run-in against an automatic promotion-chasing team the estimate is likely to have been a good deal higher than it turned out - even bearing in mind it was a Monday night TV match.

But for many fans now, the season cannot end soon enough.

In fairness, Saints' home form has actually not been too bad - it's been a case of too many draws not converted into wins rather than much else.

But against Watford last night the fans that stayed away will be pleased they saved their money.

There wasn't a lack of work or endeavour from Saints.

It was just that with several players out injured, they never really looked like threatening that often.

There were brief spells where they looked in charge.

But they were exactly that - brief.

It's easy to feel a bit sorry for season ticket holders at the moment as this wasn't what they hoped for at the start of the campaign.

When you've paid your money up front you don't want to hear people, even if it is only other fans, saying the season can't finish soon enough.

For everybody else, though, it can't.

You get the impression that perhaps, deep down, maybe even Saints want it too.

That may be slightly unfair. After all, Saints would probably prefer a good run until the end of the season.

Firstly, because that would build some momentum - behind not just the team but the club and help attract better players in the summer.

Secondly, they need to give fans a reason to buy a season ticket for 2006/07. That money is vital in terms of being able to sign players because it is cash up front for the club to use.

However, it's not speaking out of turn to suggest there is not likely to be much of a take-up unless some pretty spectacular prices are offered.

Instead, many fans will opt to see how the team starts and then decide on the possibility of a half-season ticket if things look good at Christmas.

For this reason, Saints need to pull out some performances and results in the next few weeks to make people reconsider.

In Watford we again saw a glimpse of life at the top of the table that was wholly frustrating.

Perhaps it's due to the Premiership football we had been spoiled with at Saints for many years.

But when you see teams like Watford steaming away in the league and winning like this you wonder. They work hard, they're big and strong, they've got a couple of very good players, they're a threat from set pieces.

But like every team in this division, Reading included, they're hardly world beaters.

Two or three years ago Saints would have dispatched these teams with relative ease.

Now they're being beaten by them.

Things got off to a pretty bad start when Watford took the lead after three minutes, Gavin Mahon converting Marlon King's deflected cross at the far post.

An injury-hit Saints squad created a few openings.

Richard Chaplow might have done better with a half volley in the first half.

Grzegorz Rasiak should have done better with a second half header from Jermaine Wright's corner and with a finish from Kenwyne Jones' cut-back, while he had another effort cleared off the line.

But Watford grabbed the all-important second goal, albeit with an element of luck.

Saints attempted a clearance in the box but the ball ricocheted off one of their own players into the path of King, who squared for Darius Henderson to tap home on 67 minutes.

Just five minutes later Henderson headed home another.

After Andrew Surman had hit the bar with a dipping shot from distance, Saints did bag a consolation through Peter Madsen who made it two in two games for him.

Kamil Kosowski, on as a late sub, played the ball in from the left and Madsen met it with a near post header that left keeper Ben Foster with no chance.

Perhaps, though, the telling factor was that with five minutes left there were hardly any Saints fans there to see it.