WE have all been witnessing for some time that it’s been an incredible run that we have been on.
I guess there is always going to come that point where a defeat comes along, but that’s not to underestimate the achievement of how fantastic the run was and how needed it was for us to push for promotion and stay at the top of the table.
It's quite an unprecedented sort of season with the way that some of these teams are performing, winning week in and week out.
Personally, I can’t take anything away from the players, staff, and the club for going on that run. It’s been brilliant to watch and witness.
Everyone associated with Saints has absolutely enjoyed that journey so far. It’s now a case of continuing that and learning from Tuesday night.
The defeat to Bristol City was disappointing. We were not at the level, but you can’t take anything away from the Robins who played well and deserved to win on the night.
My Tuesday morning was spent prepping the game as would be the same for any match that I’m working on.
I travelled up at about 4 PM to the Sky studios in Isleworth, and I got settled in nice and early well before the game.
I love working as a pundit as well as a speaker nowadays especially when I’m covering Saints. It was just a shame that I didn’t have something a bit more positive to say on the night.
It is brilliant to reflect on the unbeaten run but hopefully, we can put together another impressive run of results and performances to sustain our challenge at the top of the table.
We are approaching the business end of the season now. In previous Championship seasons, you have often seen a team mount a late bid through the play-offs or the automatic spots – who have not been in the frame much.
And sometimes we see a team drop away as well, we’ve just got to make sure we keep that pressure up on Leicester City and any of the teams around us.
It’s still very much in our own destiny and control. We are not relying on teams to do us a favour, we can just focus on ourselves.
I’m almost bracing myself for it to go right towards the end of the season as it has the potential to do that, given how close it has been up to this point.
Away from the Championship, my gut feeling and reaction to the possible introduction of blue cards is I’m not so sure whether it would be a good thing.
They are clearly trying to introduce things into the game to make it a better spectacle and make it better from a disciplinary point of view.
I get the whole idea around it would be to reduce a team to 10 men with a sin-bin scenario – we’ve seen that in other sports.
I also get the reaction there has been that it will kill the game as a spectacle because the team with 10 men may play a little bit more defensively for that period of time.
I understand it has worked quite well at some lower levels, so it is an interesting one.
It was brilliant working on the P&O cruise ships for most of January and now I’m pleased to be back watching games – as the signal sometimes made it difficult.
We landed back early last Saturday, and I was then straight to St Mary’s to watch the match against Huddersfield Town, which was just the most incredible match.
It was well worth the effort of staying up and coming along for the game which I was really pleased with.
Finally, I am writing this column while Saints are on their way up to West Brom for last night’s huge fixture. You will know the score when reading this, so hopefully it was a positive one!
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