WE will really get a measure of Nigel Adkins’ Saints over the next three games.

There is no arguing with the results that Adkins has got in his short time as Saints boss, but the big tests are now on the horizon.

Since taking charge at St Mary’s, Adkins has slowly but surely started to put his own stamp on the team, from the way they play to the way they conduct themselves.

Adkins quickly halted the losing slump that was threatening to derail the campaign before it even got started, and has managed to get his team into that all important winning habit.

They have proven adept at dispatching some of League One’s lesser lights, taking 19 points out of their last 24.

However, they have only really hit top gear on odd occasions rather than consistently.

And the question as to just how they will cope with the division’s better sides is there to be answered.

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Saints have only played one of the league’s big guns so far during Adkins’ time in charge, and that ended with a comprehensive defeat at Huddersfield.

The only two other games they have played so far against teams in the top eight saw them win one and draw one against Colchester and Bournemouth respectively at St Mary’s.

With a quarter of the season gone, Saints are still staring at 11 fixtures to come against teams currently in the top eight, a fair old percentage.

Whether they will get automatic promotion or not will largely depend on how they do in those matches.

They have laid the foundations, beating the lesser lights to give themselves a platform to build from.

Now they must prove they can do it against better sides.

Three of those 11 games are now coming back-to-back.

It kicks off with a long trip to Carlisle tomorrow before successive games at St Mary’s against Peterborough and table-topping Brighton.

This run is even more vital when you bear in mind that after these fixtures have gone then of the remaining eight games Saints will have to play against the current top eight, five of them will be away from home.

A good run of results in the next fortnight would cement Saints’ place as among the very front runners to go up automatically.

A bit of a stutter would leave everybody wondering whether they have quite got what it takes to bridge the gap between the play-offs and automatic promotion.

Carlisle, though on paper the weaker of the three opponents awaiting Saints, will be no pushover, though.

Not only is Brunton Park a tricky place to visit, but the Cumbrians have gone four games unbeaten with three home wins on the spin.

One of those was a 6-0 FA Cup romp, another a JPT match with Crewe, while the league victory was against Tranmere.

However, after their recent victories Saints will be the first to say wins are wins and breed confidence.

Saints are entering an intriguing, and vital, little period.

We will have a much better idea of where they are in the grand scheme of things at the end of it.