The Championship is heading for one of its most exciting conclusions at the top of the table, with three teams fighting for the last automatic promotion spot and three teams fighting for the last play-off spot. Five of the games kicking off at Saturday lunchtime have something huge riding on them. We are playing in one of the games that doesn’t as our game can only potentially have a bearing on whether we finish third, fourth or fifth, which will of course make a difference to whether we are at home or away in the first leg of our play-off semi-final and what days and times the semi-final will be played. Unless we win against Preston away, we are 100% finishing fifth and playing the first leg at home next Saturday, with a 1230 kick-off. I would say that the most likely opponent for us is Middlesbrough but you never know because the last day does have a habit of throwing up strange results and it would certainly be very strange if Ipswich didn’t beat QPR at home and Millwall didn’t beat Oxford at home. Middlesbrough are away game at Wrexham, which has implications for both automatic promotion and the final playoff place.

Preston started the season well and included in their early results, a 2-0 win at St Mary’s in what turned out to be Will Still’s last game before he was sacked. Oddly enough, Will has emerged this week giving an interview where the major takeaways were that he blamed his failure on Russell Martin and that he wasn’t used to talking to players in English. You can see why he struggled so much with Englist, despite both of his parents being English and the fact that he spoke it perfectly. It’s a little known fact that he was coach of Preston’s Under-14s in 2012, where I assume he spoke English. Even if it’s partly true, it’s really dumb to cite it as a reason, especially given that the German manager who took over from him seemingly has no issues when English is most definitely his second language.

With Will clutching at straws for reasons as to why he failed, I’d like to offer a much more feasible reason for a sacking. He basically, didn’t have a fucking clue and was just throwing stuff at the wall and hoping it stuck. I would definitely argue that the reason we are only in the playoffs are not in the automatic spots is that Will was fucking useless and the formation he played, with three at the back, was one of the very early handicaps for Tonda Eckert who didn’t have the confidence at the very start of his tenure, to bin it off straight away.

Back to matters at hand on the pitch. Preston beat us in the Will Still death throes match, with an inspired performance by the goalkeeper Daniel Iversen and the threat upfront being provided by Lewis Dobbin. They completely deserved to beat us and it’s a bit of a mystery why they have fallen away as much as they have, to become the very definition of a mid-table side. 45 games played, 15 wins, 15 draws, 15 losses, and in the last 6 games, 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats. Paul Heckinbottom is rumoured to be taking charge of his last game as Preston manager today, with a takeover on the horizon.

Our team selection will tell us how much of a big deal Tonda thinks this game is, bearing in mind that we have played eight games in four weeks and the next one after this is undeniably fucking huge. I suspect that anyone who is not 100% will be left out of this game and some will get a rest from the brutal schedule we’ve been on. We’ve sold nearly 6000 tickets for this game, a lot of which will have been purchased thinking that the game would really have a lot riding on it. It will be interesting to see how many forsake the long journey North and keep a bit of money back for the away trip in the playoff semi-final.

Saints make a fast start with Fellows looking particularly interested and you can see why, because the full back against him looks like a fish up a tree. Fellows does his step over trick goes down the outside and stands a cross up at the far post and it’s just a little bit too high for Stewart who heads narrowly over the bar.

Fellows repeat the trick straight after and it’s cleared by Preston out of the left but Wellington doesn’t give it up and gets there before Jebbison and knocks it down the line before cutting in and getting his head up and floating it brilliantly into the middle of the penalty area right onto the forehead of THB, who thumps a header from a good distance out, right into the top corner, giving Iversen no chance at all.

Straight from the kickoff Preston knock it back to the goalkeeper who takes a heavy touch and Ross Stewart barges past the defender who’s trying to block him and then blocks Iversen‘s clearance which rebounds off of the Scot and flies about a foot wide of the post. Lucky bastards.

Charles is playing at right back and he uses that gliding running style of his to leave Preston players in his wake and he feeds the ball into Fellows, who has clearly decided that today is the day that he is going to score. Fellows dances across the penalty area and wraps his left foot around the ball and… misses, as usual, but this time it’s very very close to the far post and a really decent effort.

Preston’s shit left back Vucevic, is obviously stronger at going forward than he is defending and he goes past Charles and Jander on the outside on his way to the line, before crossing it. Peretz punches to the edge of the box and then the shot comes back in from Devine and straight at the keeper, and he parries it out again and then another effort comes in which Peretz gets down really well to save and we somehow survive.

We are playing statues defensively a bit and a few moments later as a corner comes in from the right and it’s met by Lindsay completely unmarked, but he heads it wide. He takes out his frustration by smashing into Stewart in an aerial challenge straight afterwards. Absolute shitbag challenge but Ross is OK. Unchallenged headers are beginning to become a bit of a thing as Dobbin gets up to across from the left completely unmarked in the middle of the 6 yard box and puts it so close to Peretz that he can pull off a ‘one for the cameras’ double handed diving catch.

Half time and the only real interest around the grounds is around the last playoff spot. As it stands it’s Derby in 6th and with Wrexham and Middlesbrough being level, we are currently 4th, which is where we want to be, securing the home leg second.

We start the second half with Charles playing the ball to Archer on the edge of the penalty area and he plays it in to Stewart on roughly the penalty spot. The chance appears to has gone as Ross adjusts his feet, but he does a complete 360 and then another and works himself a yard of space before passing the ball into the bottom corner of the net with his left foot, whilst the defenders and Lindsay in particular, ponders how shit they are.

Saints really should put the game to bed now and from our next corner, Charles winds up an effort from the edge of the box which is well saved by the keeper who gathers the ball at the second attempt before sending it downfield for Dobbin to chase but Peretz comes out to clear, has had a bit of a brain fart, come out too quick, tries to make an adjustment and slips on his arse. Dobbin runs towards goal unchallenged, before passing it into the net. For fuck‘s sake.

Having done absolutely nothing to earn it, Preston on now back into the game but we still look the more likely to score with Archer doing really well to latch onto Jander‘s pass and make it to the edge of the penalty area before not doing so well after making space for himself, as he aimlessly lashes one into the Saints fans behind the goal.

Tonda decides to give the rested big guns a few minutes with Larin, Azaz and Bree all coming on for Stewart, Archer and Bragg and there’s a bit of concern as Lindsay produces another shitbag challenge, this time on Peretz from a corner. Referee and linesman ignore it as usual and Peretz gets stick from Preston fans for his trouble.

The game drifts. Preston don’t look like scoring and Saints initial subs have not had much of an impact. Larin has been chasing his first touch around and Azaz is miles off the pace. Edozie and Manning have come on as well, for Fellows and Welington. Over the 90 we go. 91, 92 and Jander wins the ball in midfield and finds Charles who slides a lovely ball inside the full-back for Edozie and his low accurate cross is simply turned in at the back post by Larin, who does his best to shin it over the bar from a yard out, but this goal gives the score line a more realistic look.

There is time for one more bit of action as we get given a free kick on the edge of the box just the right of centre. Time is up and with ‘Manning again Ole Ole’ ringing round the stadium, the Irish Gareth Bale whips one over the wall past the keeper and sees it bounce to safety off the post. Never mind.

Routine win in the end. The first half was decent in an attacking sense but somehow we had one shot on target in 45 minutes and that was the goal from THB. Other notable efforts were the one from Tom Fellows when the first goal of the season was on, but he put it a foot wide of the post. Preston then had a couple of chances whilst we played statues, forcing Peretz into a decent double save.

We did well to come out of the game with no injuries, despite the best efforts of Preston centre back Liam Lindsay who smashed into both Stewart and Peretz at various times of the game. Liam Lindsay reminds me of Ryan Porteous at Watford and Harry Darling at Norwich. Big slow thug, who is shit and not good enough for the level he’s playing at. He knows he’s shit and tries to hide that by always trying to ‘do’ opposition players, because that’s all he’s got. Lindsay’s defensive talent was shown best on our second goal when he stood there like a fucking training cone allowing Ross Stewart to turn 360° twice before passing the ball into the net.

Once that second goal went in of course it should’ve been absolutely simple but we managed to concede from our own corner on the hour mark as Peretz made his first big howler of the season. I don’t think he was wrong to come out and try and clear that ball, but falling on your arse like when trying to make up for your misjudgement is never going to look particularly clever. Maybe he needs to reign that in a bit more. He did that at Wembley and today and missed the ball on both occasions. Get that badly wrong and it’s a red card, which is the sort of thing that can lose you a playoff game.

There was always a slight worry in the last half an hour that a ball into the box would drop to a Preston player, but I never severely worried that they were going to score and we finally put together an incisive move at the other end in the last minute with Jander, Charles and Edozie combining to tee up Cyle Larin for a tap in.

Overall, with Middlesbrough failing to beat Wrexham, it means that Saints have gone up to 4th so it will be an away game against Middlesbrough next Saturday lunchtime before the return at St Marys on the Tuesday evening.

The automatic promotion climax was exactly as predicted with Ipswich scoring twice in the first 10 minutes against Queens Park on the beach Rangers, and cantering to a comfortable 3-0, which made Millwall’s own win against Oxford academic. Millwall will be playing Hull in the playoffs, with Wrexham and Derby both shitting the bed in their respective last games. Having been there all season, Hull probably deserve that sixth spot.

In the end, today was a day of a job kind of well done. We weren’t brilliant and didn’t close out the second half of the game as well as we should’ve done but it was always going to be a game where the intensity was not gonna be as high off the ball as you would normally expect it to be. I did feel that we were too open in midfield again, like we were against Ipswich when we didn’t have the ball and say the return of Flynn Downes cannot come soon enough for me and that should make a huge difference when the action starts again on Saturday when the stakes will be just a little bit higher.

So, one of Middlesbrough, Saints, Hull or Millwall will be in the Premier League next season. All six games against those opponents were played either under Will Still or when we were still fucking around with three at at the back under Tonda. They will know they are playing a completely different Southampton side and if we play to our best level, then there’s no reason to fear any of these teams, even though we have two draw and four defeats in the six games against them this season.

Today’s win at least takes us into the playoffs on a high and an 18 game unbeaten run in the league. Shit is just about to get interesting.

Up the fucking Saints.