They have a mountain to climb, but with a bit of luck it is one that is easily climbable and they still harbour hopes of getting back into the Premier League.
However, recent developments have done everything they can to derail their push, with Ipswich and Leeds looking to take advantage.
Why Southampton have a huge April problem to deal with
With the game against Preston North End being postponed due to a fire breaking out directly outside of St. Mary’s, it means that with the heavy scheduling coming up over the coming weeks, Saints’ fixtures are piling up – and at the business end of the season, that is the last thing any team needs.
Not only have they had the small matter of their match league leaders Leicester on March 15th being postponed to a later date on April 23rd, but the international break means that players will have to wait three weeks until their next game, against Middlesbrough on March 29.
Effectively, they will have nine games to play throughout April’s 30 days and the first weekend of May; and by looking at their Championship fixture list, the Preston reschedule is likely to come on either the 16th or the 30th of April, which means that they will have to play once every three days throughout all of that month.
It doesn’t help Leicester or Preston of course, but two postponed games in the space of a week is detrimental to any club – never mind a club that is going through a late automatic promotion push. It will be testing not only mentally, but physically on the players with a heavy workload – and so it means their task to return to the Premier League at the first attempt just got even tougher.
How Ipswich Town and Leeds United could capitalise on Southampton’s dilemma
The answer is fairly obvious – not only do Ipswich and Leeds have more time to plan ahead of their games on the training ground, but they’ll also be much more energetic than their south coast counterparts. Ipswich may feel the burden initally as they face Southampton fairly soon in the schedule, but if the Tractor Boys can at least avoid defeat to the Saints, it will stand them in good stead ahead of a challenging run throughout April.
