'Martin needs backing whatever the play-off result'

Southampton will face West Brom over two legs in their Championship play-off semi final

I have thought long and hard about this and sometimes when you spend your life looking at every little detail and weighing up every pro and con, it can be hard to see the bigger picture and to keep perspective.

Social media makes that even harder, with emotional, uninformed, negative views splashed in front of you every time you look.

So, let’s get some perspective on Southampton Football Club and where they are.

This time last year the world was ending. A disastrous season, embellished with a string of bad decisions, was heading to its foregone conclusion of relegation from the Premier League after 11 seasons.

There was no faith in the manager, there was little faith in owners Sport Republic and supporters were rightly angry at the demise of their team, in the light of a false hope when Sport Republic took the club over from its previous ownership.

Russell Martin was appointed last summer by Jason Wilcox and nobody has any clue which players will still be at the club by September.

Players were leaving left right and centre with talismanic captain James Ward-Prowse’s exit to West Ham symbolising the end of an era.

But the club assured us through Martin and new chief executive Phil Parsons that promotion back to the Premier League was absolutely the target for this season.

Some excellent loan signings later, a regular season that included a 25-game unbeaten run and some spectacular highs and lows, and Saints are still in with a chance of promotion back to the top flight, albeit through the play-offs.

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Southampton finished 12 points clear of West Brom in the final Championship table

A haul of 87 points from 46 games is very good given the mess Martin and his staff inherited back in July.

It has only been made to look “not good enough” because of the exceptional season it’s been at the top.

And now the play-offs beckon with the uncertainty that that brings and if Saints fail to get promoted does that make the season a failure?

Does that mean Russell Martin should be criticised for “having too much possession”?

If you think about that phrase it’s a nonsense for me.

Everybody wants possession and the myth that they haven’t mixed their game up is just that, Saints maybe could have done it more.

But, if in the wake of losing in the play-offs fans start calling for the manager’s head and the board panic, I will happily remind anyone who asks what a state the club was in last summer, how down everyone was in the stands and at the training ground, and how fractured the dressing room was.

Sport Republic appointed Jason Wilcox and Russell Martin to develop an identity on and off the pitch, a way of playing that would course through the club and would develop talent.

They need to keep their heads and believe in the very structure and style they have said they wanted. Wilcox has already gone.

That couldn’t be helped but they need to back Martin whatever happens this month.

He has shown he can produce a winning, entertaining brand of football and players like playing for him.

This is not the time for knee-jerk reactions, the club is back on an even keel and Martin needs to keep steering the ship.