.......and just as well  too.   About ten days ago I dreamt that my beloved Saints would go to Burnley and get the new Premiership season off to a cracking start with a 3-1 win.  That didn`t happen of course as we lost 3-0.  But still the dreams lived on and I wondered whether today`s  encounter with Champions League winners Liverpool might provide an upset and see Saints win their first home game of the season by a late goal.   That didn`t happen of course as we lost 2-1 to end up 18th in the table.

Now I know it`s early days - 36 games to go and all that - but already the signs are there that we are in for yet another of our perennial struggles.  It seems we played pretty well but once again were let down by mistakes at the back by defenders - who cannot be named for legal reasons - and by an attacking force which more and more resembles a powder puff.   A friend who was at the game suggested that the difference between the two sides was that Liverpool had Sadio Mane and we had Danny Ings - despite the fact that each of them scored against their former clubs.   And of course Liverpool had the luxury of fielding Van Dyke, Oxtail-Chamberlain and Mane, along with Lallana on the bench - all purloined from Southampton.

But our whizz bang manager, Ralph ("Klopp of the Alps") Hasenhuttl is encouraged by the performance, if not the result.  He thought we might have got something from the game but, as ever, show me a good loser and I`ll show you a loser.  Never mind - there`a all to play for.  Next up = Brighton away, now managed by former Saints player Gtaham Potter, in what might already be a must win six pointer.  

So are we depressed, disappointed, anxious, worried, on the verge of nervous breakdowns?  Well, maybe not quite yet, for we take comfort in Hot Chocolate and still believe in miracles.

In my other footy news - Forest Green Rovers are riding high in League Two, Maidstone are comfortably in mid-rable, the Gills had their match called off thanks to Bury`s financial problems, Fort William lost (of course) but this time by the only goal in a 1-0 home defeat to fellow strugglers Keith and Truro City romped home to a 1-0 win over Swindon Supermarine to go top of the Southern League Division South.

So there are miracles to be found if you know where to look and I for one am convinced that one will come the way of the Saints and we finish 17th at the end of the season.  You heard it here first.