The team selection for Nigel Adkins at the Riverside Stadium should be simple enough this weekend, put out an unchanged team and let them finish the job.

Nigel Adkins should not have to spend too much time on Friday evening pondering over his team selection for Saturday evening's game at Middlesbrough, assuming that Jos Hooiveld is fit and indeed everyone else in the starting line up at Peterborough, then he should field exactly the same XI.

In recent games this has looked the best balanced line up that we have put out, in the aforementioned Peterborough game and at Crystal Palace it had the right ratio's of attack and defence and this is what we need to get right at the Riverside.

With Frazer Richardson returning on the bench on Tuesday night there are some who would say he should come back into the team, but I would not be one of those, Danny Butterfield has come in and done a great job and although Richardson offers more going forward, Butterfield is a far better defender positionally, Boro dont have a great home record, they dont score many, so what we dont want to happen is to get caught on the break as we did against Reading, far better to have a deeper lying defender in the Butterfield mould.

The bench again is crucial, the surprise to me for the Posh game was that we had three defenders on it, with Lee Barnard available again I would like to see his return to the bench in place of one of the full backs on it on Tuesday, with either Harding or Richardson stepping down.

Other than that our task is simple, win the game and we are in the Premier League, draw it and we have one foot in the door, knowing that all we have to do is either draw against Coventry or outscore West Ham on the final day to keep our goal difference intact, assuming of course that the Hammers do win up at Leicester City.

Ironically enough it seems to be a bit of a tradition to win promotion away from home on the penultimate day of the season on goal difference, perhaps its a good time to go one step better this time.

Photo: Action Images

saintandy11 added 11:53 - Apr 20 Got to hope that Hoovie is fit enough to play, how else can we sing happy birthday to him? As for the article, spot-on. If it ain't broke don't fix it. We are playing well and looking confident across the field. I agree that Danny offers a better defensive option than Frazier. He just needs to stop floating his crosses in, it's just catching practice for the keeper. My only worry about the game is that it is live on sky, and we always play rubbish when on TV. That aside really looking forward to the game. COYR

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SaintNick added 12:01 - Apr 20 When Butterfield floats crosses is its because he is told to play in this way by the manager, it sometimes works as it did when lambert scored at Palace , due to rustiness though he probably wont be as accurate as he would like to be
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Fordy added 13:44 - Apr 20 If Morgan is fit I'd bring him in for Hammond. I'd have Frazer back as well, Boro are tight defensively so any improvement going forward is welcome.
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SaintNick added 13:45 - Apr 20 why change a winning side, perhaps Morgan on the bench but he has only just returned to training so probably not ready to start, Butterfield has done well
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saintandy11 added 14:50 - Apr 20 Deano is playing very well at the moment so why drop him? He holds the midfield together and that allows Corky the freedom to play his more expressive football. Chatting to some Posh fans after the game, they had him as our man of the match, he broke up so many of their attacks with good, solid tackles. They believe he is the sort of midfield player they are missing. And as Nick said, why change a winning side?

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bstokesaint added 15:33 - Apr 20 I'd go with an unchanged side for this one and go for the jugular. I don't want WHU to have so much as a sniff of a chance. Look how they reacted when we got beaten by Reading, by destroying Brighton. Even if we draw, they could knock a few past Leicester which would set-up a potentially nervy encounter with Coventry, who with nothing to lose might be only too happy to spoil our party by sitting back and sneaking something late on. Got to treat the game like we have to win it to win the league. We'll also see this weekend if Reading's preparations have been affected by all their promotion celebrations. In theory Crystal Palace offer little in the way of resistance.

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SaintStu7 added 15:49 - Apr 20 I think its best to stick with the same team, there have been too many half time changes over recent months and we know this side can perform. The TV jinks is a worry, there must be something behind it as its every game. At least we played well against Reading which was a change, hopefully the players can be encouraged by this. I would be surprised if its all sown up on Sat... Its Saints after all! coyr!I

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SaintNick added 16:54 - Apr 20 There was no tv jinx when we beat Leeds both home and away and drew away to Reading
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Whatsforpud added 19:49 - Apr 20 I agree with Saintandy11 about the floated crosses. Nick, how do you know that Butterfield (or any others) have been told to do them? They usually favour the keeper or central defenders. I am sure Lambert would rather have firm, direct crosses to work on.
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