Let's look at the relative monthly league positions:
2005/6
End August: 5th
End September: 7th
End October: 7th
End November: 12th
2006/7
End August: 9th
End September: 5th
19th October: 12th
November: ?
After our recent sequence of results, we are actually worse off than last season and are losing of late where last season we were endlessly drawing. At least Saints have shaken off those endless draws which got us nowhere.
Saints' steady decline last season coincided with itchy feet among manager and former Premiership players alike and one seriously unpopular Chairman as the figurehead of discontent. We were a club going in a negative spiral.
This season at least we have a stable manager, boardroom stability and players signed up to the Championship for this season at least.
The real concern is that the £7m investment in the first team has not provided the high quality and consistent team we require to maintain a challenge for the league.
Burley admitted as much this week by trying to reduce expectations saying: "It might not happen this season, but we will work hard and battle away and try and finish as high as we can." A change in tune after recent upbeat promotion predictions, but certainly a realistic assessment of where we are now.
Injuries haven't helped, in particular the loss of playmaker Djamel Belmadi who makes Saints a much classier outfit when he is on the field working his magic. The lengthy absence of captain Claus Lundekvam has seen Saints leaking more goals than we should, but at least we have him back in the side.
As Cardiff have showed and Reading and Sheffield United before them, it takes time to build a team, time Saints do not have after recruiting 11 new players this season. At times we have been brilliant to watch and full of goals, at times we have played like strangers as you might expect.
So much of football is about confidence and that makes Stoke such an important game on Saturday. Win again and we will be within a win off the play-off slots. Lose again and that sinking feeling will be hard to shake off.
The irony is, as with last season, QPR aside, we have not been playing badly. It still amazes me how far we finished behind Reading after battering them at home, but in truth eventually the table does not lie. If you keep letting in sloppy goals and lack firepower up front mid-table mediocrity beckons.
Burley has a job on his hand to turn Saints' recent form around and to get his players earning the points he feels we have deserved. Let's just hope he can or we have a long season ahead. A second striker wouldn't go amiss either.