Alan Pardew is thankful that Saints' task on Tuesday night will be made a little easier by a shortened journey up to Hartlepool.
The proverbial 'nightmare' trip the fixtures computer has thrown his side's way is one which the squad has the benefit of a flight to overcome the worst part of it, but the manager is keen to reward the supporters that will embark on a long trip north.
"Getting up to Hartlepool is easy for us, but for our fans it isn't," he stated. "This is a hell of a journey so it's important that we get the message to the players how important the journey for them on a work day is.
"You'd like to think that there'd be a bit more protection for the fans really. We're fortunate to have a flight because some clubs don't have that luxury. Fortunately we've got an owner who is backing the side, Nicola Cortese has given us this option and we thank him for it.
"Hartlepool are a side that are good at home, they keep it very, very tight and defensively I think they're a strong team with a good points total. But we really must go there to try and win, because we've dropped points and we can't afford to do that, we have, so we have to go for a win.
"The pitch is a good surface so we're going to try and win the game. If we get beat it will be through trying to force the opposition as much as we can, that's the way I've always played and that's the focus of this game."
Saints go into the match on the back of a spirited 2-2 draw with form team Norwich City on Saturday and Pardew is keen to build on that performance.
"Norwich and ourselves will probably feel 'comfortable' in terms of the performance levels but not the result. We wanted to win and we pushed right up to the 94th minute. I think our fans appreciated that, but it just didn't come for us.
"I don't want to take anything away from us though, we're scoring goals. It's easy to concentrate on the negative, but the positive is that we are scoring goals, and that's the hardest thing in football to score goals, so it's the easy bit that we've got to put right.
"The only thing that has been a negative recently is that loan players have become a bit of a problem for us," he added. "Neal Trotman couldn't play in a game so we had to change the back four and in doing so we've had a bit of disruption.
"Up until that point, Trots, Radhi Jaidi, Lloyd James, Dan Harding and Kelvin obviously, looked very, very solid, but since that time where we had to change it we had Wayne Thomas come in and he did very well for us. Then we put Trots back in and that little disruption has affected us. But I thought Trotman was back to his best on Saturday and I expect us to be solid and a better on Tuesday night."
Graeme Murty made his return to playing as a substitute at the weekend and the manager was pleased to have the 34 year-old available again as Saints try to maintain their focus for the campaign.
"If you change one player in the back five, that's 20 per cent of the unit you are moving and a personnel change is quite important. He's an experienced player who's been there and done it so when he's fit he plays, whether he's fit enough to play on Tuesday we'll have to see.
"We have no margin for error, each game is pressure for us a bit like when you're chasing for top two positions and you've got a team in the play-offs right on your tail waiting for you to make errors or draw games. We've drawn eight now and with the minus ten as well, it is pressure but it's good experience for us because once we do get up there it will stand us in good stead, but we cannot afford to try not to win every game.
"Only the press have mentioned the play-offs, the only target we have are eyes on at the moment is getting out of the relegation zone, that's what we're focusing on but every point is important so that we get out of that. We've slipped a little bit from Saturday's results so it's important that we get a win on Tuesday night."
