We win 4 games on the trot. We score two good goals and keep a clean sheet. Are all Saints fans happy? No, of course not. Some fans seem to want to see Brazil in League 1 It's a tough league (as is the Championship) and some times beautiful football is not possible. Results are everything at the moment.
I was concerned that having played like brazil for parts of the season so far, we completely abandoned our usual basic standards in the first half. We have two of the best out field players in the league and they were playing so narrow in the first half it was crazy. Hammond was playing as a virtual sweeper at times. I think NA would have to take the blame for the fans unrest in the first half as it was a waste of time, We then had 45mins to chase a goal which is never easy but we went back to our basic game and did it thank god! Stick to what we do best and we will be fine. But playing our squad in their natural positions helps.
I have always found Saints play better football in the second half. Don't know whether Adkins reminds them not to play hoofball at half time or the opposition tire and can't close us down so quickly. Ok, it wasnt Brazil but there werenoments of quality on show yesterday. Lamberts finish, lallana just being himself and Alex bringing a supberb save from their third string keeper. Just one other comment. The attendance was excellent considering it was live on sky and the Northam was in fine voice all match. Well done.
One problem is that our fans read and believe what they see in the papers, they then expect the opposition to roll over and let us steamroller over them, this is a tough Division, very few teams are going give up without a fight, they all have a game plan and it us up to us to work out how to contest it, yesterday was a classic rearguard park the bus hit on the break action in the first half, had we scored early, that would have been a different matter, however in the 2nd half we found a vunerability when they failed to defend a set piece and after that there was only one possible result, there is still a long way to go and more games like this, it goes with the territory, we just have to keep the faith, the Northam were very effective in lifting the Team in the 2nd half, more of the same please.
A great positive to come from the last few games is that Rickie is hitting form, at a crucial time in the season. Don't get me wrong, I have appreciated all his hard work and unselfish work to let other players score, but he is now scoring good goals himself. No one can doubt his commitment as shown by his chasing down of the ball at Bournemouth leading to Barnards goal. Feeling very positive this morning.