First game we've been to in 18 months. Maybe it's the possession, pass pass style but everything seemed to be at half pace. Having said that, Saints ability to pass themselves out of tight situations was great to see. I'm not sure how much of that was due to Birmingham's lack of confidence in closing down in numbers or Saints superior skills. Whatever it was, Saints passed their way through Birmingham at will and as has already been said the game should have been won by half-time.
One thing that was irritating me was the reluctance to get the ball out to KWP more. On the occasions that he did get the ball we were immediately at them working lovely one-two's and getting in crosses. For some reason, there was a preference to play the ball out left even when KWP was in space on the right and he showed his frustrations more than once. Sulemana did very well for the goal, excellent in fact, but we were a bigger threat through KWP overall.
I think it was obvious that Birmingham were going to be in our faces after half time. I also think it was not being able to deal with that pressure rather than us being asleep that gave us an uncomfortable 20 minutes or so. We didn't seem to be able to keep the ball in that time which is a bit puzzling as we are quite capable of doing so and it might have helped if the defending for their goal was more competent. They should have equalised not long after that and our overall superiority would have counted for nothing. If we hadn't won that game it would have been a travesty but it could have happened if Birmingham were anything like decent.
One thing that hasn't changed in 18 months is that a two goal lead never feels like enough with Saints.
