How good does this feel ey!? I'm sure 99.9% of us before the match were expecting to get roundly thumped with the starting line-up that was announced but somehow despite having what must of been 3 attacks all match. WE WON! What makes this win all the sweeter is that the players each and every one of us had written off won the game for us with Bothroyd the prime example The likes of Betty, Boswinga, Park, Hoilett and Green all came to the fore in ways I for one did not expect pre kick off. Bothroyd came as a big name signing after shining in the Championship and swiftly took the No.10 off Buzsaky before embarrassing himself with displays of gutless ****...to be blunt. He's since gone on loan to struggling Sheff Wed where he was equally hated and now has returned a completely new player. He wins headers, closes down, looks to create and even scores! Im not sure of the exact figures but he must have the best goals per game ratio of anyone in the squad this year maybe bar Remy. Boswinga, well, I still hate him. He's everything that's wrong with the club at the moment but today he acted as a calming influence with his arrogance on the ball actually helping us soak up pressure towards the end. He swaggered about on the ball deftly chipping it along the line or turning with it to open up a new outlet rather than hoofing it clear and handing Southampton possesion. He still has a long way to go to win over the fans and I personally think Onouha should start ahead of him but for once I actually felt like he was playing for the club rather than himself. (cue everyone disagreeing with me) For the first 75 minutes Park was still the same old Park that everyone moans about when we see him on the team sheet. He ran with heart but was all in all ineffective as he failed to bolster the attack or sufficiently cover the defence. Then the assist for the goal came and all of a sudden the Park I expected when we signed him appeared. Until the final whistle he broke up Saints attacks, connected his passes and pressed with success rather than being bypassed as has happened so often this season. If a single act can boost his confidence and therefore his performances to such an extent that can only be to the benefit of the team. When we beat numerous clubs to Hoiletts signature he brought a buzz along with him. Unfortunately bar a brief spell when he scored against Reading & Everton his performances reminded me more of Shabazz Baidoo rather than the lightning winger who had torn apart defenders for fun the previous season. Today he ran at defenders with pace and looked like the player we were promised. If he can continue that form and we can somehow work it so we have him Taarabt and Townsend running at defenders that is exactly the attacking flair needed to win us 5/6 of our last 10 games. Despite only playing 20 minutes for me Rob Green was man of the match. After the West Brom debacle I'm sure most Rs fans shuddered when Cesar had to hobble off but Green showed his class with save after save. The stop from Yoshida's header was nothing short of world class and to be honest had me celebrating as much as when Betty netted. If we're going to stay up this season we need our goalkeeper whoever he is to be in this sort of form. We didn't play well today. Far from it. But the glimpses shown by these players today means that the starting line up no longer picks itself and shows there might be some fight in these players after all. We just had to wait 7 months to find it.
