Saints V Crystal Palace The Verdict Wednesday, 4th Mar 2015 09:18 Only one thing mattered on this night, that we scored a goal and that we won, Ok thats two but who'scounting after this game that could turn the season back our way. It was one of those nights when for a long long time you thought that it would be another goal less game for us with the worry that Palace might nick a goal at the other end, this almost happened on a couple of occasions in the second half but when the ball rebounded off a post and safety you sensed that things might just be turning Saints way. Saints didn't play badly at any stage of the game, right from the off they pushed the visitors back and created chances, stats of 62% possession and 23 attempts on goal bore witness to that, the problem was though that although Saints clearly had learnt from West Brom and weren't trying to pass the ball into the goal and were willing to have a go, only 3 of these shots were on target. Perhaps it was that we were trying too hard and perhaps it was that things just weren't running for us, on another night we could have had 3 or 4 goals but Palace just seemed to have the rub of the green at crucial moments. Indeed the goal resulted from a shot that really should have been buried from James Ward Prowse, he made space for himself and shot, but in truth he hit it straight at Speroni in the Palace goal, although the keeper would argue it was hit with pace, the reality was that he should have held it, he didn't though and there was Mane to dink it over him for what would prove to be the winning goal and it released a pressure pot in St Mary's that has been building. All that matters now is the result and the fact that we have moved up to fifth in the table, we might drop to sixth this evening and even seventh by Saturday, but these three points have been precious and mean that we come back for the last ten games of the season confident and refreshed. Perhaps one big factor that we were able to keep going and put ourselves in the position to win the game late on was the crowd, perhaps the empty seats were usually filled by those that would have turned against the side when they failed to capitalise on a plethora of chances, but those that did turn up gave the team great backing and did not turn on certain players, this meant that the atmosphere in the main was positive and did not turn nasty and affect the players. Indeed when Pelle went of on 70 minutes he was given a standing ovation from many parts of the ground who recognised he had run his heart out and truly deserved a goal or at least to see one created from his good hold up play. Likewise Filip Djuricic his running and hard work created much and he had a never say die attitude that often took the play forward and created either chances or caused Palace to have to foul. But this performance was often about guts more than skill, at the back poor play from both of our central defenders almost cost us goals, if you are at the top f the table you have to be stiched on at all times and sometimes we werent, that is not to say that Fonte & Yoshida had bad games, for 98% of it they were strong, but its that 2% that changes games sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad and this slack defending could have cost us on at least three occasions. But the three points have been won and the team spirit and battling got them and that is a good foundation to build on for the last quarter of the season. Saints now take a well earned break and an opportunity to rest and get the attitudes right for these last 10 games, in recent weeks we have been shell shocked but now we can put that behind us, get all of the squad fit and ready and then it will be game on for the rest of the season. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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