Stage 1 of 3 completed.

Looking at the scoreline Saints beat Huddersfield easily, however although it cannot be denied that we ultimately deserved our win, for a period it looked completely different and the yorkshire side to their credit kept going and looked a threat to the final whistle.

For the best part of half an hour Saints were all at sea, although going forward they looked dangerous and indeed could have opened the scoring themselves, Huddersfield could well have scored three before they hit the games opener, in that first period the back four were at sixes and sevens and in quick succession Hudderfield ht the woodwork, then missed an incredible open goal before Fonte was caught in no mans land and Novak was left unmarked to head home, at this point it looked like it might be a repeat of the Brentford game.

But it all changed in the space of four minutes around the half hour, first Lambert swivelled and hit a shot that most of the ground thought had gone into the side netting, but somehow squirmed through, there was a delayed reaction to the goal from most, then Chamberlain controlled the ball well before firing home to give Saints a surprise lead.

You could see that now Saints looked a different team, suddenly Fonte & Guly gelled and the visitors through balls were intercepted rather than tearing us apart, up at the other end Saints were creating chances and the only surprise was that we didnt add to the tally.

On the 51st minute Jaidi powered home a header and Saints were truly in the driving seat, when Chaplow added the fourth the result was assured..

The question now is whether Saints can now build on this win, although on paper it looks good especially against a side up there in the race for promotion, but what this season has shown us is that at home if we get on top we can usually boss a game and against the Terriers that was the case, but we have to start putting winning runs together, beating Exeter on New Years Day will go a long way to doing that, but after that game we will have played 13 home games and only 8 away, we have to start winning on the road,

The first 25 minutes or so of this game showed that all is not quite right just yet and as the saying goes, one swallow does not make a summer, Exeter have to be dispatched and then Saints have to win a few away games, lets be blunt Dagenham are currently third from bottom, might actually be bottom by the time we get their, anything less than a win is not acceptable, with respect to the Essex side we have to start blowing teams in their position away.

Another note was the mutterings that followed every Guly chance, yes he didnt have his shooting boots on, but he didnt hide and worked hard to keep getting in the positions, at times creating chances for others as well, Rickie Lambert has been allowed to stroll around for 19 games barely getting a shot on target but doesnt recieve any stick, Guly works his butt off yet is only one miss away from being booed, if Saints had 11 players that worked as hard as Guly then we would probably be in a better position that we are now, time and time again I have seen sides take points off us who have not ggot anyone near the class of our players, yet they have worked hard whilst we have not,, Saints fans should reflect on this and before they ridicule Guly ponder whether if he had been given as many straight games as SRL, whether he would have contributed a lot more.   

Photo: Action Images

felly1 added 10:28 - Dec 29 Regarding your Guly comments, well I would say there was as a general sense of frustration that Adkins didn't start with Barnard who has been our best forward this season, but to be fair the Northam were singing his name in the second half...typical fickle fans,me included.I have moaned about our midfield recently but i have to say i thought both Hammond and Schneiderlin were excellent yesterday along with Oxo and Lallana.

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DJI added 11:09 - Dec 29 Nick, I fully agree with you about Guly. He may have missed a few chances but his contribution to the team game was excellent yesterday. He is credited with two assists (Alex and Chaplow goals) and his off the ball running to create space for Rickie and Adam was excellent. He was involved in many things and gave their defence a difficult time all game. As frustrating as it was to see him miss a few chances, the fans must remember that Rickie and Barney have missed many more, and Adam missed at least two yesterday, one put on a plate to him by Guly. In fact as I recall it, each opportunity that Guly had was under pressure from a defender or was blocked as he turned to shoot. The fact that he got in those positions is far more than SRL has managed in a while. If we hope to sign him in January, the fans need to start getting behind him more, be patient with him and make him feel loved. He is a foreign player, speaks very little English and we need to make him feel at home. If we fail to gain his signature, the fans can't blame Cortese if we never showed we wanted him.

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winchesterbob added 11:11 - Dec 29 It was a strange match, Saints could have been stuffed in the first twenty minutes and deserved to go a goal down but the wonder strike from Lambert, of the sort we got used to last season, seemed to put the confidence back into the team. The real worry for me was the last twenty minutes when the whole team seemed to run out of puff and particularly worrying Lallana appeared to be struggling. The lack of games in the last month has not done the squad any favours its true but Huddersfield were still running to the end.

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DJI added 11:27 - Dec 29 Lallana looked like he was suffering a touch of cramp near the end as he seemed to be stretching and rubbing his calfs a bit, but we had no subs left so he had to dig in. I started to think we lost our desire to keep hammeirng in goals in the last 10-15mins as we were so on top of the game, which was a shame. But I do agree that in the first 15 minutes, we looked like we were going to get thumped. Kelvin was doing his usual thing of not communicating with his defence, and the spine of the team looked all over the place and wobbly. I even remember saying to my mate sat next to me that I thought Chaplow should be on as we had no midfield bite. The Adam stepped it up, Rickie scored and the whole game turned around. A really entertaining match and glad to see Huddersfield came to play and not park their bus (remember Oldham?).

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sholingred added 15:16 - Dec 29 Great result,guly is not a striker,we need Charlie austin please as he will finish all these chances,18 on target and 4 goals is a poor ratio,i am not moaning,i feel a goalscorer will get us promoted,as barnard and connoly are injury prone.
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1teeminants added 16:26 - Dec 29 Guly lets others into play well and he tries but Barnard is a much better player and proven goalscorer. Lambert and Barnard all the time for me Guly should be on the bench.Barnard would have had trick yesterday ffs.
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Libertine36 added 17:18 - Dec 29 I think your right in comparing the abuse Guly is starting to get with Lambert. I must admit im not his greatest fan but only realised he was a midfielder yesterday. I will cut him some slack for the next few games.
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