The Spirit Of The Dell returned to St Mary's in the great win over Bristol City.

It was a big day for Saints and finally all the pleas for the supporters and players to show the Spirit Of Southampton for once didnt fall on deaf ears as both upped the ante to ensure three points in the bag.

From the off it was clear that this was a different saints side than the ones that have been going out in recent weeks, a lot of credit to that has to go to the three loan signings at the back, Richard Wright once again marshalled the defence and commanded his area in a way that we have rarely seen in the past two years and in front of him Chris's  Perry and Lucketti looked like they had been a partnership for life rather than playing their second and first games for the club respectively.

This was a foundation that could be built on and in midfield a re shuffle also seemed to work.

After 35 minutes Saints took the lead and in truth they should have been in front a lot earlier, Euell headed a ball across the box to the far post and Stern John volleyed home from a tight angle, so tight that many couldnt believe it had gone in, four minutes later and it looked like two, BWP attempted an overhead kick that wasnt going near the goal but fell to John again who tucked it home, most thought the linesman got the offside call wrong but you sensed this percieved injustice would spur Saints on rather than deflate them.

In the second half their was only one team in it and City couldnt get a sniff of goal, but there was always the fear that Saints might just slip up, however as City committed more to attack it allowed extra room for Saints to go on the break, Basso in the City goal was keeping his side in it making several superb saves down low to his right.

However on 84 minutes Saints made the game virtually safe, Basso saved brilliantly again from Pericard's close range header but could do nothing as Euell stabbed home the rebound to the relief of the home crowd.

Even an extra five minutes of stoppage time couldnt give Saints the wobbles and they looked more likely to score again than concede, Basso was as busy as he had been all match to keep Saints from making it a rout.

The final whistle signalled great celebration, not just because Saints had won, but the manner in which they had achieved it, leaving their fans to feel for the first time in many months that this team is too good to go down and that they can put a run of wins together to haul themselves up the table and just lately that is a feeling that we havent felt for a long long time.    

Photo: Action Images

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