Before the game this was lined up as a clash between two teams vying for 8th place, however Newcastle seemed to think the season was already over.

This was perhaps the easiest win Saints will have all season, Newcastle United arrived at St Mary's on place ahead of Saints, but they showed no commitment, no fight and seemed to have no urgency about them.

The first half was a series of chances for Saints that varied from squandered to well defended by the visitors to just plain unlucky, but the truth was Saints should have been well out of sight before they eventually opened the scoring on 45 minutes.

The two men involved in this opener were Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez, both sprung a poor Newcastle offside trap and Rickie bearing down on the goalkeeper realised that scoring was more important than who scored it and although the temptation must have been to fire past the keeper, he took the right option which was to roll it across to J Rod.

That relieved the pressure and when Lambert himself fired home just after the break you felt that Newcastle didn't have it in them to com back.

The goal of the match though came on the 70 minute mark, Jack Cork who had been immense in midfield won a crunching tackle and the ball fell to Adam Lallana , he ghosted past a player or two then hit it into the top corner to the acclaim of the St Mary's crowd who knew they had witnessed a man in the best form of his career.

There was a late sting in the tail and it was from a through ball by Gaston Ramirez, I have often said that we won get the best out of him unless he has someone to pass through balls to, he put Rodriguez through with a great ball, in truth it was a little over hit and it looked a tight angle for Rodriguez who controlled the ball pulled it back and fired home from an acute angle.

This was a team performance and it has to be said that before kick off things didnt lokk great in that we were again short through injury, however we pulled together as a team and cut out the mistakes at White Hart Lane the week before, every player had a good game starting with Artur Boruc at the back, he didnt have a lot to do but he did it well, it was his quick throw that started the move for the goal and he made the one save he had too. The back four were tight and the midfield worked hard to make sure that Newcastle never got the chance to get their heads up.

The three attacking players worked well and although it could be said they should have perhaps finished better in the first half they worked well together and all of the trio are a step nearer Brazil than they were before the game.

8th position is now ours for the taking, we just have to do what we have done in this game and that is work hard and cut out the errors, perhaps next week will be tough, a win at Man City will be difficult, however after that we are more than capable of taking points in all our remaining five games after that.

If there was one disappointment it was the use of subs, with the game won with 20 minutes to go, I could not see the point of bringing on Morgan Schneiderlin, firstly better to give him a little bit more time to recover from his injury, but secondly surely this is the time to blood a youngster, Harrison Reed didn't get off the bench and Sam Gallagher came on in the 90th minute, this was a missed chance to see what they have got to offer and give them some experience.

This is a minor gripe though, overall it was good to see a very young squad work hard and beat a team in the top half of the table for only the second time this season.

If Saints can hang on to everyone in the summer and make a couple of key signings then we can continue on with the steps forward we have made this term.

Photo: Action Images

montecristo added 18:35 - Mar 30 hanging to everyone and signing some real quality maybe just a couple of players is absolutely key for Saints now, if they can recoup on Osvaldo so much the better although they will have to take a big hit to get rid of him, he is on the slide I think.
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schatfield added 19:02 - Mar 30 love your reports Nick, but any chance you could give a score out of 10 for each player as well? Great reports though, like I said...
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IanRC added 19:12 - Mar 30 Agree that Cork was magnificent, best complement to him and the other midfield players was that Spider and Wanyama were hardly missed, can't for the life of me think why MoPo froze him out earlier. Great end result for the front three England contenders although in truth they were quite profligate in the first half. As a unit they look great together, Rodriguez looks better and better but he owes a huge debt to Lambert who has proved completely selfless. Lambert's creativeness is a fantastic bonus for the teams he plays for. As for Adam, if he can stay fit agree with Shearer, not a question of whether he goes to Brazil but who is dropped to make way for him in the starting line up. Do hope we can hang onto our youngsters, particularly Adam and Luke, could be the verge of something truly great if we can.

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aceofthebase added 19:38 - Mar 30 What a fantastic performance from our team. Newcastle had no fire in their belly and seemed to realise that they were going to be outplayed. Chambers Shaw Cork , well all of the team, they played brilliantly What a pity Hodgson cannot take the bones of this team plus the odd Liverpool forward to Brazil Agree we should have blooded another youngster for the final ten minutes.

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cheltenhamsaint added 21:39 - Mar 30 Good report Nick. I too would have liked Gallagher or Reed get a 20 minute spell on the pitch but having lost two late goals against Norwich and the reverse against Spurs the score line was probably more important in the overall scheme of things, particularly a clean sheet. What we witnessed was two contrasting teams - one who had settled for their mid table position and the other that saw it as an important to their supporters, a chance to enhance the team spirit through a winning mentality, and a philosophy that every game should be approached in the same professional manner if a club is serious about being successful and progressive. MP is managing this particularly well and we were all rewarded with this approach. I read that we have never finished with a positive goal difference in the Premier League. Can any confirm this as true, even when we finished at our highest position of 8th under Strachen?

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thegeneral added 22:29 - Mar 30 It was a great game of football, there was a lot less backwards and sidewards passing which just made us positive and created chances. Newcastle were bad but we still had to upset there game plan and demoralise them. I am pleased Jrod is becoming such a key player for us, for me he was the one to watch this season and he hasn't disappointed. He is a very instinctive striker and needs to calm himself when facing goal with a bit of time. Good result, there wasn't a weak player on the field in a red shirt, yet still a pissy few minutes on MOTD , when will the BBC learn there are more football fans watching than those of any one club, so feature the best games regardless of whether the top 5 are involved in them or not.

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SaintNick added 22:31 - Mar 30 Good idea about the player ratings, i would have gone Boruc 7 didnt have a lot to do but did it well, good quick throw for first goal Chambers 7 stayed strong got foward well Fonte 7 did what he had to do Lovren 7 as Fonte Shaw 7 wasnt tested defensively got forward well Lallana 9 influenced game every time he got the ball Cork 9 unsung hero always seemed to be breaking down newcastle attacks and moving ball on quickly Davis 8 Usual hard working game JWP 7 Good strong game some nice work Rodriguez 9 Was involved in most attacking moves, got on the end of a lot Lambert 8. Unselfish for first goal, good second goal, did well on ball

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BoondockSaint added 01:20 - Mar 31 Finally kept the pressure on an inferior team! Hoped Ray saw how Rickie doesn't just score goals, but unselfishly sets them up. J-Rod is at long last getting calmer in the box. Great job all round!
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halftimeorange added 10:07 - Mar 31 The harsh truth is that we beat a team who, apart from a couple of players, didn't care. Half of Newcastle's team are on their way out, many are not fighting for World Cup places, their manager is out of favour with his board and the fans but, everyone knows they won't go down. Contrast that with us and you get only one team that really wanted to win. We weren't tested by Newcastle but I think the likes of Cardiff will prove a much more difficult side to overcome. Even so, and despite the abundance of missed chances, I enjoyed the show and the readily apparent team spirit amongst our players.

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Waylander added 14:09 - Mar 31 Terrific performance against a team who seemed more concerned about their summer holidays. My only criticism is that we should have buried more of the chances we created.
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saintjeff52 added 17:15 - Mar 31 As you said, Newcastle were already on the Beach. Still, we can only play against what's before us. Possession dominance is still NOT being turned into goals. In reality, the defeat to Spuds is even more hard to take, especially given their result and performance yesterday. The true test of how far we've come will be against Citeh next Saturday. On the Telly too. A real opportunity to show what we can do. Play well, take our chances, cut out errors, and we might just unsettle them. Pellegrini was impressed with us at St. Mary's. I can see us getting a Draw

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Whatsforpud added 18:19 - Apr 1 Nick, I notice that when the team does well, there's always about half the comments here compared with when they play badly. Human nature I suppose!
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