Saints have their tightest defence since the 1983/84 side that finished 2nd in what was then the old First Division and could be about to emulate that side.

Back in 1983 Saints had a great start to the season defensively, in their opening 7 games they conceded only 2 goals and the modern day Saints could be about to equal that record if they can shut out Swansea City on Saturday.

Thirty years ago Saints defence contained a lot of quality, in goal you had England International Peter Shilton, generally regarded as the best goalkeeper in the World at that time, right back was another Engalnd stalwart Mick Mills, although by then at 34 his England career was over, in the centre of defence you had Mark Wright a player who at the end of the season would earn the first of many England caps, at the start of the season he would be partnered by Kenny Armstrong and on occasion Reuben Agboola would make up a five man defence with Mark Dennis perhaps one of the finest left backs to play for the club completing the numbers.

In the opening six games Saints won four games, drew the other two and scored eight goals whilst letting in only a single goal, that being up at eventual champions Liverpool in a 1-1 draw, when you consider that out of those 6 games, 5 of them were against the other sides who would join Saints in the top 6 on the final table of the season it makes it all the remarkable.

In the 7th game Saints suffered their first defeat of the season going down 1-0 at Aston Villa, if Saints don't concede on Sunday then they will equal this record of conceding only 2 goals in the opening 7 games, the 8th game in that season Saints again won 1-0, but in the 9th they were heavily beaten 3-1at Luton and in the 10th they conceded another 2 in a home win over Ipswich, so if we take 10 games as a decent benchmark, Saints mean defence back then actually conceded 7 in that period, so modern day Saints have several bites at this particular cherry even if they concede on Sunday.

So why have Saints suddenly become so mean in defence, well the first signs of this came I believe back in January when Artur Boruc returned to the Saints goal after his initial infamous start at the club, Boruc was a keeper who commanded his box and this helped stabilise a defence that was shell shocked, but oruc couldn't do it all on his own and the arrival of Dejan Lovren is probably the piece in the jigsaw that turned us from charitable towards the opposition to veritable misers.

Lovren has not only brought out the best in Jose Fonte, but the stability that he has bought to the centre of defence has also benefitted the young full backs, last season we were prone to counter attacks due to the lack of mobility in the centre of defence and also vunerable at dead ball situations due to our failure to deal with crosses into the box, as I said Boruc was the starting point, but Lovren has made the defence complete.

At the moment this isn't the Saints defence with the most famous names or most international caps, but if they continue in this vein it might soon well be.

Photo: Action Images

slynch added 23:44 - Oct 1 The best route to a good defence is to keep the ball in their half, which is what MP strives for.
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SaintNick added 00:01 - Oct 2 I agree, problem was last season when sides got the ball back they would counter attack quickly and we couldn't cope with it as happened at Newcastle, also dead ball situations were our undoing, time and time again Hooiveld/Yoshida & Fonte would be caught out due to lack of concentration and we would pay the price, Lovren seems to have sharpened Fonte up and we have cut this out

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slynch added 10:24 - Oct 2 Aye! It's surprising what better players and better coaching can do. Let's hope it works against the Welsh.
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davepid added 12:18 - Oct 2 Good to see you two agreeing on something ! !
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bstokesaint added 12:49 - Oct 2 That record defence is a bit before my time, but I'm sure the defence of Niemi, Claus, Svensson, Bridge and Telfer set a then Premiership record for successive clean sheets which was subsequently beaten by Chelsea. That was a solid defence.
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slynch added 14:33 - Oct 2 davepid Oh! No it's not!
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SaintDownUnder added 04:34 - Oct 3 Agree with Nick and Slynch, better players, better coaching, more possession means we're tougher to break down. I'd also add that the upturn in defensive returns are in no small part due to Victor and Morgan snapping up anything in front of Lovern and Fonte.
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TheFoo added 10:38 - Oct 4 Totally agree about Boruc, and the comment above about keeping the ball in the other half. Lovren however, hasn't quite hit the bill for me yet. There were a couple of heart in mouth moments entirely down to his blunders. So much of our success this year has been the luck of the fixture list, IMHO. COYR
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