Saints huffed and they puffed but they couldnt blow the house down.

Saints put Brighton to the sword at St Mary's but the truth of the matter was they sorely missed the guile of Richard Chaplow and lapsed into one dimensional play that the Seagulls in the main dealt with fairly easily.

The match stats tell the story of a game in which Saints dominated 11 shots on target compared to the visitors 3, 10 shots off  against 5, but it was Saints fortunate to get a point in the end thanks to a great Kelvin Davis penalty save.

If Saints had got an early goal and in the first half Brighton barely had a kick, then the game could have been oh so much different, but plenty of possession and chances did not mean plenty of saves from the visitors keeper who in the main had routine stuff to deal with, perhaps the best chance of the game for Saints fell to Rickie Lambert just after half time but he put his free header from six yards over the bar when he should really have scored, that probably summed up Lamberts season and Saints night.

But its not all doom and gloom, yes its two points dropped and we dropped out of the top six, but its another game unbeaten and earlier in the season its one we would have lost, plenty of other results went our way on the night and automatic promotion is stiill only four points away

Another disapointment was perhaps the crowd, yes it was a big one at 26,237 and that is superb in this division, but after taking into account the Brighton fans that meant 23k home supporters, the diapointment being that this was only 2,000 more Saints fans than turned up on Saturday for the Peterborough game, given the great result on Saturday and this was against the league leaders I would have thought more than an extra couple of thousand would have turned up, you cant slag the 20,000 Saints supporters who turn up every week, but if the floating Saints fan wants to see the Club climb back up the leagues and enjoy more great days out such as Wembley along the way, then they really do need to put their hands in their pockets and get along to St Mary's a little more often.

Photo: Action Images

BITTERNEBOY added 10:51 - Nov 24 I think it is doom and gloom because with all the money spent we are not consistently an outstanding team. There may have been 11 shots on target but none of them had any chance of being a goal. Top 6 highly likely Top 2 Unlikely at the moment
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geezershoong added 11:49 - Nov 24 A good assessment until you let yourself down with the last paragraph.
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SaintNick added 11:52 - Nov 24 I dont think i let myself down, I just questioned why only 2,000 more saints fans where there than saturday, is that not a valid question to ask ?
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jehram added 13:35 - Nov 24 Wot geezer said... the SSN report said something along the lines of "an incredible 26k crammed into SMS's to watch the south coast derby"... on this occasion especially I think you need to change the record!
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eusebio added 13:57 - Nov 24 In these modern times shouldn't that be change the download
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SaintNick added 16:21 - Nov 24 Again i wasnt criticising the size of the crowd, merely why only 2,000 more saints fans were there than saturday, I thought there would be more than that given the game
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darkangelv2 added 16:59 - Nov 24 To a lot of Saints fans this was still 'just' Brighton we were playing. We'd love to think we'd get 32,000 like we used to get in the prem - it just isn't going to happen. No matter how big any club, the division it is in will often dictate your gate receipts (Leeds a noteable exception). (Yes i am there every game).
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felly1 added 18:08 - Nov 24 Well for a cold Tuesday night i`d say that was a pretty impressive turnout.First half we dominated with classy football but Brighton defended resolutely.Second half we ran out of steam and ideas and Brighton looked more likely to nick it as it wore on.Definitely missed Chappers.Chamberlaine and Adam were snuffed out,Ricardo`s right off the pace and once Hammond ran out of steam we were never going to get the goal. Still,a decent point as long as we beat Hartlepool away and Brentford at home.

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Spot51 added 11:28 - Nov 26 St. Umpted
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Spot51 added 11:28 - Nov 26 St. Umpted
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