The straw that finally broke the camel's back, for most Saints supporters the worst 45 minutes they have ever endured at St Mary's when the team finally stuck two fingers up at their manager.

When Saints suffered their two record Premier League defeats a few years ago, there were some good excuses for those debacles, both games saw a player sent off early and they also featured injury issues and poor decisions by VAR, but this debacle had none of those.

We were 1-0 down after only 37 seconds when Spurs virtually walked through our midfield and defence and then 2 goals in a matter of minutes saw us 3-0 down with only 13 minutes on the clock.

We were a shambles, there was no spirit on the pitch & no leadership, it was a side that was clearly baffled by the tactics it was being asked to play and sick to death of being beaten most weeks because of them, this was a vote of no confidence in Russell Martin from his own squad and to be honest no one could accuse them of that before this game.

It was simply a step too far for the players and before the evening was out, for the Southampton board as well.

Once again the team news saw Russell Martin make a couple of baffling selections, Kameldeen Sulemana was one of them and he was clearly irate after 15 minutes when he was hauled off as Martin brought on another defender, he squared up to the manager and he did have a point, whatever you think of Sulemana and personally I wonder why he is in the team given how little he has done for the club in two years, but he was paying the price for Martin once again getting team and tactics so badly wrong, so he had a right to be livid.

But things didn't improve on 25 minutes it was 4-0 and the game was dead aside from how many Spurs would score.

Bizarrely Russell Martin didn't even see the 5th goal go in, he had headed down the tunnel a couple of minutes earlier, for what reason I am not sure.

When we couldn't even hold out for half time and gave Maddison all the time and room he needed to get the ball in from a tight angle, you honestly feared for double figures.

In fairness we dug in for the second half, although Spurs had definitely taken their foot off the gas and we even had the ball in the net, but of course VAR was there to prove it offside and in this case rightly so.

The crowd turned on the manager for the first time this season in open demands for him to be sacked, at least those not heading for the exits.

It was no surprise that within an hour of this game Russell Martin had been sacked by the club, truthfully it should have been 4 games ago, but we cannot turn back time now.

I take no pleasure in Russell Martin being sacked, whenever a manager arrives at the club, I want them to succeed, why would I want them to fail ! I support Southampton FC to see them win games of football and hopefully have a rare chance of glory every now and then.

But I find it hard to feel sorry for Russell Martin, his stubbornness to adapt and change one iota meant that he lived and died by his sword, he cannot claim that this sacking is unfair in any way shape or form, it is of his own making, although I strongly suspect that he won't quite see it that way himself.

Where we go from here is not yet clear, but it does give us the chance of putting this behind us and moving forward, perhaps it is too late to save us from relegation, but hopefully we can now win a few more games and without the pressure on, you never know.

We play Liverpool now on Wednesday and their focus is firstly on the Premier League, then the Champions League, thirdly the FA Cup and finally the league Cup, with the shackles taken off them there will hopefully a revived spirit in the dressing room and whoever is in charge will free the squad from having to pass and pass again.

So we have a great chance of getting to a semi final and you never know we might sneak a trip to Wembley.

So time for a revived spirit in the stands, the change has happened, we need a positive mood going forward, certainly at least until we have given Martin's successor a chance.

Against Liverpool lets go out there and play with freedom and in the stands support with passion, lets talk ourselves up as a football club, not add to the negativity of the last 4 months.

All Photos Via Reuters

pintsizedsaint added 09:22 - Dec 16 I too always want to get behind the manager and team - but this was too much. Far too arrogant and stubborn and he paid by seeing his team down tools in the first minute of the game. I hope he learns from this as he is a good manager.
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dirk_doone added 09:51 - Dec 16 I've heard that Martin was sacked during the game so that at half-time the players already knew about it, which may explain the greater effort they made in the second half, albeit against a Spurs team that was just cruising. Our Northam end deserves a mention for their brilliant support in the second half. At least having a proper home end at last gives us something to be proud of, in spite of the miserable results on the pitch.

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landsdownsaint added 09:53 - Dec 16 On a one 2 one basis he’s made each player a better footballer imo but his game plan is shocking . Our next appointment is massive , no more of these experiments . A well seasoned manager like a moyes to the end of the season to stabilise the club , give him what he wants for a few months then see where we are .
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DorsetIan added 10:00 - Dec 16 It should be the Board who are learning lessons from this. First, if a manager is not up to it, he needs to go. Dithering with Ralph, with Jones and letting Selles limp out the season, all cost us dearly the last time we were relegated. The board were very lucky to bounce straight back but they have dithered again. Russell Martin deserved a few games after getting us up. 6 minimum, maybe 8, 10 at the outside. But there were very few signs of improvement over those 10 games and the results were appalling . He's had at least 6 games too many and if the Board do manage to find an effective replacement (big if, given their track record to date) those 6 games might make all the difference. Let's hope there are better things for Saints around the corner, but with this bunch in charge, I am not holding my breath.

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JoeEgg added 10:04 - Dec 16 I am still puzzled as to why many of Martin's squad spoke out in favour of their manager and his style of play. Did they honestly believe they could achieve success playing the Martin way? Or were they just protecting their inflated positions in a squad order that was already far too large and full of overpriced and overhyped players.. It is insane that our football club continues to pay ridiculous wages to so-called footballers that rarely play for us or have never achieved anything at St Marys. In preference to our expensive purchases Martin went for his favourites like Stephens, Armstrong, Smallbone and Manning . Reliable and faithful to their manager but clearly not to the playing quality needed to survive in the Premier League. Martin's arrogance and determination to prove himself the second coming of Pep Guardiola was all that mattered. We are left with a confused assortment of would be footballers who's careers with Saints have been sacrificed for the sake of Martin's ego. What chance has an incoming manager of unravelling the unparalleled mess left behind by Martin and SR with our players selected by different coaches, for different reasons,and to play different styles?

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SanMarco added 11:19 - Dec 16 Excellent article Nick. I too am not really sure where we go now. What we have to do though is attempt to stay up. Yes we are as good as down but to give up would be madness. We are good enough to beat Derby's total and maybe get to 20 -25 points. Won't be enough but will restore some pride. Please SR make a decent appointment for once...
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mushinexile added 11:31 - Dec 16 We have enough decent players who if they were just allowed to play the football they are good at would soon learn how to cooperate on the pitch for themselves. They have been directed individually by RM and it shows because it has confused their teamwork. Would that the new bloke lets them play.
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Flamingbankers added 11:43 - Dec 16 Moyes would at least make us harder to beat, stop mucking about at the back, select round pegs for round holes, get us a few positive results and bring a bit of cheer back to the club. With the backing of SR and him deciding who comes and goes, would make us a side more capable of getting out of the Championship and getting back with a side capable of competing.

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pintsizedsaint added 17:30 - Dec 16 Moyes?! Jeez…
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Jesus_02 added 23:34 - Dec 16 Nick out
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YosemiteSaint added 00:42 - Dec 17 Le Tissier put it pretty well in this instance: "It was a great watch last season under Russell but if we’re honest we got away with the way we played because of the quality of the opposition at times, always thought we’d need to adapt our style of play a little bit with the upgrade in the standard of opponent in the PL but sadly we didn’t. Wish Russell all the best in his next venture."

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