It wasn't the goal fest that the previous week's match had been, but in many respects this was a more satisfying result as Saints jumped a place in the table to second.
The pubs near St Mary's emptied before kick off with many supporter s having watched Manchester City beaten at West ham knowing that a win against Stoke would see Saints leapfrog City into second place, the problem though was in the four previous Premier meetings every game had been a draw, could Saints finally find that extra something to beat the Potters.
In fairness I don't think anyone expected to see a feast of goals, Stoke would not be the pushover Sunderland had been and although they were not the long ball side of a year or two ago under Tony Pulis they still had the capability to mix it.
Ronald Koeman made only the one change to last week and that was to bring back Mane in place of Shane long and this would turn out to be crucial with the 22 year old making sure that the disappointment of having his goal last week given as an own goal was only fleeting.
Right from the start Saints went at Stoke and the pattern of the game was set, Stoke being pinned back and looking to go on the break whilst Saints dominated possession getting the ball in the centre and working it out wide for either the pacy Mane or the trick Tadic, not to mention the overlapping Bertrand and Clyne.
But Stoke in the main stood firm and the truth was that for all our dominance and 20 shots at the Stoke goal, only two were on target although the woodwork was tested on several occasions not least when Pelle rattled the upright and from the rebound Mane finished with aplomb for the only goal of the game.
It was not a day for finishing unfortunately, Pelle especially was having one of those days when nothing would go in, apart from hitting the post before the goal, he got a feint touch to a Mane curling cross, but couldnt force the ball in, he had a great header come back off the underside of the woodwork and also saw a header go wide, probably the only chance he had that he really should have scored from, Stoke were resolute though and made sure that we couldn't get too much sight of goal.
As the game entered its final quarter and with Stoke only a goal down there was a suspicion that perhaps they might sneak an equaliser and an underserved point, certainly theu might have done so last season but this term it is different, Koeman did what he does best and made the subtle changes needed, Wanyama was brought on just after the hour to make sure that Stoke could not get a grip on the midfield and in the dying minutes Gardos was brought on for Davis to sit in front of the defence and add strength and height.
This last change although with only minutes left meant that the 4 minutes of injury time were not the danger they could have been, Stoke could not get a grip of the ball and could not launch it into the area and we saw the game out with ease.
In many ways this win was more satisfying than the rout of Sunderland, it was a hard fought game with no hint from those that can't bear to see Saints up there that this was against a sub standard side who imploded, Stoke played well and indeed if they had of won would only have been two points behind us this morning, this made it such a good win, yes it was only 1-0, but that scoreline shows that every man in the team did his job, the keeper and defence kept a clean sheet, the midfield both defended and created and we took our one decent chance when we had it, all in all a good day at the office.
Perhaps that is the measure of Koeman's team, players just don't seem to have bad games, they win as a team and lose as a team, every man knows his job and does it, perhaps one man who emphasizes that is Fraser Forster, he had little to do throughout the game, Stoke could muster only one shot on target throughout, in the first half there were a couple of occasions when you thought he should have come for a ball, but he didn't leaving his defenders to do the job, however in the dying minutes as Stoke looked to try and snatch an equaliser he came and held a couple of dangerous crosses and made sure they didn't get the chance to put pressure on us, again only a small point, but vital as what has made this season so successful so far has been not relying on one or two players, but the team as a whole with the little things all adding up to the sum total.
So Saints march on and we now meet Stoke again on Wednesday with confidence, indeed perhaps playing them away will suit us better, they will have to come out at us more and with the attacking flair and pace we have that could make it easier for us to score than it was on Saturday at St Mary's.
Key Man
Sadio Mane was the key man for me, he won the game with a great strike and offered us pace and a constant threat throughout the game.