 Sunday, 18th Aug 2013 10:18 Saints repeated their opening day victory against the Baggies in 1976 as Rickie Lambert completed probably the most amazing week of his footballing career. Mauricio Pochettino had a surprise or two up his sleeve as he sent out his first team of the season with Jamie Ward Prowse being preferred in the centre of midfield ahead of Jack Cork, Steven Davis and Gaston Ramirez, Ward Prowse being one of three 18 year olds in the starting line up. Having had the summer now to work on his team the manager seems to have instilled in them just what he wants them to do and they started full of discipline and an enthusiasm that was lacking in the final games of last season. Victor Wanyama had a fine debut as did Dejan Lovren and both played their part as Saints dominated the first half, the second half saw the home side come back into it, but they rarely looked like scoring but in fairness neither did we and it looked like the game would peter out into a scoreless draw. But the final few minutes would see drama, as injury time beckoned Luke Shaw made a great run into the box and was clipped by a defender and sent sprawling, the referee had a great view and pointed straight to the spot, up stepped the man of the moment and Saints had nicked a goal that would surely see them take all three points. But the drama was not yet over and as West Brom piled forward in front of a fast emptying Hawthorn crowd who didn't seem to share their confidence in snatching an equaliser, a header from BIlly Jones looked to be saving West Brom until Artur Boruc pulled of a stunning save to make sure all the points went south along with the Baggies hopes. So a vital three points for Saints to ensure that they get off to a good start in the season, plus points were the way the debutants slotted in as well as the youngsters form, Shaw in particular looks to have added more to his attacking play, he seemed to have the confidence to get forward and run at the full back that he didn't have last season and this will surely put him on the verge of a full England cap if he can do this consistently over the coming season. Perhaps the only concern though is that for all our possession and crisp passing play, especially in the first half, we didn't seem to create much and the game stats of 7 shots with only 2 on target is sobering reading, however this was very much a game plan from Pochettino, it was clearly a side to work hard and get a result, the key to our season will be being able to adapt this system as and when called to, next week Sunderland arrive and we will need to perhaps have a bit more creativity against the Black Cats than we showed against West Brom, I don't mean to sound negative here, after all you cant ask for more than 3 points away from home, but it is something that if we work on and Im sure we can, then we can have a good season. Saints support was once again excellent on the road on a day full of positives. Hard to pick a man of the match for Saints, there were several candidates in what was an excellent team performance where no player had a poor game and each played their full part in making sure that when the chance came to win the game, we were in a position to do so. Add your player ratings by clicking on the link in the Saints V West Brom game box on the home page Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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