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Southampton At Crystal Palace The FA Cup Verdict

Nathan Jones has two 100% records so far in his tenure as Saints manager, he maintained his 100 % record of defeats in the Premier League on Wednesday night, but at Selhurst Park on Saturday thankfully he maintained the other one, his 100 win win ratio in Cup ties.

It is a strange feeling this Sunday morning, one that I haven't felt since Sunday 21st August, almost 5 months ago, it the satisfaction of Saints winning on the day before, indeed we haven't even had so much as a draw in a game played on a Saturday since August, when in game 2 & 3 of the season we firstly drew with Leeds on Saturday 13th August and followed that up on the 20th with a victory over Leicester.

But at the start of the game up at Crystal Palace there were few Saints fans in Selhurst Park who had much hope of their team getting anything out of this game.

The opening half hour or so gave them little hope of that happening, it was a poor start capped by a goal for the home side on 14 minutes and it should have been two shortly after with Saints being cut home and the ball being stabbed against the bar from close range when it really should have gone in.

At this point we were in disarray, it was hard to make out even what formation we were playing, at time it seemed to be a back three and at other times a back four, Romain Perraud didn't seem to know just where he should be in the grand scheme of things.

The fans were not slow in letting their feelings known, a massive chant of "Nathan Jones Your Football Is SH*T" rang out from the away section and this wasn't a minority, very much the majority.

But games and indeed seasons need turning points, ours in this game came after 35 minutes, Saints had a free kick way out of the penalty area near the left touchline, there was only one option here, JWP curling the ball into the box, hitting it into the area by the far post.

His effort seemed to sail over his own teammates heads, but it was also left by Palace who seemed to think it was going harmlessly out for a goal kick, but Ward Prowse had put a bit of curl into his effort and the ball kept curling and into the net.

Some say this was luck, but players like Ward Prowse put balls like this into danger areas and know that sometimes if no one gets to the ball it goes into the net, this was the perfect free kick.

But whatever it was it was a goal and Saints were level and the game and hopefully perhaps the season might just be changing.

It truth the formation looked no better, but suddenly the players playing it did so with an urgency that has been missing since before Jones arrival.

I can't say that Jones tactics won this game, more that the players rolled their sleeves up and won it themselves in spite of the tactics not because of them.

That was emphasised in the 68th minute, when the ball was rolled causally back to the Palace keeper, there looked to be nothing on, he seemed to have all the time in the World, but he didn't bank on the pace and aggression of Adam Armstrong who was approaching at speed, at the keeper went to kick the ball there was Armstrong to block the ball and leave the keeper stranded, all that was now needed was the Saints striker to take a few strides forward and fire the ball into the empty net.

This was a goal very much in the vein of Shane Long and it showed that Adam Armstrong like Long last season is playing a roll for this squad that gets him few plaudits, but he offers the team something that is more than most give him credit for and should not just be judged by goals.

This gave Saints even more impetus and although Palace tried to rally and get back in the game, the visitors were now in no mood to let things slip, they battled for every ball and made sure the game was seen out without any drama.

The fans did their bit too, they got behind the team and backed it all the way.

At the final whistle you could see the delight and commitment of the players, but there was an elephant in the room and that was Nathan Jones, would he come over with his players to celebrate with the 4,000 Saints fans and if he did so how would those fans respond, barely an hour earlier they had been chanting against the manager, would they turn on him now ?

The answer was no Jones came and applauded the travelling supporters and they applauded him back, in truth this was not an exaltation of the man, merely an acknowledgement that he had won the game, but it showed that the Saints support although still doubtful of his ability to be successful at the club, are at least willing to give him a chance.

That is quite right, I am one who feels that way, I am seeing little to give me encouragement that he is the man for the job so far, but I did see a chink of light on Saturday at Palace, especially in the mood of the players.

I asked myself the question of what I wanted most, to see Nathan Jones win games as manager of Southampton Football Club and get us out of relegation, or to see him fail and be sacked.

The answer is of course the former, I want him to get us out of relegation trouble and go on to be the best Saints manager in recent history, that should be the desire of every Saints fan, if as the supporters did on Saturday in South London the fans stay with the team then we can do so.

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