Saints V Hull City The Verdict Sunday, 10th Nov 2013 10:53 In the preview to this game I warned that Hull City were perhaps a side to be fearful of judging by their previous performances on the road this season, I needn't have worried Saints blew them away. Hull City arrived at St Mary's with a reputation for being very resolute on their travels and it has to be said that in some ways the 4-1 scoreline is very harsh on a side who never stopped battling for the whole game and never quite seemed to stop believing that they could nick another goal in the second half and cause a shock. But Saints were on fire and the England call up trio were determined to show watching England boss Roy Hodgson that they were going to be worthy of game time on the pitch in the coming friendlies, they were joined by Nathan Clyne who surely must have given Hodgson further cause for thought with a great display that included two great crosses to set up the first and fourth goals. Saints won the game in an exciting 20 minute spell in the first half as they put the Tigers to the sword, firstly in the 16th minute a superb cross from Clyne hung in the air for Rickie Lambert to head back across goal to allow Morgan Schneiderlin to pick his spot with a free header. Then Lambert put a superb ball through for Lallana to run on to and Steve Harper in the Hull goal rashly dashed out and needlessly brought down the Saints man to give away a penalty, the resulting spot kick outcome was never in doubt as Lambert stepped up. The third goal was worthy of Matthew Le Tissier at his best, Lallana picked up the ball around 30 yards out and used the space created by Rodriguez's decoy run to start off on a mazy dribble that like Le God at his peak, didn't take the most direct route to goal, but left a trail of bedazzled defenders in his wake before slotting the ball home, it is fair to say that every Saints fan in St Mary's stood up and acclaimed Lallana. Hull must have gone in at the break not knowing what hit them, they hadn't played that badly but there seemed no way back for them, but ten minutes into the second half they got a chink of light, in truth the warning signs had been there in the first half, if there was one blot on the performance it was that we seemed to be giving away possession cheaply in front of our back four, there just seemed to be an air of complacency in several players, we got away with it in the opening 45 minutes, but we didn't early in the second, Boruc played a simple ball to Wanyama the type that is becoming our trademark, Wanyama had a simple ball to lyne but inexplicably tried to turn on the ball and was caught out by Jake Livermore who played a simple pass to Sagbo who finished with aplomb from 20 yards out. For a time it seemed like Hull smelled blood, they upped their game, but Saints shook out the complacency and got back into their rythym and again started to dominate, its fair to say that Hull never really troubled Boruc in that spell, but they had their moments. The win was confirmed in the 88th minute, a tricky flick from Rodriguez set up Clyne who was bombing on the overlap, his cross was perfect for Steven Davis who controlled it and fired home to make it a comprehensive win. So Saints again took another big step in the season, they showed that they could finish off sides who come to get behind the ball, it was good to see that Pochettino made more use of his substitutes, Wanyama coming off just after the hour was a good move, the central midfielder has silenced his critics in recent weeks, but he wasn't having a good game, big surprise though was why Jack Cork wasn't the replacement, he seemed the natural man for the job, but it was Steven Davis who was the man coming on, no disrespect to Davis who did what he does well and often doesn't get the plaudits for, put in a workmanlike performance that was justly rewarded by the goal. Second change was Osvaldo for Lambert with 15 minutes left, again the right change to make, we kept to the same system and the Italian seemed keen to show that he will not go down the root of Ramirez who strangely enough could not even get on the bench. Cork did get on for the final 6 minutes and showed utter professionalism in the way he went about things, he must be perplexed about how little game time he has got this season, he can probably accept that Wanyama is the man in his position, he can probably accept that in the other midfield roles there are better suited players than him,but he will probably find it hard to accept when he doesn't get a game in his normal role when Wanyama is off colour, sadly I think that Jack Cork may be one to depart in the January window, there will be no shortage of offers from Premier League clubs, but for some reason he just doesn't seem to figure in the managers thinking. So another great home win that pushes us up to third at least temporarily with fifth being the lowest that we can drop to for the two week break, with almost a third of the season gone that is a brilliant start, but it now starts to get a lot tougher with the fixtures we are about to face and we will soon find out if we have the squad to keep up with the big boys, if we can keep injury free then we might just spring a few surprises in the next month or so. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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