In the preview I hoped that the confidence and stability that showed in the Swansea game would carry on at Loftus Road and it did.
Right from the very start Saints had a purpose about them that we havent had much of till last week, they seemed to have a pattern to their play and they looked confident that they could and would be better than QPR, of course things arent suddenly all sweetness and light and there are still many problems in the side that need addressing, but we now have a side that is capable mentally of picking up a few points and keeping us in touch with the safety zone and a fortnight ago Im not sure that we could have said that.
Whether Nigel Adkins has had a clear the air talk with Nicola Cortese or not is open to speculation, but clearly something has changed and it looks like the manager with nothing to lose has taken his destiny back in his own hands and is making the decisions, if that is the case then perhaps his players are now responding to a manager who now has control.
The defensive lapses were still evident and the QPR goal was full testimony to that, but full credit to Saints after conceding a soft goal at a bad time to give the home side a chance to stoke up the fire, they didnt crumble and although perhaps it didnt seem like it at the time, they kept full control and passed their way out of trouble.
We should be wary that we wont always be playing teams as bad as Rangers, but we now have a foundation to keep building on and the chance to rack up a few points with two home games coming up.
But back to this game, Saints followed my hopes in the pre match preview to the letter, its hard to pick a man of the match, if only for the fact that there were so many who contributed to this win, Jason Puncheon continued his rehabillitation with a great goal and some good work, Rickie Lambert lead the line with his usual aplomb and took his goal well, but for me Jack Cork was perhaps the pick of the bunch, he has made a difference in the centre of midfield and he adds something that we were lacking before, thats not to be little Steve Davis who came on at exactly the right time in exactly the right change to replace the tiring Ramirez and make sure that we didnt get overun, I like Davis as a player, but since he has been back Cork has just added something.
My big surprise in looking at the player ratings on the site though is how some still down mark players they dont like, all 14 players involved were at least 7's and in terms of the way we won a tough game and the manner we won it 8's with several worth 9, to give certain players 4 & 5's as some have done is petty, no matter how much we may personally dislike players, they are all part of the squad and deserve our backing not petty sniping, by all means berate a player when he makes a mistake, but not when he contributes and plays well.
Our fans were superb and as I said earlier in the week our "3,000 Raucous Supporters" did exactly what was needed, inspired the team and kept them going and helped them get the home crowd on the back of their own team.
We now have something to really build on, Newcastle are a side that we can beat and Norwich is going to be crucial, six points from those two games and we could head into December out of the bottom three.