Saints got points on the board at their third attempt, but it was a tough task that saw Saints have to dig in and earn the win right up to the final whistle.

Brighton had made a solid start to their Premier League campaign and they clearly where in no mood to make it easy for Saints.

The first half an hour saw both sides evenly matched and it was hard to predict a winner at this stage.

The game changing moment came in the 30th minute when Andone was given a straight red for a foul on Valery, fair play to former Saint Graham Potter now Brighton manager for calling it how it was and not moaning about it.

His side had to play an hour with 10 men, but they did not look like it, they worked harder to make up for their deficit in numbers and this was not an easy game for Saints to win.

They had the ball in the Saints net in the 39th minute, but it was ruled out by VAR, the worrying thing though was this looked the clearest offside and indeed impediment of the goalkeeper that you will ever see, yet it had to go to VAR, the problem now seems to be the officials are scared to make a mistake so they are relying on VAR to make the decision for them.

The longer the game went on the more Saints looked like winning it though, Hasenhuttl had kept his side focused making sure they didn't charge forward in numbers and pay the price at the back and just after half time he made the change that won the game bringing on Moussa Djenepo who within two minutes had scored a superb goal worthy of winning any game.

Having gained the lead Saints still had to hang on to it though and that meant some tough defending at Brighton refused to lay down and die, in the main Saints did it well, but in the final minute with the score still 1-0 they really should have seen the home side equalise, the old problem of leaving a man unmarked at the far post, luckily the shot hit that post rather than the net, but it really was a chance wasted for the Seagulls.

They paid heavily for that miss as Saints then scored at the other end to put the game out of reach, Soifiane Boufal ending a mazy run with a low cross that Nathan Redmond poked across the line to cap a fine performance with a goal.

This was a decent performance from Saints, but they can and have to play better, we failed to put the game to bed and then nearly handed them the draw on a plate, of course sometimes you can't stop goal attempts, but we hand our opponents far too many.

Overall though it was a good team performance and hopefully gives us the confidence to kick on and push ourselves up the table, arguably we have as tough an opening four games as anybody, so to get a win from them is good, we now have to build on this.

It was also pleasing to see us adapt to a situation, this one being the absence of Ryan Bertrand, meaning a reshuffle at the back with Valery switching to the right and Kevin Danso coming in for Yoshida.

But the most important thing was that we got the three points on the board and the season is now underway.

Photo: Action Images

landsdownsaint added 10:39 - Aug 25 Surprised you haven’t given your view on Danso ?
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arfurdent added 11:46 - Aug 25 the defence was very badly organised again
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bstokesaint added 12:58 - Aug 25 So relieved to pick up 3 points, but sounds like we relied on a bit (a lot) of luck to get there. It’s great the newbie got his score tally up and running and Danso was part of a (very) rare clean sheet, but allowing a 10-man Brighton team a chance to level right at the death must be killing Ralph! These are professionals and on another day we’d have been punished. We can’t just bury the fact we need to be more clinical and be good enough to win without luck. Man U will be a much tougher challenge than in previous seasons.

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underweststand added 17:02 - Aug 25 Completely off the board in the first half, and losing a player didn't seem to slow Brighton down at all. Enter Djenepo with a thunderbolt start and things began to look up. Ings and Redmond needed to drop back to get a look at the ball and although JWP and Romeu worked theír socks off in midfield Brighton still had lots of possession. Vestergaard had one of his better games, and Danso looks as though he can hold his own ..even playing out of position. With Boufal getting into the picture again, it seems that Ralph will continue to play every game in two halves and for the second game in a row we came on strongly in the last quarter. Redmond deserved his goal for sheer effort in the previous 90 mins. Now to see if we can catch MU on the hop next weekend.

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Sanguin added 17:17 - Aug 25 The referee wanted to disallow they goal, I'm fairly sure they have to use VAR to disallow a goal. The officials aren't at fault for indecision here. I think Danso and Djnepo look good but look a little raw.
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10i added 10:43 - Aug 26 Wow, that was poor all around. We were on the same Level with Brighton - after the red Card. We were two Levels below them before. Adams had a day to Forget and our midfield was not able to Control anything. It's about six months now since JWP had his last good game (his freekicks were shocking and you could feel for Boufal who wanted to take the last one), but well, Romeu and Hojbjerg didn't get into the game und the duells neither. Danso being played out of Position was not a good idea - there was noone on the left side for Redmond to Combine with, no width in our attacking. Wether or not he might come good as a CB I still don't know, but for sure he is no LB. Good to have th Points on board, and what a Goal by Djenepo, but in fact we were very poor. Didn't get the pressing right, as we didn't do it as a Team and in the middle of the park we were second best all the time. We got lucky - and with such Performances we don't have to think a second about reaching the Top 10...

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Boris1977 added 13:54 - Aug 26 Saints are usually darlings of the guardian sports pages so when they pick up on the problems we face it's fair to assume this is a shared neutrals point of view. https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2019/aug/26/premier-league-10-talking-
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SaintBrock added 18:14 - Aug 26 Djenepo gets swooning praise from Hutch, Boufal gets grudging praise after being asked. Weird. Anything to do with Djenepo being a Rabbit Hutch signing? Couldn't be could it. How much better will Sofiane have to be to get a start over Redmond & Djenepo? Makes your blood boil when Boufal's talent shouts from the roof tops yet gets ignored.
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perazi added 21:34 - Aug 26 To take up St Brocks post,I too wonder about Ralph’s comments re Boufal - the guy is an attacking force who also tracks back - players like Boufal, Djenepo and Redmond are the players who are going to win games for Southampton - there is still so much dross in the team. When is Ward-Prowses automatic selection in the side going to come under scrutiny.? Surely his most ardent fans must admit his displays this year have been mediocre at best . On a positive note, Saturday’s result is a life line even if the performance was wobbly.

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arthurfane added 22:52 - Aug 26 Plenty of positives to take from this, even if we were helped by a moment of madness from Andone. Like others, impressed with Boufal and Djenepo - would love a strike force of Boufal, Djenepo and Redmond behind Adams/Ings. Could it work or would that be too attacking? One point that's not been picked up on is that Locadia is about a foot offside for his chance late on...

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