It's been a long time coming, but finally Saints achieved their first win of the season and in doing so made it a solid start after 8 games and with foundations to build on, now we can hopefully start to move up the table.

Leeds United were missing several key players for their visit to St Mary's, but then again so where Saints who were missing not only James Ward Prowse from the starting line up in the Premier League for the first time in almost 3 years but Che Adams & Jack Stephens.

The old adage is that you can only play what is in front of you and that is what Saints had to do, Ralph Hasenhuttl had said ahead of the game that this would not be a "Five Course Dinner" and he was right, but what it was was a resolute performance where every man played with spirit, enthusiasm and purpose and showed that the squad are firmly behind the manager.

But there were a few eyebrows raised when the starting line up was announced and it was a surprise to see Adam Armstrong to be left on the bench with Armado Broja played both as a loan striker and a lone striker and Nathan Redmond seemingly given a free role.

Leeds surprisingly had slightly more of the possession at 55%, but they made nothing of it and they had only three attempts at goal, none on target and only Dan James effort meaningful, although it went well wide.

Saints started slowly and seemed to have a game plan to get a grip of the game and build up momentum, this they did and they really could have taken the lead in the first half, but couldn't quite find the net.

But we didn't have to wait long in the second half to break the deadlock, Nathan Redmond being put through and he did everything right, drawing the keeper out but then showing great awareness to lay the ball across for Armando Broja to fire into an empty net.

From then on Saints were completely in control of the game, they resisted temptation to pour forward and play into Leeds hands, but kept their concentration and although it was disappointing that they didn't add to the score, it was also pleasing to see that we kept our shape and aside from that one chance gave Leeds nothing.

This was very much a team performance, no one in the Saints side had a bad game, we were driven by the hard work in the centre of midfield were Oriol Romeu and Ibrahima Diallo battled to break up any Leeds attacks and bossed the middle of the park, the full backs were both solid with Tino Livramento once again surged forward down the wing in a swashbuckling style.

Up front Armando Broja in his first Premier League start battled gamely and put himself about and deserved his goal, but I don't think that scoring the goal merited a man of the match performance.

For me there were two candidates for man of the match and i don't think that you can split either.

At the back Mohammed Salisu was outstanding, he put in a performance that was reminiscent of Virgil Van Dijk, he held the line, he read the game perfectly, he blocked he tackled and he also carried the ball forward when the chance arose, he will get better as he gains experience.

The other candidate will stick in the throat of many, but Nathan Redmond ran the game going forward, most of our attacks had him at the heart, Broja got the plaudits for scoring the goal, but the real hero of the hour was Redmond who for the goal took the ball and ran at the Leeds defence, he drew the defenders and it must have been tempting for him to have a shot, but he showed great vision and awareness by laying the ball across for Broja who had the goal gaping and couldn't miss.

Literally every attack had Redmond at the heart of it..

I suspect that a few won't be able to have it in themselves to give Redmond the full credit for this performance and their have been times that they have had a point, but he deserves the credit for this one.

Indeed this season he has been the player who has had the end product as was shown at Newcastle and should have been at Manchester City when he put Adam Armstrong straight through on goal.

The real plus points from this game where that the players who we perhaps didn't expect to shine did as in Redmond, Salisu and Ibrahima Diallo who worked tirelessly.

Some uncharitably said in the pub that Leeds were awful, but much of that was how Saints set up and didn't allow them to get their normal game going, as I said they were missing players but so where we.

But perhaps the best comment after summed up why some of those predicting doom and gloom for Saints should give Ralph Hasenhuttl and the team a chance, " Leeds were worse than any performance we have put in this season"

He was right, despite the fact that we have lost games, we have not played badly in them and had a spirit that Leeds lacked and that has to bode well.

Back in the summer I looked at the first 8 fixtures and suggested that if we got 5 or 6 points from those games it would be a good return, especially when you consider that in the same corresponding 8 games last season we only got 2 points and now from the same fixtures we have earned 7.

This is a good foundation to build on and we hopefully now have some confidence that we can kick on and get some more wins on the board, this win will mean nothing unless we pick up points in our next two games.

But for now we should enjoy the victory, we should not get too carried away, but it showed we are not as bad as some will have you believe..

Photo: Action Images

onetowatch added 12:07 - Oct 20 I do understand the frustration felt by many Saints fans with Redmond - last Saturday proved what most of us realise he is capable of doing, we just want to see it more often. But I do hope going forward Saints fans recognise his contribution rather than waiting for one mistake to supposedly justify criticism.... One other point, something I feel strongly about and to the annoyance of friends on this subject - JWP. everyone must surely concede, we looked better without him on Saturday? It's not that I have anything against him - his commitment, loyalty, normal accuracy with deadball situations (recently abondoning him)...it's just that he slows our game down so much, add combine this lack of mobility at this level, and he is too soft a centre to be plying in that position, and his lack of pace is exposed more when played wider. No doubt though RH, will have him straight back in, irrespective of how we play without him....

0

Ipswich Town Polls