Nigel Adkins kept faith with the usual starting XI and made history.
It was no surprise that Nigel Adkins put out the same line up that won the previous two league games to take on Millwall at St Mary's and he was rewarded with all three points in a game that was by no means easy.
The londowners are known for being disciplined and keeping things tight and that was the case in the early exchanges but Saints broke the deadlock on 18 minutes for the only goal of the game, Guly has his detractors, some of them quite vocal, but he put in a decent display capped by the goal, it was a lesson in sharp neat passing started and finished by Guly himself, picking up the ball ten yards inside his own half he knocked it short continued his run and a couple of passes later he was put through by a sublime through ball from Jack Cork, he still had a bit to do, but under pressure he slotted home for what would be the only goal.
In the main Saints remained tight and did what they needed to do, but at times they were architects of their own downfall, Seaborne at the back perhaps emphasised this on the hour mark when he didnt deal with a ball into the six yard box and Kelvin Davis made a smart save as the ball ricocheted towards goal and this signalled the start of a period of pressure that saw Saints guilty of some sloppy defending, continually giving the ball to the visitors cheaply.
The plus points were that Adkins made a couple of shrewd substitutions that went a little way towards counterbalancing the Millwall threat and Saints closed the game off fairly comfortably.
However their are lessons to be learned, if Saints are to maintain this early form they have to cut out sloppy play at the back, at present we have got away with it but it could have been different, we have to learn to keep our composure a little more and we have to learn to mark up our opponents, Seaborne sadly was guilty of this at times, overall he had a reasonable game, but there were key moments when he made the wrong decisions, either by not attacking the ball and clearing it as in the aforementioned Davis save, or hoofing it under little pressure, he wasnt the only culprit in the back four, but he was the most noticable.
However t was a good three points and a win that keeps us well and truly at the top setting the pace, its been a great start to the season and we as fans should be very happy, hopefully so will Nigel Adkins as a manager, but he will know the dangers of complacency and know that we do need to bring in a quality partner for Fonte sooner rather than later.