Saints moved a step nearer safety but havent yet quite clinched it after this scrappy game against the Hammers.
Saints perhaps deserved to take all three points for a fourth time in a row, but it wasnt to be as West Ham fought tooth and nail for a valuable point apiece that in truth does little for either side, leaving both still looking over their shoulder with Wigan having three games in hand.
Although of course a month ago we would have been delighted to have been in this position with only five games left, it does still leave us a point or two short of being absolutely certain of beating the drop and that leads to nevrousness both on and off the pitch, so the sooner we hit 40 and get well clear the better.
On the bright side it was five games unbeaten and 11 points taken from those five games and that cant be sniffed at, but Saints fans left the stadium just feeling a little deflated that we didnt make it three points, in fairness Saints were missing their best player of late in Jay Rodriguez and there was a certain directness missing in the way that J Rod gets the ball, runs at players and make things happen, but we still had our chances although we did look a trifle unbalanced.
Saints enjoyed the lions share of the play and of the chances, but just lacked that killer edge, ironically though perhaps the opening goal upset the balance for the rest of the game, Gaston Ramirez had not been enjoying the best of games and looked off the pace, however when his chance came he took it and although he did benefit from the ball falling nicely for him from the defenders tackle, he took it sublimely.
This though probably kept him on the pitch and it was Adam Lallana who went off on 72, I just had the feeling that if Ramirez hadnt scored then it would have been him making way for our star man of late, truth is Ramirez didnt do too much else of note after his goal and it was no surprise when six minutes later he left the fray himself, given the impact J Rod had in terms of sparking the attack to life, I just have the feeling that we would have been better leaving Lallana on and removing Ramirez.
But in the end although we deserved the win, truth is we probably didnt do enough for it and again a slight loss of concentration cost us dearly, West ham did what they do well and thats get free kicks in dangerous positions and we played into their hands on this one.
With only Sunderland making up ground on us over the weekend a point isnt the end of the world, however Wigan do have these games in hand, so until we know the outcome of them we should be cautious and concentrate on getting those points to put us well safe.