Gigantic A big big win ! Saints dug in and gort a deserved victory that pushes them up the league.
With Gaston Ramirez understandably tired after a trip home to Uruguay, Nigel Adkins was forced into a change or two both in personel and in tactics, Kelvin Davis was back in goal due to an injury to Gazzaniga and Jay Rodriguez came in for Ramirez and was pushed up to his true position up front alongside Rickie Lambert in a 4-4-2 formation.
Reading's gameplan was obvious from the start and from my limited viewings of them seems to be the same in most games, keep in tight at the back and look to go on the break and win set pieces in and around the opposition area and the game soon settled into this patter with Saints on the front foot and Reading pushed back, Rickie Lambert had a decent effort saved by Federrici although in fairness the keeper probably made it look more spectacular than it was, Saints looked to have scored when Jason Puncheon headed home a great corner art the far post, but the referee gave a free kick for a fould by Yoshida, having watched the replay, Yoshida did nothing other than being pushed by the keeper who then slipped, the goal should have stood.
But Saints didnt have it all their way in the first half and Reading gave warning about how they play and what they can do, firstly Tabb saw a shot saved by Davis and as he went for the rebound appeared to have been tripped by Cork, replays were a little inconclusive but I have seen them given for less.
Perhaps Saints biggest scare came virtually on the stroke of half time when Robson-Kanu was left unmarked six yards out, luckily he hit the post when it seemed easier to score, this was a real warning shot to Saints that if we werent careful we could throw the game away as we did in the fixture last season.
In the second half however Saints took control and after taking the lead 15 minutes after the break never looked like losing it, marshalling Roberts and Le Fondre well up front and controlling the midfield, the only thing we lacked was a second to make the game safe and so not subject us to a few heart in mouth moments in the final minutes when Reading seemed to win a succession of free kicks that enabled them to put the ball into the area, on reflection they were poor efforts well dealt with, it didnt seem like that at the time.
In conclusion Saints did what they had to do in a game where the result was always going to be far far more important than the game itself, like many of our victories its hard to pick a man of the match, in truth every man from the goalkeeper to Guly the final substitution put a shift in and did their job and did it well.
We shouldnt get too carried away, after all this is QPR aside the worst team we have faced this season and there will be far tougher games ahead, yes we did ride our luck at crucial moments but we can only beat what is put in front of us and this was a vital win that puts real daylight between us and Reading, it gives hope that we have put our bad days behind us and that if Nigel Adkins keeps learning and we strengthen in January then there is no reason why we cant win this relegation dogfight, but lets be brutally realistic its far from over yet and we cant afford complacency.