A comprehensive victory as Saints get back on track.
Although this wasnt the biggestvictory Saints have scored this season, its perhaps the most pleasing in that after a run that stretches back to after the Brighton game when Saints have not really performed well, in the five games played since the Seagulls were despatched Saints gained a miserable five points with their only victory coming in a patchy 2-1 win over hull at St Mary's, even the most blinkered of Saints supporters could not say that any game truly showed Saints firing on all cylinders.
But against palace they recaptured their form, from start to finish it was an accomplished performance against a visiting side that had set themselves up in a certain manner as predicted in the preview on this site, they came to to hold things tight and then see what they could get out of it, like their previous trips on the road it was either going to be a case of them holding firm and perhaps sneaking something, or Saints getting a goal and dashing their hopes, Crystal Palace just dont do draws on the road.
Thankfully it was the latter, finally Nigel Adkins saw that the team had lacked balance in that time and putting Steve De Ridder in restored width to the team, in truth Ridder had a patchy game, yes he put in a great cross for the opening goal, but both before and after too often he failed to put in a final ball when he had ample opportunity, however his running did give us that extra dimension we have lacked and in that respect he had a good game.
It was good to see Guly score both goals, it would have been nicer to have seen him get a hat trick, in my opinion he has been unfairly villified for Pompey's goal last week, he was criticised by many for his attempt at winning the ball, but the truth is Joel Ward had a free header and the finger should be pointed at who was supposed to be marking him not Guly who just tried to do something other than stand on his post and watch Ward head the ball past him.
But back to Boxing Day and Guly's display was the top of the Christmas tree, the defence defended well and finally got that clean sheet again, this allowed us to keep the game well within our control, I would prasie Kelvin Davis, but to be blunt, we defended so well as a team its hard to remember when he actually had to do anything, he didnt put a foot or glove wrong, but it was his quietest afternoon's work in a long while.
The midfield had balance again and although it was always going to be difficult against such a resolute side, we battled hard, made sure we didnt make errors and kept pressing from start to finish, up front Guly & Lambert worked hard but rarely got anything to feed off, but when they did Guly showed he knows how to finish.
More importantly though it was three points, points that restored a buffer at the top of the table, opening up a three point gap between us and third and twelve points to seventh, now we have to show in the coming games that we have battled through our bad patch and with a run of wins can start to bring promotion within our grasp.