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Saints At Pompey The Verdict

A stroll in the Park, Saints racked up their most convincing win ever at Fratton Park as they showed how much the gap has widened in the 8 years since the last trip.

This meeting of the sides saw the biggest ever gap either way between the two clubs when they have met and it showed, storms were expected at Fratton Park but in Fratton Park it was little more than a bluster from the home side.

As expected they looked lively in the first 20 minutes and probably should have taken the lead a superb save from McCarthy keeping the scores level.

But this was the last significant attempt on goal the home side would have, as within minutes Saints had taken the lead with a great goal from Danny Ings, who being the only Southampton born player in the Saints team relished the occasion.

Almost a quarter of the travelling Saints army didn't relish it though, they were still trying to get into the ground after their train was held up and arrived over an hour late.

That calmed the Saints nerves and they took control of the game in difficult conditions, now the weather and the Pompey team and crowd were blustery but little more than that for the rest of the game.

If Pompey's team talk at half time was going to be all about being only a goal down and still in it then Kenny Jackett had to rewrite his script when Saints broke at speed and put a glorious through ball in for Danny Ings to race on to, the keeper looked favourite but the Saints striker got a toe in and dinked it over the keeper to double the lead.

The second half started like the first, Pompey came at us, but they had little in either invention or quality and it was starting to look men against boys and Saints just needed to finish it off which they did with 15 minutes to go, Danny Ings doing some great work and getting to the byeline and cutting it back, hesitancy in the Pompey defence saw Cedric nip in and poke it home to send the fans behind the goal wild.

All that was left now was the question of how many, not just goals but how many Pompey fans would be left in the ground by the end, with a mass exodus to both sides of us.

Also the traditional things in Pompey's authentic matchday experience, the goading of our players and abuse when taking throw ins and the comical surge in the North Stand as a small group tried to break through a bigger group of Police and then clamber across a security net to earn life long bans.

If the ground was emptying fast in the final minutes as the realisation sunk in that the game was up, it accelerated even faster when Nathan Redmond scored a corker with 4 minutes left.

There should have been only one team celebrating at the end and that was Saints, but as they headed to their supporters at the final whistle to do so, we had the bizarre sight of Pompey's own team doing a lap of honour !!!!.

In true Pompey fashion the Fratton End had stayed to celebrate a glorious drubbing as they did against Arsenal a few years ago, however this time they unsportingly did not sing the name of an opposition player, strange.

All in all this game went exactly how we thought it would, two unevenly matched teams with the superior one dominating the game for most of the play, a good nights work.

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