Saints made sure that their fans didnt have to endure a nervous day.

Despite missing at least four players who would normally have started in a League game, Saints cruised to a win in the JPT Final, giving just the sort of performance that they now need to do in every game between now and the end of the season.

There cant be a Saints supporter who now hasnt seen the goals and read numerous reports about the game so it would be pointlessto add another indepth description about the win.

Perhaps the difference between this and some of our recent poor fform away from home in the league is the formation and the confidence we showed, recently away from home we have shown too much respect for our opponents, whereas at Wembley Alan Pardew set up a team to attack from the very start and Carlisle could not live with this, they found themselves under pressure from all areas and we now need to start doing this away from home in the League, quite simply we should be able to outscore anybody.

But perhaps saying that is underestimating the defence, at Wembley they coped admirably and got forward well to support the midfield, Saints can atttack in numbers also with the confidence that should the opposition break, then the defence is more than capable in coping.

On Sunday this was perhaps the most complete Saints performance of the season, it had everything, each and every player did his job and now Pardew has a difficult decision to make when we return to league ways over the next week.

Ricky Lambert and Mikail Antonio took the main plaudits, however that shouldnt detract from the team performance, if they both scored 9 out of 10, then everyone else is an 8.

Perhaps a special mention for Papa Waigo, it was fitting that he scored because without him we would not have had the chance to sample this great day, in our first game in the competition he scored twice to drag Saints back from two down, then in the area semi final against Norwich he again hit a brace, the second of which, deep into injury time made it  2-2, Saints were within seconds of going out and this Wembley occasion would only have been dreamed about.

In the grand scheme of things this wasnt so much about winning silverware, but about the survival of a football club, it being only a few days short of exactly a year before Saints entered what would be almost four months of administration and uncertainty, without demeaning the competition, for Saints fans the celebration at the end was not about lifting the trophy, but how the club itself had been lifted, lifted out of the abyss and given not only its future back but its heritage as well.        

Photo: Action Images

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