It would please me greatly if our away games didnt seem to always follow the same script.

The next two weeks will show whether this result at Pride Park was a well earned point or yet another case of Saints throwing away points on the road due to slack defending.

On first glance you would assume that its the former with two top three teams going head to head, however I just have the feeling that we are a much better team that Derby and should really have left Pride Park with all three points.

Once again we found ourselves playing catch up as the home side caught us cold in the opening minutes and had us at sixes and sevens to open the scoring, OK some will point to the fact that it may have been offside, but the record books have it down as a goal so we have to look at the harsh truth.

After the goal we took command and rarely relinquished it or looked like conceding again  for most of the match, we created plenty and Derby had their keeper and a couple of goal line clearances to thank for not conceding more than the one that they did, possibly Rickie Lambert's best taken goal of the season in the way he took in in his stride ghosted past a defender and then finished clinically.

But the fact does remain that our away record is now cause for concern, this made it only two points out of twelve away from home since our two wins in the opening three games of the season, they were over two months ago now, we now have the worst away record of all the clubs in the top six and if we wish to remain at the top, that has to change and soon.

I am sure that there will be the usual voices shouting at me that this was a top of the league clash and that we are top etc etc, to that i would say, yes this was a good performance, but it wasnt a good outcome, we had a real chance to open up a big lead at the top but didnt take it.

This is a very open league at the moment, there are around 15 clubs capable of putting together a run at promotion, every point is vital its fine sitting back and saying that we are top what more do I want, but the fact is as we found last season, promotion is won by the teams that quietly turn defeats into draws and draws into wins on the road and we havent started to do that just yet.

We now have three big games, we have to win at least two of them, otherwise if we are not careful we might just find out that we are no longer top of the league and maybe far worse, lets stop resting on our laurels, cut out the lapses in concentration away from home and keep ourselves right up there.    

Photo: Action Images

slynch added 10:06 - Oct 17 Not only did they look like Brazil they played like Brazil! There is a certain random nature in football, play Derby everyday for a week and its not going to be 1 -1 each time. If you look the quality of football played on Saturday you've got to conclude the score could have been anything from 2-1 to 0-5 to Saints. They gave the best display of effective and quality football I've seen in this division and indeed in from any team below the top 6 in the premier league; the players and especially the manager need our congratulation. They will not win every game because of random variation but they are top of the league because they are the best team and yesterday they showed why in spades.

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SaintNick added 12:00 - Oct 17 The score could have been 5-0 to Saints but it wasnt, over the past four away games we have given great displays of attacking football yet still only came away with 4 points from those games We are top of te league due to our performances in the last six games, over the last six its a different story, Reading and ipswich have gained the same number of points as us for instance Come the 46th game this season, the best teams will be the ones with the most points, not those that played the best football

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SaintNick50 added 12:08 - Oct 17 I have held back from joining in the crtisism of your verdicts but this one has to be the most pesemistic yet. If you ignore the goal (which you can't) this was a pretty good performace. After Derby's goal Saints had almost total possession and I don't think Derby had a onother shot on goal in the first half. Chaplow was an able substitute for the injured Lallana. Man of the match was Rickie apart from the goal his strength and control up front was brillliant. A special mention for Kelvin, his distribution this game was superb and he was even successful with some crosses. The only downside was that one point instead of three and yes we probably need to beat West Ham to make up for it, can't wait, bring them on!

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stmichael added 12:20 - Oct 17 I think perhaps we have turned that corner with our away form. We did not control the games at Burnley or Cardiff or Leicester but by the sounds of it we did on Saturday. They were over the moon with a point and if we repeat that performance at most away grounds we will win alot of games. Definitely an optimistic rather than pessimistic outcome on Saturday.
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ugliest added 13:00 - Oct 17 Saintnick, always curious after your articles and i like reading them because you always have an opinion and that is good. Also wonder why your opinion is staying the same always. Also this time you only blame the defence ("another case of Saints throwing away points on the road due to slack defending") while you are also writing about good ballpossession, lot of chances etc. etc. Perhaps just once make a conclusion that our forwards sometimes need too much chances to make a goal.... Saw the highlights and i don't know which defender you want to blame for the goal (looking at the photo just under that sentence it could be Hooiveld again..?) but just did not see anybody making any fault. Derby only was lucky for four situations after each other. Perhaps just bad luck is part of playing football also? Agree that a team has to try to stop "bad luck". I am sure these times will come.

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ThereIn76 added 13:09 - Oct 17 Actually Nick I felt sure that you'd blame Kelvin for the goal as he parried a shot that came straight at him right back into the danger area. however it came from a loose pass from Spiderman to Cork and then an unlucky ricochet after Jose's excellent tackle which fell kindly for Derby. I found it more disappointing that, for all our excellent possession and chance-creating, we could only manage one goal.

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bstokesaint added 14:05 - Oct 17 Local radio afterwards were singing Lambert and Cork's praises and you could see why. We did miss Lallana's creativity, but we still looked a great outfit. Don't read too much into stats Nick. Our record isn't great at the moment on the road, but playing like that will inevitably bring success. Just be patient. It's another top team that couldn't live with our game.

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geezershoong added 14:13 - Oct 17 When was the last time you enjoyed a Saints game? Can you actually remember that far back?
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sholingred added 18:15 - Oct 17 We need a good keeper now,as once again kelvin the clown cost us as he did at Cardiff,should have pushed shot round the post,like their keeper did from Gully shot.We played great football,but teams score every away game from our mistakes,if they score a good goal,fair enough,but this will cost us.we would have won the league last season if we had a good keeper,fine line between success and failure.

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SaintNick added 18:22 - Oct 17 I didnt criticise any individual on Saturday, yes we dominated the game for the best part of 85 minutes but fact of the matter is that we came away with only 2 point from 4 games, in all of those games we dominated large chunks of the game but still gave away a soft goal(s) As I said elsewhere you dont get three points for dominating games, you get them for keeping clean sheets and scoring goals. I cant quite put my finger on Saturday, we didnt miss any sitters as we did at all three of the other aforementioned games, but its starting to be a problem away from home we cant seem to get going till we are a goal down. I would love to write something different, I would love to talk about clean sheets and chances taken and big wins, as a game of football I enjoyed Saturday's game, but I cant say i am pleased with the result as its another two points dropped

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avonsaint added 20:51 - Oct 17 nick, to be fair the goal we conceded sat was a bit unlucky as in the way the ball bounced straight to them from fonte's attempted clearance wrong footing our defence and even when kelvin made a great save it went straight to robinson who was also shown to be offside in tv replays i accept that the whole incident started on the halfway line due to a poor pass and cork i think being robbed of the ball but lets be honest in any game you'll find a lot of poor passes in the middle of the park that go unpunished i think we were just dead unlucky with that goal, i thought the defence on the whole has started to look a lot better and on sat coped well with a team that didn't look that bad when they did get forward. on the attacking front i thought we looked good going forward and with a bit more luck, and lets be honest we all know that luck good and bad is part of the game we would have scored a couple more and won the game. on a final note in my first comment on here i think the way

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bstokesaint added 20:52 - Oct 17 Bit harsh to blame Kelvin for the Derby goal. It's amazing how many fans think that there are better keepers out there in this division. Kelvin is a top pro and you'd think Adkins was in the best place to know that. Derbys goal was more realistically a combination of good fortune that Fonte's attempted clearance cannoned back into play and that the linesman failed to spot an offside. My only criticism is like at Leicester and Cardiff we put ourselves on the back foot. If we scored first in any of those games we would have won. We can't afford to go behind to West Ham.

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avonsaint added 20:57 - Oct 17 from above i think the way N A has got us set up and playing that were are going to leave gaps at the back i think all teams that try to play attacking football e.g spurs,man u, arsenal etc always let a few in too, but i for i cannot remember when i enjoyed watching saint so much and its so good to watch i dont even get that down when we lose
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