In many respects it was business as usual for Saints in terms of possession and chances, however there was one difference from recent weeks and that was Artur Boruc.

Saints earned only their second win in ten matches and their first Premier League home win in over two months as they won a hard fought game against a West Brom side who arrived at St Mary's determined to put on a well organised performance for their new manager watching from the stands.

Big news was that Artur Boruc was back in goal and for those who were slagging off Boruc just before his enforced hand injury, if ever they needed a reminder of how important he is to this Saints team it has been the previous 7 1/2 League games he has been missing and this game in which he made sure that Saints kept all three points in the dying minutes and didnt throw the game away.

In front of Boruc though not much was different in terms of how Saints played and how they lined up, once again it was a tale of high possession with 62%, a lot of shots - 18 and few really testing the keeper with only 5 actually on target, the Baggies had dodne their homework and were quite content to sit back, watch Saints knock it about on the half way line, but rarely threaten.

In the first half it was quite clear that one thing Saints lack is directness and this is why we are not scoring goals, we seem to prefer to try and make 5 passes when in some situations 1 would do if it is incisive, this was hit home to me in the first half when we earned a corner in the Kingsland/Northam side of the ground, with all the big guns up from the back we took it short and West Brom had read it and gave away another corner, with the Baggies now completely aware of what we might do, the natural thing would have been to take the corner and put it in the box, but we didnt do this we tried to go short again and were blocked out and the ball was passed back into our own half.

I admire our passing game but when you take into account that such a large proportion of our goals have come from dead ball situations with the ball crossed into the box, why arent we taking advantage of the opportunity to do so in what is clearly a strong point for us, put bluntly too many times we look a pretty passing side, but we lack that final ball and cutting edge, in open play I can understand why we would knock it about and wait patiently for the opening, but not from dead balls. We only had four corners in this game, we wasted two of these in the space of 30 seconds.

On the hour Mauriccio Pochettino changed things, on came Ramirez, but why was it once again Jack Cork who came off, Cork is again forming a great partnership with Schneiderlin, taking him off didnt make sense in many way as it upset the balance in that Steven Davis had to drop deeper to let Ramirez hold the attacking role.

The change did pay dividends a few minutes later, the Uruaguyan showed what he can do when he has someone who can make runs to pass to, Adam Lallana did just that and finished with aplomb for what would be the only goal of the game.

There was one twist of the game to come though in the dying minutes as West Brom broke and found Shane Long unmarked on the edge of the six yard box, Boruc reacted superbly to show that despite long periods of inactivity his concentration and sharpness were still fully focused.

A good win for Saints in that it was needed for our own confidence and that it not only keeps us within sight of 8th place and the chance to battle with Newcastle for that position, but it keeps a big gap between us and tenth place, it ensures that now having hit the 30 point mark we can take the fear factor out of our game and concentrate on moving upwards without fear of getting dragged too close to the relegation battle for comfort.

There were some key areas in this game both positive and not so much so that need to be highlighted though if we are to move forward.

1. Boruc is crucial to our defending, its not just about shotstopping, its about organising the defence and making it confident enough to do its job without worrying what the keeper is doing, yes Boruc made a vital stop at the end, but his influence goes far deeper than the odd good save, although he does make some great saves its all about his presence.

2. We need to be more direct at times, especially dead ball situations, as I mentioned a very large chunk of our goals come from dead ball situations so when we get them we have to utilise them, on Saturday we didnt get than many but we tried to be too clever when we did.

3. Now we can truly get that monkey of relegation off our back its time to try and fine tune our system, given as above that we need to be direct can we fit Ramirez into our way of playing, if we do that then he needs someone who can make the runs.

4.Substitutions, against the Baggies they were baffling in many respects, as was the make up of the bench, obviously there might be injuries that I dont know about, but why have two centre halves on the bench and leave out Chambers who has not only been one of our better players in recent weeks but offered far more options in terms of what he can do.

As many will know Im not one of those that spits feathers at the mere mention of Guly's name, but I am very concerned about why he was brought on and who he replaced, at a time when we were on the back foot with West brom finally throwing everything forward we bought on Guly in midfield and with respect firstly he is not a defensive player and secondly he hasnt played since October so wont be sharp, also Rickie Lambert was dead on his feet and we needed legs in these final couple of minutes, if we were going to bring Guly on, far better to take off Rickie and push Guly up front or for that matter Sam Gallagher up front.

5. The squad has been hit by injury but the real problem has been how we have used it we have gone from a point where we only ever used 12-13 players and no one else got a look in to there being some sort of rotation in certain positions with players coming in one week, out the next and in the case of Guly suddenly thrown in from knowhere.

The squad is good enough to see us through the season we just need to use it better, I worry that when Wanyama returns that would be the end of Jack Cork, he seems to be substituted in every game despite usually being one of our better players, the inference from the manager seems to be clear, dont get too used to him, he almost seems to be trying to avoid a situation that when Wanyama returns that he cant drop Cork. for him and has to make a decision.

A lot of positives from this game and we now have the chance to move forward and start to build for next season, the League situation is that at best we are playing for 8th and if we can keep winning the odd game here and their then at worst we are playing for 10th, now is the time to be proactive and start building for next season, perhaps not in terms of spending in the transfer window, but in finding out of the likes of Ramirez and Osvaldo can use their obvious talents in our system, now this wont please fans of Rickie Lambert but assuming that neither are sold in January, we need to find out if they are the future of the club in the long term.

Photo: Action Images

lockseaf77 added 11:17 - Jan 12 If they had brought in an experienced loan keeper instead of throwing Gazzaniga to the wolves we might even have been above Newcastle by now
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SingaporeSaint added 11:29 - Jan 12 Fair report Nick and agree with much. Boruc had little to do but what he did he did well, coming and punching in the first half, decent kicking, a couple of crosses dealt with and of course the great save at the end. Simply we wouldn't have won without him and he earned those 2 points back. The offside rule is nonsense that Long was onside there btw. Also agree on many of the comments re not being direct enough and extremely cautious in possession. Cork and Steven Davis are the major culprits for this. I don't understand why JWP is not used at the moment - he was a major force earlier in the season and quite simply has more quality over dead balls than all our other players. Ramirez fans will suggest he is the answer to our prayers and he delivered when we needed something different. His performance towards the end was everything bad about him though - continual wrong options and giving the ball away cheaply. I'd have taken him back off when Poch took off Lallana. Not too many of our players shone yest against a team who sat back and wanted a 0-0, one who did was Luke Shaw who shows that he is not just good going forward, his defending was excellent. Shaw was far better than Clyne who looked very tentative going forward - I understand that Chambers was ill. Interesting story that Man City are preparing a bid of 30 mill for Shaw being reported. I hope he stays, not least as until Targett is fit, we don't have cover, but it is big money. A very important win which has us looking up the table now - but we need to play in the final third rather than almost exclusively the other 2/3'rds to really put teams to the sword.

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SaintNick added 11:31 - Jan 12 Lockseaf Im not sure we could have bought in an emergency loan keeper in that we had two fit and experienced keepers still in the squad
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thegeneral added 11:33 - Jan 12 Had Cork not gone off (as usual) we would have been far better defensively in the last ten minutes or so, why not a straight swap Davis for Ramirez? I agree that as soon as Wanyama is fit Cork will be straight out despite his good work. I also find it worrying that MP obviously rates Guly quite highly, i've got nothing against the bloke other than he's not good enough for the premiership. Several players had bad games yesterday and we got away with it, i like JRod but probably his worst game of the season, Clyne's crossing was awful and he should have been subbed for chambers. Fonte's passing at times is still a worry. We played badly and won so glad of that. The WB manager looked completely out of his depth, and i reckon he will be relieved to hand over to the new guy, didn't look the part at all, reminded me of Steve Wigley.

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thegeneral added 11:36 - Jan 12 Apolgies got that wrong, i presumed Chambers was on the bench
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Sanguin added 11:40 - Jan 12 Cork's a good player but he's not as strong on the ball as Wanyama and his range of passing isn't as good. So many times yesterday Cork has the ball and there weren't any passing options in front of him so he passed it back to the defence. I feel Wanyama would have done better at creating plays from the back. Schneiderlin has proven he's good at this too, I don't know why he doesn't sit deeper, create plays and let the attacking players do the attacking.

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thedag added 11:46 - Jan 12 Yeah chambers missed out due to illness,, otherwise think he merits a starting place
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abingdonsaint added 11:56 - Jan 12 Good result against a team that were clearly afraid of us and time wasting from the first minute! Agree about the influence of Boruc, but it does somewhere contradict some of you earlier pieces about the being 'no excuses' for our bad run Nick. I still think we could have another 6 points but for this and the other injuries. I am a huge fan of Corky, but a lot of people underestimate Wanyama's influence defensively. In many ways Corky is a better footballer, but Vic is a massive physical presence and snuffs out a lot of danger before it happens. Be interesting to see our results after he returns, which Poch says is likely to be Yeovil or Arsenal. Chambers was ill yesterday by the way. Finally, talk of avoiding a relegation battle is irrelevant in my view. Anyone who has seen us this season can see we are in a completely different class to those at the bottom. As I keep saying, look at the performances, not always the result. Those will even out over a season. Onwards and upwards!

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abingdonsaint added 11:57 - Jan 12 Somewhat not somewhere....bloody spellcheck!
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mayfairsaint1 added 12:09 - Jan 12 I'm pretty sure that the reason we weren't direct with free kicks and corners was because at 6.4 and 6.5 Olsen and Mc Cauly are probably the most airily commanding centre half's in premiership. To float high balls into their box would have played right into their hands. I too am puzzled why Cork is always the first to be substituted. Having said that, I can understand why he will be replaced by Wanyama when fit. Whats the problem? Corky is a good player and will still be an important member of the squad and frequently used. I agree with Abingdon Saints comments about big Vic, we look formidably strong defensively when he plays.

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saintandy11 added 12:18 - Jan 12 I am a huge fan of Jack Cork, he was my player of the season last year, but he was caught in possession far too many times yesterday. Not one of his best games, he slowed the game down and tried to take an extra touch when he didn't have the time or space to do so. Saying that he was still more influential than Davis and I was baffled with him being subbed. Was it just me or did Lambert look like he couldn't give a toss what happened yesterday. I can't remember him having such a poor game. He spent far too much time out wide and not in the box where he should be. If this is a tactical decision then why??? I can see absolutely no benefit from moving our most natural goal scorer away from the box. If he was still suffering from the injury he picked up against Burnley then why start him. We could have gone With Jay Rod as the lone striker and started Ramirez playing off him or given Sam Gallagher a start.

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ericofarabia added 12:27 - Jan 12 On Saints Player they said Chambers was ill (he also posted this on Twitter, post match) and Guly was brought on because of his height as WBA belatedly started to throw caution to wind and started pumping balls forward.
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mayfairsaint1 added 12:29 - Jan 12 Saintandy11 Can't agree with your comments about Davis. He's underrated. Brave committed, reads the game well, recycles the ball quickly and hardly ever gives it away..
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lockseaf77 added 12:34 - Jan 12 As far as I was aware the only other experienced keeper (Davis) was injured. Let's face it, no matter how much we like Gazza and want him to do well it's not going to happen. We need an experienced back up for Boruc - a Shay Given or similar because having four keepers on the books and only one being good enough is a p*ss poor situation to be in
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davepid added 14:32 - Jan 12 What's happened to Brady'100 and his/ her match reports ? I only saw the game on Sky., I thought we looked slow and ponderous , one dimensional and off target with the shooting. Did not make me feel good , though really grateful for the points. I was one grumbling about Boruc in November but I was wrong and it was good to see him return.
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SonicBoom added 14:50 - Jan 12 We seem obsessed with possession now but to make chances you have to take risks in the final third. Unless someone is open we would rather go backwards and across the pitch which we did time and time again. In those types of games you need to get the ball in the box and Ricky constantly pulling wide doesnt help.
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saintstuinoz added 15:08 - Jan 12 Agree with most of the report. Having had the luxury of watching every game this season (on Fox) in Oz, I think Davis is an excellent player for us. Not only is he hard working and tenacious in defence, he's also an an inventive and creative outlet going forward. Also, despite the reservations of 99% of Saints fans, Guly is/was rated by some of our most successful managers in Pardew, Adkins and now Pocchetino - he must have something about him. For this match, I think his height was the key factor. Finally, how come no-one has mentioned Ramirez' hair?!

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LesVivian added 15:54 - Jan 12 Someone above suggests that Wanyama can pass! His strengths are winning the ball, and breaking up opponent's possession. He can't pass, but he started to realise that MS can, and so he was learning to win it, and give it to MS. Ramirez does well in flashes, but he loses possession cheaply - can we afford that? Both he and JR made poor decisions in shooting yesterday, when a lay-off would have been better; the manager needs to work on this aspect of the game! And Jack Cork WILL be the fall-guy, in spite of snuffing out the likes of Toure, earlier on! Not many players have done that!

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davepid added 22:20 - Jan 12 Nic,I dont know who can answer this but tell us - looking at the photo youve chosen to head your report - does having a great big erection as you go up to challenge the keeper , help or hinder your ability to head the ball?
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SaintNick added 22:37 - Jan 12 I dont think it helps but could be useful if the keeper tries to catch and drops it
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Scummer added 00:08 - Jan 13 Ah, so that's what they mean by stiff opposition... Gaston was the key yesterday. Yes his touch was loose at times, and his decision making can be naive, but the little glance and flick to set up Adam was the key to unlock a West Brom side that set out to defend with three banks and time waste from the first minute. (How Foster escaped a card I will never know. ) I think Rickie was pulling wide to unsettle the central pairing as our shape and movement was becoming predictable. In the end that is what Luke unwittingly did leading up to the goal, with Reid finding himself defending the middle, as per the MOTD analysis.

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schatfield added 02:37 - Jan 13 I do find, as much as i love this saints team, that we are very similar to Arsenal of about 6/7 years ago.......way too often we try and walk the ball into the back of the net, hence our possession stats> pretty to watch but largely annoying for the average fan when we are willing them just to bloody shot sometimes!
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dirk_doone added 09:24 - Jan 13 @ lockseaf: Gazzaniga may not be as good as Boruc but he did something that Kelvin Davis can never do: kept a clean sheet, which helped us get 3 points at Cardiff.
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ItchenNorth added 10:52 - Jan 13 Two players made a big difference Saturday. Boruc; who had nothing to do for large parts but pulled out a brilliant save to secure the win. He give confidence to everyone around him. Ramirez who not only set up the goal but gave us some much needed creativity to finally break down the West Brom defence. Pochettino must be credited for spotting that we could afford to take off one of our defensive midfielders (I'd have keep Cork on & taken Davis off thou) and to introduce Ramirez. Yes he'll not contribute as much defensively (so the game opened up late on) but his pass accuracy was top draw and he made a telling contribution again. For those still not sure; stats show Ramirez completed 28 out of 30 passes with a pass completion of 94% !

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Scummer added 11:37 - Jan 13 @itchennorth I agree 100% with you. As other posters have said, we often settle back into our pattern of play and pass backwards or sideways which allows the opposition to get back into position defensively. Ramirez was willing to risk a more telling pass and showed the vision and the ability for that assist. Terrible barnet though.
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