Many plus points at the Valley.

This was definately a game of two halves as Saints fought a hard deserved draw with Charlton.

My concern pre match was that we would be without our best central defender in Alex Pearce as the manager opted for an unchanged side for the third game in a row, luckily enough we were able to get to the break without conceding and then make the change that thwarted Charlton's long ball game.

The home sides game plan was clear,hit the ball long and get under it and although Saints coped well for most of the time, when the ball was pumped forward they were struggling to deal with it, Charlton were of course a side on a mission and keen to put thir recent form behind them and just before half time Saints had Kelvin Davis to thank as the Adiicks had a string of chances all saved well and sometimes brilliantly by the keeper.

At half time Poortvliet shuffled and the change worked, Pearce dominated the aerial threats and C ork moved to the centre of the park helped steady the ship and get the short passing game going.

The longer the game went on you thought that Saints would sneak it and they had their chances, BWP being the worse culprit, shooting tamely when clean through and missing the ball completely from close range.

Matt Paterson again looked good when brought on and my thoughts are that if Lallana goes in January we already have his replacement and possibly Paterson is going to be the better player.

This was a better point for Saints than Charlton, we know from experience that the sides that stay up are those on the ascendancy and Saints are starting to get their act together and not drop, theconfidence is there now and we are starting to defend well, the only downside being that we need to score more.

That will come though, and Saints are learning and improving with every game, Lloyd James has looked a different player since he has returned to the side and we still have players chomping at the bit in all positions, allwe need now is that second elusive home win. 

Photo: Action Images

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