In the preview i asked for Saints to kick on and make other sides start to fear them, they certainly have done that.

In Brighton tonight they must be looking over their shoulders and quaking in their boots as Saints destroyed Oldham at Boundary Park by six goals to nil.

Nigel Adkins shuffled the pack again and played what some would say would be his best starting XI with perhaps the only argument being up front, were Lambert & Guly started with Barnard on the bench, that is some dilemma to have if you are a manager and a problem every manager in this league would love to have, especially as all three got a goal apiece.

Saints got a grip of the game early on when OXO scored and when Lallana got one with 38 minutess gone they were well on there way, in the second half they ran riot to send a shiver up the psines of the rest of the league.

Nigel Adkins has to be given credit, yes he has taken his time, but he now has the side playing well and has options in all departments, its not so much the result but the manner in which it was achieved, with six different scorers in a match it shows the overall strength of the Saints tea, it also shows that players have upped their game knowing that they are not sure of their place if they dont, to give an example of the depth we have Jason Puncheon and Dean Hammond were not even on the bench for whatever reasons 

Oldham were of course no push overs, they only had their first home defeat of the season eight days ago and harboured promotion aspirations of their own, it was a game where Saints could easily have dropped a point and indeed too often earlier in the season did do in this type of game, where they allowed the opposition to up their game and push them out of their stride, Carlisle and Yeovil spring to mind, now Saints are very much the form team and although some teams have games in hand on us we have the points on the board and in fact have the advantage in that evven if those games are won we would not be caught.

As I said tonight is about the psycological side of things, teams like Sheffield Wednesday are now seven points behind and Charlton six all with only one game in hand, OK we have played one more than Brighton, but we are only three points off them, they have lead for the entire season, and now face the fact that if they lose to Peterborough at home on Saturday and we beat Notts County then we go top on goal difference, although the real crunch weekend is the 22nd January when Brighton travel to Bournemouth in a game that whatever way it goes will benefit Saints as long as we win at Tranmere.

A good night for Saints supporters who now wonder when was the last time that we has six different scorers in a league game, I can now tell you that the answer is Torquay United at home on December 27th 1955, we beat them 6-2 in Div 3 South with Traynor, McLaughlin, Flood, Walker, Mulgrew & Hoskins all scoring in front of 17, 222, before you ask that was six thousand up on the seasons average so even i couldnt have moaned had i been alive back then.

For the record the previous day we had lost 3-2 down at Torquay      

Photo: Action Images

channonite added 08:19 - Jan 12 Is it coincidence that we have started to hit a rich vein of form since Lambert started to play well again? I think not. Incidentally, I cannot resist pointing out that you should not be helping the rest of Division 1 by telling them that the secret of Saints success was the strength of the tea ...... ;)
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eusebio added 08:43 - Jan 12 The look over their shoulders a lot in Brighton.......must be the sea air
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