Saints V Hull City The Verdict
Saints won ugly against a Hull City side who kept battling and didn't make it easy right up to the final whistle.
This was not a great Saints performance especially in the first half when they struggled to get any sort of fluidity going, however Ronald Koeman made a tweak at half time and ultimately that changed the course of the game.
It cannot be denied that in Morgan Schneiderlin and Victor Wanyama are the strongest defensive central midfield pairing in the Premier, however perhaps Saints lack of goals lately could be one downside of them being played week in week out, earlier in the season in a game like this Ronald Koeman would often prefer Jack Cork than Wanyama and that although keeping the goals against column low has not helped in creating chances.
At half time yesterday he seemed to remember this and brought on James Ward Prowse for Wanyama and that paid dividends, Saints certainly looked more fluid going forward. It was a brave move from Koeman because Hull had certainly had more of the ball going forward in the first 45, although in fairness they didn't produce too much that troubled Kelvin Davis.
At the other end Pelle looked sharp and he did everything right when a chance fell to him but the recalled Steve Harper in the Hull gold made a great save.
So at half time Koeman did what good managers do, he made a decisive change, the truth was we did not need two defensive midfielders and this meant with JWP on we took the game to Hull more
This paid dividends ten minutes into the second half when Saints took the lead, Shane Long put in an afternoon of tireless running and he earned Saints a penalty when he was played through and chopped down.
This led to a debate in the Hull area with Sadio Mane wresting the ball from JWP and seemingly about to take the kick, it took an intervention from captain José Fonte to restore the ball to JWP, who planted the penalty home in a way that Rickie Lambert would have been proud of.
This put Saints in the driving seat and they should have put the game to bed long before they did and a special mention should be given to Kelvin Davis who made a superb save to make sure that Hull didn't get back in the game.
The points were sealed though when finally Pelle ended his goalless spell, fair play to the crowd who stuck behind him in this game, his approach play was excellent and he battled hard despite being kicked off the park at one stage, with 10 minutes to go though his chance came and he took it well.
This was not a great performance by Saints, but there were plenty of plus points, firstly the way they won ugly, they scrapped it out when the football wasn't flowing, secondly was the tactical nous of Ronald Koeman who made the change at half time that swung the game in Saints favour, thirdly was the way that several players stepped up to the plate, Kelvin Davis put in another good display, Pelle never hid and deserved his goal and James Ward Prowse came on an got his first goal for the club in the Premier League, hopefully that will give him the confidence to step his game up a gear and become the ball player that we lack in midfield.
Saints can now move forward with confidence in the final six games, Swansea's failure to beat Everton means that we are only two wins of guaranteeing 7th place, but we want better than that and we have every chance to aim higher after Spurs shock home defeat to Aston Villa.
Although some Saints fans have panicked we have quietly got a run together, this makes it 10 points from the last 5 games, if we can repeat this points ratio in the final 6 games then we could well finish 5th, exciting times the only downside of the day being that the stadium was not full to see it.
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