With Hull City being unbeaten like ourselves since January and with the meanest defence in the Championship, it would have been a brave man who predicted a two goal win.
Even after our recent victories on the road, the trip to Hull was daunting, here was a team unbeaten in eleven and amidst the play off pack and looking like ourselves to make a great leap forward, most Saints fans would have taken a draw before kick off, however seemingly that didnt include Nigel Adkins and his players who seemed that having ridden their luck in the last two road trips, it was time to recognise the chance they now had and to put their foot on the gas.
The first goal should have been scored by Rickie Lambert, Danny Fox once again showed why we signed him and that football is about end product rather than surging runs that look good but deliver balls that end up in the stand, usually Fox puts in his crosses from deep, but this time he popped up in the box after 14 minutes and slid a ball across the six yard box, that was too far for the keeper, sadly for Rickie Lambert a defender got their first, but from that close range all he could do was put it in his own net, Saints had control of the game and never really lost it after that with a solid performance, although in true Saints style they not only wasted a couple of other chances themselves but allowed the home side to do likewise, but with the score still 1-0 at the break they were in the driving seat.
In the second half Saints got the decisive second at roughly the same time in the half that they got the first, this time a Cork header back into the box was chested down sublimely by Jose Fonte and he surged forward and then pulled the ball across the box and Hooiveled slid in to slam it home.
Hull City rarely score two goals in a game, from that point there was only going to be one winner, but although Hull rallied in the final knocking to try and drag themselves back in it and Saints needed to be alert at the back, there is a good reason why Hull are the lowest scorers in the promotion race and that is they arent very good at it and Saints stayed calm and held on to make sure that the final minutes would not be frantic.
In the past few months Saints supporters have often seen a bad result not made worse than it could have been when their rivals have also slipped up, this was a night however when Saints didnt slip up and saw the fruits of a victory reap a rich dividend.