A comprehensive win to end the season.
A virtual full house greeted Saints for their final game of the 2010/11 season and they were not to be disapointed as Saints put Walsall to the sword from the very start, in truth the match mirrored many of the other Saints games this season where we have dominated games for 98% of the time, not put away the number of chances that we should have and had a little bit of a lack of concentration to give the opposition a goal that they perhaps did not deserve, however the fact of the matter is this Saints squad is so much better than most of the teams in League One, when they are on form its more than enough, thios is not meant to sound arrogant, but over the past two seasons, Saints have spent more money than the entire League put together and have an array of players of Championship standard and in some cases higher.
Guly has often been the butt of some fans wrath, but his opening goal was superb as was the move that lead to the second from David Connolly, who showed that when fit he is probably the best striker at the club, hopefully next year he will get a new deal and continue to prove that.
After the second Saints fans expected landslide, but despite plenty of chances, 10 on target and 10 off to be exact, Saints only addition to the score was the games best goal from Oxo, a combination of poor finishing and inspired goalkeeping meant that Walsall were eventually able to enjoy their own celebrations without being humiliated by the scoreline.
For their part the Saddlers never gave up and had a few chances of their own, as the game went into the final a5 minutes and news started to come through that Dagenham were two down and then that they had conceded a third aligned with the fact that Huddersfield were only drawing meant that finally the nagging doubts were over and both sets of supporters started to celebrate, indeed most would have been happy for the game to end there and then so the party could commence.
Despite repeated tannoy announcements to keep off the pitch including a score update from Peterborough to ensure that all knew the party need not be anything other than joyous, the fans streamed on at the final whistle engulfing a pile of Walsall players celebrating on the half way line.
It had been a long season and the finishing line had finally been passed, the five point gap between us and Huddersfield making the triumph appear easier than it actually was, amazing to think that only one week and three hours earlier how close and tense it had been prior to the Brentford game.
Now comes three months of hard work to prepare for the new season back in the Championship, Nigel Adkins will surely feel that now he can finally start to mould his own side in his way rather than the manner in which he arrived and having to work with another mans squad.
Alan Pardew should not be forgotten amidst the celebrations, yes he only was at the helm for three games this season, but of the 18 on duty against Walsall 11 were signed by Pardew, 5 were at the club before him, leaving only Richard Chaplow and Jonathan Forte as Adkins signings, this is not to take away the achievement of Nigel Adkins but to remember the contribution Alan Pardew made to Southampton Football Club.