Many had written off Saints before this win

Its true to say that prior to the fixture at Doncaster Rovers, morale amongst Saints supporters was at an all time low, or should I say Lowe, however in the past one feature of Saints teams was that they have frequently bounced back after bad defeats to confound their critics and it seems that if we have one thing in this squad its a fighting team spirit, OK it wasnt in evidence at Rotherham but it was there in abundance at the Keep Moat.

Having said that Saints started shakily and could have been a goal down before they found there feet and had Kelvin Davis to thank for being alert and coming off his line on several occasions to thwart the Rovers forwards.

However as the half went on Saints grew stronger in confidence and having convinced themselves that they were good enough to take on the opposition started to impose themselves a little more, the half time stalemate was a deserved position for the team to be in.

After the break though it was a buoyed up Saints side that took the pitch and that paid dividends in the 50th minute when McGoldrick did well to get down to the byeline and pull the ball back and there was former Saints player Matt Mills who could do little apart from put it in his own net, the Saints fans behind the goal didnt care though.

Seven minutes later and it got better, Lallana was brought down and Surman slotted home the penalty, the visitors were flying, it wasnt all plain sailing though, Doncaster fought hard to try and get back in the game, but Saints held firm.

With eleven minutes left Saints should have made the game safe, Surman was straight through and was scythed down, he put his penalty virtually were he had put his first, but this time Sullivan guessed correctly, the chance to close off the game was missed and this once again gave renewed hope to Rovers, not to their fans though as many were already streaming to the exits, of course this being Saints, their fans had to bite their fingernails as Doncaster piled on the pressure, but the Grey shirts held firm for a great win.

This was a major boost for Saints, they showed that they can beat teams in this division and pulled themselves clear of the bottom three, however they have to repeat the win at home to Norwich on Tuesday night, if they can do that it will be a major boost ahead of the trip to Coventry as well as the season.

If you were a neutral at the Keep Moat you would have been impressed by Saints blend of youngsters and steely commitment, it is still a long way from being perfect, we will still lose games perhaps more than we win, but the heart is there and the youngsters can only improve with each game, thats five points out of the last three games, the boys now need to break their home duck in the League, if they can do that on Tuesday things are really on the up.    

Photo: Action Images

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