Saints put in a performance when it mattered to send them five points clear.
This wasnt the perfect performance, but what it was was one from a team that worked hard for each other and thouroughly deserved their victory as a consequence.
The loss of Lallana looked bad enough but most Saints hearts sank when Jack Cork was also missing, strangely on the bench, early doors West ham took a leaf out of Derby's book and went for the jugular and it took a good stop from Kelvin Davis to make sure we didnt find ourself 1-0 down before we had got into our stride, but from then on we found our shape and worked hard.
Perhaps the biggest surprise about the Hammers was that they didnt seem the footballing side that you would expect, what won us the game was our ability to pass and keep possesion, whilst they too often hoofed it up the field.
On the left we were tight, Richard Chaplow fitted in nicely and worked with Danny Fox in a partnership that looked like it had been together for years, either was a candidate for man of the match, Fox in particular showed why we bought him, even those who champion Dan Harding admitted that Fox was the better player, in short he epitomised why Saints are now a good team, he was always available, his control was superb and he rarely misplaced a pass, add to that his delivery from dead ball situations as shown with his corner for the goal and it proved the point that football teams have to keep striving for perfection and a good manager will spot weaknesses that sometimes fans dont see and deal with them.
The goal itself came on the stroke of half time, some would say the perfect time as it doesnt give your opponent time to strike back and it completely changes the direction of the half time team talk from their manager, perfect corner right in the danger area and towering centre half's header.
The second half was as pulsating as the first with both sides having chances, but as the game went on it was Saints that started to look stronger and you felt this wasnt a game they would give up easily.
But this wasnt an emphatic win, it was more a satisfying one, you knew you had watched a game that could have gone either way at any time, it was a contest where every man had to do his duty and stand strong and they did, this is perhaps why it feels like it was a great win and why sometimes 1-0 wins are more satisfying that much bigger scores.
But it wasnt without its moments of lapses of concentration, Saints were lucky to not concede when Jose Fonte completely missed what looked like a routine clearance leaving Baldock through one on one with Davis, the keeper got his angles right and the West ham striker curled it inches wide of our left hand post, it was the sort of lapse Saints have been punished for in the past games, so it was abot time our luc turned.
But perhaps the most nerve jangling moment wa left to virtually the last ten seconds of injury time, Kelvin seemed to bottle collecting a through ball and elected to fly hack it a way, he completely missed his kick and for a second it looked like it would cost us dearly, fortuitously as he fell the ball was close enough for him to grab. This and the Fonte error showed why we need to work on our concentration for the full game and why we need to be tight.
The key to winning this game was team work with every player doing his job, we now have a squad who are doing this, players have bad games and times when things dont go right for them, what stands us out from the rest is our ability to battle through bad patches and players who can turn a bad game into a decent one by their workrate and determination. Thats been their every game, frustratingly though at times its been undone by those lapses in concentration, cut those out and its hard to see a a tam that can beat us.
I have tried to give this verdict warts and all, but I want to finish on a high, make no bones about it this was a big big win, yesterday i spoke of the need to put pressure on West Ham by keeping them below us and with the five point gap between us and them and indeed the other promotion hopefuls we have a good advantage, we now need to capitalise on it by keeping winning and keeping them chasing, West Ham are the big favourites for promotion in this division and they have the financial clout behind them, the team that finishes ahead of the Hammers wins the title of that I have no doubt, so lets bask in the glory but lets not dwell on it, we need to do it all again on Saturday and keep doing it and we CAN !