Jan Poortvliet showed that the future could be bright and Orange.
Before we start, there are a couple of things that have to be set straight for the record, firstly as good a performance as this was there were still a few things that need fine tuning and secondly its all about the football, team spirit and the style in which the team played, the name rupert lowe doesnt come into the equation.
We were promised a side that would be an indication of the starting line up at Cardiff, that being the case, the whisper was that there were a lot of disgruntled senior pro's at Staplewood on Friday morning as several were told that they were far from automatic choices.
It has to be said that when the team was read out that the majority of the home support were both sceptical and worried, the new regime had no track record, would this be the folly that some had predicted.
The answer was quickly given, to put it bluntly this was the first side for a number of years that actually seemed to want to play for the club, throughout the team was a spirit and a willingness to play football that I havent seen in a Saints side since Gordon Strachan left and oh yes a fitness level that the little Scot would be proud of.
Poortvliet had promised a passing game and that is what we got, all the team looked comfortable on the ball and pinged it around both short and long with equal aplomb, when they didnt have the ball, they chased and they harried and they pressurised the Hammers into mistakes.
But the big question was could they score goals, obviously the club need to get the high earners off the books and its no secret that Rasiak and John are two in that category, in truth David McGoldrick hadnt yet shown that he has what he takes, on Friday he took a step in the right direction.
The first goal was well worked, the direction of the attack was changed that threw the Hammer's midfield and the ball worked to James who put in a great cross that McGoldrick finished well, this boosted the striker's confidence and three minutes later, Saints hustled the Hammer's into losing posession and a perfect through ball from Holmes put Mcgoldrick through on goal and he finished sublimely.
Saints were now in full stride and it was a joy to watch, but as mentioned earlier there are still things wrong and on the stroke of half time Saints failed to pick up Calum Davenport who had a free header from close range.
The second half was pretty much the same with end to end stuff at times, Michael Svensson showed why he will be worth his weight in gold, another 90 minutes under his belt and his leadership qualities shone through.
Sadly Saints let the Hammers back in the game on 63 minutes and at this stage there wern't many who thought it would be the last goal in the game, but then came perhaps the young Saints side's big test of the evening.
West Ham by the closing stages had replaced over half of their outfield players and had the legs, whereas Saints had made no changes, at the time it seemed a puzzling decision, at one stage West ham looked like they might overun us, however there was method in Poortvliet's thinking, he was trying to put the young side in a genuine match situation and see how they reacted, in a league season he wont be able to make six changes, then the team will have to push itself both physically and mentally and he was trying to find if they had it in them.
The answer was yes, marshalled by the experienced Svensson and perry at the back the youngsters responded, they dug in, found inner reserves of strength and finished the half as strongly as they had started it, the one change made, in my opinion disjointed the team a little, in that McGoldrick was dropped back into midfield to make way for John, but again it was another Dutch tactic of creating a match situation and seeing the player respond.
It was disapointing not to win the game in the end, in fact of course disapointing to give away a two goal lead, however once again its a game where you can learn from your mistakes and better to learn now than when it matters.
The fans left the ground buzzing, all the talk as I walked away was how we had a side that was now willing to play for the club, how impressed fans were with the passing game, for the 9,000 or so Saints supporters in the crowd, Jan Poortvliet went up many notches in their estimation.
Obviopusly there are some downpoints, but the good news is they are things that can be worked upon, at some stages the youngsters tried to play a little too much football and on occasions should have cleared rather than trying to play there way out of it, but the truth was the minus's are far less than the plus points, and we do still have players who didnt feature last night who most definately will do later, Nathan Dyer and Marek Saganowski are two that spring to mind.
So overall a really positive step in the right direction, when Michael Wilde came in two years ago, the mantra was that the football came first, at the moment it has been the off field problems that dominate Saints fans thoughts, last night showed though that if we turn our energies to the on field situation, that contary to some belief's we actually have a squad of players that could form the basis of a great team, there is still some way to go, but the shoots of recovery were there.
To put it bluntly look a several positions and ask who you would rather see, Lloyd James/Jermaine Wright, Simon Gillett/ Jason Euell, Morgan Schneiderlin/ Youseff Safri, Lee Holmes/ Rudi Skacel, of course one swallow doesnt make a summer, but there is something stirring down at St Mary's and whatever happens next season we will see a Saints team that is proud to pull on the shirt and play for it and not just a tired bunch of old pro's on yet another stopping point in their quest to increase their bank balance and that applies to both players and managers/coaches.