For 85 minutes this was a comfortable victory for Saints then all of a sudden it all went pear shaped and pandemonium ensued.
From the moment that Morgan Schneiderlin scored the opener after a well worked move on 5 minutes it seemed only a question of how many Saints would score and the game seemed to be going to plan when just before the hour Rickie Lambert capitalised on some poor defending to double the lead just after coming on as sub, Lambert turned provider for the third and with Norwich looking down and out and their fans chanting at their manager "You dont know what you're doing" a hammering seemed on the cards,
But then on 85 minutes it Saints shot themselves in the foot, they had at times been a bit casual at the back and Jose Fonte blotted his copy book with a misplaced pass that gifted the Canaries their opener, no one thought that it would mean anything, but then a minute later Guly misplaced a pass and the Canaries were chirping and suddenly looking to try and salvage an unlikely point.
With Dejan Lovren then injured and helped off Saints had to batten down the hatches as Norwich through everything at them and without one of their best headers of the ball on the pitch.
But there was to be no happy ending for Norwich, with one of their players slipping as he prepared to bang the ball back into our box and Steven Davis running the ball half the length of the pitch to slide it through for Sam Gallagher to get his first Premier League goal.
So all was well that ended well, but it was a shot across the bows for Saints who played well but throughout the game had had an air of complacency about them.
Big shock was the dropping of Rickie Lambert, I had suggested that this was on the cards in the preview, but it surprised me because of the changes we had to make in midfield, in truth it was just what Rickie needed, indeed perhaps this might be more of his role net season, but he looked a lot better for coming off the bench against tiring legs and the goal certainly brought the bounce back to his game.
For 85 minutes Saints were efficient if not completely firing on all cylinders in front of watching England manager Roy Hodgson, he will be pleased to see that Rickie Lambert is back to scoring ways, Lambert not starting will not effect his England chances if he can keep scoring, Jay Rodriguez did his chances no harm, he showed his versatility and ability to play in different ways, for the first goal he showed that he could operate as a target man, cushioning the ball for Gaston Ramirez to play Schneiderlin in on the keeper, , he showed he could work hard, at one stage chasing back 60 yards to win back the ball for Saints, he showed he could finish from close range for his goal, he showed that he could hit a ball from distance when he rattled the woodwork for a goal that Lambert would have been proud of if it had gone in. Luke Shaw was solid if not spectacular and Adam Lallana whilst not having one of his most creative games again showed why he was picked for England in the first place with his close control and ability to turn defence into attack quickly.
With Newcatle losing at Fulham Saints jumped back up to 8th and now must harbour hopes of holding that position, indeed with Man Utd collapsing at home to Liverpool it could get better still if we can keep winning games.