 Tuesday, 10th Apr 2012 08:57 Saints made it a Good Monday during the Easter break when they travelled to Crystal Palace and left unchallenged and with three vital points to swing the pendulum back in our direction. The sign of a good side as i keep harping on about is not that they dont get beaten, but when they do how quickly they bounce back from it, in the past week or so Saints have suffered a double set back, firstly getting walloped at Blackpool and then the agony of that last minute equaliser at St Mary's against Pompey. So how would Saints have been affected mentally ? at Selhurst Park they showed that they still have a gritty resolve, they dug in weathered a couple of early Palace chances and then took the game under their control and put in two goals at the right times to make sure that any hopes the home side had of a point or even three were well and truly crushed. Its hard to pick out individual performances in this game, the truth was it was a team effort with everyone playing a full part in the win, it wasnt a game of many chances, in fact according to the official Club site we only had three on target (Personally I dont think that can be right, apart from the two goals Fonte and Guly respectively had two close range headers saved by the keeper in one incident, so that makes it four) but it was that sort of game, we had to keep it tight and take the chances when they came. Lambert will of course take the plaudits for his two goals, the first a bullet header, so hard than most of the away support thought it had hit the post and come out and from then on there was only one side in it. Nigel Adkins got both his team selection and his substitutions spot on, it was right that Harding came on for Fox as it injected a bit of pace on the left just as Zaha was starting to get up a head of steam, Harding nullified that and also got in a great saving tackle that prevented a certain goal. Guly for Lambert may have baffled some, but having been injured, it was probably the right time to err on the cautious with the striker and get him off and rested ready for Friday before he perhaps started to feel his injury. The midfield seemed to have the right balance, Chaplow worked tirelessly on the right as did Cork and Hammond in the centre, Lallana is still not firing on all cylinders, but the fact is even a below par Lallana is better than most in this division. All in all a great result, its just how you want your team to play in all its games on the road and it was certainly better than some of our recent performances, even some that also saw three points gained. Perhaps a word about the Palace Ultra's, love em or hate em, you have to admire them for trying to do something a little different, even if they are pinching it from Italy, they had a hard core in the stand to our left who chanted incessantly and who now seem to be adopting a standard colouring of black, which makes them stand out. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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