A small step towards safety but a giant step in the right direction.

Despite the fact that Saints once again failed to win, this was a giant step in the right direction and Saints best performance of the season.

Thats not to say that everything is now rosy, far from it, but the addition of Hammond and Trotman seemed to add something to the side that has been missing and although it was a case of being undone by a late goal, the confidence is returning.

Neil Trotman looked good at the back and alongside him Chris Perry shone, in the main due to having a central defensive partner who could win the ball, leaving Perry to organise and sweep up.

In the midfield Hammond without being spectacular, got on with the job and anchored, whislt Jacob Mellis had a great first half, just a shame that he couldnt come out after the half time break.

Saints had there chances, indeed they should have been ahead in the first minute. Patterson doing the hard bit only to snatch at the chance he had made, but Saints now have enough finishing power to score goals and undoubtably will in the coming weeks.

Perhaps the only worry though is the use of substitutes, we seem to go from one extreme to another, at Huddersfield we made a double substitution early in the second half that seemed strange, then at Swindon it was left late before one was used despite the dire performance. On Saturday once again it was a double substitution at half time, Im assuming that at least one was enforced through injury, in honesty Saganowski did add to the side, but Jake Thomson looked a little boy lost, he clung to the wing and didnt seem to know when to make runs or to track back, in short it could have cost us the game, OK we needed to keep width but for me its worrying that Simon Gilllett seems to be shut out, yet Paul Wotton is still on the bench.

Likewise Oliver Lancashire, we did not need two centre halves in reserve, especially when we had Wotton on the bench who could play there or even Morgan Scheiderlin.   

The crowd in the main played their part, the Northam of course anchored the atmosphere, but the stereo antics from the Itchen and the kingsland have added to it all to create perhaps the noisiest crowd in the division and i also have to say that I havent seen better last season in the Championship either, very few teams can boast the vocal power in their choir nor the numbers of Saints.

Sadly though there where still a few in the crowd who seem to believe that Saints should be winning every game and are too good for this division, they need to wake up fast, the shoots of recovery are there and 90% of the crowd realise the task ahead and the time span, just needs the last 10% to get with the programme as they would say in the US Of A.

But overall a satisfactory day at the office given that six weeks ago it looked like we wouldnt have a club to support.     

Photo: Action Images

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