Saints are through to the 3rd round of the Capital One Cup as two players got their first ever goals for the club in a well deserved win at Millwall.
Jack Cork and Graziano Pelle gave Saints a 2-0 win at Millwall in the Capital One Cup with both celebrating their first ever goals for the club, but where this was only Pelle's third competitive game for the club, this was Cork's 139th time of asking including games played in his loan spell at St Mary's back in 2008/09 season.
Ronald Koeman showed that he is taking the cup competitions seriously making only three changes from the side that drew with West Brom on Saturday, however if he thought it would guarantee him passage through to the next round he was to be wrong and in fairness despite looking fairly comfortable in the first half it was the home side who should have gone in ahead at the break after a flurry of chances just before half time.
Jack Cork on as sub at half time was the match winner as he headed home from a Tadic corner on 53 minutes to settle Saints nerves and they could have doubled their lead when Pelle shaved a post from a header.
Indeed it looked as if the centre forward would again have no goal to show for his efforts despite responding to his managers call for more effort and agression from him, but in injury time he opened his account for the club, latching on to a through ball and springing the offside trap and coolly slotting home past the keeper.
It was the ggoal that Pelle needed, indeed just the type of goal he needed to show the Saints fans that despite the worry of some he has got what it takes to score goals in this country.
But this game was not just about getting through to the next round, for their own confidene Saints had to get a win under their belts and they did so, but it was more than that, for some players it was about showing the fans they have what it takes.
For Jack Cork it was about showing that he is worth a new contract, for Graziano Pelle it was about showing that he could score goals and for Matt Targett it was about showing that he can be the next big star on the Saints conveyor belt as he put in a tidy performance at left back in his debut for the club.
Saints march on into the next round and although it was perhaps not the comprehensive win that Ronald Koeman was hoping for, that was just about the only thing that was slightly disappointing on the night.