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41 Pass Move Capped By The Goal Of The Game Destroys Newcastle

Saints capped a great display by putting together a 41 pass move for Morgan Schneiderlin's stunning goal.

Those Saints fans old enough will remember how Leeds United in 1972 famously passed the ball around and didn't allow Saints to get near it as they showboated in our 7-0 defeat at Elland Road, that was a mere 32 passes but Match Of The Day salivated over it as if they had just witnessed the second coming.

On Saturday as the clock ran down Saints won the ball back and then passed the ball an amazing 41 times before finally Morgan Schneiderlin delivered the coup de grace.

During the move which lasted almost 2 minutes and included goalkeeper Fraser Forster, just about every player got a touch as the ball was won over by the right touchline worked back to Forster who kicked forward, the ball then went from right to left and back again before being laid into Pelle for a sublime flick to Ward Prowse who liad it nicely for Schneiderlin in the far corner of the box, he had time and he used it will curling it into the far corner of the goal.

At times Newcastle looked dejected during the move, but in the main they chased and tried to get the ball back and there were several occasions when Saints nearly lost it and needed to be quick on their feet to get a toe in to move it on to the next player.

Match Of The Day barely mentioned the move, they certainly didn't highlight it. but you surely won't see a better worked goal all season and certainly not one that is finished by such a cracking goal. But that is the Premier League for you, it is about catering to the needs of the big club armchair fans, sometimes at the expense of missing something that if one of those said big clubs had done it, would have been on serial rotation on Sky Sports.

For Saints fans though it was a pleasure to watch and it showed how we have taken last season's passing game to the next level, we werent afraid to hold the ball and we werent afraid to try and make something with the move.

To hold the ball for almost two minutes is also a feat and certainly distorted the possession stats which without this move alone would have been 2% worse off.

For those that said last year was the best ever football you have seen a Saints team play, if you werent in the ground on Saturday and sadly with it being so deep in injury time many of the crowd would have missed it, this was better than anything last season, with Sadio Mane and Jay Rodriguez still to come into the team, the next few months could be very exciting.

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