Saints showed that they can win ugly as they got down and scrapped with Stoke City for a place in the quarter finals of the Capital One Cup.
This was not a game for the feint hearted as Saints first looked like they were going to run away with the tie and then looked like they would be the victims of a second half fight back before finally winning it with minutes to spare.
In the first half it seemed like Saints would cruise to victory, a sublimecurled effort from distance from Graziano Pelle followed by Shane Long's first goal for the club put Saints well on top at half time and in fairness they should have had the game out of sight long before the 45 minutes was up, only some great goalkeeping keeping Stoke still in the game.
The second half was always going to be about making sure that the Potters didn't get a way back into a game, but they were given hope just after the break when Saints backed off and N'Zonzi hit a low shot from distance that went in just perfectly, but Saints didn't crack and had a series of great chances which in truth they should have buried at least one although again Begovic in the Stoke goal was performing miracles to keep his side in it.
Then as the game headed for its final 20 minutes Stoke rallied, they did what Stoke sides have done since the days of Tony Pulis, they dished it out but couldnt take it, every Saints tackle saw the players surround the ref whether it was a foul or not and the crowd roar for everything, suddenly from a comfortable position Saints were on the rack a little as Stoke piled forward and won a succession of corners with Saints struggling to deal with the high ball into the box, anyone who claims that Stoke are no longer long ball and bullying tactics didn't have a leg to stand on in the latter stages and from literall the fifth corner in a row Stoke equalised.
Would Saints crumble, perhaps in the past, but not today, they held their nerve and Stoke's rabid display would be their undoing, Peter Crouch was rightly booked on 86 minutes as the Stoke players charged in to every tackle and when literally a minute later he dived in again a second yellow was the right decision, Stoke surrounded the ref and in doing so lost concentration, as Crouch would have been literally walking down the tunnel, from the resulting free kick the ball found Pelle who buried it from close range to send 2,500 travelling Saints fans behind the goal wild.
Although down to 10 men Stoke would now do what they knew best, route one, but Ronald Koeman came to life, perhaps with extra time in mind he had held back on substitutions, but now he brought on the fresh legs of Jack Cork and Toby Alderweireld right on the 90 as six minute of injury time were shown.
Stoke blustered but you had the feeling the tie had turned back in Saints favour and that even if it did go to extra time they would win it.
That wasn't needed though every Saints dug in and did their job and saw out the remaining minutes for a victory that you could see was vital written on the faces of the players.
A good win for Saints as again it showed they can dig in and win games when the going gets tough, yes it should have been dead and buried, but when it wasn't we hung on in there.
A mention for Matt Targett who I thought mgiht have come off with 15 -20 minutes to go to add the experience of Bertrand, but in the closing stages Targett was a rock, Stoke tried to take him on down the line but he kept winning tackles and hind sight shows us that it was right to leave him on.
Saints march on into the quarter finals, if this is meltdown give me more.