If ever there was a game of two halves it was this one, the first half saw Saints comfortably 3-0 up and the second one saw them hanging on for dear life, before finally seeing the game out and getting the three points.
The only change in the starting line up for the visit of the Baggies was Joshua Quarshie in for Jack Stephens and the game started well with Leo Scienza putting us into the lead after only 12 minutes after a great run and pass by Tom Fellows.
5 minutes later and it was 2-0, Adam Armstrong pressing hard and forcing an error for the last man for the Baggies and then robbing the ball and firing home, we were now firing on all cylinders and when Armstrong took a pass from Finn Azaz and made it 3-0 the home crowd thought they had the game won.
In the second half the warning signs were there early doors, if the fans thought it was won and were going to sit back and watch, so it seemed were the players, when the visitors scored on 61 minutes it should have been a wake up call, West Brom were going to get their tails up and we took two of our best three players in Leo Scienza & Tom Fellows.
At this point we should have just held off on the subs, regained our composure and kept it tight for 10 mins, I thought this was a poor decision from Tonda Eckert.
We were now under increasing pressure, so on 75 minutes when we took off Adam Armstrong and brought on Jay Robinson, I thought we have taken of the one player that can hold up the ball and relieve pressure.
No slur on Jay Robinson but he is not that sort of player and often struggled to provide an outlet when we tried to play the ball out, in praise of him though he played his part in injury time in getting the ball into the corner and keeping it there.
The Baggies were now all over us a succession of balls in the box and corners were causing us all sorts of problems, they were getting the ball onto the edge of our six yard box and we couldn't deal with it, Gavin Bazunu made two superb saves to keep us in front, but then came a free header, no one marking Phillips who headed home, watching the replay I thought Bazunu had been impeded, if there was VAR the goal would have been chalked off.
But there was no VAR and now we were under the cosh with 4 minutes of normal time left.
On came another two changes, Oriol Romeu & Joe Aribo and in hindsight they added more steel and drew the sting from Albion, yes they looked dangerous in the final minutes including 6 of injury time, but we seemed to get some composure back and those final minutes weren't as nerve wracking as they seemed at the time.
So where did it all go wrong ?
I think some of it was complacency, in the second half the ground was like a morgue, the crowd thought the game was won and so did the players, we all thought that we would see this one out with ease, we got too cocky and learned a lesson.
The main thing though was to get the 3 points and this is what we did, not with the composure we would have liked, but you can't win every game comfortably, sometimes you have to did in and fight and in the end we did just that, both players and the Saints fans who suddenly found their voices again.
At least the ones that stayed to the death, I was dumfounded to see so many get up and walk out when West Brom got their second, Ok it was a disappointment, Ok most of us had seen it all before, but that didn't mean that it would be thrown away, we were still 3-2 up and just at the time the team needed support a fair chunk of the crowd headed for the exits.
But those who stayed made themselves heard and should be proud of themselves, they helped the team over the line and that is what supporting a team is all about, we had already used a 12th man on the pitch, in fact with the subs we had used a 16th man, but suddenly the Northam End and indeed the Kingsland, Chapel & Itchen stands found their voices spurred on the players and saw the team home.
As I have said not every game is comfortable, yes it was disappointing that we almost threw this one away, but we didn't, the record books show we won it 3-2, the League table says we are 8th and now just 1 point of the play offs, maybe only for a day, but as I said in the preview, it was all about getting those 3 points and getting in spitting distance of the top 6.
Tonda Eckert will hopefully have learnt something from this game and hopefully that will help us at Norwich on Saturday, we will be a stronger side for this experience.