It was always going to be a tough & tight game, but the main thing was that at the end of it we had 3 points in the bag. But who could have predicted the dramatic way the game was won with a new hero emerging.

There were no surprises when the team news came out before kick off, the starting line up was unchanged from the win at Stoke City, however there was interesting and surprising news on the subs bench, new signing Cyle Larin was of course included, but so was Cameron Archer and even more surprising the return of Sam Edozie to the first team squad for the first time in 18 months.

This was always going to be a cagey game, Watford arrived at St Mary's with one of the tightest defences in the Championship and conversely one of the lowest goals for totals in the top 2/3 of the division, you thought from the outset that this was going to be a low scoring game.

This proved to be the case although first blood almost went to Watford when Daniel Peretz got caught on the ball and passed straight to a Watford player, somehow though we did not concede and in fairness to Peretz the only mistake he would make in the game.

He didn't have much to do, but he was alert to situations and could only do what was presented to him and he did it well.

The game did have some chances for Saints, but they were well saved by the visitors keeper and the game went into half time goalless.

The only down side of the first half or should I say Downes side was Flynn Downes having to leave the field injured in the 38th minute, in the last few games the midfielder has been in perhaps the best form of his 3 seasons at the club, but with his replacement being Shea Charles you felt that this would not be a problem.

The second half started in pretty much the same way as the first with Watford having a lot of the ball and getting forward, but not having a cutting edge in the box, Saints dealing with any attacks fairly easily.

The feeling was that Southampton were well in command, but the stats showed that with 11 attempts on goal, Watford almost had twice as many as Saints 6.

However although Saints did not have many attempts, there on target ratio for the game was double the visitors, 4 as opposed to 2.

The direction of the game changed in the 67th minute, off went Ross Stewart and on came Cyle Larins, Sam Edozie also coming on for Leo Scienza who is still seemingly feeling his groin injury.

Larins would have to wait 3 mins for his first touch of the ball, he would almost get that a minute earlier when with the ball seemingly going to reach him from a cross, a Watford defender intercepted it and put it out for a corner.

That was taken by James Bree and the next Saints touch would be the head of Cyle Larin who shrugged off his marker and his diving header gave the keeper no chance to cue mass celebrations in the home sections.

You felt then that this was now Southampton's game to lose, not Watford's to win, their response was no different to the previous 70 minutes in the last 20 minutes, they got the ball and worked it forward and we dealt with it fairly easily.

There was perhaps one worrying moment as a decent through ball seemed to dissect our defence, but before it could come to anything Daniel Peretz was off his line quickly to whip it off the tow of the oncoming forward and then smother the ball two yards on.

Although this being Saints, you always seem to feel that something bad is coming up in the final minutes of games, we stuck to our task well to make it 3 wins and a draw out of the last 4 games.

In terms of glancing at the League table it doesn't look good, we are still in 14th position, but the table is so condensed we are now only 4 points off Wrexham in 6th place, there is still a lot to play for this season.

We are starting to look like the side that Tonda Eckert put out in his first games, but we seem to have more spirit and discipline now than before.

After leaking goals in December and January, we are now tight at the back, 3 clean sheets and just that single goal conceded at Portsmouth since our defeat against Hull City shows a side that now knows it's task and sticks to it.

Not only are those that previously had not been playing well starting to show their best form, but even after trimming the squad in January, we still can put out a bench that has experience and can compete.

With games coming thick and fast in the final two months of the season, this could be crucial, as legs tire we have proven experience coming off the bench.

This game will be remembered for the contribution from debutant Cyle Larin, but the truth was the other 14 players who took some part in this game paved the way for the this to be the winner and made sure it was after.

It was again another strong team performance where we kept going and made sure that we got the job done, thus allowing Larin to take centre stage.

Indeed Larin was the controversial central figure of this week, much was made of why we could let the club top scorer depart and bring in Larin, who had failed to score in his 9 games on loan at Feyenoord in the first half of the season.

Again it was a case of not relying on stats, Larin had not played 9 games in the starting line up in Holland, he was a bit part player brought on at the end of games, on average he had played around 15 minutes per game.

Of course we now have only seen him play 23 minutes or so, but he looked the type of player we have lacked, a big strong striker who is difficult to mark, his was a goal that we have not seen from a Southampton striker in a long time, we have seen it a lot from opposition players, but not from our own.

That is a true centre forwards goal, thundering in and attacking a cross, brushing off their marker to power the ball home.

Now we have added that to our armoury we can hopefully have a real go at trying to get into the play offs.

But ultimately like this game, it will be about each and every player doing their job and that is what happened in this game, whoever was running Watford's team in this game, will have told his team to keep it tight and force Saints into errors, that almost happened in the opening minutes, but after that we were tight and well organised, something I didn't think I would be saying about a Southampton team this season.

It is the unsung players who have put in the foundations of the past few weeks, Welington, James Bree, Flynn Downes, Ross Stewart even Jack Stephens.

Now we got to Leicester City on Tuesday, a team that are in freefall, both of their own making having lost 4 of the last 5 games with just 1 point taken in that run and also because of the 6 point deduction.

They are in danger of relegation and we have to put them deeper in trouble by beating them.

All Photos Via Reuters