After a few bouts of Bournemouth attacking at the beginning of both halves, it was a bit of a stroll in the park. FF was positioned himself well with about three direct shots on target. The defence looked solid enough although Vesters and Bedders both got bookings and at the end Ralph replaced them with Stephens and Salisu, just in case worse was incurred. Salisu was very lucky not to incur a serious injury when he was laid out with a vicious body charge from behind by Surridge - the Ref bottled sending the thug off. I was pleased to see Redmond attacking the Bournemouth defence and it was terrific to get the two excellent goals but he now has to continue that with decent Premier performances and get back to the kind of form he was showing a year ago. To be honest Bournemouth gave Saints far too much room in midfield allowing Redmond and Armstrong to run freely and create havoc - that doesn't happen in the Prem. Talking of the middle, Saints really miss a strong, tough general, like Romeu, where, without that, Saints are going to struggle to pick up points as all Premier teams will exploit the weakness. As well as a Saints win today, I was almost as equally glad that Fulham and Newcastle lost.

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Great win and defeats to Fulham and Newcastle in the league = lovely saturday at the house.
Redmond played very well and I really hoped he would get a hattrick and get a match ball for his mantelpiece which he deserved (and ALMOST got).
Armstrong, KWP and Djenepo also did very well, and Salisu looked good when he came on. I have never seen 2 non-injured centerhalves get substituted at the same time, but leading 3-0 and with both on a yellow card it made good sense. We now have 4 approved centerhalves , and it has been a while since that was the case....
When Ings and Walcott are back I hope we will be hard to beat again.
Now, let's hope for a miracle victory for Sheff. U. vs Chelsea and a not unrealistic Leicester victory vs Man. U.
Well done and congratulations to players, Ralph, his staff, our club and us fans.

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Shots on target:

Bournemouth 5-5 Saints

A shout out to Fraser Forster for making some fine saves as he closes in on his 200th clean sheet, which will hopefully be in the FA Cup Final.

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