Southampton’s staggering start

Wednesday, 09/11/2011

by Chris Rann, Shoot's Southampton blogger

Saints won their first away game since August on Saturday, ending their Ricoh Arena hoodoo. They go into the international break five points clear at the top of the Championship.

They have two more points than last season's champions, QPR, had this time last year, yet people still seem surprised by our results. None more so than me!

As a Saints fan you can’t help but feel that the wheels are about to come off. This doesn’t usually happen to us, but Nigel Adkins isn’t just winning games now, he is doing so while rotating his squad.

It is hard to predict the central midfield pairing that will walk out on to the pitch come Saturday afternoon. Jack Cork, Dean Hammond and Morgan Schneiderlin have all proved to be competent at this level, and a special mention should go to Richard Chaplow. The marauding all-action Chaplow has been employed on the wing recently. At first this was a stop gap for injuries but he has made the place his own.

Add to this the match-winning contributions of Guly do Prado and Saints are looking like a side that simply always have an answer, the performances of Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana are so commonplace now, they barely even need mentioning.

At Coventry though, they showed another, equally important side to their game. Seemingly cruising at half time, two goals to the good, a battling Coventry side came out all guns blazing after the break.

Having conceded two goals quickly and the scores now level, the Saints of old would have collapsed to an inevitable defeat. Not Nigel Adkins side. They weathered the storm and took back the control of the game, scoring twice more to take the points.

All the evidence points towards us having a side that will be amongst the promotion fighters at the end of the season but I don’t want to start believing it just yet.

Gus Poyet’s Brighton are next up, and the sides enjoyed a healthy rivalry last season. No one more than Gus would like to end our winning streak at home, and if both sides play well it could prove to be a thrilling encounter.

So can we push on and stay at the top of this league? Ask me after Christmas.

Keep the Faith.

• 

• Have your say