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The long road north

Goals galore for improving Southampton

Posted: 26th November 2009 01:43

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The long road north

Pardew: Plenty to shout about

Most Saints fans wouldn't have been overly enthusiastic about travelling to Victoria Park on a Saturday, but a cold, windy, wet Tuesday at the end of November definitely made it any easier excuse.

Southampton FanZoner Ben Stanfield
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With Christmas fast approaching, and the games coming thick and fast, it is good to see Saints still churning out good performance after good performance.

When the fixture list came out at the beginning of the season I imagine most of the Saints fans, like myself, would have been looking at when Leeds and Norwich were coming to St. Mary's and for the local away matches like Brighton and Brentford.

Likely right at the bottom of their list would have been when Hartlepool away was! Most Saints fans wouldn't have been overly enthusiastic about travelling to Victoria Park on a Saturday, but a cold, windy, wet Tuesday at the end of November definitely made it any easier excuse. Fair play to the 650 Saints fans that travelled up there to watch the game and I'm glad that they were rewarded with a win.

Saints have always had a loyal away following. I remember going to watch them win at the Reebok Stadium against Bolton on a freezing, wet Saturday once. There couldn't have been more than a 100 of us there and it took forever getting up to the North in the traffic, but we still got a result - Marian Pahars banging in the winner.

I also remember going up to Newcastle to watch them a few years back, sleeping in the car in a lay-by on the outskirts of Leeds on a Friday night, carrying on the journey North on the Saturday morning and then watching them get beaten 4-0, end up with ten men on the pitch and indeed see us score the fourth goal for them!! It's a long drive home after that!

Familar

Like lots of teams I'm sure, you always see the same faces at away games. Fans that seem to have no pain-threshold as they can take away defeat after away defeat.

But things have changed this season. Yes we're in League One and yes we have a much stronger side now than for many of the past years but if I'm honest, a cold, wet, windy Tuesday night in Hartlepool still has the threat to leave you very disappointed!

The new Chief Executive had sorted out a plane to fly the team up to Hartlepool. How many clubs in League One can afford to do that? Some of the teams in League One, likely, struggle to make sure they have 11 sets of the same colour socks!

The current Saints squad should know that they are very well looked after by the new owner and therefore make sure they give 100% every match. This shouldn't just be for themselves but especially for the Manager, Owners and of course the loyal fans.

You have to get stuck in. You can't be 'namby pamby' at this level. Good on them for doing it last night and coming away with a tough, but well deserved, victory. That is the sign of the progress that Mr Pardew is making this season.

Quality

The result at Hartlepool came off the back of an exciting, nervy and, in parts, waterlogged game against Norwich last weekend. Saints looked great going forward but poor at the back. Norwich, who were by far the best team I've seen at St. Mary's this season, deserved a draw in what was a game that could have gone either way.

Having finished two each, it sets up the JPT Southern Semi-Final in a couple of weeks nicely. It was, as both managers said, a game that belied League One status and entertained a large crowd right to the end.

It is nice to see Saints scoring lots of goals - 31 in their last 13 games in all competitions - but no clean sheets in those 13 games tells its own story.

Amazingly Saints have actually won 8 of those 13 games as well!! If its goals you want then turn up when Saints are playing!!

The goals are coming from all over the pitch - Lambert (top of the goal scoring charts as per normal), Connolly, Hammond and of course Adam Lallana - who already has 11 goals this season.

Wishing

I'm in the midst of starting my letter to Santa Claus asking him to make sure Saints still have Adam Lallana at the end of January 2010. His performances this season have been exceptional and some of the goals he's scored have been brilliant.

I am sure there will be some interest in him in January - indeed I hear Gordon Strachan was at Hartlepool watching the game last night - but I hope he will stay until at least the end of the season and see where Saints are then.

Adam has come through the youth ranks at the Club and definitely should be playing at a higher level. I hope he realises what is happening at Saints at the moment and doesn't listen to his money-motivated agent encouraging him to move on for the "benefit of his bank balance" this coming January.

I hope Adam will take a look at the likes of Gareth Bale who have moved on from Saints at a young age and done absolutely nothing with their career other than go backwards. Adam can stay here, enjoy the ride to the Premiership (hopefully!) and still make a decent wage. I guess time, and his loyalty, will tell! For now though he is playing with his heart on his sleeve, scoring goals for my team and I can't fault him one iota if people are talking about him!

This weekend sees a trip to Northampton in the FA Cup and I'm looking forward to heading up the A34 to watch. They've had some poor results recently whilst we've been very consistent but, as the old saying goes, form goes out the window in the cup! Fingers crossed that ours doesn't go out the window this weekend!

Finally, I couldn't end this blog without sending my commiserations to Paul Hart after the news of his sacking at Pompey yesterday. I just want you to know, Paul, that us Saints fans thought you were doing a tremendous job down there and we are very sorry to see you go! Bring back Tony Adams I say!!

Keep it going Saints. We're all very proud to be Red and White.

What's your favourite awayday memory? Will future days out still include Adam Lallana? Join the debate by filling in the form below

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