Saints V Burnley The Verdict Sunday, 22nd Mar 2015 10:35 Saints did what they had to do in this game and that was take all three points, but it came at a price. Saints controlled this game from start to finish and in the main asked all the right questions, however yet again Saints suffered an injury to a key player so the result came at a heavy rice. The game was settling into a familiar pattern in the first 14 minutes when Fraser Forster perhaps spent a second too long on clearing an innocuous looking ball, the challenge looked fairly innocuous as well but the keeper was clearly in some discomfort and after a lengthy delay Forster was stretchered off. On came Kelvin Davis for his first game in around a year and if Kelvin is one thing it is professional and he made two quality saves to make sure that Saints had a clean sheet at half time. Saints got a vital goal that took the pressure off them on 37 minutes, the goal was a little scrappy in that Clyne's low shot took a deflection on the way through and Pelle could not quite get a touch, but at the end of the line was Shane Long who thumped the ball home. The goal was vital as it looked for a long while that this game might follow the path of others in recent times with plenty of chances going amiss, indeed Pelle cannot by a goal at the moment and took several chances well but couldn't quite get that goal he needs. In the second half Saints were in even more command, but whilst the lead was only a single goal there was always the danger that Burnley might nick one back, but Ronald Koeman tweaked the formation at half time taking off Tadic and bringing on Wanyama and this gave us the foundation in the centre of the midfield, clearly with Wanyama walking a suspension tightrope the manager was trying to keep him out of harms way, but decided that with his side a goal up Saints needed to secure the win. The second goal came only 13 minutes into the second half, Ryan Bertrand worked well with Steven Davis and with few options to pick out in the box drove the ball at pace and a Burnley defender obliged to put the gam beyond the visitors reach. Saints had plenty of opportunities to extend their lead in the final half an hour but couldn't manage a third, but that was of little consequence what mattered was the result and the fact that Saints are getting confidence back with each display. Saints now have a great chance to keep this run going with a series of winnable games and they are well capable of winning them, they are still not firing on all four cylinders but they are starting to look like the side they were a month or two again. The only real downside was the injury to Fraser Forster that looks to keep him out for a while, the good news on that though is that in the coming weeks Kelvin Davis is capable of doing a job given the fixtures we have coming up. So this game saw three points earned, its saw us remind sixth place in the table some 10 points ahead of the 8th place we finished in last season, we sit only three points off of a Champions League spot and although that will increase this afternoon by either 1 or 3 points, we are still having our best season in three decades, what is there not to be happy about, lets get behind this team, all of this team and march on once again through adversity and hopefully to Europe. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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