I couldn’t get to the Southampton game last night, so a big thanks to Iain for this excellent write up.

Swindon’s final game in hand couldn’t really have been a much trickier proposition.  Southampton had won their last 7 games in the league at St Mary’s, scoring 23 goals in the process.  Town came into the game with some confidence restored after the Brighton victory, but with a hugely depleted squad missing (amongst others) Billy Paynter, David Lucas and Kevin Amankwaah.  By the end of the game, they’d find themselves without another 2 important players for the visit of Norwich on Saturday.

Danny Ward had recovered sufficiently from his knock to take his place on the right wing, while Mark Marshall was rewarded for his impressive substitute appearance on Saturday with the left-wing berth.  They found themselves swapping wings during the game, and were charged with supporting lone striker Charlie Austin up front.  Phil Smith also started with Lucas seemingly out for a number of weeks.  After some decent reserve games, Billy Bodin was called up to the bench.

Southampton controlled the majority of the first half.  Rickie Lambert curled a free kick slightly over, while Dean Hammond struck the post, with Lee Barnard’s rebound being correctly ruled out for offside.  In between this, Austin wasted Town’s best chance of the first 45 minutes when he steered his left-foot effort just wide of Kelvin Davis’ post.  Despite his wayward kicking, Phil Smith looked in good form in goal, saving well from Barnard and Wayne Thomas.  Town suffered a huge blow just before half time.  Scott Cuthbert left the field nursing a knee injury.  Following some treatment he returned to the action, but this seemed to aggravate the problem.  Danny Wilson had no alternative but to replace him with Lecsinel Jean-François.

Having made it to half time at 0-0, Town started the second half much the brighter.  Having gifted possession to the Saints too easily in the first half, they were taking advantage of the playing surface to knock the ball around nicely.  Austin saw a low shot saved well by Davis with his feet, before the decisive moment arrived.  Jonathan Douglas clipped a ball into Ward, whose awareness allowed him to play in Austin brilliantly, who rounded Davis before tucking in, in front of the 2000 delighted Town fans who’d made the journey more in hope than expectation.

The Saints pushed forward to look for an equaliser, opening themselves up to the possibility of being hit on the counter attack, but Town were able to hold firm.  Simon Ferry was dismissed with about 10 minutes remaining, having received 2 bookings in quick succession for late tackles.  It was an unfortunate end for the little Scot, who enjoyed yet another productive outing in midfield.  He’ll be a big miss on Saturday.

Wilson was correct in saying every player deserved massive praise for the result.  In particular, Douglas and Greer were immense, while Phil Smith’s handling was as good as I’ve seen in a long while.  Stephen Darby looked solid at right-back after a shaky opening, and Jean-François performed well alongside Greer, although there’s still that feeling that a mistake is only a second away.  I can’t help but feel that tiredness is going to be an issue for the Norwich game, and we don’t seem to play as well in the Saturday games as we do in the evening games, but the 8-point margin to 7^th placed Huddersfield looks huge at the moment.