I often go on about what a good player Matt Oakley is. I've been doing it for as long as this site has been running and he gets better every season. This season, he's an important part of the reason why Saints are doing so well.
Oakley is the fulcrum around which many Saints attacks form. While there's alway the dreaded, "let's lump it up to Beattie approach", when Saints are doing well, it goes either up the flanks directly, or through Oakley. Oakley's short game is superb. He breaks up plays, gets his foot in and yet still has the technical skill to pick out good passes and get Saints moving forward.
The better the movement by the players around him, the better the pass Oakley can pick out. He's also got a lethal shot which we see all too little of in his holding role. There's no doubt, very much like Wayne Bridge, that Oakley could provide a very good attacking option.
On Oakley, Strachan said: "Matt has been as good as James Beattie and Wayne Bridge for us this season.
"Frank Lampard has been exceptional for Chelsea, but apart from him I've not seen too many as good as Oakley in the middle of the park.
"It's my fault he doesn't score more because we have so many attacking midfielders that he usually has to stay back in the anchor role.
"But he's come up with two terrific strikes and we needed that because our finishing wasn't that great."
On the game Gordon said: "We were clumsy around the box and we lacked composure at times. I thought if our front players had been on their toes we could have finished it earlier.
"I thought we had the midfield area but if our strikers keep miscuing it can get a bit depressing and we could have had a problem.
"I didn't think our finishing looked all that great but Oakley's goals were terrific."