On the Cross verdict - Saints 0 Reading 0

Harry made one change from the Plymouth starting 11 with Jones replacing Ormerod as Harry sought the answer to our striking dilemma. The real surprise was the inclusion of Marian Pahars on the bench, after he overcame a back injury that had prevented him from training earlier in the week.

There was disappointment for the youngsters as both Walcott and Blackstock missed out on places on the bench.

Niemi, Hajto, Powell, Lundekvam, Higginbotham
Oakley, Wise, Quashie, Kosowski (Pahars, 70)
Fuller, Jones (Ormerod, 87).
Substitutes: Cranie, Delap, Smith.

Saints defence was once more in good form with another solid display, nullifying the threat of Lita who many Saints fans would have liked to have seen in a Saints shirt. Niemi did what little was asked of him well behind a well organised back line.

Gone are the defensive reshuffles of last season and in its place has come a settled line-up that has visibly grown in confidence as the clean sheets have stacked up.

With Belmadi again missing out through injury, Matt Oakley was once more out of position on the right hand side. While certainly able to do a job there, he is better suited to central midfield, with more of Saints threat coming down the left-hand side through the lively Kosowski.

Wise and Quashie were in dominant form, it was just a pity that they had left their shooting boots behind, even more the pity that they weren’t alone in that failing.

Despite replacing Ormerod with Jones, Saints once again failed to fire in attack. After so many misses from so many players, confidence is at a premium. Many Saints fans were hoping that Ormerod and Fuller’s quality strikes against Derby would be the turning point, but whichever strike combination Saints put out we still continue to miss glorious opportunities at the front, matched by those behind them.

Fuller was unlucky not to score with a point blank header and as on several other occasions this season had a chance to be the hero at the death but failed to convert a header in the last minute of the game. Fuller is starting to show many different strings to his bow with some good passing, dribbling and his wonderful strike against Derby, but he doesn’t look a natural goalscorer on current form.

The biggest cheer of the day was reserved for Marian Pahars when he came on in the 70th minute. While understandably short of match fitness he showed some good touches and Saints fans will be praying he can stay fit as at his best, he is exactly the kind of clinical finisher that Saints have been crying out for.

Quashie set the tone for the match with a horrible miss within the first minute when he somehow blasted wide with the goal at his mercy. If that had gone in, Saints could well have won this game by a distance, but once again we continued to misfire in front of goal. Reading had a few chances of their own, but were pleased with the point.

While a definite improvement on the dire Plymouth 0-0, Saints missed a big opportunity here to make a statement to the rest of the league and get within 5 points of high-flying Reading and back into the play-off zone.

Saints inability to kill teams off is becoming a growing burden and it will only be a matter of time before a visiting team will pick us off with a goal on the break and leave St. Mary’s with all the points.

For all of our dominance in recent games, football is all about goals, and on that basis, that is why Reading deserve to be in 2nd and we don’t. While only really Luton have given us genuine problems this season the fact of the matter is that unless you can put the ball in the back of the net, you won’t get out of this league.

Saints now travel to Preston for our next game looking to end our sequence of 6 draws in a row, as it is becoming vital that we get a win or we will soon be treading water in the middle of the league despite some of the excellent football we have produced this season.

Man of the match: Dennis Wise marshalled the midfield to good effect and showed he has lost none of his quality on the ball.

Lemon of the day: Ball, goal, net, Mr Nigel Quashie. If only he had converted that early chance!

Cameo of the day: some said we would never witness it, but, yes, that really was Marian Pahars in a Saints shirt once more. If Sir Clive really has been brought in to help out on the medical side, he could do worse than spend the rest of the season looking after the Latvian wizard.