On the Cross verdict – Saints 2 Millwall 0

Having played on Saturday, Burley went for a much changed line-up to try and keep his side fresh and to give youngsters Bale and McGoldrick their first ever league starts.

At left back 16 year old Gareth Bale became the second youngest ever Saints player after a certain Theo Walcott. Poor distribution early on was a sign of his nerves, but he grew in confidence as the game went on and was up to the rough and tumble of the Championship despite his tender years. He got the crowd on their feet with a surging run down the left wing reminiscent of another great Saints left back, Wayne Bridge.

An early injury to Powell meant all change at the back, with Wright moving to right back, Brennan to centre midfield and Baird to centre back. Despite the reshuffle Millwall caused few problems, largely due to the outstanding Lundekvam and the out of position Baird who put in one of his best performances in a Saints shirt.

Midfield was similarly disrupted, with Pahars on the left, Dyer on the right, and Potter and Brennan in the centre. Potter stood out with no little skill on the ball, taking control of midfield in the absence of regular partners Chaplow and Wright. He is finally starting to show his potential in a Saints shirt, although he does need to offer more of a threat going forward.

Sadly, this looked like a farewell performance from the much loved Marian Pahars at left midfield, as despite some moments of magic on the ball he looked off the pace and was substituted mid-way through the second half to a rousing reception.

Dyer was his usual mix of inexperience and excitement, but this was another good step in his development against a virtually non-existent Millwall midfield.

Up front, it was all change as well, with Kenwyne Jones partnering the prolific youngster David McGoldrick. Jones could have had a hat-trick creating a number of opportunities for himself and winning and scoring the penalty.
 
Unfortunately for McGoldrick his was a debut to forget, as the youngster had no opportunities to show off his poaching instincts and looked out of his depth. After a great season, hopefully this will just be another step in his stellar development.

Four wins in a row and top half of the table makes for happy viewing tonight, even in the football itself did not. With all of the changes, Saints were very disjointed, wasting countless promising opportunities on the counter attack and struggling to put sustained passing moves together.

However, this mattered little as Millwall offered little in attack, bar the final fifteen minutes when supersub May headed onto the crossbar as the pressure grew to match their excellent away support, limited in numbers, but loud and proud even when relegation seemed inevitable.

Even then Saints still had great opportunities to score, but left it right until the end to get the second. With the Millwall keeper up for the corner, Nathan Dyer got the ball to Fuller to run the length of the field and roll the ball into the back of the net to his and the crowd's delight.

Fuller had a great reception and over the Easter weekend it was fitting to see a comeback as the crowd chanted his name and adapted to Quashie song ‘used to be a skate but he's all right now'. Saints can play much better than this and have the personnel to do so with Belmadi, Chaplow and Higginbotham missing and Fuller and Rasiak on the bench.

More important was the chance to give run-outs to the youngsters and give Marian Pahars a final chance to show he was worthy of a new contract and sadly he may have not done enough to impress, although we only hope he can stay on a pay-as-you-play deal. The win was something of a bonus, but was very welcome all the same.

Saints still have a long way to go both in terms of performance and personnel to boss this league, but we are slowly starting to play with the confidence of earlier in the season and this bodes well for the long summer ahead.

Man of the match: Simply wonderful performance from the born-again Chris Baird both at right back and then when shifted inside to centre back. Made a number of telling interventions and showed good distribution.

Cameo of the day: Was this the last time we will see the Latvian wizard Marian Pahars? One glorious trick with his head will live long in the memory, but he really needed a goal today to make his case for an extended contract.

Lemon of the day: Harsh, but a debut to forget for the prolific and much hyped McGoldrick. Certainly not the last we'll see of his fox in the box whose time will surely come.

Thorn in the side: Supersub Ben May looked a real threat when he came on, putting our defence under pressure and heading onto the bar with Miller beaten.