On the Cross verdict - Saints 3 Leeds 4

After the disappointment of the draw against Leicester, Harry Redknapp made bold changes in the Saints line-up.

Rory Delap was retained in defence keeping out Tomasz Hajto on his return from injury. With Saints problems in front of goal, Redknapp was clearly looking for a way to accommodate fit again Marian Pahars and Theo Walcott in the same side. The team sheet looked like a classic 4-3-3, but was actually a 4-4-2 with Pahars playing in left-midfield, albeit looking to attack at every opportunity.

Redknapp was hoping to exploit the lack of pace of the Leeds defence by also fielding Ormerod instead of Fuller. This didn’t stop Saints sending a series of high balls towards the front two conceding cheap possession. For all his endeavour, Brett Ormerod simply didn’t look up to the required standard, with a poor first touch, wayward passing and failing to win a header virtually all game.

Surprisingly, Saints' playmaker Djamel Belmadi and the born-again Neil McCann dropped to the bench to accommodate Marian Pahars, with Matthew Oakley returning to right midfield where he has so often looked out of position.

Fair play to Harry for having the courage to change his line-up. Three goals in the first half vindicated his decision. On his first start since 2004, Marian Pahars repaid the manager’s faith with the kind of close range poachers effort we have been crying out for this season latching on to a Michael Svensson header from a corner to turn it home.

The second goal was even better, with Theo Walcott absolutely skinning the poor Leeds left back down the right flank and squaring perfectly for his mentor Nigel Quashie to finish with aplomb. The luck was even going our way when Harding handled a Matt Oakley header allowing Nigel Quashie to score his second with a beautifully taken penalty.

Unfortunately for Marian Pahars, his injury problems returned to haunt him and he limped off before half time with a knee injury to his great distress and to the disbelief of the manager. Saints had to make two more changes at half-time with Dennis Wise picking up a thigh injury and Claus Lundekvam going off with a suspected broken rib.

While the substitutions did not effect the game to begin with, the manager believed that their extra experience would have prevented the horror show that was to follow.

In game 1 of the afternoon, lasted 70 glorious minutes, Saints finally scored the goals that their approach play had been demanding all season. We were cruising against a Leeds side tucked nicely in the play-off positions and having invested heavily in their squad and in particular their strikers.

Before the game, I was expecting Saints to dominate, but as usual to lack cutting edge and for Leeds’ superior strikeforce to make us pay as at Elland Road resulting in another frustrating draw. How wrong I was for 70 minutes, as Saints converted enough of our chances racing to a 3-0 lead by half-time.

We looked to have finally beaten a top half team and secured a place in the play-off positions with the kind of win that would have sent out a signal to the rest of the league. Reading were drawing, Sheffield United were even losing. Could we really catch the leading two?

All this in front of the biggest Championship crowd of the season with the excellent Leeds fans playing their part. Even when they went three down, they continued to sing their hearts out and were a credit to the club. In the press conference afterwards a bemused looking Kevin Blackwell paid tribute to the fans, saying that they had kept an edge to the game by keeping the atmosphere going.

After the dream first 70 minutes, the game turned into a nightmare for Saints with memories of the capitulations against Aston Villa and others that did so much psychological damage last season. Aston Villa was the moment, I realised that we were going down. Today may well be the day we look back on and realise that we are not going up.

Just how did we lose that game? How did one of the meanest defences in the league concede four goals in fifteen minutes? A despondent Harry Redknapp said he didn’t know why. After several questions from the press pack, he tried to explain it. A combination of last season’s capitulations and the loss of Wise and Lundekvam's experience.

After the soap opera of Simon Clifford’s increasingly bitter departure, game one was the perfect response. After Clifford’s response to Redknapp in the Mail about the lack of fitness in the Saints squad and the ‘laziness’ of the coaching staff, game two was the perfect riposte for Clifford.

The manager has come in for some serious stick for this result from the fans. He looked absolutely gutted in the press conference and admitted that before picking the players up he needed picking up himself.

He had finally unlocked the secret to our goal-scoring problems with a bold line-up and even got Marian Pahars back into the starting line-up. Three injuries and an incredible turnaround inspired by Northern Ireland hero David Healy and suddenly the manager has to go.

It is time for the dust to settle and for us to lick our wounds. How different it would have been if the second half had petered out into a tame 3-0.

The question is how do Saints come back from this result? Fortunately, the next game is coming up quickly away at Hull on Tuesday and it will take a string of wins to erase this result.

The worry is that the damage has been done. With more bickering behind the scenes, the old scars of Premiership capitulation resurfacing, more injuries and a divided fan base, it is worrying times at Saints.

Football can be a cruel game. If Saints had hung onto our lead, we would be sitting pretty in the play-off zone, dreaming of promotion. Instead we are in 10th place, still living the nightmare of relegation.

Man of the match: With two great finishes and another dominant performance in midfield, Nigel Quashie simply did not deserve to finish on the losing side.

Thorn in the side: David Healy changed the course of the game spreading panic in the Saints defence as our left-side collapsed

Lemon of the day: Danny Higginbotham went missing in the final 20 minutes as Leeds cut through our defence at will and handled to gift Leeds the equalising penalty. Was it lack of fitness, was it lack of support from McCann, was it pure inspiration from Leeds?

Cameo of the day: Marian Pahars - back in the side, back on the scoresheet, back on the sidelines.