On the Cross verdict – Stoke 1 Saints 2

George Burley sprung a surprise by recalling Darren Potter to central midfield and moving Richard Chaplow to right midfield. Potter has yet to convince Saints fans to his ability to dominate a game to go with the flashes of skill he clearly possesses and this was one of his last chances to impress if he is to earn a permanent move to the south coast.

Potter made the most of his opportunity, with Chaplow looking out of sorts on the right of midfield and carrying a knee injury which forced his withdrawal at half-time. He supported the attack well and worked hard alongside the steadily improving Wright.

It is always a welcome sight to see the talented Djamel Belmadi in the Saints line-up, as he has a great eye for a pass and wants to be on the ball at all times. It was a worry to see him go off at half time with a recurrence of his troublesome Achilles injury. We can only hope that Burley has the foresight to extend his one year contract as he looks one of the few genuine Premiership quality players that we have.

The born-again Baird kept his place at right back, with Brennan moving back to left back, alongside the solid partnership of Lundekvam and Powell. Baird put in another convincing performance at right back and deserves his place, showing his class after so many patient years in the sidelines.

David McGoldrick was denied a dream league debut when Paul Gallagher's frankly stunning long range strike forced Burley to send him back to the bench despite being stripped off and ready to come on. His time will surely come at Millwall.

Up front Rasiak and Fuller's partnership continues to grow with this time Rasiak back in the goals after going 5 games without one. Fuller worked very hard up front and looks a different player to the boo-boys favourite from earlier in the season. He has returned from his loan spell at Ipswich looking fit and hungry and alongside Rasiak gives Saints the kind of physical presence up front you need in this league.

The real talking points in the line-up were those not even in the squad, with time surely running out for Kosowski and Pahars to extend their Saints careers. Kosowski has the talent, but has lacked the application despite good early season form.

More puzzling is the Latvian wizard's continued absences, a worrying sign that he has yet to impress George Burley in training. In this league, it is very difficult to recruit genuine Premiership talent and a fit again Pahars would give us that, but it looks increasingly likely that one of Saints longest serving players will be heading home come the summer after one injury-plagued season too many.

Having been away for the Cardiff and Brighton games, I'm still having to pinch myself about Saints' resurgence in form. We have combined the pretty tippy-tappy football of our slump with the kind of application you need to get results in this league and it is paying off.

It has taken George Burley a long time to get his team playing his way and we are slowly starting to see the results. The first half saw the kind of swaggering football that Saints were capable of earlier in the season, combined with the goals that we have been struggling to score all season.

Saints are at our best when we play high tempo passing football and with our recent results, we started the game with the belief that we would win it. We forced a corner in the first 30 seconds and continued from there and in truth should have been further clear by half-time.

Yes, in-form Stoke were strangely subdued in a real end of season fixture, but we didn't allow them to get going apart from a bolt from the blue by Paul Gallagher that he will be showing to his grandchildren. In another encouraging sign we didn't collapse and concede a second (or a third) and closed out the game well despite good pressure from Stoke.

With Saints now top of the April form tables and back up to 15th, we return home for Monday's game against a battling Millwall side facing relegation. Once again we will have to battle for the right to play our brand of football, but if we can show the kind of application of recent games, then we have the ability to get another win and end this miserable season on a high.

Man of the match: A tough call between a masterclass in defending from Chris Baird or the double strike from Rasiak, but the big Pole gets it for the ever valuable commodity of goals, with a confident penalty and a drilled volley from 10 yards.

Cameo of the day: Where did that come from Paul Gallagher? A 25 yard pile-driver out of the blue to ensure a nervous finish for Saints fans.

Lemon of the day: Cult hero Ostlund is not a left back. Burley needs to stop playing him there, as again he was caught out of position and did not look his usual swashbuckling self.