Saints v Sheffield Wednesday – On the Cross verdict

Harry kept with the 4-4-2 formation that failed to impress against Luton, having to make yet more enforced changes through injury. Fuller, Wise, Delap and Baird all picked up injuries this week meaning Harry was down to the bare bones, with pacey 17 year old winger Nathan Dyer making his first ever appearance on the Saints bench.

Niemi
Hajto, Lundekvam, Powell, Higginbotham
Prutton, Oakley, Quashie, Belmadi
Jones (Delap, 85), Blackstock (Walcott, 71)
Subs: Smith, Cranie, Dyer

With so many injuries the line-up practically picked itself and again lacked natural width, featuring four central defenders and four central midfielders, with the rest of the squad made up from Smith and our youngsters.

However, Belmadi’s growing fitness made all the difference as he showed his class on the left side of midfield, with a series of neat passes and runs, that helped get our passing game going, avoiding the hapless long ball tactics we witnessed at Luton.

Up front Jones and Blackstock worked hard and showed some decent understanding, although in truth Saints failed to create enough chances despite their much improved play.

First things first, just how good does it feel to win an away game again after the lows of the previous months!

Yes, Sheffield Wednesday had some good chances and were missing a lot of players, but so were Saints who put in a much improved performance and on balance deserved to win.

For once we didn’t have to score four to win and were able to rely on a single strike, as the script dictated, from Kenwyne Jones who enjoyed such a prolific spell on loan last season, with the Wednesday defence showing their appreciation in gifting him his chance after an unfortunate slip by Richard Wood.

Saints may well face a stiffer test on Saturday against promotion favourites Norwich, but this win will help our battered confidence, particularly if Saints injury worries ease and Harry can get in the three players he wants.

Depending on whether your cup is half full or half empty, Saints are now just three points from top or three from bottom.

Man of the match – Djamel Belmadi showed genuine quality on the left side of midfield, as his improving fitness started to tell after his ineffective performance against Wolves.

Lemon of the day – the unfortunate Richard Wood whose slip gifted Jones the winning goal. Let's hope other Championship defenders are as generous to us.

Cameo of the day – having picked Theo Walcott for this award for every single game this season, I will have to plump for the new ‘Paul Telfer utility man’, Rory Delap, who went up front for the final five minutes keeping him nicely out of trouble.