Saints 2 Leyton Orient 1

It seems that Saints are falling into a pattern of not waking up until about 15 minutes into the game! Again we succumbed to a sucker punch with Orient scoring in the second minute which was possibly their only serious attack of the first half. Today Southampton had 11 players on the pitch - nothing strange in that, except today they were 11 individuals and they did not play as a team. They made extremely hard work of playing a game of football against opposition that didn't look a threat and who struggled to challenge for victory.

Lee Barnard was excellent with his energy, running and willingness to defend from the front. Rickie Lambert looked a bit off colour - but not as off colour as Jon Otsemobor and Morgan Schneiderlin! These two repeatedly gave the ball away to the opposition when they were in possession. Jaidi went off injured in the fourth minute and Seaborne his replacement seemed to unsettle the usually solid Jose Fonte, his partner.

Saints first goal came towards the end of the second half and it was a piece of individual skill from Adam Lallana who ran the ball across the edge of the penalty area from left to right and then shaped his body to curl a shot into the top right-hand corner. Class. His second goal came mid-way through the second half and I'm not sure what happened - too far away in a penalty area filled with bodies, I think it was a header. Orient lost Jonathan Téhoué as he was stretchered off with a hamstring injury.

We are now closing on the pack above. If we our game in hand, we are only 5 points off the play-offs!

COYR