Sheffield Wednesday have been doomed to relegation since before the season started. The ridiculous ownership of Chansiri was always going to go just the one way. It had been building for years but with regards to this season, as soon as the they stopped paying their players on time in September, it just accelerated into a decline that left the club being plunged into administration, points deductions, selling any half-decent players that they still had, more points deductions and an inevitable run of defeats which leaves them bottom of the table, already relegated in February (which is the earliest relegation on record) and still on -7 points. Whenever you, as a Saints fan, are feeling sorry for yourself, have a bit of empathy and share a thought for fans of the Owls.

None of that matters to Tonda Eckert and Southampton today as this is a trip to Hillsborough where the only consideration is getting three points. We always talk about these sods law things and how for example, if a player hasn’t scored for a year, he will always score against Southampton. If we managed to not win today, this would be right up there as one of the most Southampton things ever. Tonda has been making the right noises and that we will feel as strong a team as possible, which I assume will include Shea Charles, making a return to Hillsborough after a very good loan spell there last year, where he joined his goalkeeper brother Pierce, and former Saints coach and managerial target Danny Rohl, in keeping Wednesday up last year.

No such luck this year and Wednesday had the further ignomy of getting relegated after a defeat against Sheffield United last week. Many point to the fact that’s relegated sides play with a little bit more freedom but with the season that Wednesday have had, that really shouldn’t be a factor because they’ve known they were going down since August. Saints just need to get out there and get the job done with the minimum of fuss.

Team news and there are a couple of changes with both Flynn Downes and Casper Jander missing from midfield, so it’s Shea Charles and Cameron Bragg starting. Downes absence I think could be explained by the fact he’s on nine yellow cards and apparently Jander is ill.. Canada Kyle is up front and Ross Stewart is not on the bench which is explained away by the fact he has a bit of tightness. Whether this is genuinely a bit of tightness and he will be back for next week is debatable given his history, so he could well be out for the rest of the season, which would be a bit of a disaster.

Awa y we go and Leo Scienza produces the first incident of the game as he flies past Fusire, the Wednesday right back and his pull back is played first time beautifully by Azaz into the path of Larin, but the angle is against him and he hits the keeper. Needed to lift it to be honest and then it would have had a chance.

Nathaniel Chalobah used to be a good player once upon a time, but he doesn’t look like one any more, with his shit pass to a centre back causing absolute carnage which ends with Azaz teeing up Manning and his shot spins behind for a corner. Scienza’s corner is punched back to him by the keeper and when he crosses it back in the keeper Dieng and a defender get each other‘s way in the ball plops down on the 6 yard line where Jimmy Bree is lurking and if it’s Jimmy Bree, you know at the moment that it’s ending up in the net and he stabs it goalward with enough power that neither Dieng or then defender near the line can keep it out.

Wednesday respond predictably with not a lot but Matsuki is lively and he starts a move on the right finding Charles in the centre of midfield. He glides forward before finding Azaz, and Finn is having one of those games where the passes are all exactly the right weight and he puts Larin clean through against the keeper, but as the defender closes him down, he shoots and drags it across and wide of the far post in a display of poor finishing.

Saints are dominant as we approach half time. Azaz plays another nice ball into the feet of Matsuki on the edge of the box and he gets trashed. Ryan Manning is the only game in town here with his left foot and with all the players poised to attack a cross to the back post, he sizes up the wall and the free kick flies over it and has enough dip to fly into the bottom corner at the near post with the goalkeeper Dieng nowhere near it. The Irish Gareth Bale barely celebrates, which makes me laugh as he’s giving off vibes that this is just business as usual.

Half time and this is done as long as we are professional in the second half. It starts off ok and then Wednesday have a bit of a go and we start causing our own problems as we step very firmnly off the gas. Wednesday suddenly on the front foot and giving it a go, with an attack down our left which Matsuki eventually clears away for a corner. In it comes, met by THB, headed back in from the edge of the box, headed on there is Yates in between Bree and Larin to dive and nod the ball past Peretz. Three headers lost in a row – well defended lads.

Shit, now out of nowhere we have a game on our hands and we get back on it with Larin getting trashed on the edge of the box in Ryan Manning free kick territory. Up steps Irish Bale and it’s surely a formality – around the wall and on target, only this time it hitd a retreating defender and flicks off for another corner. In it comes from Scienza and again the goalkeeper is not strong enough and it drops down on the edge of the six yard box and THB hooks at first time into the net. 3-1, game done.

Tonda empties the bench with Archer on for Larin, Wood on for Bree, which sees THB moved to right back and then Fellows and Edozie replace the wingers. We even get a glimpse of Oriol Romeu, who makes an appearance for the last five minutes plus injury time

We still have nearly enough time to let in another goal as a shot comes in from the edge of the box and Palmer sticks a foot out to deflect it goalward but Peretz reacts well to parry it out and luckily, Yates falls on his arse rather than knocking it into an empty net.

Job done. Not the best but job done. We do have a bit of a tendency to phone it in when the job is done and that’s what’s happened today after we went 2-0 up. The start of the second half was dreadful and when Sheffield Wednesday scored there was suddenly a little bit of panic but fortunately we managed to get a third and put it to bed. There wasn’t the snap in the performance today that you need in normal games and I think it’s significant that all three of our goals came from set pieces and none from carving open Sheffield Wednesday, which we could surely have done. Again though, I’ll take playing averagely and winning any day of the week.

When you think about it, we were never going to bury them. The atmosphere around Wednesday is going to make it a bit of a deflating experience regardless and manager Henrik Pedersen basically has one thing to achieve and it’s to not get hammered and he set them up with that in mind. He has no other choice because of the standard of players at his disposal. If this current Wednesday squad was in League 1 they’d be fighting relegation at the bottom of that league. All you can do is go and do the job and it’s never going to be a high octane scintillating performance. There has to be something from the opposition to make it that, or a complete capitulation, which Wednesday didn’t do. For it to be a goal-fest, there has to be some sort of edge to the game and this really had none once the first goal went in. The second goal really put it to bed just before half-time but even though we had a wobble in the second half, it was never really in doubt. Another game kicked off and another three points in the bag.

So, three goals, all from defenders and all from set pieces. James Bree is certainly the man at the moment who seems to be wherever the ball lands. I’m amused at a quote from a certain bullshitting. Welshman, who said that Bree didn’t want to come back to Saints in January. We all know what players look like who don’t want to be here, and he is not one of them. He is however, the man with the golden touch at the moment in front of goal but also, and more importantly, he is a major part shoring up the defence

The second was of course an excellent free-kick by Ryan Manning and I’m not taking anything away from him at all because to get the ball up and down from that distance and beat the keeper is excellent whatever way you look at it, but the keeper has had an absolute shocker there, both with the number of players in the wall, even with the angle that the wall were standing at and finally, his own positioning and reaction. It was almost like the wall was a token gesture because he didn’t think he was going to shoot. Utterly bizarre.

Our other magnet for the ball on attacking free kicks of course THB and though usually is a threat in the air, today he showed the reactions of a striker to be where the ball bounced out to and thump it into the net. As anyone will tell you, set pieces are huge in modern football.

The goal we let in was annoying because we had dropped off the pace a bit and in that period of the game, Wednesday look like they wanted to win the challenges more than we did, which cannot be allowed to happen against better sides but as I said, if the game had more of an edge to it then I think that goal doesn’t happen and we win one of the three headers that we didn’t win in the creation of that goal.

The one big worry from today is of course one of the players who did not play in Ross Stewart. Cyle Larin has proved decent in general play but his finishing is a bit of a worry and he should have scored at least one today. Hopefully there’s more to come from the big man with increased minutes likely given the need to manage Ross through to the end of the season.

On we go to the FA Cup 5th Round away at Fulham, which is a nice free hit for a week before we get back to the serious stuff when we go to West Brom, who on current form are the second worst side in the division.