In our last game before the international break, we welcome Oxford United to St Mary’s, where our opponents are trying to achieve something they have never achieved in the history of football – a league double over Southampton.

This is Oxford’s second season of the Championship and having survived last year, would’ve been hoping for a slightly more comfortable ride this season, but that hasn’t happened. Credit to them though because up until recently they were looking like the second team nailed on for relegation along with Sheffield Wednesday, but they have managed ten points from the last four games, which gives them hope and also gives them a chance of having a say in one leg of Saints pursuit for a domestic treble this season – promotion, FA Cup, Pompey relegated. We are hoping of course the Oxford can finish above Pompey, which would almost certainly send our nearest and dearest neighbours down to League 1.

The hope he is of course they can do it in the games after today. On the one hand, their three recent wins have been against Blackburn, Preston and West Brom, teams that are struggling at the moment and they would’ve beaten Charlton but for a last-minute equaliser. On the other hand – we are of course a different level to those sides but as said, Oxford have already beaten us once this year so there should be no complacency on our part. That game at the Kassam on Boxing Day was probably the low point of the season, certainly a low for Tonda Eckert, who sent this up there with three at the back and Gavin Bazunu in goal and it was the goalkeeper who managed to dive over a lame shot in the last minute to give Oxford three points.

Back then Oxford were under the caretaker managership of Craig Short and now have new manager Matt Bloomfield, who is doing his best to give them a chance of survival. The main threat to us today will be from the scorer of that winning goal backing Boxing Day, Stan Mills, and Will Lankshere who is on loan from Spurs. They probably loaned him out for his personal development thinking that the Championship would be good for him, but it just may turn out that he gets some experience of the division that Spurs will be playing in next season.

Saints will be hoping for some good news from the training ground regarding the involvement of Ross Stewart and Leo Scienza but to be honest, with the international break coming and neither of those players being involved in it, it would be a surprise if either are risked. Tonda did his usual and though and added an element of mystery into the press conference by saying that it looks like one of them might be ready. Not a lot of commitment in that statement.

I have a feeling that today’s game is going to be another slog, much like Norwich a few days ago but we should of course have enough to get us over the line and remain in the play-off places over the international break. I found an interesting this week that our social media admin saw fit to put together a video of Norwich players booting ours all over the park at St Mary’s. It’s clear that someone at Saints is irritated at the way that the Canaries have gone about both games against us this season. It’s been fun seeing the mental gymnastics by Norwich fans in response to the video, justifying scything tackles from behind on Matsuki, elbows on Jander and trying to kick Edozie’s head off. Yes, we should probably be the bigger person and just shut up after taking the three points but also, maybe it’s a deliberate plan in case we have to play them in the playoffs…. Or maybe it’s just some knob head in the social media department going rogue.

On arrival at the ground, the team news dropped and Cameron Archer is playing, which is weird. Cyle Larin is also playing so it’s basically looking like a 4-4-2 as Tonda gets more confident in his tweaking of line-ups and formations. Tom Fellows also gets a start and Shea Charles partners Flynn Downes in midfield. One noticeable thing is that there are the secondary advertising boards down both sides of the pitch, not seen since the West Brom playoff game two years ago. I’m guessing from that, that Oxford have someone who can throw it into the six yard box.

And within five minutes, that supposition is confirmed true as a howitzer comes in from the right, then another from the left and then they win a corner. In it comes and the ball bobbles about before an Oxford header is claimed by Peretz. Peretz throws it out and we knock it about until it gets to THB and he plays one of those lovely passes that dissects the defence and puts Fellows away on the right, a first time cross and there is Cyle Larin, steaming in at the near post to knock it home. Three minutes, 1-0, get in. Maybe this won’t be an attritional slog after all and I’m pleased for Larin, who has got in box on a few occasions since he’s been here and the pass hasn’t come. It’s also good for Fellows’ confidence so let’s flood him with the ball.

Oxford have good backing here today and their fans are loud but their team is shite. It literally is just throw-ins and corners. Twelve minutes gone and we win a corner on the left after a Fellows cross and a Manning volley which hits a defender and spins out. Jimmy Bree trots across to take. He knocks it short to Archer and he passes it behind everyone and back towards the half way line and Shea Charles is the only one back there. He has to move to his right and with a swing of his right boot, he lets fly to the right of the goal and then curls in, sails past the keeper who has no chance and lands in the near top corner. What a fucking goal that is. They will say ‘Training Ground move’ but Training ground move my arse, but what a way to score.

Oxford have a little huddle before the kick off and I don’t know what was said but it was clearly something along the lines of “drop twenty”. This meant that the pace went out of our play and we were happy to just knock the ball around. We had a couple of half chances but it became a bit sloppy for the rest of the half, with the likes of Larin and Fellows starting many a dart forward and then having to abort when the pass didn’t come. When we sped play up we cut through with Azaz and Archer combining well before Archer’s cross towards Larin was cleared. Fellows was clearly enjoying himself on the right and beat the full back again before crossing deep to meet Manning’s run but his header was blocked.

Half time and happy days. Two up and no danger at all from Oxford. Even their fans had calmed down and it was all going well, though it was a bit irritating that there was no intensity in our attacking play after the second goal went in.

The second half starts in much the same vein with us knocking it about and Oxford doing little more than just looking for damage limitation. They do have a few shots in a row from the edge of the box but they’re all blocked with no real alarms. The showed to me how much the defenders don’t want Daniel Peretz on their case if we let a goal in.

On the hour mark it’s time for a change up front with Archer are Larin being replaced with Stewart and Edozie, meaning we went to our more conventional 4-2-3-1, with Azaz freed from his left wing responsibilities. However, we almost immediately make a mess with Downes going backwards to THB and he’s closed by Spurs’ loanee Lankshere, who gets a foot in and is clean through on Peretz. Time stands still as he gets to the edge of the box and out of nowhere, there’s a voice that says “relax lads it’s Tottenham”… and he puts it wide. Ahhhhhhhhhh! Peretz, predictably is going mental at those in front of him.

Following that mini-shitshow, we wake up a bit with Edozie driving in from the left and getting brought down. No pen but the clearance goes out as far as Charles, who shoots from about half the distance that he scored from and comfortable for the keeper.

Here we go as Bree slides a ball in to Stewart and he gets to the edge of the box before trying to place it in the corner but the keeper reads it and gets down well to push it out and Fellows comes steaming in, has to lift it and does and the curse is still not lifted as the ball smashes off of the underside of the bar and away.

The rest of the game was all about Sam Edozie, beating players and reaching the edge of the box before being fouled and the ref allowed Azaz to shoot and the keeper to save before bringing it back and giving us a free-kick on the edge. With Manning having failed at one earlier in the game, Bree it on this one and leather sit as you’d expect, and the keeper Cumming, punched it away rather than trying to catch it.

Sammy was at it again in the 92nd minute, getting the ball facing the corner flag with two defenders at his back, before spinning past both of them and going along the line before crossing from Nick Oyekunle to stab wide.

Well, that was just about the perfect afternoon bearing in mind everything that’s going on over the past few weeks and the international break coming up. A game that was basically over in the first 15 minutes against a very limited opposition where you only really had to maintain concentration to see the game out. Oxford really only had throws and corners to be concerned about and seem to have very very little attacking idea other than that. We did of course present them with the one big chance in the second half which resulted in Lankshere running through and then shitting himself as the goalkeeper came out and putting it Wide.

Oxford were desperately poor and the team was not worthy of the support that backed to them. I know Oxford is not a million miles away but that was the best away turnout we’ve had at St Mary’s all season. They went a bit quiet for the last half an hour of the first half but roused themselves again in the second half despite Oxford giving them precious little on the pitch.

So, game over after 15 minutes thanks to the really well worked first goal and the fucking ridiculous second goal. THB again set the move in motion with lovely ball through to meet the forward run of Tom Fellows and it will have done him no end of good to see Cyle Larin busting a gut to get in with the goalkeeper and knock that into the net. The second goal is amazing for all sorts of reasons. I’m sure everyone will say it was deliberate but the ball from Cameron Archer looked to be too deep and then Shea almost seemed to casually pass it into the top corner from 35 yards. He just wrapped his foot around it and it started miles outside of the post before arrowing in over the top of the goalkeeper. An absolutely ridiculous bit of technique. It’s funny because imagine that having decided to hit it, he’d done what most players would have done and shanked it into the crowd, when everyone would have wondered what the fuck he was doing shooting from there. I am preparing myself for weeks of tedious shouts of ‘shooooot’ every time he gets the ball somewhere near half way.

We could’ve scored again and the second half with Ross Stewart bringing a good save out of the keeper and Tom Fellows continuing on his epic quest to go whole season without scoring a goal, by smashing another one off the underside of the bar. To be fair, he was really unlucky with that today. So, despite leaving a few goals out there, a nice routine when, no injuries and on we go to the international break.

A surprise from the start today was the inclusion of Cameron Archer alongside Cyle Larin. It was a kind of hybrid for 4-4-2 formation, with Finn Azaz being nominally on the left wing but continually turning up in field with Shea Charles swapping to the left when he did so and Ryan Manning pushing on up the wing. Archer did okay until about the hour mark when he started getting tired and every pass became misplaced but when he came off and Sam Edozie came on, we suddenly looked a lot more balanced and started to have an attacking threat again. The thing is now that previously when I saw an odd looking team, I used to be very sure that it was going to be shit but I trust Tonda more than I did a few months ago, due to his demonstrations that he has learned from past experiences and the positive effect his tinkerings have had in the Fulham and Coventry games.

So, 14 games unbeaten and on we going to the international break, still in 6th place. Everyone around us won today so the result was essential to keep us where we are. Wrexham won at Sheffield United, Hull predictably won at home to Sheffield Wednesday and Derby beat Birmingham.

Oxford of course still have a role to play this season for us to have the season of all seasons, and they showed enough spirit in the second half to suggest they might. Their manager did piss me off a bit by moaning about the advertising boards, which was a nice deflection away from his five at the back shite, which killed his team from the start of the game.

Meanwhile, up in West London, a team with absolutely nothing to play for, who we beat 5-0 a few weeks ago, won 6-1 against that other team from the South Coast, leaving them just one point from the relegation zone and on a run of one point from their last six games.

For now, the Treble is still very much on.

Up the Fucking Saints.