Top of the table Millwall rock up at St Mary’s this afternoon, no doubt looking to leave with something, as they did last season. The Lions were the team who did well last season when I wasn’t necessarily expecting them to and we should’ve been facing them in the play-off final, but for differing reasons, neither of us made it. Millwall had finished third and were, according to a League table, therefore the best team in the playoffs, but they ran out of steam horribly in the semi-final against Hull – at least though, that was a conventional way of not making the final.

I had never really had a positive opinion of Alex Neil from his journey as a manager which had taken in Norwich, Stoke, Sunderland and Preston before Millwall. Every time we came across him he had never seemed a particularly inspiring character, nor tactically astute and it was therefore hard to imagine him inspiring any collective group of players. However, after our games last season, I found myself with a new found respect for the man by the way he’s tactically set up in both games and the performance of the team that he has built. They came for a draw and got it at St Mary’s and fair enough, and in the return game they battered us really. They only won in the last minute but it was one of those games where you come away, even though you’ve lost in the last minute, thinking that you can’t really complain too much about the result.

So, bearing in mind how well they did last season and the relative lack of churn of players, this is going to be a challenge, but a Saints team playing well should in my view, be able to get the job done. The first game last season was against Will Still’s Saints and the second was Tonda’s first game as permanent manager, when we were Still infected with a back three. After our pathetic no-show against West Ham, it is hard to see us competing and rising to the challenge that Millwall present – two wins out of two and with their physically imposing team with average height of 7 foot.

However, the positivity level around Southampton has shot up over the past few days with the signings of Kevan Schlotterbeck from Augsberg and a certain James Ward-Prowse from West Ham. Schlotterbeck will hopefully provide the leadership and commitment and ability that we require at centre back. Being left-footed is a huge plus and having recently been Augsberg captain, it’s easy to see where he’ll slot in and ultimately, whose place he will take… or should take.

JWP needs no introduction at all. We need him to hit the ground running and dispel any lingering doubts that a few will have about whether his legs have gone or not. At the age of 31, they certainly shouldn’t have. It would almost be surprising if either didn’t start. Even the most cynical can’t have been moved at least a bit by JWP’s return. I think a lot of people have forgotten just how good he was. Time waits for no man of course and we saw last year that Oriol Romeu was not the same but at three years younger than Oriol was, I’m much more confident that we will see a player who will be very effective at this level. Bringing home an ex-player once they’re past 30 rarely works – the joke is that Mick Channon was the last successful one – but all streaks need to be broken sometime, so maybe it’s time to be optimistic until proven otherwise.

As it turn out, JWP is on the bench. Schlotterbeck is straight in and somewhat surprisingly, Captain Jack has been left out. Matsuki on the right is the other headline, with Braggy coming in to the midfield. As kick-off approaches, the weather is shit – swirling winds and rain. I am looking at the roof of the ground up the Northam End and wondering how I’m getting wet. It’s a throwback to the old days of The Dell, standing in the pissing rain and the game hasn’t even started yet.

Away we go and we’re looking considerably better than we did against West Ham but Millwall are comfortable with what they are going and look very well drilled. Basically, play it behind our defenders and put pressure on the retreating defender. Mix that up with balls up the massive unit Josh Coburn. It’s an early chance for Big Kev to show what he’s about and he’s getting stuck in. It’s not pretty but the conditions are making it so.

Down our left go Millwall with Sykes and out to the winger, who, uninterrupted by our left back, has all the time to pick out a cross which is stabbed away back to Sykes, who takes aim and it flicks off of Big Kev and flies past Peretz. Another shite team goal. No tracking on Sykes by Scienza, no pressure on the cross from Manning. Bollocks. No blame attached to Schlotterbeck but I bet he didn’t have that on his wishlist for his debut.

There’s a couple of minutes of adjustment before we start playing again and it’s noticeable that we have a plan for Cooper and Taylor, the two lighthouses in the middle of Millwall’s defence in that we are not going to just pump the ball to allow them to head everything away. Short corners are the thing and though we mess one up, to mass groans from St Mary’s, the next one is worked to Manning by Scienza and his curling effort, beats Crocombe and smacks off the post.

The referee is letting a lot go, which is the right thing to do in these conditions but he has to give a free kick when Downes is bowled over. Having not crossed the ball into the mixer from corners, we do from this and Manning’s delivery is met superbly by Larin and his downward header speeds off the turf and Crocombe has no chance. Cyle is the fucking man.

It’s the first goal Millwall have conceded all season and they seem a bit rocked by it. Saints continue to pile forward with Leo looking particularly dangerous on the left and Matsuki playing like an actual winger on the right, beating the left back for pace on the outside. It’s Leo though who turns provider, picking it up and driving at Taylor and only one winner here as the isolated big man gets twisted blood and falls over and whe Leo gets to the line, he dinks it over a sliding defender and straight to Azaz, who is about a yard out and almost apologetically knocks it into the net for the easiest goal he’ll ever score.

As half time approaches, Millwall rally and a long ball over the top causes havoc as Downes tries to head it back to the keeper and Bragg tries to head it to Bree at right back and they instead head eachother and the ball flops down to the Millwall left winger, who rolls it across to Lisbie who has an open goal from six yards and that’s the equaliser… fuck me, he’s hit the post. How’s he managed that. Cheers mate.

Half time and that’s been a good half of football. Two good sides, proper conditions, decent referee. Downes seemed to have a bit of claret around his face as he went off so that’s not great and as it turned out he had to come off, which meant JWP on for the second half. He looks almost embarrassed at the roar from the crowd as he steps onto the pitch and takes his place next to Cam Bragg. Big half ahead.

Millwall have a bit of a go and it looks like it could get a little tense but we break and Azaz runs across the top of the box, over he goes thanks to a clumsy lunging challenge by Taylor, who is not having a great game, and the ref points to the spot. Who’s taking this then? Larin, manning, JWP… nope, Leo Scienza is clearly our first choice penalty taker now and up he steps, stutters (heart-attack time) before whipping it low past Crocombe’s right hand. Get in, 3-1.

Millwall are fucked. They know it and their fans know it and it looks like the players would happily join their fans and get out of the ground as soon as possible. We can see you sneaking out? More like streaming out.

What the Millwall fans who left missed was Azaz again running towards the edge of the box and this time, though losing his footing, he scooped the ball across to Larin and he dinks it over a lunge from Taylor and as it drops, volleys it left footed into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. What a fucking goal that is. Unreal. He is the fucking man and no mistake. He’s got the ball up his shirt and sucking his thumb and in 9 months time there will be a baby boom of Baby Cyle’s being born around Southampton.

More Baby Cyle’s looked to be on the way a few minutes later as he was put through on half way by Azaz and no way is Taylor going to catch him but no hat-trick this time as Cyle’s low effort was kicked away by Crocombe. Decent save to be fair.

Subs are on with Dobbin, Fellows and Mubama all on and they are all involved as Fellows feeds Dobbin, who flies down the wing and pulls the ball back from the by-line, a Millwall defender produces a shite clearance out to Fellows and the man who never scores, hits it and sees Crocombe make a complete bollocks of it and squash it underneath his body but it still goes goalwards and Mubama piles in and nicks the goal… or so it seems. Fellows is off celebrating and it’s a bit unclear until a replay goes up on the big screen and you see that Big Div hasn’t got a touch – he’s gone full Damion Downs and missed it and it’s Tom’s goal.

There is one more opportunity for the day to get even better as JWP takes aim from the edge of the box but it turns out to be too much to ask for as he drags the effort wide. No one cares apart from him.

And so a game that started off looking incredibly awkward, turned into one of those games where everything goes right and it feels like we’re going to score every time we attack. And a goal for Tom Fellows. Fucking hell.

Millwall started the game so well, showing exactly whilst they don’t have any household names in their team, they have a team which is far more than the sum of its parts. Alex Neil has got them drilled really well and for the opening 20 minutes they were just putting in the ball behind us and turning us around and always having the runners to put us under pressure. The swirling wind and rain didn’t help either but it was no surprise when they opened the scoring.

There was a worry at that point that Saints would do what they did against West Ham and basically feel sorry for themselves and give up but no, they competed physically as best they could and showed exactly how to play against Millwall. If you cross the ball aimlessly into the box then the two lighthouses that they have playing at centre back will just head everything away. You have to get the ball in and around their feet and then they don’t look so clever. Having said that, our first goal of course was a classic freekick and header routine from Ryan Manning and Cyle Larin. Brilliant cross, superb header.

Leo Scienza showed signs of waking up against West Ham and his assist for the Finn Azaz tap-in was as good as you’ll see as he drove past two defenders before chipping a perfect ball for Finn, who really couldn’t miss.

We went in level at halftime though, due to an extraordinary miss by Lisbie, who managed to hit the post from 3 yards following the incident with Bragg and Downes running into each other which of course added the JWP element just after half-time.

The game still could’ve got a bit dodgy after half-time with Millwall on top initially but once we settled and scored a third after Azaz was chopped down on the edge of the box and Leo buried the penalty, there was only one winner and the Millwall fans knew it because of fair few of them started heading for the exits.

From that moment on it was plain sailing as we got into our rhythm again and Millwall had no answers to us zipping the ball around at pace. Cyle Larin’s finish for the fourth goal is extraordinary, looping the ball over the lunging defender and then volleying it in as it dropped. If Dennis Bergkamp had scored that they would be talking about it for years. Let’s see. Best striker in the Championship.

You know it’s a surreal afternoon when Tom Fellows scores. It didn’t exactly break the net and it was the equivalent of that old saying “he just needs one to hit his backside and go in”. Given to him by a defender, a scuffed shot, a goalkeeper diving over it and a striker missing it and the ball going over the line at about 2 mph. The only thing the game was missing was a JWP goal and he had a half chance as time ran out but missed. That would’ve been too much.

What a brilliant day. The biggest bonus for the future though was the debut of Keven Schlotterbeck, who was outstanding. It wasn’t always pretty out there and it wasn’t going to be with the conditions and the fact he was playing against Josh Coburn who is fucking huge, but he won a fair amount in the air, read the game well and his passing was really good, looking to break the lines at every opportunity. As debuts go that was extremely promising.

There was good stuff all over the park to be honest. James Bree was back to his best at right back and Matsuki had a superb game on the wing, showing that that is undoubtedly his best position. That’s the best partnership on that side. Leo is back to his best and Finn Azaz is also, seemingly over any injury problems he may have had. The one black mark today was the injury to Flynn Downes but that forced Cam Bragg to have to play 90 minutes for the first time and in the main he did really well, with JWP of course coming onto lend a helping hand with his experience in the second half. The other positive was that Flynn wasn’t on the pitch long enough to get booked.

JWP was decent. The legs are still there, the perceptive passes are still there. There will be tougher tests ahead than that Millwall second half performance but so far so good. I bet he’s absolutely buzzing after that.

Isn’t it funny what a difference a few days make. From the shambles against West Ham to this today. The four points has been wiped out now and we are up to 18th in the League, just the one point behind our nearest and dearest from down the road. Next up Birmingham and the aim of that particular game has to be to be looking down on the skates by the end of it. What this game shows is that when we show up and the players bring their best level, we can beat anyone in this league, no matter how good they are.

Bring it on

Up the fucking Saints.