For the second home game in a row, we entertain the team that is top of the table. Millwall last time around, Swansea this. Three wins and two draws have the Swans dreaming of being this year‘s Coventry, and staying in the top two all season, though the more realistic among them will expect the usual mid-table finish which they’ve produced in the last four or five years.

Saints and Swansea have been somewhat connected ever since Russell Martin was tempted away from the Swans to become Saints manager a few years ago, bringing in with him players that he had at the Liberty Stadium like Ryan Manning, Flynn Downes and Nathan Wood. It wouldn’t be a surprise for all three of those to be playing this evening. There was a bit of bad blood over all that of course, but much water has gone under the bridge since then.

There was a transaction of sorts between the clubs in the summer with Ross Stewart refusing to sign the one year extension to his Saints contract and being a sneaky little fucker to weasel out of it on a technicality and sign on a free transfer for Swansea. As more time goes by, the more I think he was a bit of an arsehole, having spent all bar six months of his three years at St Mary’s in the treatment room. Would it have really killed him to stay for an extra year and then negotiate a free transfer move somewhere after that? We will never know because he fucked off and the signs are that we will miss him. However, the caveat of that was him staying fit of course and it was no surprise to anyone that he managed to get injured in his second appearance for Swansea and he’s reported to be out for four weeks which as we all know with Ross, is going to be three months. I wonder if he’s here today?

Anyway, he won’t be available today and it was initially thought when he signed, thought that he would be replacing Zan Vipotnik in the Swansea squad but the Slovenian is still there and so is Adam Idah, who had an injury prone season last year but has been fit so far this season and has been their best forward. They also lost Ethan Galbraith from the midfield, who was their best player in the first half of last season and he’s gone to Stoke. All of this has added up to Victor Matos producing a decent team who have had an excellent start of the season. I anticipate this game being tougher and the Millwall one.

Saints of course are looking to their home form for some sort of comfort after the shitshow of Lincoln a few days ago. Tonda has serious thinking to do with regards to which players to use today. He may say publicly that he trusts them all but behind the scenes and in the back of his mind, he must know that some of that trust is misplaced.

Team news and it’s hard to argue that this is not our best side. Wood is back in place of Stephens, Manning instead of Welington (who can feel a bit hard done by). Tom Fellows gets the nod over Matsuki, after being left as an unused sub against Lincoln.

Swansea immediately show some attacking threat with Vipotnik sending Stamenec away behind Nathan Wood and he pokes the ball across but luckily no one is there and we clear it. Saints should take the lead with what is virtually our first attack a Scienza plays Manning in behind the fullback Lissah, and his low cross is cleared very badly by Welsh in the middle of the Swansea City six-yard box out to Azaz, who hits it at the fucking moon.

Manning gets things moving again from a throw and finds Flynn Downes running forward and the newly liberated midfield enforcer plays a short ball to Azaz, who uses his first touch to beat the last defender and passes it very calmly with his left foot across Vigouroux and just inside the far post. Brilliant finish.

Swansea respond with some great stuff around the edge of our area but when the ball is played in there is a clear foul on JWP by Yoh, but the ball bounces out to Vipotnik who smashes it goalwards and that’s an absolutely brilliant save by Peretz.  The free kick is given by the referee Lewis Smith but Daniel wasn’t a know that.

Saints are clearly trying to invite Swansea onto them and this manifests itself with us knocking the ball around at the back and trying to play through the press, which we do successfully and Bree sends Fellows away on the right and his cross into Larin bounces down for Scienza, who sees his effort blocked. It’s a perfect example of why we play out from the back and it worked really really well in opening up the space further up the pitch.

We do more of that on the left-hand side with Manning, Shlotterbeck and JWP combining to get the ball out to Nathan Wood on the right and he releases the ball to send Bree away and with the flag staying down, he rolls the ball first time across the top of the penalty area and there is Cyle Larin who holds off the defender and passes it into the net. Brilliant goal. 2-0

There’s another move up the right straight away as Scienza find himself over there and his cross picks out Larin who heads down for Flynn Downes who hooks it over the bar when he probably should’ve done a bit better.

Half-time and so far so good. I would expect the Swans to have a go at the start of the second half and they do as they start the second half a bit better with Lissah taking tiome off from being murdered by Scienza and putting in a cross from the right, which is flicked on in the middle and down goes Vipotnik under a challenge from a very guilty looking James Bree, and the ref points to the spot. Stupid penalty to give away. Vipotnik has undoubtedly thrown himself to the ground but Bree has hold of him for no readily apparent reason. Shit. Up steps Vipotnik with a stutter and scores despite Peretz going the right way. Shit, again.

A feature of this game has been Scienza against Lissah and Leo pisses past him yet again, forcing Ronald to bring him down and pick up a yellow card. Manning’s free kick into the penalty area barely gets off the ground but Schlotterbeck sticks a foot out and Vigouroux is forced to dive and push it round the post. Despite conceding the penalty, Saints are still a better side and with Leo pulling the strings and there is another chance as Leo swings over another cross from the left which is deflected up in the air and Larin meets it but can only head wide.

It’s not just Lissah having issues. Cabango comes out to try and close him down because Lissah is nowhere but Cabango is shit and ‘megs’. He tries to find Downes but the ball bounces back to him off Swansea player before Leo hits a shot at the far top corner and fair play to Vigoroux, who throws a hand up and that’s a brilliant save

Matsuki is on for Fellows and the crowd is getting restless as we continue to to use the game plan we’ve had the whole game of playing out from the back. Bree gives the ball away but Azaz wins it back and sends Matsuki away on the right and he plays exactly the right pass at the right moment to find Scienza who takes a touch and rolls it past the keeper to put us 3-1 up with 10 minutes to go.

Leo is still having a field day and he pisses past Lissah one more time, who chases him back into the area, puts his hand in the middle of his back and shoves him over, but even though this is probably more of a penalty than the Vipotnik one, the referee decides not to give it for fuck‘s sake. Penalty all day long.

Tonder certainly learned some sort of lesson from the Lincoln game and is leaving the subs late today with Scienza and Larin finally being replaced with Mubama and Edozie. The last action of the game is Azaz playing a lovely ball through to Mubama in his favourite left-hand channel and it’s a decent effort heading for the side netting but the keeper pushes it wide.

And so it came to pass them for the second home game in a row, that the team who turned up St Mary’s whilst the top of the League, and intending to take a big scalp away from home, leave with tails between legs and not top of the League anymore. To be fair to Swansea, they came to play, which was probably their undoing. If you come to play at St Mary’s, then you’ve got to be very very good in attack because if you leave space and push your defence up, we have the players to kill you and that’s what happened today. For the second home game in a row, Scienza, Azaz and Larin in particular were exceptional and backed up by the likes of Downes, JWP and James Bree who all put in really good performances. Bree gets docked a mark for the dopey bit of defending that gave the penalty away and whilst the clean sheet would’ve been nice, he will forgiven that one. He does have to watch his recently developed tendency to give away silly fouls however, which is a point that I’m sure will be made to him after this game.

There were rumours before the game that Tonda was going to go with a midfield three and push Azaz into the forward line. That didn’t happen today but I can see that maybe being something we do away from home. The home form is 100% since the season started, so why would you change things? Also, I think it rather heavily depends on the Caspar Jander being available as well and there are no signs of that just yet.

Another major plus for today was the central defensive pairing of Nathan Wood and the newly anointed BFG, Big Fucking German, Keven Schlotterbeck. Wood needs a run of games if he is ever going to improve and he really has to be left in the team for the game against Bristol City and not left out just to give Captain Jack another calamity prone run out.

Today was also another very good example of what a good pairing JWP and Flynn Downes are in the centre of midfield. You can see that they dovetail perfectly and are intelligent enough to know when to go forward and when to sit. Football is a simple game and it is all about our partnerships and pairings for all over the pitch. As I said, that central defensive pairing looks good with Nathan Wood on the right hand side and today he showed the ability to break the lines with the pass.

Swansea made the mistake of giving Leo Scienza the run-off the left flank and the fullback who was against him really didn’t have a clue and it was a bit of a failing by Vitor Matos to not address that that’s any point before the game was dead.

Swansea are a decent side make no mistake, but Saints really blew them out of the water today and thoroughly deserved the win. This is what we can do when we play our football. Swansea allowed us to play today with the way they set up and we have to find a way to do it in away games, like we didn’t do at Birmingham or Lincoln. We have to match the opposition in doing the ugly side of the game and then it will allow our better players to come to the party in the final third.

I think most people would’ve taken four points from the last two games but would probably have expected a win at Lincoln and a draw against Swansea. Whilst Lincoln was very frustrating in the way we played and the element of self sabotage that seem to pervade in that performance, this was brilliant tonight and we thoroughly deserved it. It is the kind of performance that will make others take notice and in spite of dropping points at Birmingham and Lincoln, it is worth reminding yourself that after six games, only one team (West Brom) have won more points than us.

So, two games to go before the international break and no midweek game next week. Bristol City – you’re next.