Life always seems so much better the week after your team has had a result like we did at West Ham last Saturday. The next game can’t come soon enough and you bask in the glory of that win. This week we come up against an opposition who are also basking in the glory of a win, in their case a thoroughly unexpected win at home to Swansea. Well, the winning self wasn’t that unexpected but winning it 5-0, with a Richard Kone hat-trick, certainly was.

QPR are in town today and we start the game on the same number of points. This game is certainly expected to be more difficult than last season‘s corresponding fixture in which Rangers were largely pathetic and we ran in five goals without reply.

Last January, Saints made a decision on Ronnie Edwards and that decision was that we would sell him to Rangers, where he had previously been on loan. I remember thinking it wasn’t the greatest of moves by us because THB was obviously going to leave in the summer, but Edwards was allowed to go. On his first return to Southampton, he left everyone with the impression that we had done exactly the right thing because he was absolutely shite in our five goal win. This season however, the tale has been slightly different because he is part of a Rangers defence which along with ourselves, is equally the best in the division and apparently his physicality has improved, which was always the problem when he played for us. He did have quite a few chances to cement his place in the team, but there was always a Kieffer Moore style forward who would batter the hell out of him and he would struggle and get dropped and never really kick on. It was probably too early for us to let him go but sometimes you have to make a decision on players. Hopefully he won’t have improved that much.

Richard Kone was a forward who had a ridiculous scoring record at Wycombe in League 1 and when he went to QPR, people expected him to tear up the Championship but it didn’t really happen last year as he struggled for fitness. I think there is a bit of an implication there that he generally struggles for fitness and it was a major shock to all concerned when he bagged the hat-trick in about 15 minutes last week. A confident striker is a dangerous thing, however, so we have to be on the lookout for him today.

Talking of confident strikers, hopefully we have one of our own in Lewis Dobbin, after his goal scoring performance last week at West Ham. The indications from Tonda Eckert’s press conference were that one of Flynn Downes and Cyle Larin would be fit for the game against QPR and we all know which one it’s not going to be, so expect Dobbin to be leading the line again today for us. Downes should return to the starting line-up, probably in place of Caspar Jander.

Whilst we Saints fans have been well aware of the credentials of our team, as far as getting promoted is concerned, the wider Championship watching world seems to have woken up a little bit to it after the win at West Ham last week. The points deduction certainly seems to have made us fly under the radar a little bit, but now people are taking notice. There is one week until the next international break and we have to get at least seven points on the board from this game, and two away games at West Brom and Preston coming up.

Saturday 2pm and there is no Flynn Downes or Caspar Jander in the starting lineup, so Cam Bragg comes in to partner JWP in the otherwise expected team. We start pretty well, building on the left and Scienza on the edge of the area, slides the ball across and there is Matsuki in acres of space about 6 yards out and he takes it first time left footed and puts it quite a way over the bar. Not a great effort it has to be said.

Another attack down the left and Scienza once again works his way across, plays a 1-2 with Dobbin before his shot is deflected out to the right and there is Matsuki again and this time he spins and plants the ball across Pierce Charles and into the net. Here we fucking go, 1-0.

Going ahead has kind of glossed over a few issues that have been happening since the start of the game. I don’t quite know what’s going on on our right hand side, with Bree basically playing anywhere but right back in a kind of inverted midfield role, with Matsuki at wing back. Of course, the goal has come from there so can’t complain too much but QPR are finding too much space in midfield. They work the ball out to the right and are allowed to cross it and it gets touched down for Poku to have a free shot from about 8 yards out but he shanks into the side netting. Should have done better really.

Saints are very much looking more threatening of the two sides with regards to finding the next goal and after Azaz wins a corner, it is swung across by the left boot of Ryan Manning and there is Schlotterbeck at the back post, not being marked particularly closely and he heads goalwards but Charles touches it over the bar. In it comes from Manning again and this time the goalkeeper is nowhere as one of his own defenders has to sort it out. Third time lucky and more carnage and the ball bounces down off a defender to Matsuki, whose effort is blocked before Scienza puts it over the bar. For all his good distribution, which is what he’s known for, Charles is looking like a bit of a presence-free goalkeeper.

QPR continue to do well in midfield and win a corner on the left which swings outwards and is headed goals by Dunne and it deflects and looks for a moment as if it’s gonna drop in but Peretz dives to his right to deal with it and before we properly clear the ball again, he has to deal with a snapshot coming in from the edge of the box which is more or less straight at him. We don’t seem to be getting our press right and it’s all a little bit easy for Rangers to create chances. Again we try and play out and lose the ball and another shot comes in from the left which is deflected wide for another corner. We clear that one and see Scienza get up well to flick a header out to Azaz, who finds Scienza again who releases the forward runner but unfortunately it’s JWP who is never gonna beat a man and get a shot in. He waits for Dobbin to make up ground on the outside and Dobbin’s low cross is cleared for a corner.

We are now right on half-time and in comes the inswinger from Scienza and Dobbin gets up at the near post and flicks it past Charles into the net. Get in. We barely deserve to be one up but now we’re 2-0 up and cruising. The goal music is played, the celebrations go on, the goal is announced and then…. oh, hang on a minute, there are a few Rangers players around the referee and he’s clearly talking to the linesman on his radio and the prick with the flag raises it and offside gets given in the middle against someone. Oh, we’ve gone full Premier League there. Why the fuck did it take that long? The referee didn’t disallow the goal initially and the linesman didn’t have his flag up but now they’ve arrived at chalking off a goal at least 30 seconds later. Fuck off.

Half-time and I’m straight on my phone trying to work out why that goal was disallowed. It’s debatable whether Stephens in the middle is actually offside in the first place when Dobbin flicks the ball on and it’s even more debatable that he’s impeding the goalkeeper who has barely even moved. On second viewing, Stephens has not impeded the goalkeeper at all who is totally flat footed and watching that hit the net. Lucky bastards.

We need to make a few tactical adjustments at half-time to stop Varane getting unpressured ball in midfield and being allowed to knock it around at will and we start the second half well with Dobbin being put away on the left-hand side and he cuts back in and shoots and sees it deflected up in the air and Ronnie Edwards plops header out towards the goal line but Manning decides to keep it in. He pulls it back and Dobbin clearly gets a call from Bragg and steps over it and Cam swings a left foot at it and it’s going straight to the goalkeeper until Jimmy Dunne obligingly sticks out a foot and deflects it into the opposite corner of the net. Thanks a lot, mate. 2-0 again Allez Allez and Cam Bragg, he’s one of our own.

Saints are looking pretty rampant now and Scienza takes aim and goes for the far post and Charles gets down to scramble it away. Not much respite though as Saints again come forward through Dobbin and he lets fly from 25 yards, clearly very confident and Charles pulls off a “one for the cameras” save to push it away.

The corner comes in from Manning and once again there is Keven Schlotterbeck at the back post, completely unmarked and this time he thumps the header into the roof of the net. Big Fuckin’ German – love it! 3-0 and game over.

Or is it? Rangers launch the ball forward towards Kone from the kickoff and he competes with BFG and Rangers pick up the second ball and it gets put through to Kone who lashes it from the edge of the box and it pings off the inside of the near post and into the net. Shit. Hell of a strike that. Fair play.

It’s a period of the game where it could get a bit dodgy if we give QPR any encouragement, but we don’t. Ten minutes goes by without any real incident so Tonda feels it’s safe enough to take JWP off and on comes Flynn Downes.

Rangers defending is getting very tired and Azaz is hauled over on the edge of the box. Scienza‘s free-kick is headed away and the corner from Leo is missed by Charles and all the defenders and ends up with Azaz at the back post who sees his effort blocked on the line..

This game is done and Manning, Dobbin, Bragg and Matsuki all make way for Edozie, Mubama, Welington and Barnaby Williams. Saints keep attacking to the end with Azaz driving through midfield and playing a lovely ball in between the centre backs for Mubama, who gets to the edge of the box before getting tackled and the ball bounce his left to Welington who takes the opportunity to ram it into the net for the fourth. There is barely time for Rangers to kickoff, and that’s the end of that

A goal with the last meaningful kick of the game is always a good way to send everybody home happy. I’d say that 4-1 probably flattered us a little bit but we definitely deserved to win after dominating the second half. Yes, we conceded a goal but even immediately after they scored that, we didn’t give them any sort of hope of any route back into the game so all in all, it was a decent day at the office and a good job done, with a couple of our key players still missing.

I wasn’t expecting a midfield two of Cameron Bragg and JWP and in the first half I think it’s fair to say that they struggled a little bit. Both of them are neat and tidy passers of the ball, but neither of them were getting in the faces of the QPR players, which was giving them free rein to set up attacks. Varane for QPR practically ran the first half because no one got near him. He doesn’t actually look that good but if you give anyone time to play in this division then they will play. In the second half, Tonda said afterwards that we made some adjustments and it seemed to be that we pushed Bragg further forward and not only did that stop QPR playing, it also got him to the edge of the box and it was lovely to see his short deflect in for the second goal. It must’ve been a rough a few weeks for him after what happened against Pompey, so that’s a really good moment.

Back to the first half and we took the lead through another goal from Matsuki, which in all honesty, should’ve been a second of the afternoon after blazing the early chance over the bar. There was a bit of tactical strangeness in that first half with James Bree almost playing as an inverted midfielder and Matsuki as a wing-back on the right, but whatever it was we were doing brought another goal from that side of the pitch so can’t complain at all, really.

The rest of the first half was fairly even but we should really have been two up after Lewis Dobbin’s header from a corner just before half-time. The Premier League seemed to come to the Championship for the refereeing on that particular decision. It’s arguable at best and it took ages. Goals like that shouldn’t be disallowed in the Championship. All in all, it smacked of a desire to disallow the goal for whatever reason. We don’t want that Premier League shit in the Championship thank you very much.

Braggy’s goal near the start of the second half probably ended the game as a contest before Big Kev planted his free header into the net from a corner. It could’ve been a chance at that stage to go on and equal last year’s five goals, but we conceded virtually straight from the kick-off as we didn’t exactly cover ourselves in glory after Big Kev had been challenged in the air. Good finish from Kone though, it has to be said. If your centre back is out of the game, just get a foot to it and clear it. As I said though, there was no danger of things going pear shaped and Welington‘s goal with the last kick rounded off what was a very good afternoon. Leo Scienza had another good game on the left, involved as he was in a couple of the goals, but he will definitely be wanting to score more goals now, especially given that his compatriot Welington, now has one more goal than him and he’s a full-back and he hardly plays any minutes.

Lewis Dobbin worked his nuts off up front and did well. It’s a real shame that his goal got disallowed just before half-time but again he showed he can be a useful option when Cyle Larin is not available. He was a handful again today, posing the defenders the question of who was going to pick him up.

At the heart of the performance again, was JWP who kept everything moving and kept covering for everyone until he was given 20 minutes off to prepare for West Brom on Tuesday.

QPR had the best defence in the league alongside ourselves before this game but in that area, they weren’t much better than they were last year. Rumours of Ronnie Edwards improvement seem to have been greatly exaggerated, as like last year, he seemed to go missing in that second half when th going got tough. More evidence that we made the right decision there.

In order to go into the next International break in fine fettle, we needed seven or nine points from these three games. With the three out the way from today, we now move onto the most difficult of the three, West Brom at the Hawthorns. I’d take a point right now but I want the boys to go out there and get the job done and get the three. It will certainly be tough, and it will rain, because it always does there.

Bring it on

Up the fucking Saints