Eric's view: Saints 1 Brum 2

With John now available for a league match, and following an encouraging half hour at Exeter, it was no surprise that he took over the task of leading the attack against Birmingham.

He soon had the ball in the net, but the header was ruled out for a marginal offside against a defence that relied on a high line to frustrate Saints. By the end of the game, the visitors had had two 'goals' struck off for further tight but accurate decisions, so we can hardly complain.

The first half was more open that either coach would have liked, matching the Blues' last visit in a seven goal thriller; we had just the one by the break but Taylor and Jones had both been forced into good saves. The deadlock was broken by the unlikely figure of Perry who was unchallenged from Holmes's 43rd minute corner, and Saints could have increased that lead immediately after the interval, but John headed wide from McGoldrick's cross.

The sense that a turning point may have been reached hardly had chance to sink in before O'Connor equalised after some hesitant defending, with Surman probably most to blame.

Birmingham had a stronger starting line-up on paper, and an exceptionally good bench from which they unleashed a succession of players to worry the Southampton defence.

In contrast, we didn't even have Dyer available while Wotton, who should have been invaluable in the closing stages, wasn't asked to take his tracksuit off. Birmingham's third sub was Kevin Phillips who was greeted with a variety of chants, some referring to alleged liaisons between Mrs. Phillips and one of Kevin's former strike partners at St. Mary's and others to what KP may have been doing with his hands whilst his wife was out bonding with the rest of the team.

Anyone with a thought about the consequences of such premature jeering would have known what was bound to result, but few expected Phillips' retribution to be as swift as the first minute after coming on: earlier substitute Bent headed down so powerfully that the bounce beat Davis and may have just been turned onto the bar by Svensson.

That left the Swede in no position to deny Phillips on the rebound, despite a gallant effort. After deserving the half time advantage, Saints fell away disappointingly, with the manager suggesting that the players were tired. After three matches?

The Championship is a gruelling 46 game slog with plenty of midweek outings, so be prepared for more of the same, Jan.

LSSC Man of the Match: Kelvin Davis, who I felt was unlucky rather than at fault with the winning goal.