A fabulous Marcus Stewart hat-trick gave Town the points as the Blues dominated from virtually start to finish. Town went in one-up at the break and added two more in the second half. In truth it could have been many, many more against a Southampton side clearly reeling from the departure of Glenn Hoddle.

Town appeared to line-up using the 4-5-1 formation they used at Arsenal with Martijn Reuser darting about all over the place on the left and Scowcroft having an advanced role on the other flank. Stewart was the man up front while Jamie Clapham, Matt Holland and Jermaine Wright completed the midfield. At the back Chris Makin went to right-back in place of the injured Wilnis while Hreidarsson returned to his left-back position and Bramble and McGreal played in the centre.

It took Town a couple of minutes to find their feet as the game started in a rather odd fashion. Richard Wright had what appeared to be paper balls and paper aeroplanes thrown into his goal area and was hit by one as he made a clearance. Even odder several tennis, or possibly hockey, balls along with a football flew over the stand the Town fans were occupying before being removed. A warning was made to Saints fans about throwing objects on to the pitch and it almost stopped. In the second half John McGreal appeared to find a golf ball on the pitch which he threw out. Perhaps a bizarre protest against Glenn Hoddle?

As for the football Tessam almost conjured a chance after Bramble tried to dribble himself out of trouble but in doing so gave the ball away. Fortunately as Tessam cut into the penalty area John McGreal dispossessed him and that was pretty much it for Southampton attacks. The Blues took over from here with Marcus Stewart coming close to scoring after 18 minutes. Excellent work from Clapham and Reuser ended with a cross flying into the box and from just in front of the penalty spot Reuser hit a shot which appeared to be on its way into the corner until Paul Jones got a finger to it and pushed it round the post.

Martijn Reuser was showing his willingness to hit shots at will and on 22 he unleashed a ferocious shot which cannoned off Jones’ post and out to a defender who hit the ball over. Sadly the ball had evaded Matt Holland as he rushed in on the rebound.

A few minutes later Chris Makin came close to opening his Town goals account. He cut in from the wing flicking the ball over a defender’s feet much as Gary Neville did for England for the first goal against Finland. He hit a cross shot which evaded the goal, Paul Jones and the on rushing Stewart and Holland.

The Town crowd could sense that it was only a matter of time before the goal came and after 32 minutes it did. Hermann Hreidarsson played a ball into Jamie Clapham who was running ahead of him, just inside. Clapham took the ball into the area and put in a low cross which Stewart met at the far post. It was a superb move and more than deserved after a superb first half performance. The Blues went in for the break with a job well done. At half-time Saints fans unveiled a banner which said: ‘Hod, What a Cock’. The police confiscated it before the game restarted.

The second half started scrappily but Town once again got on top quickly. Martijn Reuser had the ball in the net after being put through on goal, but a late and very disputed flag ruled it out. Less than a minute later Reuser hit an amazing 45-yard freekick as he tried to catch Jones off his line. The ball looped from ten yards inside the area, just a few yards in from touch on the left, over the keeper and bounced off the top of the bar. What a spectacular goal that would have been!

At the other end Richard Wright was adjudged to have saved a shot from well out, although it appeared he had withdrawn his hand and allowed the ball to go over. Southampton were having probably their best period of the game which culminated in sub Rosler hitting the post as Town failed to clear from Beattie.

Matt Le Tissier came on and immediately was employed to take a freekick. For once the deadball specialist failed to create anything of note. Le Tissier was looking as fat as he had in the reserve game at Portman Road earlier this season and did little of note apart from get booked for a late challenge on the excellent Chris Makin.

Reuser got a yellow card as he complained to the not overly brilliant ref Alan Wiley after Matt Holland had crashed to the ground under pressure from defenders. Several Town players protested and it was one of those that refs sometimes give.

Finally the second came from another superb move. Jermaine Wright took a short freekick out to Hermann Hreidarsson on the left touchline. The Icelander strode past several defenders and sent in a perfect cross for Marcus Stewart who headed home. There were huge parallels with Stewart’s goal at Wembley in May. Two goals up and the game was won, but only two minutes later Stewart was to make the game even safer.

As the ball was played into the box from the right Matt Holland was very obviously impeded inches in front of the referee. Even Mr Wiley couldn’t have missed that and he pointed to the spot. Immediately Marcus Stewart tried to grab the ball as first Clapham and then Reuser attempted to get in on the action. But there was only one man who was going to take this and that man was on a hat-trick. As cool as ever Stewart stepped up and gently chipped the ball past Jones, confidence personified. Town’s first hat-trick since Magilton’s in the play-off semi at home to Bolton. The third was Stewart’s eighteenth League goal of the season, one that takes him two ahead of Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink at the top of the scoring charts.

The remainder of the game saw Town try to push forward against a thoroughly demoralised Southampton. They had few opportunities and must have been praying for the final whistle.

Eventually it came and the Town players came over to celebrate with the fans. Reuser ran along the front row slapping hands with fans and Matt did his usual clapping thing. Town songs rang out as the Blues on the terraces proclaimed that we’ve got to get passports for our tractors. Still a fair bit to go, but it’s all looking thoroughly, thoroughly magnificent. A brilliant team performance and a fabulous hat-trick from Stewart. Surely Sven can’t ignore him for too much longer!

Photo: Action Images

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