Coventry City 0 Saints 1

You can tell it's time for a solar eclipse because Saints have won their first game of the season!

Traditionally the celestial spectacular is seen as a portent of doom but this almost equally rare occurrence showed a much brighter picture.

In fact the 2,500 travelling fans were over the moon - not just at their team's first opening day victory since 1988 but at the manner in which it was achieved.

In previous years they have been sluggish, slack or split early on but for once Southampton look the part from the start.

Just as there was no need to panic last season, it is important to guard against going overboard now. But it is hard not to revel in the moment particularly since it was so impressive It was clear right from the first whistle that Southampton were up for this one as they carried on exactly where they left off in May to make it four league wins in a row for the first time since April 1992.

They already have more points now than they did after nine matches last season and have a positive goal difference for the first time in almost three years.

The players were so fired up to avoid their traditional slow start that they had won a corner after just 18 seconds - and from then on there was no let-up in any area of the field.

The game plan worked perfectly as Saints drew the sting from the game by closing down and frustrating the home side from the front with unflagging work-rate and consistency.

The whole team ran their hearts out as a unit, with tremendous strength of purpose and spirit to deny the home side space. Even Matthew Le Tissier popped up with a succession of clearances in his own penalty area.

But this was not simply a rearguard action. Gradually they asserted themselves and took a grip of the game, timing their winner to perfection when Coventry had little chance to hit back.

The goal summed up the crispness of their play as Le Tissier threaded a superb pass through the eye of a needle to put Egil Ostenstad in behind the offside trap.

There were times last season when he got into similar posi-tions but did not look as though he would score; this time there was no doubting the Osten Powers!

With confidence soaring on the back of six goals in four pre-season starts he outstripped Paul Williams and Richard Shaw to clinically dispatch the ball past Magnus Hedman.

It had a massively deflating effect on Coventry whose fans had been in buoyant mood early on believing the arrival of their Moroccan duo would herald a bright new era.

And Moustapha Hadji and Youssef Chippo certainly looked the part in the first quarter as their lively running and interplay gave the home side a real zip.

But the Saints defence responded with equal vigour. Claus Lundekvam bravely hurled himself in the way of a succession of shots while Jason Dodd and Dean Richards intelligently read most of the threats down the left from the jewels of Africa.

The pair gradually faded from the game as Mark Hughes and Chris Marsden clamped down and increasingly asserted their own authority on proceedings.

Around them Le Tissier and Hassan Kachloul provided the link for Ostenstad and Marian Pahars whose intelligent running gave Saints options and openings.

Frequently they blocked off by the unyielding duo of Shaw and notably Williams - but they found themselves under increasing pressure as the visitors took control.

By midway through the second half there was a distinct feeling around Highfield Road that Gordon Strachan's team had given it their best shot and barely dented a sound defence.

There were some scares. Francis Benali made a superb block on Noel Whelan in front of an open goal and Paul Jones made tremendous saves from 25-yard blasts by Chippo in the first half and Marc Edworthy after the break.

He also protected the lead late on by sticking up an arm to deny Whelan who had got through.

But it was a rare breach and Saints had chances themselves with Richards having a header blocked by Shaw and Hughes seeing a 20-yard swerving blast superbly saved.

An entertaining game ebbed and flowed at a furious pace with both sides fielding adventurous formations as though they appreciated the possible long-term significance of the fixture.

Both denied the doom-merchants' assessment that it was the first relegation six-pointer of the season and cer-tainly on this evidence Saints can have more lofty ambitions.

But if recent history does repeat itself then this was a vital win and it made a pleasant change on the open-ing day for it to be the Southampton fans taunting their rivals with chants of: "Going Down!"

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.