Saints 2 Shrewsbury Town 0

After 90 minutes of frustration in the first round tie David Connolly came off the bench to score with his first touch before Adam Lallana added another in stoppage time to round off the scoring.

Saints got off to a quick start and had the first effort on goal as Richard Chaplow fired in a shot from 25 yards that sailed over the bar.

Click here for the Saints v Shrewsbury GALLERY

After that the game settled down and was a cagey affair.

Saints always looked a threat, particularly with the pace of Alex Chamberlain down the right, but Shrewsbury were working hard and getting men behind the ball with their 4-5-1 formation.

When they felt the time was right they were prepared to push forward and support their lone striker to try and make more of a 4-3-3 but they were largely on the back foot.

Adam Lallana injected a bit of life into an increasingly dull game when his excellent through ball looked likely to pick out Lee Barnard before a Shrewsbury toe just about deflected it away from the striker.

The game really was in a stalemate.

At the 25 minute mark there had still not been a shot on target and only that early Chaplow effort had been off target.

It was barely even an interesting tactical battle either and with half of St Mary’s closed because of the understandably low crowd the match took on the feel of a training game.

Jake Robinson gave Saints their first defensive test on 32 minutes as he managed to get away down the right and put a low ball across the face of the six yard box that Mark Wright was not able to get on the end of.

Moments later Saints had their first effort on target when Guly do Prado met Lallana’s corner with a firm header but Kevin McIntyre headed away what appeared to be a goal bound effort before it quite made it to the goal.

Lallana and Chamberlain switched wings to try and see if they could have a change of fortune.

Chamberlain had looked dangerous in the early stages but hadn’t got on the ball much since.

Lallana almost did make something happen when the ball came back to him after a left wing corner and he drilled the ball into the area where Radhi Jaidi’s instinctive effort was blocked and hacked clear.

But it was Kelvin Davis who had the first save to make on 40 minutes when Dean Holden’s drilled near post shot needed to be turned wide.

Holden had an even better chance moments later when he had a totally free header from the corner but a mixture of Chamberlain on the line and Davis somehow kept it out.

Wright was the next to have a go with a 25 yards effort that Davis had to tip over the bar.

When the half time whistle went the game was goalless but at the least the last ten minutes had been considerably more entertaining than the previous 35.

Saints so nearly took the lead five minutes into the second half when some good work on the left from Lallana ended with him cutting a ball back to Jaidi who sidefooted goalwards first time only for Chris Neal to get down sharply to his right to turn it wide.

Lallana nearly laid another chance on a plate when he rose at the far post to head Frazer Richardson’s right wing cross back across goal but Chaplow couldn’t quite stretch to get there in time to turn it home.

Chaplow was even closer on 57 minutes as Lallana’s ball put him in one-on-one and he slid the ball past Neal but Sean McAllister got back to clear off the line.

Lallana wreaked havoc himself cutting in from the left in what was an inspired spell from the midfielder but his curling right footed shot bent just wide of the far post.

Saints made their first change on 67 minutes to try and get a goal with Rickie Lambert coming on for Chamberlain. He went into attack with Guly moving to the right of midfield.

Lambert’s first touch was to take a 30 yard free kick but he fizzed it over the bar.

It was increasingly looking like Saints were going to push all out for a goal as they could well do without the extra fixture a replay would bring while Shrewsbury looked happy to try and defend.

They did bring a striker on in Matt Harold but it was a like for like replacement for Robinson.

They followed that with Lionel Ainsworth coming on for Temitope Obedayi.

Shrewsbury started to enjoy a little more possession and territory but Saints were pretty resolute and rarely found themselves stretched.

Richardson pushed forward again to have a shot but this time his low drive from distance was straight at Neal.

Saints were really starting to pin back Shrewsbury for one final push.

The visitors had at least ten men behind the ball as they battled to and ensure a memorable result for them and a potentially lucrative replay.

Saints really did want to try and find that goal and made a double change with two minutes remaining with Lee Holmes and David Connolly and replacing Guly and Barnard.

When the fourth official held up his board it showed a minimum of three minutes stoppage time and Saints knew what they had to do.

And a minute into stoppage time they got the goal they wanted as Dan Harding pushed forward and eventually drilled a shot goalwards that was blocked by the legs of Neal only to rebound to Connolly.

His diving half volley – with his first touch - bounced into the turf, up past the keeper and in for 1-0.

Amazingly, Saints added another before stoppage time was out, Lallana cutting in from the left and unleashing a right footed shot that this time bent into the far corner.

After all that huffing and puffing two goals in added time booked Saints their placed in the FA Cup second round.