Southampton hero Benali highlights key difference in Saints season

ATTENDING St Mary’s on a cold Wednesday evening, it was great to see Saints get back to winning ways thanks to an incredible Kyle Walker-Peters goal.

Bristol City set up well and you’re not going to have any game go 100 per cent your way, and there are periods in the game where momentum sways one or the others.

We were not on it in the first half but you have to make sure the other team do not score. That is where Gavin Bazunu in particular stepped up this week.

He did what you want a good goalkeeper to do, making saves. For a goalkeeper nowadays, they’re always involved in play and especially the way we do under Russell Martin.

He’s a key part of that and often the outlet player when we are passing it, and I thought he did it brilliantly.

There was one moment in the first half where we played it out from one end of the pitch to the other and it was a great bit of play.

As a couple of passes were made in that move, you could see how much pressure City were putting the Saints players under.

You can sense the tension. You have that sense as a player of where your teammates and opponents are.

You have that sense of the crowd and know maybe you’re pushing your luck a bit now, but it all comes down to bravery again and it’s about being calm and collected.

Back in my day, you would have had players screaming at you to clear it and that is what we would have done.

The opposition can’t score if the ball is on their corner flag and to a certain extent that is true, but it is a different way of playing nowadays.

The move started with Gavin’s coolness and when we needed him, in a game like that, he did his job and did it very well.

This week, I have been recapping back on the 10 games unbeaten and splitting them up from the first eight of the season.

In the last 10, we have won seven and drawn three, scoring 17 goals and conceding eight. In the first eight matches, we won three, drew one and lost three, scoring 12 and conceding 19.

There were no clean sheets in those first eight games and we have got three now off the back of Wednesday night. I felt we had to start getting some.

There is the attacking side of the game but, being a former defender, you want to shut teams out and whoever is playing at the back should take pride in keeping clean sheets.

We’re now doing what we had to do as we needed to go on a long run after losing four games in a row to get ourselves back in the race.

At any level, to go unbeaten in 10 takes some doing so they should take some pride in that but it’s still a work in progress.

Although the perfect game very rarely happens, I think we have a 3-0 or 4-0 game in us. It’s coming, and that would be as close to perfect as you could get.

Today’s match with Cardiff City might not be the one to get it as that will be tough, but I hope those of you heading to St Mary’s today have a great afternoon.

I also wanted to mention something really important, away from Saints, to do with a little lad called Freddie Barnes.

Freddie is just three years old but is suffering from a rare form of aggressive childhood cancer, Neuroblastoma.

Freddie has already completed frontline treatment in the UK including eight rounds of chemotherapy but more can be done.

His family is attempting to raise £300,000 for treatments abroad not available on the NHS, costing huge amounts, and you can find out more details and how to donate here.

Last Sunday, they had an event at the Saints Pub in Millbrook and they reached out to us to ask if we can donate something.

I went down to show my face and my daughter, Kenzie, offered to come down with me, while the Saints Foundation gave us a signed shirt to take for an auction.

Although Freddie wasn’t able to be there, we’re just trying to help them raise awareness and if anyone is in a position to help, I’m sure it would be most appreciated.