After the Lord Mayor's Show....

Posted by Chris Rann

After the euphoria of the credible performance at the Etihad, you could forgive most Saints fans for reverting to type pretty quickly. I saw a few people say that it would be 'Typical Saints' to follow it up with a home defeat to Wigan.

And they weren't disappointed. I warned of underestimating the Latics in my preview and that is certainly what some fans did, thinking that victory was a formality. Welcome to the Premier League guys. Wigan have been here seven years, they know what they are doing.

Disappointingly Saints were as lacklustre as Athletic were industrious. Saints started brightly and despite the efforts of Guly and Lallana who worked hard trying to unlock the right doors, it soon started to look like Saints might pay for not taking advantage of their dominance.

It is worth pointing out that Saints did have some chances, and were it not for the outstanding performance of Omani keeper Ali Al-Habsi it might have been a different story at the break.

What came in the second half though was truly woeful. Like a timid boy on his first day at 'big school' Saints shied away from the fight. Wigan smelt blood and their top flight experience kicked in. Once they took the lead there really looked no way back for Saints and the second goal was late but inevitable.

The home dressing room will have been understandably down, and rightly so. All of their hard work proving to the rest of the league that they are capable in Manchester undone in a second half they will want to forget. Back to being every pundit's relegation tip. But perhaps we perform better that way? It worked the last time we were in the Premier League.

I try not to get embroiled in the post match hysteria that usually accompanies a Saints defeat, but it was difficult to avoid. Now is exactly the time to not panic. Remember that performance from just a week a go, which for me would have beaten 15 of our Premier League opponents.

We are only two games in to a 38 game season. There is still 108 points up for grabs and a week of the transfer window still open. Personnel wasn't the issue for me yesterday though, I just think we were out-experienced, a risk we run with our squad every time they step on the pitch.

Time for a little bit of faith. There were periods over the past three seasons that we questioned ourselves and it all worked out fine.

The ride is only going to get more difficult before it get's easier, Man Utd and Chelsea up next. Try and enjoy it.

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