Southampton 1-0 Norwich

Finn of beauty. That’s really all you need to know, but stick around because the full 90 minutes of this one deserves a proper retelling — preferably with a drink in hand and your heart rate finally back to normal.

Norwich arrived on the south coast in form and full of themselves, and for long stretches they had the ball like they’d paid a deposit on it. 57.4% possession, 14 shots, seven on target — on paper, this was their game. In reality? In reality, they ran into a Saints side that decided defending was actually quite fun, thank you very much, and then hit them with the sucker punch to end all sucker punches.

Twenty-four minutes. Finn Azaz. A goal so good the Daily Echo couldn’t resist the pun, and honestly, neither can I. Into the top six for the first time since the opening weekend, and it took a moment of genuine quality to get us there. Azaz has been threading passes and drifting into pockets all season, but when he fancies a pop at goal, the lad delivers. One moment of class, and St Mary’s erupted like it was a Tuesday night European fixture circa 2003.

After that? Well, this is where the “nervy end” Sky Sports so diplomatically referenced comes in. Let’s be honest — it was less “nervy end” and more “nervy entire second half.” Norwich came at us in waves. Seven saves from our keeper tells you everything about how that went. The Canaries kept knocking and we kept slamming the door in their face, occasionally sticking a boot through it for good measure. Flynn Downes picked up a yellow three minutes after the restart — setting the tone for what became a beautifully ugly battle of attrition.

The booking count tells its own story: seven yellows spread across both sides, with Harwood-Bellis and Azaz himself joining Downes in the referee’s notebook late on. Norwich collected four of their own, with Ben Slimane, Stacey, Fisher, and Mattsson all finding their way into the book.

Tactically, this was a masterclass in controlled suffering. Let them have the ball, stay compact, don’t panic, trust the structure. It’s not pretty, it won’t win any style awards, and my fingernails may never recover, but who cares? Three points is three points, and these three launched us into the playoff places with momentum building at exactly the right time of the season.

Coming off what sounds like an impressive win at Coventry over the weekend, this is now a Saints side that believes in itself. The swagger is creeping back. The results are stacking up. And with an FA Cup quarter-final against Arsenal on the horizon — tickets starting at £25, get yourselves sorted — there’s suddenly a feeling around this club that something special might be brewing.

Top six. Cup run. Spring sunshine on the south coast. If you’d offered me this in January, I’d have bitten your hand off. Now? Now I want more. March ain’t done with us yet.