Southampton 5-1 Millwall

Well, that’s one way to wash the taste of a midweek hammering out of your mouth. After West Ham left us licking our wounds in the cup on Tuesday, the lads decided the appropriate response was to absolutely demolish the Championship leaders. Against a Millwall side who arrived at St Mary’s sitting pretty at the top of the table, full of swagger and south London menace. They left with their tails firmly between their legs, and frankly, we’re still grinning.

Let’s not pretend it was all sunshine from the off, though. Ryan Manning picked up a yellow card inside four minutes, setting the tone for what briefly felt like it might be a nervy afternoon. And when Mark Sykes fired Millwall ahead on 15 minutes, you could feel that familiar sinking sensation ripple through 29,000-odd souls. After the West Ham debacle, nobody needed another gut punch. The stadium went a bit quiet. You know the kind of quiet — the “here we go again” quiet.

But here’s the thing about this squad: they didn’t flinch. Whatever the gaffer said, whatever switched in their heads, Saints responded like a team that had taken the cup defeat personally. Cyle Larin pulled us level on 25 minutes, and suddenly St Mary’s remembered how to breathe. Then Finn Azaz, who’s been purring all season, stroked home a beauty on 38 minutes to send us in at the break ahead. Two goals in thirteen minutes. From wobbling to swaggering. Championship football at its bonkers best.

The second half was essentially a victory lap with extra sprinkles. Léo Scienza buried a 55th-minute penalty after Azaz was tripped, then Larin grabbed his second on 62 minutes — the man is looking genuinely sharp, and his post-match interview on BBC Solent had him sounding like a striker who knows he’s found his groove. Finally, Tom Fellows slammed home his first Saints goal on 86 minutes, a moment that had the whole ground on its feet. He celebrated, picked up a yellow card a minute later presumably for being too excited about life, and nobody cared one bit.

The stats back up the dominance: 21 shots, seven on target, and crucially, we kept our discipline with just six fouls to Millwall’s ten. That’s a controlled performance dressed up as a demolition job. Possession was fairly even at 52-48, which tells you Saints weren’t hogging the ball — they were just ruthlessly efficient when they had it.

The timing of this couldn’t be better, either. With Ward-Prowse and Schlotterbeck through the door, the mood around the club has shifted from post-relegation anxiety to something that feels dangerously like genuine optimism. Five goals against the league leaders will do that.

If this is what a bounce-back performance looks like, can someone arrange for us to lose a cup game every week?