James Beattie got a well deserved hat trick on Sunday. With only a penalty against Villa to his name, he was receiving some criticism. This of course, despite all of the good work he puts in for the team. Beattie has been creating plenty of spaces for his team-mates, has delivered a number of good crosses and passes and has made himself a real problem for opposition defenders.
Now he has the goals to go with all of that too, so that should shut people up the moaners for a while.
Also causing defences real problems has been Brett Ormerod. While he's not the finished article yet, Brett never once gave up when Saints went two down and his attitude is a credit to the club.
Saints need players who won't give up if they are to cope with the tougher teams in the division and the team spirit in the Saints camp is currently very high after an excellent start to the campaign.
Brett also kept his scoring tally on track, getting Saints fourth after an excellent move, before being replaced by Agustin Delgado.
Instrumental in Saints final goal was Chris Marsden. Chris has now been able to let others take on more attacking roles, such as Anders Svensson and Fabrice Fernandes.
This gives him more opportunity to allow Wayne Bridge to get forward and to get involved in controlling the midfield.
Still, he's always deceptively tricky when he gets going forward as Sunday proved and he may well get a few goals himself in the near future.
It's just as well Delgado has returned to the side, as it appears that Saints will be without the services of James Beattie for a while.
The heavily pregnant Beattie (pictured right) still managed to get three against the dodgy Fulham back line, despite his condition.
Last season, Beattie's goal scoring run was interrupted by injury and this time round he'll be stopped again. It's not known at this time whether Beatts will be taking any lengthy maternity leave as it would mean allowing Delgado to get his place.
Georges Prost has already earmarked Beattie's child for the Saints Youth Academy, saying that youngsters must be worked on earlier.
To finish off here's yet more pics of Beattie's celebrations and Ormerod's too...
Beattie seals his hat trick
