Loan Celt Jos Hooiveld went straight into the Southampton team yesterday and was celebrating as his new side beat Nottingham Forest 3-2 thanks to a hat-trick from Ricky Lambert.
Nigel Adkins side are setting the pace in The Championship along with Brighton as both clubs maintain the form that earned them promotion last season.
The Southampton boss said: “It was a exciting game of football and a top afternoon’s worth of entertainment. We played out of the back well today and scored some great goals.
“It was a amazing game of football. They are a good side and are going to be up there at the end of the season.”
Elsewhere in the Championship Daryl Murphy was unable to find the net as Ipswich, including Jimmy Bullard and Michael Chopra, lost 2-0 at Blackpool.
Darren O’Dea returned from his international heroics in Moscow to help Leeds United to a 3-2 win over Crystal Palace with former Motherwell striker Ross McCormack scoring twice for Leeds.
Down a division Niall McGinn replaced Myles Weston after an hour as Brentford won 1-0 away at Wycombe to move two points behind league leaders Sheffield United.
In Scotland Greig Spence was unable to find the net as Hamilton lost 1-0 away to Queen of the South. Nicky Riley scored the only goal of the game as Dundee won 1-0 away to Raith Rovers with former Celts Rab Douglas, Ryan Conroy and Gary Irvine also on the bonus money.
Stephen O’Donnell had to settle for a place on the bench as Partick Thistle drew 2-2 away to Ross County. Michael Gardyne was amongst the scorers for Ross County with ex-Celts Paul Lawson and Rocco Quinn playing for the homeside with Scott Fox in goals for Thistle.
In Turkey today Morten Rasmussen will be hoping to make his debut for Sivasspor away to Karabükspor while Efain Juarez will be looking to recover from the 6-0 Ronaldo inspired hammering from Real Madrid when Zaragoza travel to Madrid to take on Real Vallecano.
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