Saints have signed Portuguese centre-back José Fonte from Championship side Crystal Palace for a fee believed to be in excess of £1m.

Speculation has been rife for a number of weeks that Fonte was on Alan Pardew’s radar, and Palace boss Neil Warnock will probably see this deal as a significant step towards keeping hold of star youngster Victor Moses, who has been attracting the attention of Arsenal and Barcelona recently.

Fonte has made 92 appearances for the Eagles in two and a half years at Selhurst Park after initially signing on loan from Benfica. He made the move permanent in July 2008, and has missed only two games this season, helping the side to 9th in the Championship, despite financial problems at the club which have led to wages being paid late in November, and December’s wages still remain unpaid at the time of writing.

Saints are believed to have beaten off stiff competition from other Championship sides, so this signing is a real coup for the club, and shows that in the current economic climate, many footballers may now look to prioritise and sign for clubs who are financially stable, even if it means dropping down a division.

Pardew has acted quickly to plug the gap left by Neal Trotman, who has returned to Preston North End after a relatively successful loan spell, and with our other central defensive options all the wrong side of 30, I wouldn’t be surprised to see another signing in that area before the end of the month, even if it’s on loan.

Fonte will have plenty of time to get used to his team-mates following the postponement of today’s game against Huddersfield due to the extreme cold weather this week, and it’s likely he’ll go straight into the side for the trip to Millwall next week.

David McGoldrick’s long-range effort in the second half was enough to give Saints a thoroughly deserved victory against an ambition-less Palace side.

Full report to follow…

Saints have today announced that they are delaying the announcement of season ticket prices for next season until April due to the uncertainty as to which division we’ll be playing in.

With 12 games to go in the Championship, Saints are still three points from safety at the bottom of the table despite successive home wins against promotion-chasing opposition, but while relegation looked very likely two weeks ago, the recent form has suggested the fat lady hasn’t even cleared her throat yet.

The club has also taken the opportunity to try to take advantage of the newly-found feelgood factor after the Preston and Cardiff games by announcing some ticket deals for three of the remaining five home games this season.

Season ticket holders will be able to buy additional tickets for next Tuesday’s game against Derby for just £5 (and those who have already bought tickets can get the difference refunded) - attendances for midweek games this season have been poor, averaging around the 14,500 mark.

The crucial relegation six-pointer against bottom side Charlton Athletic on 4th April has seen tickets reduced across the board with adult tickets priced at £15 and concessions £5 for all areas of the ground. This is the same promotion that was run before Christmas for the Nottingham Forest game, which produced an attendance of nearly 27,000 - a similar attendance would obviously help the club financially, but clearly a much better result will be needed!

Finally, the match against Crystal Palace on Easter Monday has been designated a “Kids for a Quid” game. All tickets for under-16s are just £1. Again, anyone who has already bought tickets for these games can claim a refund of the difference from the ticket office.

Saints slipped to a fifth defeat in front of the Sky cameras this season after early goals from Shefki Kuqi and Craig Beattie and a late Paul Ifil strike.

The home side started the game with real intent and were out of the blocks faster. Nick Carle raced into the box and appeared to tussle with Alex Pearce, before going down, but no penalty was given. Palace kept the tempo going and were unlucky not to score when Craig Beattie burst into the area and saw his low shot smothered at the near post by Davis.

Saints did create a decent opportunity when Lloyd James played in Wright-Phillips who flicked back for Lallana to shoot, but his effort was tame and the home side would immediately show us how to finish, when they scored an early goal…

Young full-back Nathanial Clyne pumped the ball forward into the Saints penalty box and SHEFKI KUQI showed great strength to outmuscle Pearce, before volleying high into the middle of the net, past the flailing arm of Kelvin Davis.

And the home side furthermore showed their clinical edge infront of goal when poor defending from an Oster corner saw CRAIG BEATTIE in plenty of space to lash home an angled shot into the top corner.

The game started to settle down a little, with Saints having a big task ahead to salvage anything from the game and it wouldn’t be helped when Kuqi was giving the defence a torrid time – out jumping Pearce to head Scannel’s cross just over the bar.

Ben Watson saw a free kick deflected inches wide for the hosts, before the away side made the game into more of a contest with a series of neat passing moves, unfortunately they could only muster up half chances though – Surman drove wide of goal, after a good flick from Wright-Phillips, before the pair combined again to set up Jordan Robertson, who saw his near post effort easily saved by Speroni.

Half time: Crystal Palace 2-0 Southampton

Half time saw Paul Wotton enter the proceedings in the place of Alex Pearce, in order to give the midfield a little more bite, with Jack Cork slotting into centre back. With things looking a little more settled, Saints continued to pass around well enough, but were still lacking in the final third.

However the team was keeping the home side’s chances down to a minimum; Cork forcing Kuqi away from goal and the latter slicing hopelessly wide. The Saints were enjoying their best spell of the game, but weren’t to get a reward… first James skipped forward and ‘nutmegged’ Hill, only to shoot into the side netting, before McGoldrick played in Surman, who chipped over Speroni, but saw his effort cleared away by McCarthy.

And the game was decided for good, when Lloyd James took too long to clear and PAUL IFIL stole in to score on the break, slotting past the advancing Davis.

Full time: Crystal Palace 3-0 Southampton

Summary

Unfortunately for us we got off to a poor start and never recovered. As the manager rightly said ‘heads dropped’.

It appeared that Palace were much more up for the game and had a winning mentality, while we just seem to have an inconsistent one. The home side are a fighting side – like any Neil Warnock side and we didn’t appear to prepare for this… especially lining up with Cork and Surman in midfield – two ball playing midfielders – someone like Wotton or Gillett was needed from the start to break things up and get stuck in.

Upfront we needed physicality and energy to break down the tight Palace backline and we didn’t have this, maybe Jason Euell should have been in the squad? It appears clear that we can’t play with one up front, as first none of our strikers have the ability to play as a lone striker and secondly we are seriously underscoring in games and we all know what lack of goals mean… take Leicester for example – they had one of the best defensive records in the league last season, but their lack of goals saw them relegated. While we possess both a leaky defence and lack of goals. Something needs to be done.

Crystal Palace weren’t fancy and they didn’t need to be, they knew that we’d try and pass and have no plan B at all, so they simply stopped us from playing. Good with the tackles and challenges and first to every ball and second ball for that matter and because of their approach to the game – we were never going to get anything from the game, not even a point, especially when they have players like Kuqi giving us the run around with their strength and eye for goal and a mean defence that rarely concedes.

They ran out deserved winners.

Saints’ away game at Crystal Palace, originally scheduled for Tuesday 9th December, has been brought forward a day to Monday 8th December as it has been chosen by Sky Sports for live coverage.

It adds to the Blackpool and QPR games that have already been televised, as well as the forthcoming games at Coventry and at home to Bristol City, which will bring some much-needed revenue into the club. It would be nice if we could actually win a game on TV for a change as well!