Saints go into tonight’s match against Norwich at St Mary’s in good spirits following Saturday’s 2-0 win at Doncaster. However, Norwich will be intent on spoiling the party in the knowledge that victory for them will almost certainly move them into the top half of the table, whereas a Saints win would see us leapfrog the Canaries and drag them into the mix at the wrong end.

So far this season, they’ve collected 10 points from 8 games, including two wins (against 10-man Plymouth and a last-minute winner against Sheffield United). They have kept just two clean sheets in those 8 games, both in their last two matches, compared to Saints’ three shutouts.

Former Arsenal striker Arturo Lupoli, currently on loan from Serie A side Fiorentina, is their top scorer with three league goals, so he’ll be the one to watch alongside a player who seems to always score against us, Jamie Cureton. Other players of interest are ex-Portsmouth captain Dejan Stefanovic and Gambian striker Oman Alieu Koroma, who is on loan from our “friends” down the road.

The head-to-head record between the two sides is fairly even, with Saints holding a 32-29 win advantage in league games (23 draws). 23 of those 32 league wins have come at home, with a 3 out of 4 win record since we moved to St Mary’s. Norwich’s only win at St Mary’s came last season when a Ched Evans goal on the stroke of half-time proved the difference, although on another day Saints would have scored 10. Stern John blazed a penalty over the bar after Gary Doherty handled and numerous other excellent chances were spurned to leave everyone wondering how we’d lost the game. We’ll need to be a lot more clinical tonight if we’re to get the three points.

As far as Saints are concerned, Stern John will miss out after picking up a hamstring injury early on in the win at Doncaster. Morgan Schneiderlin is a doubt after he hobbled off in the second half of that game. Tomas Pekhart is expected to start up front with Paul Wotton moving into the midfield holding role and Chris Perry filling the gap in the centre of defence that is strangely starting to look a bit more solid, at least as far as the goals against column is concerned, with two consecutive clean sheets.

Substitute Tomas Pekhart was in the right place at the right time twenty minutes from time to fire home an equalising goal that gave Saints their first home league point of the season.

Andrew Surman had earlier given Saints the lead only for Owen Garvan to take advantage of sloppy defending to equalise shortly after. Alan Quinn’s header early in the second half looked as though it would be enough for the visitors to take the points back to East Anglia until Pekhart took advantage of some slack defending to haul Saints level.

Jan Poortvliet has moved to bring in some competition up front for David McGoldrick and Stern John with the loan signing of Czech Under-21 international Tomas Pekhart from Tottenham.

Pekhart was the top scorer for Spurs’ reserves side last season, and the year before hit 19 goals in 20 games for their Academy side and reserves.

The loan is initially until January, with the option to extend until the end of the season.