CHRISTMAS is traditionally a time for turkey and stuffing. Yesterday at St Mary's Pompey played the part of the turkey and Saints duly gave them a stuffing.

The Christmas dinner and Only Fools and Horses special will rarely have been more savoured in Saints' households than this year.

Saints are fourth in the table with only Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal ahead of them. And they have beaten Pompey twice already this season.

As it's Christmas, I'll repeat that.

Saints are fourth in the table with only Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal ahead of them. And they have beaten Pompey twice already this season.

OK, OK. It's not very often this happens, so once more.

Saints are fourth in the table with only Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal ahead of them. And they have beaten Pompey twice already this season.

To be fair, Harry Redknapp was probably right when he said Saints didn't play that great in this game - particularly in the first half.

But they were still comfortably better than his team.

Pompey came with a game-plan. With all their injuries, which Redknapp is quick to point out, they played five across the midfield to try and stifle the game.

They came to St Mary's hoping to keep a clean sheet and maybe even nick a winner.

But that's always a dangerous tactic because if you concede there are major difficulties in changing not only your entire style of play but also your mindset.

Pompey's plan was working well in a largely uneventful first half.

Neither side managed to make inroads until 34 minutes when Saints snatched the lead.

From Pompey's point of view it was a soft goal to concede, but Saints didn't care about that and nor did the neutral who must have been praying that Pompey needing to attack would open up the game.

The goal came from the most unlikely of sources - a Jason Dodd corner.

Saints have a gem of a set-piece operator in Dodd. When you bear in mind they didn't score from a corner for the majority of last season, this season's many efforts have put that into perspective.

Dodd was on the left wing and curled the ball in with his right foot.

It caught the wind slightly and then played a game of pinball between the bar, post and the back of the head of Dejan Stefanovic who ultimately turned it in.

It may well have been an own goal but, frankly, it doesn't really matter that much.

Saints continued to dominate in the second half but as Pompey tried to mount a few more attacks, they were able to sustain possession in more telling areas of the pitch rather than along the back four as in the first period.

But despite their numerical advantage in midfield - five to Saints' four - David Prutton's superb performance ensured Pompey didn't make it count.

Indeed, Antti Niemi only had one save of note to make all game when he grabbed Alexi Smertin's shot at the second attempt.

Otherwise it was just a matter of could Saints get another one, and if so how many more after that?

On 67 minutes the answer to the first question was given as an empathic 'yes' by Marian Pahars.

The Latvian scored his first goal since September 2002 in some style.

He turned outside and then cut inside between two Pompey defenders before picking his spot in the far corner with a beautiful curling shot which gave keeper Harald Wapenaar no chance.

Saints rounded off their victory with a third in the second minute of injury time.

Chris Baird flicked the ball through to fellow substitute Kevin Phillips on the by-line.

He pulled it back to Dodd, whose first-time cross was met by the flying head of James Beattie who steered it home.

So Saints will be fourth over Christmas.

Saints are fourth over Christmas.

Whether they can stay there until the end of the season is debatable, but who cares?

Just let the Saints fans enjoy it why they can.

OK, OK one more time.

Saints are fourth in the table with only Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal ahead of them. And they have beaten Pompey twice already this season.

Merry Christmas.