SAINTS reached the halfway point of their season on Saturday and picked up another valuable point - but Gordon Strachan knows that the hard work is far from over.

The result of Southampton's opening 19 league matches is nothing short of sensational as they continue to push themselves forward as top half of the table material.

It is too premature to talk about qualifying for Europe but the thought is there that, more of the same in the next 19 games, and who knows?

But for that to happen Saints have to match the consistency they have shown in the past few months.

Although the draw was the fair result at Elland Road, this game could so easily have yielded another win for Saints.

They had the best of the chances in the first half and had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside and a cast iron penalty claim turned down by the ref.

Strachan said: "I think that a point was the least we deserved.

"I didn't complain to the referee after the game because I didn't see it but now I've seen the television I know nobody was offside for Marsden's goal and it was a blatant penalty.

"But we're happy with the point because they went into the lead and we came back.

"I'm more happy with the attitude of my players to take these knocks, the physical and the mental knocks, to get a draw. I think it was only fair we did so.

"I've a good group with good confidence, not arrogance. There's a glow about them and we know what we are doing. They do feel they can beat other teams, but they also respect them because they know any team can beat them."

The differing fortunes of Leeds and Southampton halfway through the season is quite remarkable - the old Saints-Leeds stereotypes would have their league positions the other way round.

When the point was put to him, even Strachan smiled and laughed: "It's a strange world but we can only concentrate on what we are doing."

But it's not luck that's got Saints where they are, but a great team spirit and work ethic and plenty of talent.

They are capable of playing fast, flowing football as they did against Newcastle last week or digging in and carving out openings as they did on Saturday.

Saints had all the best chances in the first half as their hard grafting knocked Leeds out of their stride - so much so that almost every one of their attacks was broken down by the edge of the Saints area.

For the St Mary's men, Brett Ormerod came close with a 13th minute header from Fabrice Fernandes' cross which he couldn't quite rise to meet perfectly and consequently put over the bar from close range.

Some ten minutes later came the first controversy - the disallowed goal.

Fernandes' long range shot was spilled by Paul Robinson and Ormerod picked up the loose ball and stood it up to the far post where Chris Marsden headed home.

The flag was raised early for offside and the whistle blew promptly but the decision was clearly incorrect as no Saints player found an offside position in the whole move.

On 36 minutes Ormerod came within a whisker of giving Saints the lead when he made a superb run across the front of his defender and met Paul Telfer's cross with a sweetly struck shot.

Unfortunately for him, he hit the bar and the ball bounced away.

Throughout the match Saints dominated the midfield areas with Rory Delap and Matthew Oakley bossing the show in the centre and Fernandes mercurial on the right.

Leeds were reasonably strong at the back and up front but their weakness in the middle was very much their undoing.

They looked much more dangerous in the second half thanks to the introduction of Mark Viduka which also brought the brilliant Harry Kewell to life and meant more work for Antti Niemi - given the nod as the club's number one in place of Paul Jones.

Terry Venables' men took the lead on 74 minutes after Niemi had pulled out a save from the top drawer to turn Kewell's shot round the post. From the resulting corner Jonathan Woodgate headed against the post and Kewell struck home the rebound.

But Saints should have had a penalty by that point. As Ormerod bustled into the area he was clattered once by Teddy Lucic and then by Ian Harte - either one was a penalty to everybody except the ref.

With little over a minute remaining Saints rescued a point - and extended their unbeaten run to five matches - when Fernandes curled in a right wing free kick which evaded everyone and crept in the far corner.

The goalkeeper might have done better but was impeded by his defender Danny Mills who ran across him and then failed to head the ball.

Any blame attached to Robinson for the goal was soon forgiven though when he turned an identical Fernandes cross away as it looked like it might creep in and finish this half of the season on a real high.