"ROUTE ONE . . . in your face . . . it wasn't proper football . . . it was very Wimbledon." That was how Graeme Souness described Saints' style of play.

Steve Wigley didn't want to be drawn into an argument. Instead, he said it was inevitable in the last 15 minutes of a match and used rhetoric such as organisation and hard work to describe his side's performance.

Perhaps both were slightly off the mark in different respects and the truth therein yields the answer as to why Saints have garnered only four points from their opening six matches.

Souness is, for my money, incorrect in saying Saints are a long-ball team. That suggests they go out with the intention of hitting high balls to the frontmen and hoping for a flick-on or a lucky bounce to break their way in order to score.

The reason Souness is wide of the mark is that is not how Saints set out. That's just how they end up.

In almost every game this season the team have gone out and tried to play 'proper football.' They've tried to pass through teams, to play incisive balls, to get in behind sides. But they have normally failed.

Therefore in the final 15 minutes, as they search to turn a defeat into a draw or a draw into a win, the game does become more direct.

On comes Peter Crouch and it is more 'route one' stuff.

Whether Saints are good enough to create the openings by playing 'proper football' is an on-running argument amongst the St Mary's faithful.

But whatever, the reason Souness thinks of Saints like that is not because they aim to play like that - but because 'route one' looks like their best hope of scoring.

And to be fair, at Premier League level, that's far from ideal.

Saints are set-up to try and use their wide men as their creative forces in midfield while Rory Delap and David Prutton battle away in the middle.

But both of the widemen - Svensson and Fernandes - like to put their foot on the ball and cut inside.

Nothing wrong with that, as long as on occasions the full-backs are overlapping to provide width and get to the by-line. Problem is that's a rare sight at Saints since Wayne Bridge left.

It all culminates in James Beattie and Kevin Phillips not getting the service they need. Expecting shots to fly in from distance or 'route one' tactics to pay off on a regular basis would be naive.

And when the hard work and organisation still sees you concede two goals in each of your first three home games - and five out of six in total - you need to be able to score plenty.

While others in the media were highly critical of Saints after thier battling point at Charlton last Monday, this paper commended the improvements. But Wigley now has plenty to sort out if this is not to become a long, hard season.

To be fair to Wigley it would be wrong to pretend this is a new problem - even in the run-up to the FA Cup final the deficency in the Saints squad was clear.

But the money hasn't been spent to address the problem and now Wigley has got to change something, whether it personnel, formation or style of play, to get things back on track before the transfer window re-opens in January ... when it could be a little late.

Thankfully for Saints, Newcastle, like Charlton, had serious problems keeping possession and that kept them in the game.

But while Saints had long range shots and Beattie almost got through, Newcastle looked more likely to make the breakthrough - by playing 'proper football.' And they did five seconds before half time. Craig Bellamy got in behind on Saints' right and squared across goal. Patrick Kluivert's audacious flick failed and Alan Shearer fired the ball back across the six-yard box. Prutton couldn't take the risk of letting it roll out but stuck it in his own net for what will be recorded in time as an own goal.

Things were looking up on 53 minutes when Prutton's shot deflected high and landed near Svensson, who brought the ball down marvellously and finished perfectly past Shay Given.

But a lack of concentration just four minutes later saw a short free-kick passed to the unmarked Stephen Carr, who wasn't closed down nearly quick enough and fired home a rocket of a shot from 25 yards.

Saints briefly threatened but then the more direct stuff came. It looked as dangerous as Saints had been but Newcastle were up to it. Most teams are.

Plan C is needed.