LET this be a lesson to us all – in football you should never get too carried away.

After four back-to-back league wins it seemed we had every right to start looking up the table and dreaming as to just what Saints could do this season.

Yes, there is no real excuse with the resources they have at their disposal for them not to win most of the games they play.

If they can do that then the playoffs remain a distant but just about reachable target come the end of the campaign.

But that old footballing cliche one game a time springs to mind.

It is incredibly dull, and certainly not what anybody wants to hear, but Saints’ match at Leyton Orient proved its virtues are true.

On paper this should have been another away-day victory for Alan Pardew’s men.

Orient are a team struggling for form whereas Saints are flying.

Orient’s squad is full of battlers and triers with only a little quality whereas Saints’ is full of heart, spirit and far more quality.

And, what’s more, Saints had almost half the support in the ground with a massive travelling following almost turning it into a home game.

But, just when you allow any of these thoughts of comfort to creep into your head, you are at your most vulnerable.

It would be wrong to say Saints were complacent about playing Orient because that wouldn’t be quite right.

They didn’t look lethargic or not bothered, or that they believed they just had to turn up to bag the three points.

It was just that they were just not quite as sharp as they had been.

Too often in the first half they resorted to pumping the ball long.

We all know that in this division if Saints get the ball down and play most teams cannot live with their quality.

But what teams in League One can deal with is sides shelling the ball – it’s meat and drink and in their comfort zone.

Once Saints got that out of their system and started to play like we have seen in recent weeks they looked a different side.

Again the catalyst was a change from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 and the introductions of David Connolly and Michail Antonio.

Alan Pardew was correct to start with 4-5-1 and keep a winning team – he needs to maintain the spirit in that way and also a counter attacking system is a good one away from home. Unless you fall behind, that is.

Now, though, is the time for a switch to 4-4-2.

The 4-5-1 has served Saints well, it was a good idea from Pardew and one that will still come in handy during the campaign.

But Saints have such firepower in their ranks that they should go 4-4- 2 and blast sides out of there.

They are good enough, they don’t need a more defensive set-up, albeit if you get your noses in front of the road it makes you hard to beat.

Saints were always going to be up against it at Leyton Orient from the moment they fell behind just over a minute into the match.

Tamika Mkandawire had the most bizarre game a player has ever had.

When JJ Melligan lofted in a cross from the right he was sharper than Neal Trotman and got his head to the ball, sending a looping header into the far corner.

That was one touch, one goal, one minute – and then he was substituted having cut himself clashing heads with Trotman.

As the half wore on Saints created a string of half chances, but mainly through a battering ram approach down the middle.

The best of them came when Paul Wotton’s drilled low shot picked out Adam Lallana at the far post but, having to react very quickly, he could only steer the redirected effort at the keeper.

Saints showed themselves the way ahead just before the break when they used their width to get Papa Waigo away down the right and he cut back to Rickie Lambert whose scuffed first time shot went wide.

In between Orient had two great chances themselves, both falling to Ben Chorley from set pieces.

The first was a half volley he blazed over from close range, the second a header from a corner that had the same fate.

Saints started the second half unchanged but looking more purposeful.

Lallana stretched Glenn Morris straight away with a diving header the keeper saved away to his left.

Dean Hammond flicked over a header from a Dan Harding cross before some great interplay between Lallana and Lambert released Morgan Schneiderlin, but Morris stopped at his feet.

With 56 minutes on the clock Orient broke away, though, and doubled their lead.

Andros Townsend crossed from the left and the ball bounced up in front of Trotman in the centre of the area and struck him on the chest. It looped up towards goal and past the helpless Davis.

Pardew quickly switched to 4-4-2 and Saints spent the remainder of the match battering Orient and creating chance after chance.

Waigo couldn’t quite finish from close range, Lallana missed the target with time to pick his spot from ten yards, Connolly fired over under pressure and Radhi Jaidi’s header was cleared off the line.

But eventually they got one back on 74 minutes when Antonio’s ball down the right picked out Lallana’s run perfectly.

His beautiful first time ball found Lambert and he sidefootedhome first time from eight yards.

Ten minutes later Lambert produced an even more emphatic finish, a Connolly pass deflecting up in the area only for the striker to lash a half volley into the top corner.

It was a stunning strike out of nothing and suddenly it was 2-2.

The game finished like a cup tie, so open with both sides after a winner, but it was Saints who had all the momentum and looked the most likely.

Antonio twice forced Morris into action, Connolly putting the rebound wide on the second of them.

But in the end a pulsating game finished level and with Saints happy to get away with a point... even if at the start they had wanted, and perhaps expected, all three.