ALAN PARDEW’S Saints have found a whole variety of ways to win games this season and we saw another last night.

We’ve seen Saints score great goals, we’ve seen them pass teams off the pitch, we’ve seen a ruthless streak when it comes to closing out games.

But what we hadn’t really seen was a scrappy win that came from the foundation of a clean sheet.

Saints had only managed two clean sheets in the league all season prior to facing Wycombe last night, and they both came back in September since when plenty of water has passed under the bridge.

What we needed to see was Saints win ugly and they did that in a very literal way.

It was not pretty, boy was it not pretty at times, but organisation, work-rate and then a little extra quality bought them three points against Wycombe.

It was an important three points too because it lifted Saints out of the relegation zone for the first time this season.

Finally they are on the verge of being in a position to pick up wins that will mean leaps up the table rather than mere gap closing.

The psychological boost of moving up the league at a rate of knots is one that should not be underestimated if and when it happens.

There are still some issues at Saints which were oddly underlined by a good tactical switch from Pardew.

Saints started the game playing 4-5-1.

Saints do play that formation in an attacking way with Adam Lallana and Papa Waigo joining up quickly with Rickie Lambert but it is in general a formation that in League One is best employed away from home.

At home, particularly against one of the division’s lesser lights like Wycombe, you really would like to see two strikers.

But Saints’ squad is thin in the striking department.

In terms of quality there is little if anything in the division better than Lambert and David Connolly.

But as soon as one of them was missing Saints had to make a wholesale change to their formation and style of play. Indeed, they didn’t even name a striker among their seven subs last night.

They are comfortable with playing 4-5-1 and away from home, for example against Northampton, it often works a treat, but at home you need options.

The reason Pardew underlined the problem was that late in the first half he went to 4-4-2 by putting Waigo, and later Michail Antonio, through the middle alongside Lambert and Saints looked a much better team for it.

Up until that point Saints had looked pretty ordinary against a Wycombe side that were spirited but lacking any real attacking threat.

In fact there was very little of interest in the first 45 minutes of the game at all to warm the brave 16,000 who turned out on the first bitterly cold St Mary’s night of the season.

It took until 13 minutes for the first effort of any note, Lallana’s shot from 20 yards saved low down by Scott Shearer.

Lallana threatened again without success before Waigo missed a golden chance to give Saints the lead.

Lloyd James whipped in a terrific ball from the right which Waigo slid full length to meet. It was coming at him with plenty of zip but from little more than a yard or two out he could only put his shot over the bar.

Saints survived the odd scary moment themselves, more caused by their own errors than anything Wycombe did, before a decisive minute before half time.

After Lambert’s looping header had been cleared off the line by Luke Oliver, the Saints striker gave his side the lead on 42 minutes.

Graeme Murty’s excellent defence splitting ball put Waigo, by now playing up front, away from the Wycombe line.

He showed good awareness to square the ball to Lambert who clinically drilled it into Shearer’s bottom right hand corner for 1-0.

Saints started the second half at quite a pace, Lambert twice going close with drives from outside the area before Lallana and then Antonio couldn’t quite make the most of half chances.

Scott Davies troubled Bartosz Bialkowski for the first time on 71 minutes with an effort from distance that needed turning wide.

At times the Wycombe defending was desperate as they tried to keep Saints out.

When called upon Shearer also stood firm, making two good saves in a matter of moments from fierce efforts by Lambert and Lallana.

Even as the match wore to a conclusion it was still Saints on top but unable to find a killer goal to put Wycombe away.

Antonio got away again late on but drove his effort over the bar.

The most important thing now though was not a second goal – it was that Saints shut up shop.

Pardew brought on Paul Wotton and moved to more of a 4-5-1 style formation again to ensure keeping the lead, which is when that set up is of great use.

Saints needed to prove they could see out the time for a clean sheet and an ugly win.

You sensed after all the talk about clean sheets as they have been such rarities that perhaps they needed to prove to themselves they could do it as well.

Not every game Saints play is going to be a high-scoring thriller like the match against Norwich.

Not every game Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal play is a high-scoring thriller.

But if you want to do well you have to find a way to get three points when you’re not at your best and last night Saints marked off a milestone by getting out of the bottom four doing just that.