In League One a little bit of quality can go a long way.

In the seasons that have followed Saints’ relegation from the top flight we have seen more frustrating days at St Mary’s than you’d care to remember.

These have been days where the opposition has come down to the south coast, acknowledged they don’t have the power in their team to go toe-to-toe with Saints and so scrap and fight for all they are worth.

They play a negative game, dropping deep and getting men behind the ball and generally making themselves very hard to break down.

Even if you are a bit better than your opponents it can be very hard to play against.

All too often as you see possession being given to you in areas that don’t hurt the opposition you can get frustrated and resort to aimless long balls.

There is an expectation that somebody will make something happen but that can sometimes fail to materialise.

In the Championship, Saints have regularly found themselves a little short of the gulf in quality and class required to overcome these situations.

However, in League One they have it in abundance.

The living, berthing example of this came against Leyton Orient yesterday.

Saints conceded a very early goal and then found themselves up against a very resilient and negative side.

Orient defended very deep and got 11 men behind the ball, challenging Saints to find a way through.

It was a struggle for Saints, they quickly found themselves running out of ideas.

Orient are fighting for their survival in the division and were never going to come and lay down.

So with Saints having conceded an early advantage through a slow start at the back, it was incumbent on their array of excellent forward players to use their tools to prise the door open at the other end.

Luckily, they are so good compared to most teams they play, they are able to do it and they did against Orient.

That slow start came little over a minute into the match when a long throw from the left was flicked on far too easily against a not fully started Saints backline.

John Spicer ghosted in round the back and took his time to measure a half volley across goal and into the far corner.

From that moment Saints, back to a more attacking 4-4-2, were up against it facing a 4-5-1 that was often more of a 7-3 camped just outside their own area.

After Ryan Jarvis had threatened to give Orient a more comfortable lead with a header he put over the bar the emphasis was on Saints.

They had lots of the ball at the back but they needed to open Orient up as the battering ram approach failed to work.

There weren’t that many times they looked likely to do it initially.

Lee Barnard headed wide on 17 minutes after Jason Puncheon’s left-footed ball in from the right had been headed back across goal by Rickie Lambert while Adam Lallana fired in a fierce drive from long range that was straight at Jamie Jones.

Spicer gave Saints a scare on 26 minutes with a free kick that flashed just past the post before 20 minutes of Saints huffing and puffing but not getting too far.

They needed a moment of inspiration and that bit of class and quality they possess delivered it four minutes before half-time.

Puncheon produced a delicious cross-field pass with the outside of his boot that picked out Lallana.

He cut in from the left and was allowed to drive on to the edge of the area from where he produced a marvellous finish leaving Jones diving to his left but getting nowhere near a shot into the top corner.

Jones had to be strong to claw away Puncheon’s cross from the right that drifted goalwards but Saints went into half-time knowing they done the hardest job of all by breaking Orient’s resistance.

But they were also aware an early goal in the second period would change the game.

Morgan Schneiderlin threatened to provide it but headed wide four minutes after the restart before Saints got their noses in front on 54 minutes.

It was another cross from Puncheon from the right, another header back across goal from Lambert and Lallana was on hand to steam in and slam his diving header into the net.

The goal changed the nature of the game as suddenly Orient needed to push more men forward and chase a goal, leaving Saints space to play in.

Orient weren’t without threat for the remainder of the game, always strong from set pieces and forcing Kelvin Davis into a good save from Eric Lichaj’s piledriver from 30 yards.

For their part, Saints tested Jones again with a near post effort from Lambert that the Orient keeper stood firm to turn behind.

Adrian Patulea provided a late scare in injury time as he slashed wide when he had a decent sighting of goal but Saints had done enough.

This was far from vintage Saints but it proved they can overcome a long standing problem by beating stubborn and determined teams at home thanks to their extra class.