Adam left them for dead

Lallana struck his tenth goal of the season in all competitions to make it 3-0 against the Magpies at St Mary’s. The strike itself was a terrific finish from fully 30 yards, and was the icing on the cake on a day when fellow England teammates Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez were on the scoresheet for Saints.

The skipper had time to pick his spot for the shot that led to his goal, so it was a surprise to see him choose his weaker foot for the strike, but few would argue that he could have caught the effort any sweeter.

“I chose my left which is supposedly not my strongest, but I’ve worked with both feet ever since I was a kid,” he told Saints Player after the game.

“It’s something I’ve always worked on and I’ll continue to do so.

“It’s a great attribute to have not having to think about what foot you want to use and that’s a philosophy I’ve tried to use throughout my whole career. I’m still improving and still learning, and my dad is always on at me to shoot more, so when I see him in a minute I’ll ask him if that one was alright!”

Lallana scores with his left foot against Newcastle

The manner of the victory was especially pleasing, with the performance itself one that will live long in the memory from this season, particularly on the back of recent displays.

“It what you dream of as a player,” Lallana described. “Going out there expressing yourself with no pressure on you, a nice day, good pitch and great lads that you’re playing with so it’s an absolute pleasure to be wearing the shirt with my teammates out there who are so committed to every game whether there are things riding on it or not. 

“We still believe we’ve got a lot riding on every game, but we’ve gone above Newcastle now and we’ve got six big games ahead including a nice big game next week.”

At one point in the game however, it looked as though for all Saints’ dominance in the game they weren’t going to be rewarded for their efforts. That was, until Jay Rodriguez scored just before half-time.

“Their keeper was probably their best player, but the lads are playing with great confidence at the minute. I thought Jay Rod was outstanding today and he could have had five or six on another day and once again he showed why he’s a massive candidate still to go to the World Cup.

“We got the goal right on half-time which was important because we dominated the first half and to have come in at 0-0 would have been a bit disappointing, but we said at half-time that we’ve been in this situation before especially at Tottenham last week, so it was important that we came out, got the early goal and then the four which was thoroughly deserved and few would disagree that it could have been more so it was great to get that emphatic win today with a clean sheet as well.”