Southampton had led through Chris Perry, but Garry O'Connor equalised before Kevin Phillips nicked all three points.
Blues started with Maik Taylor back in goal, the same back four as has played all season, and three of the same four midfielders as have played all season in Lee Carsley, Mehdi Nafti and Seb Larsson, with Quincy Owusu-Abeyie coming in for his first start at the expense of Gary McSheffrey. Up front, there was another new strike pair for the new campaign, with the Scottish duo of O'Connor and James McFadden starting, with Phillps, Cameron Jerome and Marcus Bent all on the bench, alongside the returning Stephen Kelly.
Like Kelly, I missed the first two games of the season, although I doubt that his excuse was that he was at a wedding and then the fact that the Wycombe game was on the telly and he couldn't get away from work early enough. As such, this was my first look at Blues "in the flesh" since the 4-1 mauling of Blackburn Rovers when Blues went down.
The first half was a mixed affair. Southampton really came at Blues early on - I guess it was that "first home game of the season" approach. They had to really. And they did, and they looked ok, without really testing Maik Taylor. Stern John was getting in all sorts of dangerous positions, and Blues were really up against it.
Fifteen to twenty minutes in though, Blues began to settle as it looked like Southampton had burnt themselves out, and you thought that having weathered the storm, Blues would go on to really take control. They just weren't quite at it though, and the game was still pretty much in the balance and pretty entertaining in it's end-to-end nature. Both John and O'Connor had goals disallowed at each end as the teams neglected defending and focussed on attacking.
I can only presume that messrs McLeish, Watson and Aitken have spent most of the summer on their PlayStations playing Pro Evolution Soccer and/or FIFA. As anyone will know, in both games, there's almost a guaranteed way to score (some would say it's cheating) which is to get a forward player to run diagonally in from the flank towards the byline, close to the goal, then to pull it back for someone to tap it in from there. Blues tried this constantly, mainly through Quincy (O'Connor's disallowed effort came about like this), but McFadden also had a few goes. It was like playing Pro Evo. Only without the controller.
Blues were forced into a change after about half an hour when Nafti was forced to limp off. Part of the problem with having a goalkeeper, a token defender and then loads of strikers on the bench, is that if a midfielder gets injured, you either have to go more defensive, or very attacking. You can't keep the balance. It was 0-0, but McLeish showed his intent and sent on Jerome to play wide right, with Larsson moving into the middle alongside Carsley. When going forward now, with Jerome and Quincy on the flanks, Blues were effectively playing 4-2-4.
As an even-ish first half (possibly shaded by Southampton, because of their early dominance) was coming towards a close, the home side broke the deadlock. Liam Ridgewell cleared behind for a corner as John was poised to strike, but from the resulting corner, Chris Perry was left completely unmarked to head home. Perry's played about a million games for the likes of Charlton, Wimbledon, Spurs and Albion, and I think he's scored about one goal in all those games, so it's fairly typical of Blues to have let him in to score. At half-time it was 1-0, and Blues did need to step up a gear. Or two.
And so they did.
Jerome was a particular inspiration, and produced a display of sheer pace and power, but the other key factor is Blues' revival was that McFadden, who was anonymous in the first half, was also sensational in the second half. All of Blues' attackers suddenly clicked, and to be honest, they tore Southampton apart at times. Well, after surviving an early scare when a John header flashed wide.
It wasn't long before it was 1-1. From a Blues free-kick, Southampton failed to clear and the ball bobbled off Jerome into the path of O'Connor, unmarked, yards from goal. O'Connor took his time and calmly slotted the ball into the corner past Kelvin Davis.
Blues continued to dominate the second half. Marcus Bent came on for O'Connor and was a real handful in the air and put himself about, as Blues' attacking power, much-hyped this season, appeared to live up to the hype. Actually, one of the few defenders Blues have decided to bother with having in the squad this season, in Ridgewell, did find the back of the net with a header, but for the third time in the afternoon, a goal was disallowed for offside.
The only attacker not to have had a go in the first 75 minutes was Kevin Phillips, and so he was thrown on for Quincy at that point. His first two touches were to control the ball and lay it off to McFadden down the right. McFadden then teased about four Southampton defenders, left all of them for dead and got to the byline on true FIFA fashion again. From there he clipped a cross to Bent whose downward header was tipped onto the bar by the fingertips of Michael Svensson. Phillps pounced on the rebound, but was again denied by a stunning save by Svensson who got his hand to it, before Phillips finally knocked the ball home from close range. Of course, Michael Svensson is a centre half, so you'd have hoped that Blues would have a penalty (or two) had Phillips not scored, but that's irrelevant now.
Phillips enjoyed his celebration, particularly as the Southampton fans had been giving him grief as he's an ex-Saint (although I was surprised, as I thought he was popular there). The next problem for Blues, however, was that now they had to hold onto a lead, having used all their substitutes and having four strikers on the pitch. In fairness, however, Southampton created little and had probably put so much into their first half display that they had little else to give. Don't take anything away from all of the Blues strikers still on the pitch though, who worked tirelessly for the last 15 minutes to see Blues home.
It was a real tale of two halves for Blues, who were average at best in the first half, but in the second half showed why they're so fancied this season with a real display of attacking power - and all the forwards played their part. At the back, I remain a little unconvinced. Martin Taylor (who I'm not great fan of) played very well, but Liam Ridgewell still does silly things. He wasn't caught out in this game (and of course, that's the difference at this level, rather than the one he's come from), but he needs to cut out some of the silly little "clever" things that he attempts.
Also in defence, a worry might be one of the full-back positions. Last season, Stuart Parnaby was something of a forgotten man, whilst David Murphy generally performed fairly well. However, this season Parnaby has been superb (and was again here, both defensively and offensively) whilst Murphy looks dodgy. David McGoldrick (who admittedly is a very good young player, with a bright future ahead of him) constantly got the better of Murphy in the first half - including one laughable attempt by the former Hibs man at a rugby tackle - and whilst offensively he still looks ok, there may be a worry about the defensive side of his game at the moment. It's nothing disastrous, but there were faults there.
The two "big names", in Larsson and McFadden also deserve a mention, because on their first half performances you'd have struggled to get £500,000 for the pair of them, but in the second half they both took the game by the scruff of the neck and were excellent.
Southampton were poor last season and are without a point this season, but they've got some decent young players (McGoldrick and Andrew Surman, who I suspect shall be off shortly) and some decent experiences players (John, Perry and Svensson), and I think that they'll improve this season. Away games at the "bigger" clubs at this level are never easy, so you have to say fair play to Blues for their second half display and in getting a good win.
Just 132 points to go...