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Patience is a precious commodity.

It seems to be in increasingly short supply these days as the hurly-burly of life continues to accelerate.

People don’t seem to have time to wait for anything these days as we race around at 100 miles per hour, eating fast food on the go, texting each other with emojis rather than taking the time to type actual English, and watching whole box sets rather than waiting from week to week to see the next instalment of our favourite TV shows.

We plant our foot on the accelerator when the lights turn to amber, to gain a nano second, because we can’t wait for the green.

We have quick-drying paint and next-day delivery, people don’t have time to read books, let alone newspapers, and even the great British art of queuing is under threat.

Our patience can be tested and in general we regularly fail that test.

Football is no different, in fact it is even worse. There is literally no time to wait for anything in the modern game.

Young emerging players are expected to be the finished article almost immediately after they have graduated from development football and if a manager doesn’t get instant results they can be out the door.

Four Football League managers have already been sacked this season and we aren’t even into September.

For Leicester City , this victory was a great day. The manner of the win, with Harry Maguire strolling forward to fire a strike from 25 yards between the legs of two defenders and inside the near post in the second minute of added time, made it so.

The City players, Claude Puel and his staff, and the very large contingent of the Blue Army, certainly enjoyed it. There were memorable scenes. Puel was pumping his fists on the pitch in a display in complete contrast to his usual reserved demeanour. Maguire was booked for his shirt-twirling celebrations while the City fans were still singing long after the final whistle.

It won’t always be this way this season. City fans may have to accept that, at times, the shoe could be on the other foot, that games they snatch at the death could go against them just as easily.

This is a City team still in development.

In Kelechi Iheanacho, who had a tough afternoon deputising for Jamie Vardy, James Maddison, Demarai Gray (22), the scorer of City’s first goal, Wilfred Ndidi and Ben Chilwell, City have a group of players aged around 21 still learning their trade.

Add to them Ricardo Pereira at 24, match-winner Maguire at 25, Daniel Amartey at 23 and Papy Mendy at 26; this is a very young City side that Puel is building.

The only players over 30 pushing up the average age are captain Wes Morgan and keeper Kasper Schmeichel, who both had to play their role early on as Saints put the youthful City under pressure.

This side will make mistakes and they will have off days. That is the very nature of developing players. You may not get the consistency of performance more seasoned campaigners can deliver, but the flip side is that with young players you get enthusiasm, whole-hearted honesty and endeavour, fearlessness and excitement.

At times City played some eye-catching football without possessing that quality or composure in the final third to really hurt the Saints. But as the game wore on the more physical Saints side started to struggle against the waspish enthusiasm of Puel’s City.

Maddison has started the season well, and this wasn’t quite a performance on the same level as previous ones, but he still linked up with Gray, Iheanacho and Ricardo promisingly at times.

Ndidi also didn’t hit his usual heights, but with Mendy alongside him he has a midfield partner who can cover up and mop up after any mistakes. Mendy has gone from being City’s forgotten man to their midfielder caretaker.

(Image: Steven Paston/PA Wire)

At the back Maguire continues to grow his reputation as one of the most promising defenders in the English game, and there is still more to come.

That can be said for this City team in general. There is much more to come from them if they are given time to develop and grow together.

The only way to do that is by giving them time to learn from their mistakes, and they will make plenty this season, but City seem committed to this blueprint of developing youth.

The Blue Army at St Mary’s seemed on board with it. A few inevitable defeats later in the season may test their patience, and Puel in particular may have to bear the brunt of those who aren’t buying into his philosophy. He should be prepared for that.

However, given time and patience, those precious commodities, City could be onto a winning formula.