League 1 Match 18 - Hartlepool 1 Southampton 3

The fixture computer operator has been drinking again ! Hang the Monkey !

Hartlepool away …. Where’s that ?... Must be close because the fixture computer would never give you an away match on a Tuesday night that was too far away… Sat Nav says ‘Drive towards Newcastle and stop 30 miles short’. Not too far then. I have to admit that I didn’t really know where it was, other than that it was ‘Oop North’ and the reason I’m starting with reference to the trip is to pay tribute to the 635 who made the trip on a Tuesday night in the pissing rain. You are quite mad but I salute you…

I am fully ‘Saints Player’ enabled for this match so have the delights of Dave Merrington and Kris Temple to listen to. I have the TV on silent and am watching Debrecen v Liverpool. The games kick off and after watching two minutes of Liverpool I am worried that I may fall asleep. Once I find Barcelona v Inter Milan, I’m happier.

Pards had spoken after the Norwich game for the need to ‘go ugly’ and he took that literally with his one change of the night with Murty replacing Antonio in a like for like swap. Murts will be adding extreme pace to the right flank and Michail will be sat on the bench eating a pie. This change gets Lloyd James away from right back (which is a great move) and into the anchor role of the midfield diamond with Lallana at the front and Hammond and Schneiderlin to the sides.

There is a force 9 blowing straight down the pitch in Saints favour which means that we can send it 80 yards up the pitch and Lambo and Connolly can get neck ache. It sounds like football is impossible and Dave Merrington tells us stories of the journey up with Trotman not fancying the flight in the wind and rain and Lambert forgetting his passport which shows you how far away Hartlepool is. Actually, he needed it for photo id… I wonder if he could have shown them one of those t-shirts from the Saints Shop. Meanwhile, on the pitch, Trotman and Jaidi sound like they’re trying to knock planes out of the sky with their version of the long through ball.

Hartlepool are playing most of the little football that is on offer and take the lead after working it down our left and getting in a cross which is headed in by Monkhouse, no relation to Bob, I assume. Over the past few seasons, 1-0 down, up north, in the rain would have meant a 5-0 defeat but I have confidence and this is rewarded 15 minutes later when Lambert put Lallana through on the keeper to make it 1-1. More hoof and hope for the rest of the first half with Lallana being the only player on the Saints side who is prepared to get it down and pass it. Honourable mention goes to Schneiderlin who is being praised for his graft so it appears he can do it if he wants to.

The second half starts and it’s evident that the wind is now favouring the Monkey Hangers (WTF is that all about ?... look it up here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_hanger) but they are having problems locating their front men as well. Ten minutes in and Lallana picks it up on the left and like Connolly on Saturday, comes infield and curls one into the far corner for 2-1. Even the Hartlepool fans applaud as it’s that good.

Hartlepool on the attack again and Davis pulls off a blinding save from a point blank header but appears to injure himself in the process and has to be replaced by the Pole in Goal. I like Bart and think he’ll be a really good keeper if given a decent run in the side but Stu and Dave are reacting like it’s the death knell of Saints season. To be fair, the comments are based on how good Davis is rather than anything negative about Bart but over the top or what. They go on about how many point Davis saves us a season which is fine but no one mentions that he cost us two on Saturday – he’s good but he’s not fantastic guys…

For all the world it sounds like it’s going to peter out and we’ll win 2-1 and no one is looking like scoring until the Monkey Hangers goalkeeper, makes the kind of mistake that would make you want to re-nickname the team ‘The Goalie Hangers’ and passes it straight to Lambert, 5 yards out, 3-1. It’s amazing how many times this year that Lambert has profited from the opposition keeper having a shocker but I suppose that if you keep shooting, you get lucky.

Inspired by their keeper, Hartlepool get annoyed and a bad tackle on Lallana sparks a 19 man melee, the net result of which was Hartlepool were down to 10 men after a 2nd booking and 3 Saints saw yellow, all 3 of which were not in involved in the tackle. Trotman showed great intelligence to run 50 yards to pick up his 5th booking of the season and a one match ban.

Kris (who can't spell his own name) then explained that Trotters would miss the FA Cup tie on Saturday but pondered whether this was the case as Preston had already said he couldn’t play in it. For good measure and great comic effect, Dave then repeated the exact same thing. Genius on the radio.

Anyway, game over, 3-1 win, back on track. Still in the relegation zone but with our next 3 matches looking very winnable, we should be looking to climb out and hopefully stay out. It was a gutsy win tonight in bad conditions, an ugly win if you like. The bad news from the night is of course the injury to Kelvin Davis but I have every confidence Bart will step up. I always felt he had a raw deal from Whisky George and he’ll hopefully get a chance to play a few games starting with the FA Cup tie on Saturday at Northampton. A win there and we’re in Round 3 with all the big boys and the Skates.

Well done the 635.