League 1 Match 19 - Southampton 1 Wycombe 0

Picture of what Papa Waigo sees in his sleep

A wet Tuesday night and a chance to finally move out of the relegation zone. I’m not sure exactly but I think we’ve been in the relegation zone of whatever league we’ve been in for over a calendar year. Having been relegated last year, we would have been sitting proudly above the relegation zone on alphabetical order before this season started but we didn’t even get that respite because of the -10. One of the teams that would have been below us in the Alphabet table would have been Wycombe Wanderers and they were our visitors tonight.

Wycombe was of course the place where the managerial genius that was Tony Adams learnt his trade. The plan was to be a success with a small club before moving on to bigger and better things. What in fact happened was the complete opposite in that he was a disaster at Wycombe and then moved to Portsmouth.

To the team and Chris Perry kept his place at centre back with both Trotman and Thomas on the bench. David Connolly was again ruled out by his groin injury so we reverted to 4-5-1 with Papa Waigo and Lallana out. Another slight surprise was that Lloyd James anchored the midfield and Paul Wotton anchored the bench.

Saints made their usual fast start without scoring with Papa Waigo having a goal chalked off for offside (surprise surprise!). On the half hour the dancing man somehow lifted a shot over the bar from a Lloyd James cross when it looked easier to score. I’d have been annoyed if my 5 year old son had missed that. All in all, a very scrappy game was unfolding and Saints seemed to be sitting too deep which Pards tried to rectify, first by moving James forward to make a flat 3 in midfield with Schneiderlin and Hammond and then abandoning the formation and reverting to 4-4-2 with Waigo going up front and James to wide right. This of course is a tactical switch that would not have been available if Wotton has been playing. Though he is many things, a tricky right winger is not one of them.

Almost immediately, the tactical changes worked as Waigo latched onto a pass from Murty and unselfishly squared for Lambert give us the lead. Straight from the kick off, Wycombe threatened but this was snuffed out by a Perry block, prompting Radio Merrington to cliché us up incorrectly with “A team is never more vulnerable when it’s just conceded”. Nice one Dave.

At half time I receive a text from my Dad from SMS. It simply reads… Winning one oil, scrappy, cras passing. There should be an age limit that prevents old’uns using predictive text.

Saints fly out of the traps in the 2nd Half and Lambo goes close again. The name I keep hearing on the radio commentary is ‘Shearer’. Sadly, it’s not Alan coming out of retirement but Scott Shearer who is being a pain in the hole by saving everything Saints can throw at him. A double save from Lambert and then Lallana has Diamond Dave in raptures.

Responding to Wycombe pushing right up, Pards sends on Antonio for Waigo to give them something else to worry about. More chances come for Saints but Antonio’s composure lets him down as he loses the ball having tried to beat the entire Wycombe team for a second time.

Obviously wary of our tendancy to concede late, Pards brings Wotton for James in a move that clearly says ‘they shalt not pass’. Wotton is immediately into the action with a scythe tackle where, even if you were watching on a cinema sized widescreen TV, the ball wouldn’t have been in the picture. His argument that he was from a different time zone obviously worked with the referee who amazingly failed to book him. Mellis came on for Schneiderlin to run the clock down and despite the 4 minutes of injury time, Saints held out comfortably with Bart not really having to make a save of note all game.

1-0, clean sheet, out of the relegation zone. Onwards and upwards. The main things I’m reflecting on from this game are the Perry-Jaidi partnership at the back and the adaptability of the side and the manager throughout the game. Jaidi is of course our main centre back and will win 95% of stuff in the air. He turns like a very large tanker however so needs a partner who is either quick or reads the game well. Out of the three choices we have (Perry, Trotman and Thomas), I’d say Perry is the best bet as he’s always had to be good at reading the game to make up for his comparative lack of height. You could make an argument for Thomas based on the fact that he’s the quickest of the three but on the other hand, he’s the most likely to get himself sent off. I guess it’s nice to be able to have 4 decent centre backs in the squad as opposed to the Whisky George approach of having none. The way Pards switched formations today was encouraging as it shows he believes in the players and he seems to call it right most of the time. It’s obvious too that whatever formation is being used, each player knows his job and there are so many examples from our recent past where this has not been the case.

Next us is Walsall away which sounds like it should be another 3 points but then you see where they are in the league (7th) and you know that we’re in for another tough game. Connolly is expected to be back for that game so Davis aside, we’ll be at full strength.

Here’s a rarity… it’s a league table with a relegation zone and us not in it.

League One P DIFF PTS
19 Oldham 19 -8 21
20 Southampton 19 8 19
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21 Brighton 19 -15 17
22 Wycombe 19 -14 14
23 Stockport 19 -17 14
24 Tranmere 19 -22 14

Yeovil are 14th, 3 points ahead of us and we have a better goal difference. At risk of coming over all Michael Wilde… “Come on You Saints”