Swindon at home on a Tuesday night and a rarity for yours truly in that I was present for a midweek game. I’m not going to expand on that too much other than to say it had something to do with the Saint who drove all the snakes out of Ireland. Anyhow, Swindon, currently in 6th place in the table, having beaten us 1-0 in the 3rd game of the season – needed to be put in their place for Saints to have any chance of maintaining their slim chance of making the playoffs.
The team was somewhat predictable with Wayne Thomas coming in for the injured Otsemobor at right back. Pards resisted the urge to tinker anywhere else with Jaidi making his 2nd game in four days – it’s remarkable what competition for places will do for a players belief that he can’t play three times in a week.
Saints started by zipping the ball about and you got the impression that we were going to try and bulldoze Swindon in the same way we did to Huddersfield. One important difference was obvious straight away which was that Swindon had a midfield who could cope. Puncheon in particular was struggling from the start as he never got the ball with less than two men confronting him as Swindon were working so hard.
With Swindon winning the midfield battle, it was down to good old long ball to make inroads and we nearly did after Barnard was bundled over when trying to control a cultured punt upfield from the subtle left boot of Radhi Jaidi. Sir Rickie sized up the free kick from just left of centre and curled it over the wall and into the net in customary fashion. Up jumped the Chapel and the Kingsland before realising the ball had landed on top of the net, having cleared the bar by inches. As a fan, you always feel a bit of a plum when you do that.
Swindon’s ex-Poole Town striker Charlie Austin then took centre stage – first off with a flying elbow in Jaidi’s face which really should have brought more action than just giving a free-kick from the referee and then finding himself completely free on the edge of the box and dragging his shot wide.
It was predominantly Saints though and we again were standing up and shouting before sitting down again when Barnard laid back to Hammond who fired from 20 yards, against the post for Barnard to tap in the rebound. Up went the bloody flag - I think that this is the third time this has happened to Barnard since he’s been with us.
We threatened again just before half time when a Thomas header was parried out and Schneiderlin’s effort was cleared off the line. It was shaping up to be one of those days. We’d not played particularly well but had had by far the better of the chances. For their part, Swindon had dug in and played some decent stuff when they got the ball.
At half time I laughed out loud. This time it wasn’t the guy who makes animal noises through a rolled up programme but his mate – the one who spends the whole game whining ‘why did he do that ?’ and other such stupind questions. The half time classic was ‘I think we’re gonna bring on that Puppy Waigo’. He then repeated the same thing he’d said at least 15 times in the first half which was ‘Why is that winger (Puncheon) having a bad game ?’ Moaning bastard. Shut up you fool.
The second half started with Swindon having the best spell of the game, moving the Saints defence around and looking threatening with none of the Saints midfeild really helping out the defence much. On 55 minutes came the breakthrough as Austin found himself one on one with Davis who came out 2nd best as Austin skipped round him to score. It’s tough to have a pop at the keeper when a 1v1 ends up in the net but to me, Kelvin didn’t do enough. He came out too far, ended up outside the penalty area and then kind of sat down. Regardless, all too easy and 1-0 to Swindon.
Ten minutes later after more huff and puff from the Saints there was an incident in the Kingsland when a certain somebody asked ‘Where is Lambert playing?’ and a certin somebody else snapped a bit with ‘centre fucking forward where he always fucking plays, stop fucking moaning for a minute’. It wasn’t the most literate of responses I grant you though there were lots of people sniggering.
Swindon’s attacking spell was over and again it was all Saints but there seemed to be no conviction or belief that we were ever going to score. The closest thing came when Sir Rickie picked up the ball in the inside left channel and curled a lovely shot onto the bar and out again. By this time Waigo and come on for Barnard to absolutely no effect so Pards tried to make up for that by replacing Hammond and Thomas with Connolly and James.
We went with three up front and the idea was clearly for Lloyd James to get some decent crosses in from the right which Thomas is never going to do. The next ten minutes followed a similar pattern whereby the ball would be worked out to James on the right and he’d hit the first defender, scuff it along the ground or mis-control the ball. At a guess, 8 crossing opportunities resulted in 0 decent crosses into the box. At 1-0 down and having to win it really would have been better putting Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on, in the mystifying absence of Michail Antonio from the bench.
James contributed something at last by being on the receiving end of a bad lunge which resulted in a 2nd yellow card for Ferry and there was just enough time left for a Waigo shot to be saved and for Puncheon to put the rebound over the bar. Five minutes of injury time and nothing happened. Saints 0 Swindon 1 – leage season over, for us anyhow.
You could argue that Swindon deserved the win because they defended in a very committed way but the bottom line is that we had loads of chances even though we didn’t play well and should have won. There seemed to be an anxiety about us in the final third. For Saints there were too many poor individual performance with Puncheon being generally well shackled and Lallana being non-existant. Lambert is quite clearly knackered and only came to life in the last 10 minutes and Barnard was all effort for no reward. Schneiderlin showed up well but Hammond had an off day. The bright spark of the day was provided by Connolly who is a class player – if only he could stay fit.
Not a good day at the office but at least the stupid whining bastard who sits behind me was quiet from the 65th minute onwards. As I was walking out someone tapped me on the shoulder and an old boy said 'Well done son, I've been waiting all season for someone to say something to him'
Fine, fine, as long as you lay off Programme Duck Guy... He's too good to ruin!
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