"Don't Fancy Yours Much"
I found it slightly annoying that Leicester had Kasper Schmeichel in goal today. He got sent off last week and I therefore assumed that he’s miss the next league game only it doesn’t work like that. He served his ban missing a Carling Cup tie that he wouldn’t have been picked for anyway as Leicester made 10 changes. With a majority of Championship teams doing this, surely it would make sense if the league and the cups had separate disciplinary codes. When you look at the Leicester side, it’s good on paper with Premiership experienced players all over it and in Nugent and Vassell, an England international strike force. The England manager who capped these players was of course Sven Goran Eriksson who is now their manager at Leicester. For our part, we have the expected side out, unchanged in starting 11 or subs from the Millwall match.
In my world, today was driving across France day as I tried to get the family back to Cherbourg for a ferry crossing to good old Portsmouth. I noticed on the way out that Portsmouth looks ok from the water with the ships and the tower and all that. Imagine if that laughable floating football ground bollocks they came up with had actually materialised. They would have had to put some sort of protection on it to stop Saints fans throwing stuff at it from the passing ferry.
Away we go and Saints are immediately pinned back by a very determined looking Leicester side which means that you have to adopt a ‘they shalt not pass’ approach and ride it out which we totally fail to do as Fonte slips over when he should have intercepted a pass and from the resulting cross, Seaborne allows Vassell to get in front of him and flick it past Superkelv for 1-0. Shit. It’s a good finish to be fair but it should have been prevented.
It was all Leicester from then on in and Saints looked like they were going to be in for a right shoeing but us fans were given a treat a few minutes later when Skate Bastard Nugent had to go off injured to be replaced by the amusingly named Schlupp. Another 15 minutes of mainly Leicester pressure and amusing name or not, he set up the next goal by holding it up well and laying back for Wellens to clip home a superb shot from the edge of the box, impeded though he was by a lot of grass all around him with no Saints players in it. Double Shit.
I’m approaching Cherbourg at this point and the phone vibration in my pocket tells me there’s been another goal. A red light gives an opportunity to look and teach the kids some new swear words in response to Wellens’ goal and then another in rebuke of the impatient Frenchman behind me as I am a millisecond late away when the lights turn green.
Back to the King Power and it’s not looking good but now we have to attack and as we all know, we’re good at that. Harding started the move by carrying the ball forward and feeding Sir Rickie who played it to Lallana out wide where he takes on Pantsil. Now Pantsil is a Ghana international who played in the World Cup and has a few years of Premiership experience but after a couple of feints and changes of direction, Adam had left him sitting on his arse, giving himself time to pick out Harding who had continued his run. Sharp header, in at the near post for a really good goal. 2-1 and game on.
We’re still not really doing much better despite having got a goal back and back come Leicester with a Fernandes header and a free kick from Konchesky which both produce ‘one for the cameras’ saves from Superkelv.
At 2-1 down and going into half time, we had a decent shout of turning it around, especially with our habit of coming on strong in the second half. Just one more corner to defend – in it comes and Sir Rickie manages to head it past his own keeper from the bent-double position. It’s fucking ridiculous as the Leicester centre back Bamba is on his back as the ball hits the net. How the fuck is this not a free kick – ridiculous – Sir Rickie would have been less violated by a cavity search at a Columbian airport. So, 3-1 down at half time and chances of keeping our 100% start to the season are about the same as those of Sven getting a job at a club with no money to spend.
Nigel makes a change at half time with Morgan Schneiderlin coming on to replace Frazer Richardson with Jack Cork going to right back. Sven has made changes to the Leicester mindset as it’s clear that they’ve now been instructed to sit back. Some leopards never change their spots do they… remember that horrible exit for England against Portugal, Ronaldo and the winking and all that where we were 1-0 up and then Sven decided that we should try and defend our penalty area for 80 minutes. Hopefully the same result would happen here. I don’t get it, I mean, if I was playing against Saints I’d be looking at their line up and thinking ‘better going forward than defending so keep attacking’. I would not be thinking ‘sit back and let them have the ball and see if all their good attacking players can score’.
Saints take over at the start of the second half and it’s a procession towards the Leicester goal. Matt Mills is trying to win over the Leicester fans and justify the ridiculous £5million they paid for him and it’s not good when he flicks on a Lallana corner at the near post to Connolly at the back post. The little man stoops and heads in from about four inches off the ground to make it 3-2.
Saints are now dominating possession as the Sven tactical masterclass continues to unfold and Nigel throws on Steve de Ridder and Danny Fox (for the Gulyman and Harding) as it then becomes the Saints v Kasper Schmeichel show as we keep on hammering on the door to claim the equalizer. Firstly he saves well from Connolly who connects with a far post volley which looked like it was going to sneak in the near post. Then, following some really slick build up play, Lallana fastens onto a Connolly pass and tries to curl it round keeper but he sticks a foot out and saves again. The final minutes brings the final chance as Lallana connects with a cross from Danny Fox at point blank range but the bastard gets in the way again.
The game ends and we’ve lost – was always going to happen one day. Personally I’m not that bothered because we played pretty well for the second half especially and on another day, we wouldn’t have come up against a keeper having the game of his life and we’d have turned it around. Again though, there was more evidence for the case of getting in a new centre back and the way we defended in the first half was pretty average at best. Down to second in the league to be replaced at the summit by our good friends from down the coast, Brighton and Gus the Ungracious who lead us by a point. I can’t be arsed to look but I bet their web forums will be full of ‘can you keep up’ shit.
As we all know, Brighton love our manager but I thought Nigel Adkins gave an object lesson in how to accept a defeat in his interview. No excuses, no ranting at the referee, no accusing the opposition of playing like Dagenham and Redbridge - just a calm acceptance of what had occurred. When you have a manager who sees it as it actually is, like he’s actually watched the same game as the supporters and doesn’t talk bollocks and talk up his side even though they were shit (Wenger), it gives you confidence that he’ll learn the lessons required and sort it out.
Next up we have an interesting Carling Cup 2nd Round game away at Swindon, managed by Paolo Referee Pushing Fascist Saluting Nutjob Di Canio. It’s more interesting than it would be otherwise as we’ve got a home draw in the 3rd Round against either Charlton or Preston, both from League 1. Having got beat today, maybe we won’t put the reserves out but somehow I expect we will.
As for Sven, well he’d had a good day and managed to win his first home game despite nearly throwing it away with his negativity. I expect he gave Faria or Nancy or Ulrika a bell on the way home and got himself sorted. What’s not to like?
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