Premier League Match 2 - Southampton 1 Sunderland 1

Di Canio's latest signing seen outside St.Mary's

Following our surprisingly good result last week, the pressure was on to follow it up at SMS against a Sunderland side which has been completely dismantled and rebuilt by Paolo di Canio.   Will he get it right or will it be this years QPR?  Either way, early on is probably a good time to be playing them before they all get bedded in and they had a shite result last week, losing 1-0 at home to Fulham.

Saints had signed Dani Osvaldo at the start of the week and the rest of the week had been taken up with bedwetting over some papers deducing that if Man United don’t sign Baines, they will of course sign Shaw for £10m.  Then there’s the fact that Arsenal haven’t signed anyone so they will of course be signing Morgan Schneiderlin and even the fabulously predictable Lambert to Reading and West Ham came to light again and caused Web Forum and Twitter Meltdown.  Talking of Twitter and meltdown, Saints have decided to put the official twitter hashtag on the seats so instead of saying SAINTS in white seats amongst the red, it now has a # at the start and an FC at the end.  The meltdown was ironically, with people who use the hashtag every day on twitter.  All a big fuss over nothing in my book as come half an hour before kick off, the seats are covered with bums and you can’t see it anyway.  It’s not like we’ve got a half empty ground.. talking of which, Pompey.  They used our own hashtag outrage to have a laugh at us and we really must try hard to think of something we can laugh at Pompey for.

To the teams and 17 of our 18 was the same as last week with Jack Sparrow coming onto the bench in place of the Little African Bloke.  Sunderland had some new players like Giaccherini who I last saw playing for Italy and Altidore who I last saw playing really really badly for Hull City before they were Tigers.  They had some of the usual subjects though like O’Shea, Gardener and Adam Johnson who really looked like he was going to be a special player when he was at Boro but he now looks like he’s going to be another ex-Boro winger, Stewart Downing.

Three generations of my family made its way to our new seats in the family centre Block 20 where we of course, came in from the wrong direction, causing about 30 people to have to stand up and let us in.  I could sense that my Dad was fretting about how difficult it was going to be for him to get out for his occasional mid-half piss.  Let me tell you though that it’s ridiculous how good the view is from there when you consider how much cheaper it is than sitting in the Kingsland Premium bit.  My transfer window wish of Lucy Pinder transferring to the seat next to me would have course happened if some random bloke with his son weren’t there already.  Never mind.

I was digesting my Pinder-less existence as we conceded a corner more or less staright from the kick off which was to be taken by Seb Larsson who I think is a horrible little shit.  Always complaining, always in the face of the referee with a face contorted in rage and also, not a particularly good footballer though it’s easier playing for Sweden when you have Ibrahimovic up front to make you look good.  Anyway, Larsson on the corner and it’s a decent one in the mixer which goes over all our players and lands on the head of Giaccherini, all five foot nothing of him and he easily heads past King Artur who hasn’t got a prayer.  Shit!

Straight from the kick off we can see what sort of afternoon it’s going to be as Sunderland get 10 behind the ball, leaving only Altidore up front who is built like a brick shithouse and is as mobile as a brick shithouse.  I’ve got a wardrobe at home that moves quicker than that.  Anyone who tells you he’s better than when he was at Hull two years ago is either going for wishful thinking or is slightly deranged.  We need to get back into it quickly and it spears we have as Sir Rickie slots J-Rod in and he fires it first time past Westwood…. And the linesman has his flag up, fuck it.  I’m up the other end so couldn’t get annoyed at the time but replays later proved it was very close – his feet were onside but his chest might have been offside.  Sorry but bollocks.  Whatever happened to benefit of any doubt to the attacker.  By the letter of the law the lino probably has this one correct but it’s a complete guess on his part – no one outside of Sunderland would have bitched at him if the flag had stayed down.

We’re being a bit pedestrian but create a few chances with JWP being at the heart of most things.  He puts a lovely cross into Sir Rickie who climbs and heads down in textbook fashion, only for Westwood to get down well and keep it out.  It’s my first real look at Victor Wanyama who is a monster.  When he wins the ball and keeps it simple then he’s brilliant though when the pass get more tricky he does tend to give it away again.  Also being viewed for the first time is Dejan Lovren who would have had Dave Merrington re-adjusting his trousers again after one perfect sliding tackle which dumped Altidore on the deck.  He look s a player does Dejan.

Referee Lee Mason is beginning to get on my tits with a continual stream of ‘nothing much’ free kciks being given against us including one against Sir Rickie for refusing to fall over as O’Shea barged through the back of him.  However, it was that massive thug JWP who was first into the notebook for a savage piledriver of a tackle which was a fraction late.  Should have been a red really ref, you bell end.  On the half hour he at least evened things up as Gardner clattered into Luke Shaw.

Rugby broke out ten minutes from half time as JWP delivered a free kick from the left touchline which nearly went straight in at the back post but only after Jose Fonte had been wrestled to the ground by O’Shea as he went for it.  Unsurprisingly, Mr Mason didn’t spot it.

It didn’t look like we were going to get on terms before half time but Sir Rickie should have done better as JWP put another cross onto his head at the back post but the big mans header was always going over.  Right on half time we had another very legitimate shout for a penalty as O’Shea again went Rugby and pulled Lallana backwards and over but again, Mr Mason missed it, as did the lino who had earlier decided J-Rod was offside by a millimetre.  O’Shea predictably had a go at Adam for diving which given Adam’s tendency to hit the floor is probably justifiable and so with just a terrible scuffed long shot by Fonte to come, we went in at half time, 1-0 down to a Sunderland side who were happy to just soak it up.

You never know when substitutions are made at half time if they are injuries or tactical.  It was obvious that a couple were going to be made as neither Clyney or Jack Sparrow were warming up with the rest of the lads.  As the teams emerged we had non on the pitch and the predicted 2 on the line and so begins the game of trying to work out who’s gone off.  Shaw was obvious… well he got clattered and after looking for and accounting for everyone else, I realised that it was Morgan who had made way which made me think straight away that it was tactical and that Mauricio had decided that Big Vic could handle the defensive midfield side of things on his own.  Also, Morgan had been average at best.  So, the Pirate was up front with Sir Rickie, JWP to the centre of midfield with Big Vic and J-Rod and Lallana floating about in the wide areas.

It was a new formation but the same pattern to the game as Saints were in control with Sunderland limited to very sporadic breaks upfield.  From one such break, Sunderland sub Lo Dove Wank mustered a very poor passback to Artur.  It was GOOOOAAA-FUCK IT time, straight afterwards as Clyne took a quick throw to Sir Rickie who expertly cushioned it back to Adam Lallana who let fly across Westwood who was beaten, only to see the ball curve away and miss the post by inches.

It had to be a goal as Dani Pirate won a bouncing ball on the edge of the box, turned and floated a lovely cross onto the head of J-Rod who does what he does best and headed it straight at the keeper from 5 yards who just stood there and caught it.  Altidore then went wardrobing through the Saints defence but as Artur came out in starjump style, I never felt at any point that he was going to score and so it proved. 

Seb Larsson, who has managed to not get on my tits for the majority of the game then surpasses himself.  A Sunderland player is injured (maybe feigning) in the left back position and Sunderland have the ball.  They attack and then lose it and then we attack before the ball gets fed to Sir Rickie who smashes in a good shot and the bloody eeper saves it again.  Now the trainer can come on.  Cue Larsson and his gnarly faced protest to the referee, presumably about us not putting the ball out.  Fuck you, you little twat – put it out yourself if you’re that concerned.  Mind you, as soon as we won it back the injured party got back up and ran into position.  Lee Mason at last did something right and booked the horrible little scrote.

Along with J-Rod, Sir Rickie was not having his best day in front of goal and another under-pressure heading opportunities went begging as he could only find the goalkeeper from Chambers excellent cross. With Gaston about to enter the fray, my money was on J-Rod being removed but as usual it was Adam Lallana who made way even though he’d had a decent match.  The Uruguayan enigma tried to get involved straight away but Sunderland were breaking the game up and slowing it down before di Canio made a bold substitution, removing Giaccherini (who was their only player to show any control) and replacing him with Connor Wickham.  I know Paolo is a nutter but in my opinion, bringing on a forward is a decent move with attack being the best form of defence and all not.  However, I am not sure I would have taken the goalscorer off.

Dani Osvaldo is goin to be an interesting player for us.  Firstly he took a rather pointless kick at Diakite’s ankle and was rightly booked and then a minute later he went in late on Adam Johnson and could easily (with a more competent referee) have been sent off.  On 88 minutes, he then went up for a header and O’Shea was finally penalised for one rugby challenge too many.  It’ s a hope of mine that we will get better at set pieces this season and JWP delivered a beauty into the box which was met by Jose Fonte who glanced it past Westwood for one of the most deserved equalizers ever.

With 4 minutes remaining there was only one team who were going to win it but we had to settle for a point though O’Shea getting a bang on the nose and crapping on about it to the ref afterwards was kind of funny.  Can dish it out all day but can’t take it.

And so we leave the ground happy with a result that we wouldn’t have been happy with at the start.  If we’d seen Sunderland equalize in the last minute then we would be gutted but this is ok.  It was a deserved point and it really should have been all three and surely would have been but for shite marking in the opening minutes to allow someone as tall as a small child have a free header.  Saints had no real flow to their game but you could see what was happening, particularly in the second half when we upped the pace a little.   There were good signs of things to come from Saints, particularly with Dani Osvaldo increasing the competition for places up front.  You could see how he and Sir Rickie could play together, Adam Lallana had a decent game and even Gaston did well when he came on as all the forward players now know that they have to step up.  In the cold light of day however, it is a poor result as Sunderland were a very poor side.  They may be ok when the side gels together a bit more but they look well short at the moment.  The return of Steven Fletcher cannot come soon enough as they are really going to struggle to score many with Altidore up front.  Home games where they have to make the running may be a tough watch.

Mauricio’s post match press conference confirmed that they were tactical substitutions so fair play to him for that and I have to say, I was impressed by Di Canio’s honesty regarding us deserving a point and more impressed with his politically incorrect ‘midget’ description of Giaccherini.  Let’s face it, Paolo is used to being politically incorrect.

Next up we have Barnsley away in the League Cup or whatever it’s called this season.  In my opinion we should be aiming to do a Swansea and win this competition this year but I still expect experimentation in the line up.  If I may play manager for a second, I expect Davis, Clyne, Fox, Hooiveld, Yoshida, Schneiderlin, Cork, Davis, Guly, Ramirez, Osvaldo with still no place for the Little African Bloke.

So, 4 points out of 6 is decent and leaves us in 4^th or 5^th place in the early league table which of course, is not important at all.  I think that with a little fine tuning, we’re going to fly.  In addition to the three new boys who are all going to improve things, we have the emergence of Calum Chambers and in particular, the development of JWP into a very influential player.  The future is definitely bright.