Capital One Cup 3rd Round - Southampton 2 Bristol City 0

8539.... MY ARSE!!!!

I shall start with a rant.

Anyone who has been following me on twitter will have seen me moaning off about the ticket prices for this game, which is when all is said and done, a Carling Cup game against a team from League 1 where will be playing our reserve side.  I’ve got two season tickets and of course, this game isn’t included so for the club to ask £18 for an adult, £14 for a 11-17 year old and £10 for a kid is in my opinion, taking the piss out of loyal supporters and not remotely encouraging first timers to come along.   In business you call it a loss-leader, meaning that you lose a bit of money short term but there is a long term gain – in this case, new supporters who will want to come more often.  Would we really lose any money with having cheaper tickets? – a bigger crowd would maybe mean more food outlets needing to be opened and more stewarding but we’d have a better atmosphere and more match revenue from the megastore and from those food outlets.  It really isn’t rocket science.  I know both teams have to agree on the prices for cup games as the revenue is split but I just don’t understand why clubs want to play in front of an empty stadium.   If you only get the money from your own sales then maybe I could understand Bristol City wanting the prices relatively high as maybe and £8 cheaper ticket wouldn’t have increased their demand that much but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work that way.

 I can’t afford it, plain and simple.  It would be £28 for me and my lad, plus my two daughters would want to go as well meaning an additional £28.  Modern football and modern life has kicked me in the balls on this game as I’ve just had a bill for the car for £300, plus the start of a new school year and all the expense that goes with that.  I would dearly like to go St Mary’s, especially as I’ve not missed a game I’ve been available for since I was 16 (28 years ago) but at those prices it just isn’t happening.  The line in the sand has been reached.  In my opinion it should have been a tenner for adults, a fiver for 11-17s and free for under 11s, which I reckon would have produced a gate between 15,000 and 20,000.  Lets see how many we get turning up tonight, my prediction is about 5000 so we could probably have saved a bit more money by playing at Staplewood.  Rant over.

Mauricio’s team shows 11 changes from the Premier League starting XI but is surprisingly predictable with the one wildcard being the return of Tadanari Lee who has been recently recalled to the first team squad having appeared to be right out of the picture.  The bench includes Omar Rowe and Harrison Reed again who came on to good effect in the Barnsley match and also includes left back Matty Targett and centre back Jason McCarthy.  Targett will no doubt be next seasons back up to Luke Shaw in the same way that Calum Chambers this year has become the back up for Nathaniel Clyne. 

We of course have played Bristol City a few times recently as we’ve travelled through the divisions and we’ve almost always lost to them, usually without scoring.  It is really of no relevance to tonight though as the teams have travelled on slightly different trajectories since the last time we played.  City have a couple of notable players in Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Marlon Harewood who are both wardrobe sized centre forwards.  Harewood is a journeyman but a danger nonetheless who was playing in the Premier League a couple of seasons ago and Emmanuel-Thomas was last seen playing for Ipswich against us in the Championship and being a right handful.  Sam Baldock is in their ranks as well who I remember from his Fake Dons days before he signed for Fat Sam and discovered that you can’t control a ball that’s 10 foot off the ground when it reaches you.

Nothing much happens for the first 10 minutes aside from Saints possession but Corky pulls out a sloppy one and sells Davis short which allows a City player to nick the ball and Jos has no choice but to trash him and pick up a yellow card for his troubles.  The free kick is one off the training ground that never worked in training as Shorey and Emmanuel-Thomas make a balls of it and it hits Lee and goes for a corner which comes to nothing.

Three minutes later and we’re in front out of nowhere as Maya pings a long ball to fellow Man from Japan Lee who has peeled away to the right wing.  Lee finds JWP whose shot is blocked but he heads the rebound to Gaston who just lashes an unstoppable volley into the net to give the keeper no chance at all.  An obvious reminder of why we needed him to come on in the West Ham game.

Gaston is putting on a bit of a show now and chips a beautifully weighted pass over the last defender to Lee who spins and shoots but the keeper has done well and got right out to him and blocks it away for a corner.  The Gaston show continues as he picks up the ball on the left hand edge of the box and lazily curls a shot just wide of the far post.  Any more laid back and he’d be asleep.  Tadanari Lee is also showing up well, picking up a rare straight pass from Guly and turning the defender inside out for shooting but the keeper got a strong arm up to save it at the near post.

Bristol City are dangerous though as Yoshida lets Emmanuel-Thomas turn when he shouldn’t have done and then managed to get the same treatment as Tadanari had given the defender up the other end.  Emmanuel-Thomas’ eventual shot was at the old Superkelv weak link of the near post but this time he blocked it well.  “He’s let them in before at his near post” says Merringtitus.  No shit Dave.

We nearly score three times in the last minute of the half as Chambers gets down the wing and puts in a shite cross which nearly drops in the net and the keeper shovelled it over the bar.  People were blinking in disbelief when the corner fell to Corky on the edge of the box and he hammered in a left footed piledriver which didn’t threaten anyone’s life in Row Z as it was on target and the keeper parried it out.  Even if it had gone into the stand as usual, there was hardly anyone there to take cover anyhow.  We got a free kick for handball on the edge of the box and JWP’s kick was headed back by Corky and Maya managed to head it over the bar from three yards on the stretch.

Saints start the second half well with Lee linking up with Davis down the left and his cross narrowly avoiding JWP in the centre.  Chambers then got to the line the other side and saw his cross cleared for a corner which JWP swung over and Guly headed it straight down and bouncing up to the keeper.

Something then happened and we went completely to shit and we had 20 minutes of that training exercise of attack v defence – they attack, go close and then we give it back to them to have another go.  Bryan fired in a decent low shot which Davis tipped wide and then Bryan provided a lovely cross from the left and Emmanuel-Thomas showed his limitations by using the wrong foot to try and turn it in at the far post and succeeding in poking it wide.  Reid then curled in an effort which Superkelv was forced to tip over the bar.  Another Emmanuel-Thomas cross fizzed over with no one getting a touch and Saints responded by giving the ball away repeatedly and with metronomic accuracy.  Superkelv spread calm however by coming for the next cross and totally missing it.

Mauricio had seen enough by 73 minutes and brought on Harrison Reed for Tadanari Lee who’s had a good game and J-Rod came on for Guly who hadn’t.  Reed immediately got on the ball and drove at the City penalty area and fed J-Rod who smashed it at the moon.  Reed then cropped up on the other side and curled in a lovely cross which was cleared for a corner.  JWP’s delivery landed right on the head of Big Jos who just planted it into the net to make it 2-0.  It was against the run of the 2^nd half play but the introduction of Reed and Rodriguez had definitely given us the initiative back.  Omar Rowe came on for Steven Davis as the clock ran down but there was only a few minutes left for him to make an impression and that was it.  I switched off Radio Merrington and didn’t freeze my bollocks off walking back across the Itchen Bridge.

Through we go to the 4^th Round despite putting in an absolutely shite performance for all bar the last 10 minutes of the second half.  A very spirited Bristol City can take heart from that performance as they played pretty well as Sean O’Driscoll’s sides seem to do.  In Jay Emmanuel-Thomas they have a player who can do for them now what Nicky Maynard and Albert Adomah did for them in the recent past when they beat us every time.  however, he’s far too good for League 1 and it’s a bit of a mystery to me why he’s there.

What we are looking for in these ‘reserve’ games is for players to put their hand up and demand inclusion in the league side.  Tadanari Lee played well for an hour and it makes you realise what a folly the signing of the Little African Bloke was.  Chun is a better footballer in virtually every respect other than goal celebrations and he has a football brain.  I’m not saying for a second that he’ll ever be a regular starter in the Premier League but he’s a better option than Mayuka.  Steven Davis had his usual busy game in midfield and was one of the few not to go to shit in the second half and of course, Gaston scored a tremendous goal before doing his usual 60^th minute disappearing act.  Harrison Reed looked decent when he came on and the only player who went backwards was Guly who was shockingly awful.

The official attendance was announced as 8,539 or in the words of Jim Royle “8,539?.... MY ARSE!!!”.  If there were more than 6,000 people in the ground then I’m amazed.  I hope that whoever was responsible for pricing that game takes a long hard look at themselves and sorts it out for next time.  I ended up being very pleased that I didn’t go as I’m sure did anyone who gave it a swerve due to the cost.

The draw for the next round is happening on Wednesday and we’re now in the last 16 and I really don’t know what to hope for.  Of course there is more of a chance of progression if we get a home draw and if that happens, it’ll be a test of the powers that be at the club to set the prices correctly.  As far as I’m concerned, anything less than half full and they’ve completely got it wrong like they did today.  Whoever it is, bring it on.

Next up is Crystal Palace on Saturday – Come to me Ian Holloway you West Country village idiot.

STOP PRESS: We got Sunderland away – rumour has it that following Paolo Mussolini’s ever so surprising and unexpected sacking that they may have Gus Poyet in charge.  That’ll be interesting to say the least.  To be honest, its not too bad a draw in terms of a chance to progress but it’s a shite one for travelling fans and a difficult one for Mauricio – 1^st team or Reserves or a bit of both….