Premier League Match 34 - Southampton 0 Cardiff 1

The new range of Saints 'End of Season' seats were proving popular.

When we played Cardiff at the City of Cardiff Stadium, we won 3-0 and the fact that Gazza kept a clean sheet was much more surprising than the news that Malky MacKay got sacked straight afterwards.  Vincent Tan, Football Administrator Genius, then flexed his muscles and appointed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on the back of some success in the Norwegian League which is about the same standard as the Skill league where Pompey will hopefully be next year.  The Tan masterstroke has seen Cardiff go from ‘above the relegation zone’ to well and truly ‘in the relegation zone’ and now looking odds on to return to the Championship that they had spent so many years trying to get out of.

Talking of football administrators, it was leaked accidentally on purpose by the club that The Don was paid nearly £2 million quid a year as CEO which was higher than nearly all CEO’s of football clubs.  Ok, so we went up two divisions under his stewardship but another facet of CEO work is bringing in commercial revenue and it was leaked accidentally on purpose that ours was lower than all other Premier League clubs and .... wait for it.... Brighton and Watford.  What?  How is that possible?  The inference is of course that The Don alienated a lot of people in the business world and they wouldn’t deal with him which maybe goes partway to explaining Katharina’s desire to act and sort things out and now of course, the new board is on a charm offensive.  Maybe you’ll finally be able to buy a Saints shirt from somewhere else other than the club shop.

To the charm offensive and the club have heavily subsided the upcoming Swansea away trip so tickets and travel are a fiver each and also, they’ve secured a £10 a head refund from Newcastle who overcharged us in relation to their own fans in identical seats.  Top work from the board.  The next win will be the return to stripes for next season and let’s hope the spirit of generosity extends to Season Ticket prices being pegged where they are at the very least.  Living in a country where we have politicians who promise much and deliver nothing or who give something and then take something much better away, it makes it hard not to be cynical sometimes so let’s hope all these things continue and Ralph Krueger and the new board can really make a mark.

The new more open and approachable nature of the current board of course means more information is out there for the media to cut and paste and twist.  We have to publish accounts so the fact that we own £27million in transfer fees in the coming year was there for all to see but the media probably would have been too lazy to look for it.  However, Hans Hofstetter mentioned that figure as a headline so now that gets quoted as the figure that we’re selling Luke Shaw to Man United for.  The other headline he gave about ‘no need to sell any of our players’ was of course ignored.  It really is laughable..... and annoying. I try and ignore it but it still seeps in.

Back to the team on the pitch and the worst fears were confirmed regarding J-Rod’s injury being a ruptured cruciate.  Life just isn’t fair sometimes and he misses the World Cup and the start of next season.  These days of course, this isn’t a career threatening injury so he should make a full recovery and be a good as before.  It does however mean that we are more likely to have to suffer Danny Welbeck at the World Cup.  Who’ll replace him in the Saints side for the rest of this season is the question – it should really be Gaston Ramirez but the rumours are that he’s injured so who knows.

The team news is in and Gaston is fit and is the only change in the 18 as he starts.  Cardiff have picked a very tight looking 4-5-1 formation so they’re obviously here to soak it up and try and nick it so it will either be 0-0 for ages or we’ll score early and end up winning easily.

Cardiff have obviously won the toss and decided to swap things around and we’re kicking the wrong way towards the Chapel.  You can see how the pattern of play is going to be immediately as Cardiff retreat behind the ball and leave Campbell on his own up front about 40 yards from the nearest Cardiff midfielder as Saints pass the ball around.  The first ball into the box by Shaw is not dealt with convincingly and to be honest, Cardiff look there for the taking.

The first laugh of the day comes when we get given our first free kick and the Cardiff fans sing ‘same old English, always cheating’.  To be fair, they don’t have many English players in their side but there are certainly more English than there are Welsh.  We continue to create opportunities but can’t get past the last ditch tackle or block which inevitably comes in, this time from Cala as Sir Rickie expertly tees up Lallana.  It is looking like it will be a matter of time though but it’ll have to wait for now as Steven Davis actually has a shot but it’s rubbish and going sideways.

Campbell has already fallen over three times but the next time he gets the ball he is trashed by Lovren and Cardiff get a free kick on the edge of the box.  Whittingham has a go but Gazza is across to punch it clear.  Up the other end we create a chance for Adam Lallana who hits it as well as he hit that one against Newcastle a couple of weeks back but this time it flies straight down Marshall’s throat.  Marshall should really have been worked a few minutes later as a Davis cross was met by Sir Rickie but he couldn’t quite climb high enough above the midget Fabio and so the header flew over the bar.

Cardiff were beginning to live dangerously and a harmless looking ball was left by Marshall and both his centre backs inviting Sir Rickie to stick it in the empty net but Marshall took responsibility in time and hacked it clear.  Then Lallana played Gaston in on the left and his shot took a deflection off of Caulker and up onto the bar and away.  Bollocks!

Lallana was involved again for the next chance when he was taken out by Cala on the edge of the box and up stepped Sir Rickie to curl it over the wall and towards the bottom corner but Marshall had read it and got across quite easily to save.  The ball went across to Shaw on the left but his cross was shite and straight to Marshall. Another chance came and went as Lallana fed Sir Rickie on the left but he ended up poking a shot at Marshall which he clawed away at the near post.

Shaw is away down the left again and past the hopeless Theophile-Catherine at tight back and crosses it.  The ball is passing in front of Caulker and towards Steve Davis but Caulker sticks his left arm out in front of him, controls it with his arm and clears it.  Jon Moss is the referee and I tell you, he’d have been better off staying as the drummer in Culture Club and hanging around with Boy George.  How the fuck can this not be given.  Does he move his arm towards the ball... yes, does he do it on purpose... yes,  can I fucking see it from where I am... yes.  No penalty, fuck off.  It’s not as bad as the Bradley Johnson one at Norwich earlier in the season when he spiked it like a volleyball player but it’s pretty bad.

Every time Cardiff come forward, their attack is halted by Frazier Campbell who invariably falls on his arse under no challenge whatsoever.  It doesn’t stop them winning a succession of corners and on all of them, Gazza is decisive and punches the danger clear.  Cardiff actually committing bodies into our half allows us a break which ends with six players in the Cardiff penalty area but the ball is with Corky and he tries a shot.  Corky really shouldn’t be allowed to shoot if there are women and children behind the goal.

The half draws to a close and we go in at 0-0.  We’ve played ok to be honest with Gaston looking lively aside from a couple of loose passes as half time approached.  The lack of goal is a slight worry and I’m still shaking my head over the non-penalty which was ridiculous.

The first 10 minutes of the 2^nd half were scrappy with no change in the outlook of the two sides.  Saints attacked, Cardiff parked the bus and tried to get something going on the break.  Shaw lashed one into the side netting and then from a rare Cardiff attack , Mutch fired one in from 20 yards which Gazza punched clear in slightly unorthodox fashion.  I don’t care how Gazza saves them as long as he just gets something in the way.   Chambers got free down the right and fired over a rare good cross which was just too high for Sir Rickie who headed it over the bar.

Wilfried Zaha came on for Medel and had nothing to do with Cardiff taking the lead.  It all started with Jose Fonte who played a shocker of a pass when under no pressure to Chambers which was picked off by Daehli.  Chambers decided to wrestle down the Cardiff player who was going nowhere and give away a free kick.  Whittingham curled it into our box and it bounced around before Chambers produced a weak header to knock it out to Cala on the edge of the box.  He knocked it past two half-arsed challenges from Morgan and Davis before swinging a boot and giving Gazza no chance as it flew past him.  To be fair it’s a brilliant goal by the centre back but yet again – we’ve given it to them.

Having fallen on his face with no one near him, Gaston hobbles off to be replaced with Big Sam which gives us another goal threat and I assume means Sir Rickie dropping back a bit.  Also on is Nathaniel Clyne in a like for like swap with Calum Chambers.

Time seemed to fly by as we produced absolutely nothing aside from a lot of passing about in front of 10 Cardiff players.  Opportunities to shoot came and went as both Morgan and Davis elected to pass when they really should have just lashed it.  Morgan did produce a superbly weighted chipped pass which was met by Gallagher and Marshall spread himself to block really well.

With just the one sub left and some urgency being required, Corky is replaced with Guly, a player who wouldn’t add any spark or energy if he had 240 volts put up his arse.  I don’t mind him as a player but he’s really not an impact substitute.  We have another decent chance as an attack is cleared out as far as Clyne who takes it infield and shoots with his left foot, only to see Marshall fly across and beat it away again.

86, 87 and here comes the timewasting substitution as the little blonde Norwegian lad goes off to be replaced with Craig Bellamy which at least gives us a hate figure for the last few minutes.  The bombardment of the Cardiff goal consists of a corner which no one can get on the end of and that’s about it and the feeling that I’d had from 70 minutes onwards that we were never going to score is going to come true.

It nearly got worse as Zaha broke away on the left and managed to bundle past Jose and then evade Lovren’s lunge bofore seeing Gazza produce a very good save to deny him a goal.  The loan system is a continual bugbear of mine but I wish he played for us as he’s just what we need - maybe David Moyes will flog him to us to get him away from his daughter. The final couple of minutes saw us produce absolutely nothing and so the game limped to a conclusion.

Well that was shit wasn’t it?  You can divide the game into thirds – we were decent in the first, average in the second and downright shite in the third.  It should have been the Alamo after Cardiff had scored but we managed the grand total of two shots, one from Big Sam and one from Clyne.  Two shots in half an hour when 1-0 down at home to a team as limited as Cardiff. – that’s shite whatever way you look at it.   We all know however that we’d have won if we’d got a goal in that first half an hour and we would have done if it wasn’t for a fucking blind referee again.  How obvious a handball does it have to be?  A goal then would have meant Cardiff had to come out and attack and left us with more space.  As it was however they could sit back and let us pass it about in front of them.

J-Rod missing was huge for us, not because Gaston was poor (far from it) but we didn’t have any pace to get in behind them and we didn’t seem to have anyone who wanted to shoot.  Everyone wanted to pass the ball and we were always trying to thread a killer ball past masses of defenders.  Steven Davis drives me nuts with this – if he had an open fucking goal from 5 yards to roll a ball into, he’d pass it to someone else if he could.  The pace and width was all to be provided by the full backs and they both had shockers regarding crossing the ball.  Things improved when Nathaniel Clyne came on but it was too little too late.

It’s hard to criticize Mauricio regarding the non-use of young players but today really could have done with some pace on the bench in the form of Omar Rowe or Sam McQueen.  What was the point of Guly being on the bench?  He’s not an impact player and he’s not going to be here next year so why not give someone a game who may light up the place.  These games are hardly meaningful are they regarding our overall finishing position.

It was good to hear Mauricio in his post match interview that possession without end product was useless.  It’s good to hear him say that as there have been times when it seems like we value possession over everything.  Gaston played well for half an hour and then a few mistakes started creeping in as half time approached and in the second half he did nothing and got injured, again.  I have to mention Gazza in goal who had no chance with the goal he conceded but dealt with everything else with the minimum of fuss and made a very good save from Zaha at the end after he’d turned Jose Fonte inside out.  Fonte’s shite pass to Chambers led to the free kick which led to the goal so the Portuguese Man of War’s form is not improving.

It’s hard to begrudge Cardiff the win as they were comfortable in the last half an hour but it still probably won’t save them from the drop.   If they do go down, I’d definitely add Marshall to Caulker on the list of players who I’d be quite happy to see at St.Mary’s next season.

Next up we have Aston Villa away who robbed us at SMS earlier on in the season.  It would be nice to beat them next week, especially as they are getting that squeaky arsehole feeling that you get when you’re near the bottom, losing most weeks and teams are catching you.  Would I like to see Villa go down?  Oh yes.