Pellè gets Booked for Yelling at a Ginger Steward
Two games in four days against Stoke would not be on the top
of most managers’ “To Do” list but here we are again. My opinions on Stoke can be found at the
start and end of Saturday’s blog…. I don’t like them.
The fall out from the weekends games involving other teams
was that Spurs lost again so to take the heat off of that, the London media fired up the “Let’s try and make
a Transfer” spin and bullshit machine again.
Pochettino wants Jay Rodriguez again for anything between £15 and £25
million depending on how sensationalist they want to be.... and of course they
want Schneiderlin.... and so do Arsenal.
West Ham are getting it with their players as well so we’re following
the well worn path of a smaller club doing well, therefore they must be slapped
back down. I’m sure there’s nothing
concrete in this but Saints got rumoured to be in for Harry Kane for £10million
from Spurs. I really hope that this is
someone at Saints putting a bullshit rumour out there just to yank Spurs’ chain a bit. I dn;t really want us to sink to their level but sometimes you gotta have your fun.
So, Capital One now sponsor the competition that in my head
is “The League Cup” and we are at the 4th Round Stage and win
tonight and we’re in the Quarter Finals.
Ronald has made 4 changes from Saturday with Shane Long, Florin Gardos, Matty
Targett and Big Vic coming in for the injured Sadio Mané and the rotated
Alderweireld, Bertrand and Cork who are all on the bench. I strongly suspect that Mark Hughes doesn’t
read this blog but he’s done what I suggested and brought in Diouf, Arnautovic
and Bojan and left out the Giraffe, Moses and common thug Charlie
Adam.
To my surprise we’re playing a 4-4-2 with Long up front with
Pellè, rather than on the wing as we play in the league. I’m expecting Stoke to come tearing into us
but they don’t really and the first real action of the game sees Morgan and Big
Vic sort out a potential issue in defence and feed Pellè. He goes left allowing Matt Targett bring the
ball forward on the left and slip it back inside to Graziano. He seems to be looking right to lay it off to
Steve Davis but instead, he smashes it from 30 yards and it curls round the
dive of Begovic and flicks the inside of the post on its way into the top
corner of the net - GOAAAAAAAAALAAAZZZZZZOOOOOO! As a commentator in his
Italian homeland might have said.
Stoke seem more up for it for a bit and pile on a bit of
pressure without forcing Fraser into any serious action and in entirely clinical
fashion, we take our second chance as a move down the right sees a wonderful
reverse ball from Tadic intot he path of the overlapping Davis and his pull back is despatched past
Begovic for Shane Long’s first Saints’ goal.
It’s nearly 3-0 and virtually game over a few minutes later
as Tadic produces a ridiculous sand wedge chip onto Pellè’s chest and he brings
it down superbly before pashing it over the bar. Stoke have the ball in the net not long after
after a long diagonal finds Walters beating Targett in the air. The balls eventually falls via Diouf to
Walters who smashed it over Fraser and into the net but the flag and whistle
had already gone so there’s really no point in berating the linesman you twat.
A great passing move with some flicks and general
showboating later and we win a corner which eventually sees Gardos nod over the
bar. Hughes did not look happy as the
players headed off at half time and I’m sure that words were said at half
time. At risk of sounding that I have
Merringtitus, the key to defending a 2-0 advantage is to survive the first 15
minutes without conceding a goal so what do we do? We doze off at a free kick on the half way
line which Stoke pass short to Nzonzi and then we allowed Nzonzi to run
unchallenged to the point where he had a free shot which he fired along the
ground and past Fraser and into the corner.
On first viewing I thought the big man should have done better in goal
and on second viewing later, I still did.
We have woken up now and Tadic is trying to put the game to
bed by setting up a 3rd goal.
Firstly he puts Long through but his effort is well blocked by Begovic
and the ex-Skate is at it again as Big Vic plays a 1-2 with Dusan and smashes
in a shot which he kept out as well.
Shane Long is really proving his worth. He picks the ball up
twice and starts running with it and Stoke’s 2nd half directive of
‘kick everything’ comes into play as he gets trashed twice and Stoke get two
bookings. 2 balls to Long, 2 fouls, 2
yellow cards, 2 shite free kicks into the box that are easily cleared.
There’s a casual element creeping into our play at both ends
of the pitch. Tadic butchers a 3 on 3
break with a sloppy pass behind Graziano and then we get really lucky at the
other end as Gardos gets caught in two minds as to whether to clear or knock it
back and in the end he just miscontrols the ball and Bojan is away and here’s
where the luck comes in. Bojan has a
simple pass to set Diouf up for a tap in but Bojan is shit and his cross is
cleared by José Fonte, much to Florin ’s
relief.
What you need when you’re chasing a game is a couple of
inspiring substitutions or failing that, Charlie Adam. He’s on with the Giraffe and Bojan and
Cameron are off. Florin Gardos looks
like he’s got his gaffe on his mind still as he initially does well to read a
ball into the box and then gets robbed by Diouf and again gets lucky as the
pass goes astray. Adam’s first
involvement is to take a hack at Morgan after he’s turned away from him. He’s nowhere near the ball and it’s
completely deliberate. He gets the
booking and then psses and moans about it.
It’s a borderline red card for what is basically a lash out at another
player. I hate players like him.
Another player who I dislike intensely is Jon Walters. Saints have the ball and there’s an injury from
yet another clattering. The drop ball
happens and Bardsley gives us it back but he’s played it down the wing. As Forster goes to get it, Walters chases him
down and Fraser wellies it into touch.
Walters can’t be surprised that it all kicks off and ends with Bardsley,
who’s not been at Stoke long enough to be a complete prick, giving us the ball
back again. More fouls as Long is again
clattered meaning he’s been clattered the last 4 times he’s had the ball.
The pressure is building though and Stoke win what seems
like 8 consecutive corners. Wilson heads one wide off
a Saints player, Forster flaps and misses another, Stoke take one short and win
another corner from it and then finally we break as a corner is flicked on and
Diouf has a free header at the back stick to make it 2-2. I’m not sure why Targett and Long were the
nearest players to the centre forward but it’s happened and shit, 2-2.
I’m sure all Saints fans are expecting Stoke to win it now
and we all collectively shit ourselves as Diouf turns and drills in a shot
which pings off the inside of the post
and across the goal. He’s offside and
the flag goes up but the smell of brown trousers is palpable.
Into the last 5 minutes and extra time is looming and no one
wants that, least of all the Giraffe. He
leads with his elbow in a challenge with Targett and catches him across the
chest and gets deservedly booked. A
minute later Crouch miscontrols the ball and makes up for it by catching Steve
Davis up near his thigh. What a dickhead
and off you go. There are no complaints
from the Stoke players including Shawcross (who is always in the referees ear)
which really tells you all you need to know.
So, down to 10 men when they had fought back and were on top and the
ultimate punishment is dished out. Davis
chips in the free kick which misses everyone except Pieters who doesn’t adjust,
the ball drops down and Graziano swivels and blasts it into the top corner, 3-2
and get the fuck in! He’s over the
barrier and in the crowd and there’s a yellow card waiting for him when he gets
back on the pitch. It’s a small concern
right now but he must only be one booking from a suspension. It does wind me up when players get booked
for celebrating with their own fans. If
you goad opposition fans then fair enough but I’ve long since given up on
common sense from the Premier League and FA.
6 minutes injury time!!! What!!! To be fair, we were
dawdling quite a bit at 2-1 and we delay further by bringing on Alderweireld
and Cork for
Gardos and Steve Davis. The only alarm
is a decent overhead effort from Diouf from the edge of the box which goes
through a ruck of players but Fraser graps it comfortably enough. We run down the last 2 minutes easily enough
and that’s it, 3-2, quarter finals, come on!!!!
It’s a bit harsh on Stoke at the end as they’re worked
really hard to get back into it. A quick
glance at their web forums shows fans generally berating the referee for not
clamping down on timewasting. I think
they should be thanking for ref for not overly clamping down on assault and
battery. Hughes obviously sent them out
in the second half to try and kick us off the park and it, along with pulling a
goal back so quickly, nearly worked. The
subs came on – Adam could have quite easily been sent off and Crouch was sent off. I’m sure the way they see it is that they
tried playing football in the first half and were outplayed, so they reverted
to type in the second half, went long ball and just kicked everything that
moved. The story of the bookings tells
you all you need to know as well. Including
the 2 bookings for Crouch, Stoke had 5, all for bad fouls, we had 2, one for
dissent at a Stoke foul and one for celebrating a goal.
Ronald Koeman came out with a couple more ‘honesty’
classics, basically saying that we deserved to win as we played all the
football, Charlie Adam should have been sent off and best of all, commented
that Stoke sent Crouch on (so they could launch it) and that was not the way we
like to play. Interviewers persist with
the ‘are you surprised at your start’ line of questioning. When is it not just a ‘start’? When will all the deserters cease to be
mentioned? We’ve won 9 games out of the
last 10. Imagine the collective creaming
off in the media if van Gaal got 9 wins out of 10 out of Man United.
The draw for the next round was made after the game with Chelsea being the team to avoid, closely followed by
Liverpool and Spurs with Bournemouth and
Sheffield United being the ones you want.
I was convinced we were going to get Chelsea .
Tottenham ..... no,
not them bastards, we always lose to them.... will play Newcastle .
Bournemouth.... here
we go, come on, come on... will play Liverpool .
Come on now... home
draw please... and Sheffield United ....
will play Southampton
You gotta be happy with that. Ok, it’s our 4th away tie in a row
but it’s the lowest ranked team left in the competition, League 1 Sheffield
United at Bramall Lane . A difficult game but more difficult than
Stoke or Arsenal away – I don’t think so.
Bring it on with a great chance of making the semi-finals.
Back to the league on Saturday and our quest for our first
title since I was a kid playing Subbuteo against myself in 1981. We play a Hull City Manchester
City
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