Premier League Match 10 - Hull 0 Southampton 1

One does not simply stop Victor Wanyama

I don’t want to sound arrogant about my team because it usually bites you in the arse…. but last year when we came to Hull, I knew we were going to win.  We were playing well and Hull were, quite frankly, a bit dodgy – not really in relegation danger so not fighting for their lives but not very good either.  We duly won with a José Fonte goal which was given by the goal line technology.  This year is a bit different though as in my opinion, Steve Bruce has done a superb job in recruiting quality players who should mean that Hull are nowhere near the relegation zone.  They lost Shane Long to our good selves but invested wisely and brought in Abel Hernandez, Hatem Ben Arfa, Mohammed Diame and perennial sub Gaston Ramirez who has now added Hull to his list of ‘benches I have sat on’.  They still seem to struggle to score goals a bit but they’re hard to beat and recent draws away at both Arsenal and Liverpool prove this point.

Talking of Liverpool – the early game of the day saw them play away at Newcastle and get beaten 1-0.   The defender who left us because we had no ambition again played like someone who had never played football before and the pièce-de-résistance was him being involved in a 50-50 challenge and bottling it.  Then there was Mr IQ who as we know, can only play 60 minutes at the most so Brendan Rodgers has the choice of sitting him on the bench at the start of a game or at the end.  This time though he decided that even at 1-0 down that he had better options to try and rescue the game than bringing on our former captain.  Instead, one of those he sent on was Rickie Lambert who has yet to score for Liverpool which is not surprising because he’s hardly played.  Anyone who watched Saints for the last few years, knows that Rickie needs regular games or else his sharpness goes.  Brendan Rodgers knows that but instead he picks Balotelli every game who does nothing.  If Rickie had moved anywhere other than his boyhood club, this move would be seen as a complete disaster.  To be honest, it is anyway.

Anyway, enough of that mid-table team.  We  have a mid-table team to play ourselves today in Hull.  The teamsheets reveal that our double encounter with Stoke hasn’t left any casualties despite Charlie Adam’s efforts and the only changes see Toby Alderweireld return in place of Florin Gardos and Ryan Bertrand come in for Matt Targett.  Sadio Mané has shaken off the ankle knock from the first Stoke game and is on the bench with Shane Long keeping his place against his former club who he made a whole 15 appearances for.  Hull have Hernandez up front, supported by Ben Arfa with a decent looking midfield 3 of Diame, Livermore and Huddlestone.  Huddlestone gets touted for England occasionally.  Every time I see him he can’t handle it when the opposition midfield close him down quickly and ends up wellying the ball in random fashion.  Hopefully he’s like that today.  In defence they have Paul McShane who is one of those players about whom you have no idea how they’ve made a living out of playing football.

Away we go and it takes all of 3 minutes for the game to come to life and how.  Brady, under pressure from Tadic, knocked a back pass to Jakupovic who had a good looking Italian bloke bearing down on him so he panicked and scuffed his clearance along the ground and from fully 40 yards, Big Vic smashes it first time and it sailed over everyone and straight into the middle of the goal just under the bar.  It’s a brilliant finish and there is no way Vic is going to pull the ‘cool’ goalscoring celebration as he did at Swansea.  He’s off to the corner flag and no one can catch him and no one can quite believe it.  If you tried that 10 times you’d miss the lot but he’s caught it perfectly and it’s just sailed in perfectly with the keeper nowhere.

Unusual goals always seem to make everyone take stock for a few minutes and we’re not at it after the restart and Hull are on top without producing anything.  A cross is fired across the box after a Diame run which Bertrand clears and Hatem Ben Arfa manages to wriggle free but his shot from the edge of the box is straight at Fraser.  The dozing off continues and we piss about rather than clearing the ball and allow Hull to put us under pressure.

On the half hour we build up well and Pellè puts Long away clear on the left.  The ball is bouncing and Jakupovic decides the best course of action, after making a bollock of the first goal is to come charging out like a twat.  Like with Big Vic earlier, Shane’s mind is made up for him and he tries a long range header over the keeper which luckily for Hull both drifts off target and doesn’t find another Saints player who would have an open goal.

Jakupovic redeems himself as the clock winds down to half time as a flowing move ends with Davis expertly sliding a ball inside the right back to Long but the keeper is out to block well as Shane gets his shot in.  It’s half time and we are winning and the world is a happy place.

The opening period of the second half sees Saints in total control.  Whatever has been said by Bruce at half time has not worked unless it was “sit back and try and keep the score down”.  We have a great chance to make it 2-0 but it falls to the wrong man and that’s Steve Davis of course.  Davis himself feeds Tadic who crosses it in from the left and Graziano tries a ridiculously optimistic overhead kick which he fails to make proper contact with but the ball hits a defender and bounces across the goal to where Davis has sidled into the box.  He tries to flick it past the keeper but he’s pulled a star jump and it’s hit his arm and gone for a corner while everyone looks for an offside flag which doesn’t appear.

Shane Long’s afternoon of hustling and harrying his former team mates is over on the hour mark and Sadio Mané is on.  The new man’s impact is almost instant as Dusan does the full back down the right and whips a cross between the keeper and defenders.  In comes Sadio and it’s a sitter on his left foot which he meets and it bounces down and over the bar.  Fucking hell!!!  You’re hoping that later replays will show that a defender got a touch or it took a bobble and he has some kind of excuse but no – it was just shite.

Even with Hull creating absolutely nothing aside from a hilarious attempted overhead kick by Hernandez which sailed into Row Z, Ronald decides to shore it up replacing Dusan Tadic with Corky with Steve Davis moving to the right wing.  Of course, any nerves could be settled once and for all if we actually managed to stick another one in the net ourselves but after a lovely move up the right, Davis pulls it back to Graziano who bangs it the wrong side of the near post as every Saints fan in the ground or watching TV shouted ‘GOOOAAAA-SHIIIT’ or something like that. 

As last week in the Stoke league game, Hull are creating nothing but you’re still nervous.  They look devoid of any attacking ideas though as illustrated when a ball finds its way out to Robertson on the left who lashes it miles over the bar rather than try and find any of the 6 or so Hull players in the penalty area.

The next action is Davis breaking with the ball and only Corky and a couple of Hull defenders for company.  As we all know, Davo is a wonderful footballer but his abilities decrease the further up the pitch he gets so it’s no surprise when he chooses the wrong option and lashes it over the bar as Corky held his head in his hands.  You know what? It doesn’t matter.

Full time and another three points, this time, gained from a thoroughly controlled performance.  We’ve basically defended a lead for 87 minutes without conceding a shot – Fraser would not have got his kit dirty, such was the job that the players in front of him did.  I have never known a Saints side defence a one goal lead with such ease.  Part of this was down to Hull not having much up front but a lot is down to the fact that we didn’t let them have a sniff of anything.  The only criticism is that we didn’t put the game to bed with a second goal with Davis, Mané and Pellè all guilty.  To complain would be churlish though – we’ve had three games in a week, two of which were against a very physical Stoke, two of which were away at pretty inhospitable grounds and we’ve won the lot.  You can’t ask for more.

Steve Bruce was his usual fair self in the interview, bemoaning the goal from their point of view but acknowledging what a finish it was and how good a side we are.  Ronald Koeman was all over Big Vic’s goal and also his general play which was superb.  Along with Morgan and Davo he bossed the centre of the park.  Hull are no mugs in there with Livermore, Huddlestone and Diame but Big Vic was the main man as he broke up the play and kept the ball moving.

The back 4 of Bertrand, Alderweireld, Fonte and Clyne were magnificent, as was the midfield in front of them.  Clyney was highlighted on Match of the Day for both his attacking and his defensive play so even if the old duffer Hodgson (who was at the game) doesn’t realise how good he is, there’s a nice highlights package for him to watch.  No doubt there’s another centre back he wants to try at right back in the next England games though.  Glen Johnson is fit again though and he’s just brilliant (***extreme sarcasm alert ***).

It was left to José Mourinho to acknowledge how well we’re doing when he was asked about being 9 points ahead of Manchester City and he replied with words to the effect of only being 4 ahead of Southampton who just keep winning.  Yes we do, 10 times in the last 11 games.  Yep, we’re still 2^nd and after Sunday’s Manchester Derby win, we’re 2 points ahead of Manchester City. 

Next up we have Leicester at home who are near the bottom of the current form table.  Potential banana skin perhaps but we really should be winning this game as we welcome both Nigel Pearson and Dean Hammond back to St Mary’s ... oh... and that complete cock David Nugent.  Bring it on.