Ronald only sends him on cos he's sat on the bench with his Guitar.
Leicester City visited St Mary’s in what is being called a
home banker by everyone in the media. As
a Saints fan who is at a point nearly 40 years after watching his first game at
The Dell, I say that there’s no such thing.
I get it of course that we are 2nd in the league with 10 wins
out of the last 11 matches and Leicester are on a downward spiral of massive
proportions. After beating Man United at
home they have been on a disastrous run and are losing and not scoring on a
weekly basis. They came up from the
Championship last season and the honeymoon period is over.
There are Saints connections of course with Nigel Pearson in
charge of The Foxes. He was of course
our manager during the Stern John inspired escape from relegation to the League
1 in 2007/8. His good work in keeping us
up was rewarded with Rupert Lowe sacking him and thinking it was a better idea
to put Jan Poortvliet in charge. They
also have Dean Hammond, the last Saints captain to lift a trophy who was a
player instrumental in our rise through the leagues. He’s surprised many by getting regular
appearances in the Premier League but he’s not been in the side recently so we
may not get to show our appreciation today.
At the other end of the scale they have David Nugent who is a total helmet. An arrogant tosser who had the kind of face
you’d never tire of punching. He played
for England... it’s incredible and he scored against us last time down here. He’s alright at Championship level but was
never going to do it this year. Taslking
of Championship standard players, Leonardo Ulloa did well for Brighton last
season and started this season well but with the downturn in form of the side
he’s now looking how I thought he’d look - very average.
The main Saints news this week has revolved around
international call ups with Nathaniel Clyne and Fraser Forster keeping their
places in the England squad to give Hodgson the comfort to know that when his
first choices fail, he’s got decent back ups.
It’s interesting that Lambert, Lallana and Shaw had to perform really
well and consistently for Saints last year to get in the squad whereas this
season they don’t have to do anything, especially (sadly) Rickie. Last year we championed him to get in the
squad ahead of other based on his goals and form for Saints but how can he be
picked ahead of Charlie Austin (for example) at the moment? Whilst we’re at it – how are Gibbs, Baines
and Shaw rated over Bertrand at the moment? Just how.... Andros Townsend,
Michael Carrick, Chris Smalling.... why.. just why?
To the game and a nice walk across the Itchen Bridge had
been enlivened by the rain. There really
isn’t a lot of shelter up there. I’m
walking across the bridge with a 69 year old and a 10 year old and it’s hard to
tell who is whingeing the most as I try not to listen. The Chapel Arms does not have the usual
overspill of punters outside due to the pissing rain and you can’t see in
because all the windows have steamed up from the wet people inside. It resembles a sauna from the outside. The team news is that we have changed just
the one with Sadio Mané coming in for Shane Long. Dean Hammond is not even on the bench for
Leicester which is where Nugent is but it’s a surprise to see Wasilewski out
there. He got away with a horrendous elbow
on Berahino last week and I fully expected him to be banned
retrospectively. Very odd.
Away we go and Leicester look like they’re playing with both
Ulloa and Vardy up front which is fair enough and Forster kept them interested
with a horrible scuffer of aclearance which bounced off Vardy and away. It’s us
who have the first chance of note as Bertrand got away on the overlap and he
produced a wonderful cross towards Graziano which he missed but we got a corner
out of it which was played short and worked back to Clyne who didn’t quite get
hold of the shot but it worked the keeper none the less.
A big welly and a flick on led to José having to concede a
corner and we didnlt mark up terribly well as Wes Morgan headed over. A few seconds later and we’re flying up the
pitch as another Bertrand cross is cleared as far as Morgan who plays Mané in
behind de Laet. His cross is blocked
straight back to him and he rifles the rebound right footed just over the bar.
We are a bit guilty of fannying around up front with players
trying a fancy flick rather than just taking a touch and passing the bloody
thing. Tadic in particular is not at it
today and every time he tries to play anything other than a five yard pass, he
gives it away in Gaston-esque fashion.
The final action of a mainly action-free first half sees
Steve Davis run into Schlupp and not get up .
He’s not had the greatest of games so far and hasn’t looked right all
game and that’s his lot as he’s replaced by Corky. Half time and 0-0.
One of the many things that I like about the new Saints set up
is that if we have a ropey first half, we will always do better in the second
with the words of Koeman in the players ears.
The passing is crisper and we cut though on the left with Tadic passing
to our own players including Pellè who lashes one just over the bar on the
turn. We then have the ball in the net
as Bertrand against gets down the left, totally free of de Laet and plays in a
lovely low cross which Mané dinks over the keeper. I had not even considered that it might be
offside but the bastard with the flag decreed that he was and later replays
proved the bastard was correct.
In a rare Leicester moment, Vardy tried to chip the ball over
Alderweireld on the edge of our box and Toby clatters into him and gets booked
which is ironic as the willing but limited Vardy has been kicking people all
game without getting booked. It would be
just typical if Leicester scored now but Cambiasso’s free kick is straight into
the wall.
With us not really looking like scoring, Ronald decides it’s
time for his usual substitution and Mané comes off to be replaced by Shane Long. To be honest, Sadio is a bit unlucky to be
removed as Tadic in particular has been a bit off today. Another who has been off is Ulloa and Pearson
replaces one ex-Brighton striker with another and Chris Wood comes on.
In the League Cup game against Stoke a couple of weeks ago,
Stoke had 5 corners in a row and you knew it was going to end up in our net and
sure enough it did. Today we have a corner frenzy of our own and despite the
corners actually being pinged across instead of being worked short, there was
no anticipation of goal and sure enough, we didn’t get one.
Patience was finally rewarded with quarter of an hour to
go. Big Vic clipped it to Corky in space
on the right and his cross was controlled by Pellè who held off the defender
who was up his arse and teed up Long who had came in from the right wing and he
curled a first time shot round Schmeichel and into the far corner. Brilliant finish from a player who allegedly
can’t finish. Get the fuck in
there. What have you got Leicester? Nothing I suspect, just long balls and hope for the best.
What they have got is one substitution left and they bring
on Powell who was one of those lower league players who Man United signed and
there was a massive fuss over him for 5 minutes before everyone realised that
he wasn’t that good. His introduction
was notable only for the fact that it meant that Tosser Nugent wasn’t getting
off the bench.
Four minutes later and it’s game over. Schmeichel wellies
one up the pitch and with supreme confidence, Bertrand chests it first time to
Big Vic. The Bigg Man turns away from a
half=arsed challenge from a Leicester player who thought better of it and
played a ball over the top. As the ball
dropped over his shoulder and he controlled it, Long looked miles offside but
the flag stayed down and he ignored the square ball to the unmarked Tadic and
slotted it in. As he wheeled away to run
to the corner, he accidentally and amusingly clattered into a Leicester player
who wasn’t looking where he was going and flattened him.
With the game won we dozed off and a ball forward was headed
back and suddenly, Chris Wood was clean through against Fraser. As the Bohemoth came out to meet him, Wood
calmly lifted it over him and we would surely be letting in our 6th
goal of the season if it wasn’t for the fact that the ball dropped 10 yards
wide. What a load of shit. That’s why you’re going down.
There was just time for one more incident as Big Vic closed
down Powell and took the ball off him like the proverbial candy from a baby and
sent Tadic away. His diagonal ball was
chested forward by Long and buoyed by the confidence of already scoring two, he
volleyed it goalwards and Schmeichel just got a hand to it and tipped it into
the side netting. A movement of the side
netting means that half the ground thought it was in but never mind, there was
no time to take the corner.
The ref blew the final whistle to confirm another hard
fought win without the opposition having a shot worthy of note. I like this.
I also like that Shane Long came on and proved to be the match winner
and therefore putting pressure on the guys in possession of the shirts. Ronald happy with the patience shown to break
down a resolute Leicester side who were never going to be able to keep up the
intensity they showed int he first half, for the whole 90 minutes. Nigel Pearson took issue with Leicester’s
finishing which was a bit odd. Ok, Wood
missed an easy-ish chance at the end but they were already 2-0 down and not
going to get anything so that miss made absolutely no difference to the
outcome.
Next up we have Aston Villa away – another side in a similar
run of form to Leicester and another side who really struggle to score
goals. You’d have to predict 0-0 or 1-0
to us as the result for this game. No
doubt Paul Lambert will put a gameplan into play as if they were playing Real
Madrid and the home team will mean 11 behind the ball and play on the
break. It sounds ridiculous but it’s
what they did against us last year at Villa Park. Following Villa we have the run of 3 games
which according to the critics, will find us out. Manchester City at Home, Arsenal away and
Manchester United at home. The two home
games should hold no fears for us at the moment. Of course, we may get beaten by these
expensively assembled teams but they’ll be worried about us at least as much as
we are by them.
Before all that we have an international break with two
England games. I’m very interested in
the Clyne v Chambers battle for the England right back slot and on Sunday I (and
Roy Hodgson one assumes) saw Chambers get ripped apart by Montero of
Swansea. It was embarrassing in the end
and I’ve never seen a winger just run past a Premier League full back that
easily and that often during a game. So
Roy has a choice – pick the player who’s been on fire all season and is playing
in a defence that doesn’t let in any goals... or pick a player who’s just been
ripped a new arsehole and could well have his confidence shot to bits.
I still haven’t got used to this lofty perch we find
ourselves on and am not for example, watching the results hoping that Chelsea
and Man City lose. As Chelsea were away
at Liverpool, I should have been wanting Chelsea to lose but it was against
Brendan Rodgers and Dejan Lovren so I found it very amusing that Liverpool lost
again. Rodgers reverted back to all the
players he ‘dropped’ for the Real Madrid game and they lost. When they took the lead through a deflection,
Rodgers stood there and pointed one finger at the sky like the Statue of
Liberty or something. Smug fucker – even
his goal celebration is that of a complete bell end. Talking of bell ends, Lovren – leader of the
defence – was shite again despite not marking anyone as Skrtel was the man
marking Diego Costa. I would talk about
Lallana’s contribution here but he didn’t have one as he was left on the bench
as 3 players came on to try and get a goal and he wasn’t one of them. Whilst I’m goading, it was beautiful to again
see Spurs lose at home with Pochettino calling for a change of mentality from
his players. I think you’ll find that
Spurs don’t change mentality Mauricio, they just change managers.
Anyway, Man City dropped points at QPR so we find ourselves
a ridiculous 4 points ahead of the squad that cost billions and 4 points behind
the other squad that cost billions. I
smile when we’re missed out of the list of Chelsea’s challengers and I smile at
people getting annoyed about it. I also
smile that we’re 7 points ahead of Swansea in 5th place and… wait
for it… I fucking laugh out loud that we’re 11 points ahead of both Liverpool
and Spurs…. All this after “giving up on our ambition – B.Rodgers August 2014).
Smiling.
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