Keane Smashes Hesketh. Note ball in different Post Code. Twattenburg didn't see it.
Since the Manchester United game there has been a bit of
a readjustment of expectations from everyone including Ronald Koeman but I
don’t know about you but I’m still pissed off about the United game.
Still, 5th we are, going into this game so maybe the spotlight will be off us a bit and it should fall on West Ham and it should be all their decent players getting linked with other clubs all over the place. It’s not of course – it’s still Morgan to Arsenal and Spurs, Clyne to Liverpool etc etc.
Still, 5th we are, going into this game so maybe the spotlight will be off us a bit and it should fall on West Ham and it should be all their decent players getting linked with other clubs all over the place. It’s not of course – it’s still Morgan to Arsenal and Spurs, Clyne to Liverpool etc etc.
Talking of Liverpool, which I like to do… wasn’t it sad
to see their Champions League campaign come to a halt when they only managed a
draw against Basle at home. Adam and
Dejan cited Champions League football as their reason for going, along with challenging
for the Premier League title. Never mind
chaps, you’ve still got the money, which is the one reason for joining that you
didn’t talk about. Do I have much
sympathy for Brendan Rodgers now everyone realises that he’s shit and got lucky
last season. No, he had a choice…
There is a surprise iin the team news in that Jake
Hesketh has got a start ahead of Shane Long.
That’s not as big a mystery as why Sadio Mané has got a start again but
another Academy boy plays in the Premier League. Toby is back in place of Maya and JWP is on
the bench. Burnley have Saints fan Danny
Ings in attack and other notables include George Boyd who I remember playing
against in League 1 days when he was at Peterborough. Boyd was their big signing of the summer,
costing £3million so they’re trying to survive using the players who got them
up in the main and should be applauded for that. Sean Dyche is highly regarded
as a manager and so hopefully they’ll persevere with him even if it goes pear
shaped. Oh, and Twattenburg is the
referee. He might have been right about
Lallana but he’s still a shit ref.
Saints launch a ball forwards to Pellè and when he doesn’t
win it, Burnley attack and Boyd slings in a good cross from the right and Ings
heads it straight up in the air for an easy take for Fraser. Buoyed by this effort, Burnley come again and
this time Ings finds a yard of space in front of the defence and pings in a
shot which is always going wide but needed a dive from Big Fraser to make sure.
Saints first decent move is to build up down the right
and for Tadic to switch left to Mané who runs at the defender and sort of
squirts it across the goal, neither passing or shooting. The keeper gather and
Hesketh slides in and catches him in the head.
It’s a clear fould and Heaton makes a meal of it and we get the predictable
over-reaction from the defenders and Hesketh marks his first start with an
inevitable booking which was deserved.
After a decent cross from Tadic was headed over the bar,
we try a new short corner routine to cover for the fact that no one can hit
them long and Davis works the ball for Bertrand to fire over. It looked nice but in line with all of our
set pieces of late – it’s shite and produces nothing.
After the Burnley over-reaction to Hesketh’s challenge on
the keeper, it’s no surprise that the next Burnley player who gets the chance,
Michael Keane clatters into the youngster.
The ball has gone and Keane has just smashed into him. If I didnlt know better I’d say it was a
‘revenge’ tackle and ends Hesketh’s involvement on the half hour. Like at Arsenal recently with Jack Cork, a
bad tackle that forces one of our players to be substituted, is not even deemed
a foul by the referee. Well played
Twattenburg you helmet. Burnley play on
and Trippier’s cross causes panic and the ball hits Clyne as he faced the goal,
comes off his chest and forces Fraser into a sprawling save. No one wants to grab it or clear it for a
second and eventually it gets wellied clear and Twattenburg blows his whistle.
JWP is on for his first game in 10 weeks and is quickly
involved as Graziano nods down a bomb forwards and JWP brings it forward before
hitting a shot that was comfortably enough saved by Heaton and with that, a
pretty boring first half comes to a close.
Burnley aren’t good and nor are we.
We start the second half well and Burnley are chasing
shadows as we pass it about. There’s a
lovely move with incisive passing and a neat backheel set up by Davis and it ends
with Mané showing his usual lack of composure and basic technique by leaning
back and lofting an effort over the bar.
Not only that, he took it off of Pellè’s toe as he was about to lash it
left footed.
Saints domination of the proceedings brings its reward on
the hour mark as Bertrand runs at Boyd and the scruffy twat sticks a leg out
and chops him down just inside the corner of the box. Even Twattenburg has to give that one and he
does. I know that Tadic is going to take
it – I don’t want him to and he’s not playing particularly well. I want Pellè or Davis to take it but up steps
Tadic and tries to slide it into the bottom right corner but Heaton guesses
right and gets down to comfortably push it past the post. Shit.
Tadic compounds the error by jogging across and taking a shit corner
which we eventually win back and the move ends with Davis feeding Tadic and him
scuffing a left footed shot wide.
We carry on playing decent stuff and another move
switches from left to right before Tadic finds Pellè, perhaps accidentally in
the box but he turns like an oil tanker and lashes on the wrong side of the
near post and another chance goes begging.
Burnley are trying to play though and work an opening for Ings which he doesn’t
quite get hold of but it still needs a save from Forster. Then JWP gets the set piece blues and after
we win a corner as Bertrand tried to hit a ball that wouldn’t come down,
Prowsey lofts it miles over everyone and out for a goal kick.
Burnley’s keeper Heaton clears his lines as he creams it
crossfield right to left and and out for a throw-in in our half in the right
back position. Heaton didnlt even mean
to do it and is apologising too everyone.
Clyne takes it to Davis who cushions it back to him. Clyney goes to smash it but is closed down by
Ings and the ball hits the striker and bounces perfectly for Barnes. He just hits it straight at Fraser but
Alderweireld does a Yoshida and deflects it with his heel in at the near post
past Fraser’s feet. Fucking hell. We’ve
dominated the second half, missed a penalty and they’ve scored courtesy of a big boot forward and a couple of deflections and it’s Ashley Bloody Barnes
who is a fucking carthorse, bred with a donkey.
He celebrates by cupping both ears to his own fans in the universally
understood signal for “I’m an arsehole”.
Saints get a free kick straight from the restart as Mané
gets taken out and JWP gets it right and puts in a lovely ball which Fonte
heads straight at Heaton. On 77 minutes
and about 32 minutes too late, Shane Long is on for Mané in an attempt to
rescue things.
People are getting frustrated now and having found
themselves in front, Burnley are now wasting time, especially that scruffy
little rat faced twat Boyd who is feigning some sort of cramp about three yards
in from the touchline. Get off the
fucking pitch you wanker. Twattenburg
should of course make him get off the pitch if he needs treatment, which he of
course doesn’t. Graziano decides to come over and help him off the pitch by
coming over and shoving him in the back as Boyd does what looks like a Monty
Python silly walk. Twattenburg decides
that he’s better actually do something and books Pellè first, then realises
that he’d better book Boyd as well. Well
refereed you moron.
Once we restart we win another corner which we again
overhit but we rescur it and teee up Clyney who fizzes in a shot at the far
post which flicks off the post and wide.
Bollocks. A big boom forward from
Fraser and Burnley panic in defence and JWP curls it over a cross from outside
the box and Big Vic gets his timing completely wrong and puts a free header
into the crowd. It’s not happening.
As Big Vic’s header disappears into the crowd, our
chances of getting a point go with it.
Bloody hell – this is a bad one and once again we’ve thrown it
away. More possession, more chances, a
missed penalty, a couple of lucky bounces of the ball and they score with a
deflection and win. Bollocks. The turning point is of course the penalty
miss and we as Saints fans are not used to missing them. Le Tissier, Beattie, Lambert. OK, we had a year of McGoldrick passing
penalties straight to the keeper but in the main, a penalty has meant a
goal. I have never been less confident
that we’d score since the McGoldrick days, as I was as Tadic stepped up. I didn’t like his penalty at Arsenal in the
cup which was tapped down the middle and whilst this one was better than that,
if the keeper goes the right way he saves it which is what happened. With the three penalty maestros we have had
in the recent past, if the keeper went the right way they just got their
fingers burnt as it sped past them into the net. 1-0 against this lot and they’d never have
scored and we’d probably have won by 2 or 3.
As it was, we let in another shit goal and were then playing catch up
like we have been in the last 4 games.
Ronald Koeman’s post-match press conference was the same
story as for the Man United game – should have won, sloppy up front, gift
goal. Sean Dyche was decent in his
appraisal, saying that we were a good side but Burnley earned their lucky
today. Fair enough – I don’t begrudge
him that but it doesn’t sit well with me that we’ve lost to a Championship
side. Make no mistake about it – that’s
what they are. However, they work hard and what’s not to like – I hope they
stay up and shit like Villa get relegated.
So, Sheffield United away at Bramall Lane. Three weeks ago this game would have been a
walk in the park but it isn’t now. Make
no mistake that we have to be up for it from the first minute and the first
goal will be key. No one apart from
Graziano has looked like scoring recently and if we go one down, there will be
a number of us wondering who the hell is going to score for us. I wonder though if we are prioritising the
Cup game ahead of the League game we’ve just played? Morgan is rumoured to be back for this game
but it’s Sadio Mané, Dusan Tadic and Shane Long who have to step up to the
plate. Maybe it will be Emmanuel
Mayuka’s turn to shine. Nah – don’t be fucking stupid.
Keep the faith…
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