Caulker scores, Disallowed for Dive on the left of Shot
The first thing you notice as you approach St.Mary’s is that
it seems to have turned into a kind of Cockney East End market with various
‘geezers’ standing there with arms outstretched, covered in half and half
scarves. ‘Get yer souvenir scarves… Europa League, Saints versus Maj, Matj,
Mayet…. Madg, Madjy…. Europa League!’.
No thanks mate.
Europe is a funny thing and you often head or European rules
being bestowed on Britain and us not liking it, especially Mr Farage. They’ve bestowed a new law on us and it’s
that you can’t take a drink into a stadium in a bottle. You have to tip it into a plastic pint glass
outside the ground and then carry it in, spilling most of it down your leg as
you try and put your ticket into the reader and push through the turnstiles. It is a completely ridiculous rule which
achieves nothing of any purpose aside from pissing people off outside the
ground and the stewards get flak. The 70-ish year old woman behind me gave it
“I’ve never heard such a load of bollocks in my life” as the steward explained
it. I dunno if this rule has been
publicised by the club but I’d suggest that the message has not got through.
So – Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round and a win
puts us in the Group stages which however you look at it, will be quite
exciting if we make it and we sure should.
Midtjylland are the Champions of Denmark who have dropped into this
competition after being knocked out of the Champions League by the Champions of
Cyprus.
In their ranks, Midtjylland have Tim Sparv who came up
thorough the youth ranks at St Mary’s before becoming disillusioned with Whisky
George Burley and his preference of Jamieson’s over Jim Beam and his preference
for signing has-beens rather than playing youngsters. I saw Sparv play a couple of times for the
Reserves / Youth teams of the day and he was decent and a big unit and it was a
bit of a mystery why he never got a chance.
So here we are for another European game and all is in
place, including a random kid behind me who thinks the back of my chair is
where he puts his feet. He’s kicking my
chair and I think it’s the drum pattern to ‘We Will Rock You’ and it’s very
annoying. Bring bak the Chuckle Brothers
from the Kingsland Stand – all is forgiven.
We have on the face of it, what looks like a more balanced team – Long
and Tadic have been left out from Saturday and in come J-Rod and Romeu. JWP is in for Steve Davis and Caulker for
Cédric, meaning that Yoshida has moved to right back. We have Cédric and Martina on the bench which
is a bit odd. I can understand Cédric
not being picked as the opposition are big and physical but why is Martina not
picked instead?
A reasonable start ensues but we’ve set up in a 4-4-2 with
JWP out on the left and Sadio on the right.
We create the first good chance of the game as Big Vic plays a good ball
over the top of the left back for J-Rod who takes it down well and is away and
heading towards goal. When a left footed
shot is needed, he tries to bend it intot he far corner with the outside of his
right boot and gets it horribly wrong and it just about goes for a goal
kick. J-Rod puts that behind him and
slides in a nice reverse ball to Mané whose shot is scuffed slightly and the
keeper falls on it.
The French referee is looking pretty good and he actually
gives us a free kick for Graziano being shoved in mid air which just never ever
happens. JWP attempts to make the most
of this rare occurrence and chips in a decent ball which Caulker meets with
plenty of power but no direction.
It’s a bit of a throwback to thebad old days of Wimbledon,
Sheffield United and Tranmere when Midjtylland attack as it’s a case of playing
for throw ins in the final third. Once
they have a thro in, the right back trots over to take them from both
sides. He has a stupid bun on his head
but he can throw it a long way and from one of these, Caulker gets it half
away, Sviatchenko heads it back in and Stekelenburg takes off to his left to
keep it out.
In the main it’s very disjointed as we seem to struggle
withhow we’re set up. JWP in particular
is looking like a fish up a tree but Romeu is coming into the game more and he
lets fly from 25 yards with a rising drive which just clears the bar. Matt Targett produces a run and cross from
the left which Big Vic meets and does what Big Vic does – goal kick.
Ronald decides to switch to our more usual 4-3-3 with J-Rod
left, Sadio right and JWP in the centre of midfield and we immediately look
better. A short corner routine worked by
JWP and Mané ends up with Romeu trying a curler from the edge of the box which
looked good as it left his boot but curled straight to the keeper.
Right on half time, Midtjylland build up on our right and a
couple of passes and their winger in acres in the penalty area. His cross is headed out front a central by
Fonte straight to Sparv on the edge of the box.
Time stands still as he takes aim and you just know where it’s
going. Bang, bottom corner, 1-0, shit! Sparv pulls a non-celebration which is a bit
odd but it doesn’t make the goal any easier to take. It’s another goal to put down to poor
defending with it being so easy for the winger to find space in the box and
José’s header going to exactly where they teach you not to head it on Day 1 at
Centre Back school.
Half time and shit.
Not the confidence booster that we need after the Everton fiasco at the
weekend. We do come out in the second
half and make a decent fist of getting back into the game, putting the Danish
team under pressure. Pellè shoots on the
turn which is deflected for a corner and JWP’s delivery is good and it is
nodded into the net by Caulker and everyone celebrates and the referee has
disallowed it for reasons unknown.
Having viewed the replays, there’s definitely no foul by Caulker so I
can only assume that he’s given it for the defender who’s hit the deck near
Fonte. Either way, it’s so unclear to be
fucking annoying.
We didn’t have to wait too long for our next chance as Pellè
superbly chested down a Yoshida long ball, JWP took it on and was tripped by a
trailing leg. Penalty. I was expecting JWP to take it by J-Rod has
the ball and is about to take it when we notice that the prick of a goalkeeper
is not in the goal but to the side of it having a drink. Everyone else is ready but this prick is
deliberately not getting in the goal. It
should be a yellow card or better still, the ref should just blow his whistle
and let Jay take it but eventually the keeper deigns to get in goal and Jay
sends him the wrong way. Have that you
twat. 1-1.
The rest of the second half is a mixture of chances for
Saints and Midtjylland players feigning injury so the trainer can come on and
waste time and they can get the ball back or give it back to us with a big boot
to Stekelenburg. They’re really taking
the piss. We nearly score on 65 as Targett
is brought down by Sisto and JWP arrows over another superb free kick and
Caulker is up again, flicking in a header but the keeper reacts well to turn it
over. Targett nearly scores himself as
JWP’s shot deflects to him and he takes it on first time but his left footed
shot flashes across the goal and couple of feet wide.
I’m all for sportsmanship and all that but I was spewing
when the right back with the bun on his head went down after a nothing
challenge and because play went on, the twat got back up and was on his feet
and playing when Midtjylland put the ball out of play. The twat then collapsed to the floor again
and the trainer came on and eventually of course we had the give them the ball
back. Fuck off! The bloke was on his feet and fine when they
put the ball out.
J-Rod is looking very dangerous and looking the most likely
to score but his number’s up and he’s off for Shane Long. We win a free kick about 25 yards out just to
the right of centre and up steps JWP.
Until he actually sticks one of these in the net for us I’m not going to
get too excited about the prospect of a JWP free kick ending up in the net and
this one starts off too wide and comes back in just enough to flick the side
netting. It caused some srangled
celebrations from the Northam End but it was never going in. He’s played well today and his set piece
deliveries have been good but he’s also off to be replaced by Juanmi
On 88 minutes, the referee eventually decides that it’s time
to book a Midtjylland player for timewasting and Bun Head sees yellow for
taking a week over a throw in. Too
little too late ref. To say I’m
irritated is an understatement and that’s only increased when Long cluelessly
loses the ball and then pulls the shirt of the defender who’s taken it off
him. I know he’s good as a sub sometimes
but today he’s been a fucking liability.
There are 6 minutes extra to be added, most of which was for
waiting for the trainer to come on to treat a non-existent injury. There is a bit of urgency but not enough
which means we’re going to have to face exactly the same tactics in Denmark
next week. The one chance we do create
is a deep cross from Targett which Maya meets well and heads against the
post. Graziano returns the rebound and
Juanmi tries a ridiculous backheel which only succeeded in taking the ball away
from Long who could have just brought it down and then missed, probably.
We had more farce as the Midtjylland physio and doctor who
were obviously well trained in the art of timewasting, came on without
permission when another player had yet another fake injury and the get ordered
to keep walking and off the other side of the pitch by the referee who finally
was getting wise to it. About an hour
too late mate. Final whistle – balls!
Not a great result on the face of it. We now have to go to
Denmark and 0-0 is not an option for us but it will be for Midtjylland so you
can be sure that that is what they will be aiming for. You can tell that’s on Ronald’s mind as well
as he used his post match interview to mention the referee doing nothing about
the timewasting that went on. The good
news is that in all truth, they’re not very good so we should be able to win
over there and get the result we need.
Timewasting is a nightmare and the biggest nightmare is that
it needn’t be. It’s becoming more and
more of an issue as it used to be a problem for the lsat five minutes whereas
now some teams start early int he first half. Why do referees all wait until he
last 5 minutes before someone gets booked for it? Tell the captains before the game that anyone
timewasting will be booked and then follow through on it and book someone even
if it’s after 10 minutes. Usually it’s
the goalkeepers who march goal kicks over to the other side of the penalty area
but today it was every throw in, free kick and players just generally
collapsing and getting the trainer on before springing back to their feet. It’s not just the lost time, it’s also the
disruption to the flow of the game.
I found this an annoying game and not because we didn’t
win... well maybe a bit because we didn’t win.
The starting formation was baffling with JWP on the left wing and Maya
at right back. Also, Sadio is not really
a right winger. It got corrected at the
end of the first half and we looked better until they went and scored. I thought our substitutions were baffling as
well – it’s like they are pre-determined.
J-Rod and JWP can’t last 90 minutes so take them off regardless and with
that, we took off the two players who looked most likely to get or create a
goal for us. J-Rod was getting stronger
as the game went on and looking very dangerous, buoyed no doubt by having
scored his first goal since the injury and JWP was brilliant on the set pieces
and was showing up well in open play a well.
It didn’t help that the subs who came on did nothing with Shane Long in
particular, being a liability just giving the ball away and fouling people with
stupid shirt pulls after he’d lost it.
The positives were the full backs who were both decent with
Matt Targett in particular coming back strongly from the Everton game. If you leave aside the argument of whether he
should have been selected or not then Maya was decent and got forward well in
the second half, culminating in him hitting the post in the last minute. In midfield, Big Vic and Romeu showed
glimpses of a good partnership which will of course only get stronger as they
bed in. I was particularly impressed
with JWP today once he moved off of the left wing. The set pieces were superb today and in my
opinion, he should be ahead of Steve Davis to play in that advanced central
midfield role. J-Rod took a while to
grow into the game but was much improved in the second half but that’s how it’s
going to be with him for a while as he gets used to playing again.
Roll on next Thursday and the return game which will decide
whether our foray into European football was decent or a bit of a damp
squib. Whilst it certainly won’t be the
most embarrassing thing ever to get knocked out, it will certainly not be
something that was in the script when we qualified. Keep the faith.
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