FA Cup 5th Round - West Brom 1 Southampton 2

Positive Commanding Goalkeeper Off Line Shocker

FA Cup 5^th Round and a return to The Hawthorns, scene of our 3-2 win from a couple weeks ago, which filled people with kind of cautious optimism, which was kicked firmly out of the door by our performance against Liverpool last weekend. West Brom are one of the few who have definitely been more shit than us this season. Having spent a fair bit of cash in the summer on permanent and loan signings, many expected them to actually do a bit better this season but they’ve gone backwards. Time ran out on Pulis-ball which it always does and they still are a team of that centre-backs even now, and of the stewardship of Alan Pardew who was appointed in one of those bizarre examples of a serial failure just walking into another job at the top level, much like David Moyes at West Ham.

Pards has not had a good week. West Brom were away, doing a bit of warm weather training during the week which of course partaking in some warm weather drinking and four players decided it was a good idea to steal a taxi and drive back to the hotel, many hours after the curfew for them to be back. Seems to me that the players were treated like adults and asked to be responsible and then decided to act like a bunch of twats. The Cab Four as they will inevitably now be known, stepped forward and owned up, probably stop Jay Rodriguez getting any more trouble with that 99% probability bullshit racism charge hanging over him and Johnny Evans, Gareth Barry, Jake Livermore and Boaz Myhill were the guilty men. As far as I can tell, no one has actually mentioned who drove the cab yet because I’m sure the driver of it had just had half a pint of shandy and was therefore under the drink-driving limit. You don’t steal a cab unless you’re pretty fucked up in the first place and you’re making alcohol influenced decisions.  Hang on…Gareth Barry? Mr Boring. Mr Grey, drab and uninteresting involved in stealing a taxi on a night out, A man who was probably brought to the club as much to be an example to the youngsters as for his contribution on the pitch. No, Pardew has not had a good week.  Still, they have the mercurial Daniel Sturridge on loan from Liverpool… injured…shocker.

Saints week has been pretty quiet with the only real talking point coming from Pellegrino Press conferences. He spoke of usual bollocks about learning opportunities, growth and acknowledged that winning was fundamental to a staying up. It’s a relief that he knows that being a man who is paid an absolute fortune for his expertise and then he says that some people deal with the pressure by taking sleeping pills.  I’ll tell you mate, if you sat the entire first team squad down for an hour and talked, not many would see the second half as they will be out like a fucking light.

Pellegrino had made some worrying noises about players with not been playing, getting game time in this fixture but in the event, his hand was slightly forced as Shane Long, Maya Yoshida, Steven Davis and Sofiane Boufal were all ruled out injured so the only change to the team from the Liverpool game was Nathan Redmond coming in for Oriol Romeu who has nine bookings and therefore only one away from the suspension, again. There were places on the bench for Sam McQueen and Josh Sims who probably deserve to be there anyway and also for Jan Bednarek.  The injuries meant that Pellegrino had less decisions to make and less opportunity to tinker with the team and I feel that this is a good thing.  The taxi incident that obviously didn’t bother anyone at West Brom too much because the two of the Cab Four who are fit and are regular starters, both started. The only concession was that Johnny Evans wasn’t captain.

The Baggies fans are clearly not in love with their team at the moment judging by the empty seats everywhere and their mood won’t have been improved on 10 minutes when Cedric wins a corner when a cross is deflected behind, JWP whips in an outswinger and all the defenders have fucked off, leaving Wesley Hoedt all on his own about 10 yards out.  He meets the corner on the volley and places it past Foster as easily as you like.  Hilarious.  Four centre backs in the back four of Dawson, Hegazi, McAuley and Evans and no one marking the tallest opposition player.

Another corner is won on the other side and this time it’s an inswinger from JWP and again there are free Saints players all over the place but no one can get a decisive touch.  Pards has set up West Brom in a traditional 4-4-2 with Matt Phillips and that nice bloke James MacClean on the wings.  MacClean has their first effort as he fires wide after being expertly picked out in midfield by Hojbjerg.

Saints are in control for most of the first half and Krychowiak, who must wonder what the fuck he’s done joining this shit show for a year goes in studs up on Lemina.  Borderline red card that one but he gets away with a yellow.  Bizarrely, he spends the next few minutes diving about as if he’s trying to get sent off but the ref decides to ignore it, probably because he’s already been booked.

Right on half time we get some ridiculous theatrics by 6 foot 5 Hegazi who loses yet another header to Carrillo and then acts like he’s been smashed in the face, earning a bemused looking Carrillo a booking.  Half time and so far so good.  If we can survive the Pellegrino half time demotivational team talk and not be fast asleep when the second half starts, we should be ok.

And here we go… it’s all West Brom and it’s familiar failings for Saints.  Rondon massacres Stephens in the air and flicks on and Hoedt does the Ice Skating Giraffe thing again and J-Rod is through but luckily it’s J-Rod post injury and not pre-injury and he screws a left footed effort wide with McCarthy getting a touch to make sure.  Corner, free header for Dawson which bounces down and McCarthy gets over to make a good save.  Two minutes later and Krychowiak stops diving on the floor for a minute and has a dig from the edge of the box which deflects off Hoedt but McCarthy is there again, changing direction to make a top drawer save once more.  Another corner and once more a free header for Hegazi which he flicks across goal with no one getting a touch.

And then… robbery.  A God Save our Gracious Queen MacClean cross is headed our by Bertrand and we’re away up the left.  Carrillo to Redmond, back to Carillo and he hoiks a cross intot e middle with the outside of his left boot and Tadic brings it down past the airshot of Krychowiak and then chips is superbly over Foster and into the net.

That’s it now surely… is it bollocks.  Almost straight from the kick off, Tadic gets run off the ball in midfield and Krychowick drills a long ball from the half way line, right to left to Rondon who just smashes it left footed on the volley and it flies in the near post to make it 2-1.  What a goal that is.  On first look I thought McCarthy would be disappointed but if so, he’s been caught out by a ridiculous bit of play.  99 players out of 100 would control that and the other one would probably lash it into the crowd.  So, 2-1 with half an hour to go.

In generally play we’re not too bad but we’re getting forced back and every corner is carnage.  Hegazi gets in a close range header from one and McCarthy pushes it out whilst everyone appeals for a goal which is pointless because of the goal line technology we have now.  Pellegrino now tries to manage the game and you just wonder what the hell he’s going to do.  Gabbi for Redmond is the first sub which is ok I guess – you could even say it’s an attacking move but it is removing the any pace we have in the front four.  It’s like for like Romeu for Hojbjerg next but the trend is now firmly towards our goal not helped by Jack Stephens having a 50p head moment and giving away a corner when unpressured.  Carnage again as a Hegazi volley loops up and hits the bar, falling to Rondon who volleys down and over McCarthy but Bertrand is there to head off the line.

Someone on the bench has recognized the lack of pace on the break being an issue and Sims is on for Carrillo and we immediately break through Sims after some ridiculous skill by Lemina to get away from 3 Baggies players.  Sims lines up Evans 1v1 and it’s TAXI FOR EVANS as Sims pisses past him before finding JWP on the penalty spot but under pressure, he can only smash the ball straight at Foster.

As the four minutes of injury time are played out though, it’s a succession of balls into our box and headers out and Ben Foster spends about 3 minutes in our penalty area.  Games are so much more fun when you’re not taking 20 minutes over a goal kick aren’t they Ben.  One final attack repelled and it’s all over.

Just before the end of the game, I saw a stat which said we’ve had 4 shots to West Brom’s 22 and they had a couple more shots in the last couple of minutes. Whilst you might say that you won’t win many games if you only have 4 shots against 22, today is one day where I don’t give a shit.  It’s a cup game, we won and now we are in the quarter-final.

If we could play West Brom every week we’d be fine.  It’s off because you’d expect us to struggle against a direct side but the fact of the matter is that they are really not very good.  Team at bottom of league in not very good shocker.  Saints players who stood out today were Alex McCarthy who was excellent in goal and continuing to prove many, including myself, very very wrong indeed.  Commands his penalty area well, light on his feet, superb reactions – long may it continue.  Another interesting comparison today was between Redmond and Sims – two wingers who have been out of the team for differing reasons.  Whilst Redmond was ok, he wasn’t brilliant whereas Sims was electric when he came on and to be honest, looked a much better bet.  We were apparently after a quick winger in January – well maybe we’ve got one already.  It’s the same as the Gallagher-Carrillo situation. Hopefully we’ll see a bit more of Sims between now and the end of the season and maybe that’ll pave the way for Jake Hesketh too.

There was an interesting graphic after the game – a heatmap of where the Saints players were and where they weren’t.  There was a gaping hole behind the striker suggesting that Tadic is not a natural 10 as he was clearly playing elsewhere, probably on the wings.  It looks like the one time he was doing what a number 10 should do, he scored.  Hesketh is tearing it up for the Under 23s in that position so surely he’s worth a look at, at some point.

As part of the ongoing campaign to devalue the FA Cup and not give a shit about supporters, the draw for the quarter-finals was made at about 8pm after Manchester United had comfortably knocked out Huddersfield. There were two 5th round games that hadn’t even been played yet and they were Rochdale versus Tottenham and Wigan versus Manchester City. Assuming that Spurs and City get through, there are four big clubs left and for also-rans including ourselves, Leicester, Brighton and either Swansea or Sheffield Wednesday. The draw was done in the usual way with two ex-pros pulling balls out of a tombola and what do you fucking know, all of the big four kept apart, like you fucking knew they would be. The last four teams were Chelsea, Leicester, Manchester City and Southampton. Chelsea came out first and then the whole world said “Leicester or Southampton“ and sure enough, Leicester came out, Leaving us with Manchester fucking City and not only that, we got them away from home. Absolute bullshit.

A Load of Balls: Warm Balls and Cold Balls

Even if by some miracle, the drawer is not rigged, there is enough suspicion around it now and enough people thinking that it is right to change the way the draw is made. Why not use The National Lottery machines to do the draw and have all the same regulations and safeguards around that as you must have around the National Lottery draw. If the FA want to prove that they are not a corrupt shambles, then why not do this to show they are whiter than white. It’s not an admission of guilt, it’s a change to allay fears of a very sceptical public who have no confidence in them. Anyway, nothing will happen and there will still be warm balls and cold balls and the next FA Cup draw, ensuring that as few big teams get drawn against eachother as possible.  I feel that we would have a chance against Manchester United or Chelsea and even against Spurs but Manchester City is about as close to unwinnable as you can get. And it has inevitably, put a bit of a downer on things.

And then….

Stop press. Wigan 1 Manchester City 0. Ha ha ha, fucking hilarious. So, the FA went to all that trouble to warm some balls up and freeze some of the balls it was all for nothing as Manchester City got beat by Wigan.  Hilarious and well done Wigan.  A talking point of the game was Fabian Delph getting sent off for launching himself what a human missile towards and opponent. By the time he actually made to tackle he was on the ground but he was completely out of control whilst he was flying through the air so in today’s rules, he has to go. Maybe the referees haven’t taken too kindly to Pep and Man City demanding to see all the referees about the tackling they were on the end of and basically telling the referees that they weren’t doing their job properly. Mind you, that is exactly the sort of tackle that he would’ve been moaning about had it been on one of their players.

After all that, we have an FA Cup quarter-final away at Wigan. Of course, it is easier than having to play and Manchester City but Southampton have a huge habit of having a cup draw open up in front of them and then royally fucking up with Sheffield United away being the most recent example when semi final place in the league cup was up for grabs.

Meanwhile, we now have the five games that will decide what division we are in next season, starting with Burnley away. The good news is that Pellegrino has admitted that winning is fundamental and actually quite important to whether we stay up or not.

Watch him set up for a draw now.

Stil, 8th and a Cup Final - still on!