EFL Championship Match 27 - Southampton 4 Sheffield Wednesday 0

Che Makes Himself Even More Popular in the Blue Half of Sheffield

Having had the best part of a two-week break from the Championship, we go again today with the visit of Sheffield Wednesday as the first round of fixtures repeats itself. In the opening game of the season, we have course had James Ward-Prowse and Nathan Tella in our ranks and we struggled to a 2-1 win at Hillsborough, courtesy of a late goal by Che Adams, added to an earlier goal off of Adam Armstrong‘s face.

Lots has happened since then: the aforementioned Ward-Prowse and Tella have both left and neither are playing in the upcoming AFCON, despite one of them declaring for Nigeria with that in mind. Saints have added the likes of Flynn Downes, Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Ryan Fraser to the team but more importantly, have become a proper team in the image of the manager Russell Martin and what is it now? 19 games unbeaten in all competitions.

Russell Martin had been nominated for Championship Manager of the Month for December but he didn't win it because Leicester got one more point and because it's Leicester.  No one should give a shit because who needs external validation for a 19 match unbeaten run - all the validation anyone needs is there in the league table.

Lots is also happened at Sheffield Wednesday who after 10 or so games, mainly defeats, fired the useless Xisco Munoz and replaced him with a manager who we know well in Danny Rohl, who was of course Ralph Hasenhuttl’s assistant at St Mary’s when he first arrived. A few weeks ago I was questioning why Rohl took what looked like a dead duck of a job at Wednesday but he has breathed new life into them and they are now showing the form of a mid-table side, despite still being in the bottom three courtesy of the Munoz start to the season. They have been picking up a few results recently against teams they would’ve been hopeful beforehand of picking up points against, but today is different for them as they are (cringe) playing one of the big boys of the division. Today’s result doesn’t define this season for them, it’s a bit of a free hit but it could make the difference between being just one point adrift in the relegation zone or being about seven if other results don’t go their way.

I was recently asked about players who played for both clubs and all I could come up with was David Hirst and Carlton Palmer from the 90s.  The most recent is Lloyd Isgrove – remember him?  Tiny winger who was never going to make it here, now at the age of 31, playing for Sholing.  He even had a spell at Portsmouth but never actually kicked a ball for them.  We have our own tiny winger now and he's a bit of an upgrade.

The transfer window has the course been open for nearly a couple of weeks and all Saints have done a sign a youngster from Ireland, Joe O'Brien Whitmarsh, who will go into the U21 squad, who had  game last night, with Sam Amo playing 45 minutes but interestingly, Tyler Dibling wasn’t in the squad so maybe we can expect some involvement from him this afternoon.

The Saints line-up was exactly as expected with Wee Man confirmed as the starting left winger.  Che Adams was restored to the centre forward slot with no shoehorning of Captain Jack into the side.  If anyone was wondering what Danny Rohl was going to pull at the start of this game then they got their answer straight away as four Sheffield Wednesday players flew in to the press as we passed the ball around until KWP knocked a ball to Baz and he took a horrific touch that Che Adams would have winced at and the ball went loose. Windass was taken by surprise and chested it down before Bednarek hoofed it off for a corner…. and we kind of got away with it.  This could be a difficult game if Wednesday keep this up. We don’t defend the corner particularly well either and Wednesday win a couple of headers before a looping effort at goal drops wide.

When Saints begin to play, Sheffield Wednesday drop-off and challenge us to break them down. THB chips are lovely ball over the defence for KWP on the right and his first time cross is met on the edge of the box by Ryan Fraser who volleys it down and into the ground and it’s actually going on target but he’s headed off the line by a defender. Oh, here we fucking go. The goalkeeper is wasting time for fuck‘s sake - with ten minutes gone.

Sheffield Wednesday are trying to play out from the goalkeeper but not really because if the ball goes to the big centre half Diaby, or back to the goalkeeper they just leather it up the pitch and we invariably pick up again.  Che Adams has an effort from 40 yards because he thinks he’s Pele or something. And he isn’t.

Half an hour gone and from an innocuous throw on the right, KWP hurls it down the line to where Adam Armstrong is on the move. He hooks across first time but Diaby has it covered, or rather, he does an impression of a crap ballet dancer and gets his feet all wrong, presenting the ball to Che Adams who dummies past the one remaining defender and buries it past Dawson who has absolutely no chance.  Off he goes, goading the massed ranks of Sheffield Wednesday supporters who were given him a hard time about having played for Sheffield United about 10 years ago.

Saints are flying now with KWP dribbling through a bunch of Sheffield Wednesday defenders before drilling in a diagonal shot which Dawson gets down well to push wide for about our tenth corner of the first half.  It comes to nothing like the previous nine.  Just before half-time and after a prolonged period of build-up, Adam Armstrong tries his luck from the right-hand side of the penalty area and it’s a decent effort but a couple of foot wide. Saints definitely looks determined to push on and put this going to bed but for now, it’s half-time.

No changes for Saints but Wednesday throw on a couple and show a bit at the start the second half with Bannon finding Gassama and then Fletcher, one of the subs, drives one hard and low and Baz saves easily enough.

Normal service is resumed with Smallbone breaking away on the right and his cross perfectly picks out Adam Armstrong who forgets how to control the football so has to settle for teeing up Che Adams who forgets that the goal is not thirty foot high as he lashes it into the Chapel End.  If the Chapel Stand hadn’t have been there, that ball would have landed somewhere near St Mary’s Church.

..And This One Wasn't Off My Face

Wednesday are now taking a few more risks but Saints break, which Diaby could stop but instead he makes another mistake and Adams sends Stuart Armstrong galloping away in the inside left channel and he gets his head up and finds Adam Armstrong in the middle with no one anywhere near him and unlike against Norwich last week, he picks his spot inbetween the goalkeeper and the post and the covering defender can only help into the net. 2-0 and you would think, game over.

We’re not concentrating from the kick off and Wednesday soon have another break and Flynn Downes gets back in trademark fashion and trashes Gassama on the edge of the box to pick up a yellow card, again. Windass smashes it from within the ‘D’ and it’s through the wall but straight at Baz he pushes it away comfortably enough.

Wednesday’s attacks get more sporardic and they end up in trouble from the next one as there is a quite brilliant ball out of defence by Bednarek to send Che Adams away and he plays it on to Ryan Fraser and his cross to the back post is met by Adam Armstrong but superbly cleared off the line by Bernard, to keep the score down.

It doesn’t take long though as KWP finds Smallbone, who flights a lovely ball over the left back for Adam Armstrong who drives forward, gets to the edge of the box before picking out a pass to Ryan Fraser running in and the Wee Man doesn’t have to adjust his wee legs stride pattern and just rolls into the net past Dawson. Brilliant goal, brilliant finish.

Wee Man's Gonna Get Yer

3-0 up and why not, it’s substitution time with Mara and Alcaraz coming on for Che Adams at Stuart Armstrong.  As they come on I’m thinking of how much of a luxury it is to have two Under 21 internationals from France and Argentina on the bench to bring on when the game is already dead.

Wednesday to be fair are still trying to play out from the back Will Vaulks tries and loses it to KWP.  He swaps passes with Alcaraz before having a little dart at the left back and then finds Fraser on the edge of the box and he pulls out a no-look reverse pass to send Adam Armstrong away, head up, low cross, Mara open goal, 4-0. Another brilliant goal.

In amongst the last of a flurry of subs in the last five minutes is Tyler Dibling’s league debut coming on for the Wee Man on the left wing.  First touch and he nutmegs a defender and sees his shot spin away for a corner.  He has a shuffling running style reminiscent of one of our greats of yesteryear… but maybe that’s just a conspiracy theory.

Hey Danny - At Least It Wasn't "Nein"

It’s becoming a routine now. One nil up at half-time, a couple of scary moments and then wear them out and bury them in the second half.  Sheffield Wednesday came with what looked like a game plan for the first five minutes and they pressed us aggressively with four players and from that they created glorious chance for themselves that we managed to get away with it, but then they seem to lose their bravery and just retreated back into their own half.  At various times they tried to press again but for me they kind of half-arsed it between both approaches and ended up not being great at either.  Once the first goal went in there was really only one winner to this game and the second half played out in exactly the same way as the second half’s against Blackburn, Swansea and Walsall have played out.

I thought Wednesdays physical approach was going to cause us problems in the first half, especially as the referee didn’t seem particularly interested in doing anything about it but eventually they couldn’t get near enough and their heads certainly went down when the second goal went in from Adam Armstrong.

And that’s what we have to start really, with Adam Armstrong. I still don’t see it sometimes and the first torch is often lacking and he gets knocked off the ball too easily but a goal and three assists in one game and nothing was off his arse or off his face today. What a performance that was.  The two passes for the two goals in the second half were brilliant in their simplicity. It seems to be such a difficult thing for a lot of players to do, actually pick out  team mate with a cross but the balls in to Sekou Mara and Ryan Fraser were a played in exactly the right direction and be played with the exact correct amount of pace to make the finish relatively simple. The assist for Che Adams, as mentioned earlier, was down to him being switched on from the throw whilst others were watching.  Oh yes, and he scored as well, with a finish that was placed past the goalkeeper into the corner, rather than just smashed in the general direction of the goal.

What I loved about our second half was that we were ruthless. Sheffield Wednesday had a couple of weak players in their defence. The left back was terrible and the big centre half couldn’t get near enough for anyone to use his physicality because he was too slow and he didn’t want the ball at his feet at all and we ruthlessly exposed that.

Ryan Fraser put in a ridiculous amount of work on the left wing and translated his effective twenty-minute cameo appearances into ninety of effective dangerous wing play, popping up all over the park and generally giving the Wednesday defenders nightmares. His involvement in the build up for second Mara‘s goal was quite exceptional and he again showed marvellous composure to finish his chance which he could easily have lashed at.

And what about that fourth goal? Win it back high, pass, pass, pass, reverse no-look pass, head up, pick him out, tap-in.  Love it.  It won't win goal of the season because those competitions can never look past a 25-yarder, in the same way that Manager of the Month awards don't look past the obvious.  Leicester lost today by the way. 

There were great performances all over the pitch to be honest and I’ll pick out a few.  THB and Bednarek are a Premier League ready centre back pairing and should we go up, that’ll be one position we don’t need to look at in terms of first team starters.  KWP again proved that he’s the best full-back in the league and seems to be playing at a faster pace than anyone else on his side of the pitch.  Flynn Downes again did his job effectively and won the couple of tackles that he had to make to stop potential Wednesday counters including a couple of efforts involving steaming in from half a pitch away and clearing everything out.  Marvellous.

Thinking About Counter Attacking Are You?

So, 19 unbeaten in the league and 20 overall and equalling the club record in the professional era.  We briefly went second for half an hour until Ipswich beat Sunderland but we are severely putting the pressure on now.  The team tasked with stopping us next is Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium.  Our away form and more specifically, the lack of goals scored on the road is the one thing that we haven’t fixed as the season has gone on so far so with a number of away games coming up, now would be a good time.  Over to you Russell.

Up the fucking Saints