Carabao Cup 4th Round - Southampton 3 Stoke City 2

With a Roar That Was Heard in The Welsh Mining Village

Carabao Cup 4th Round at home to Stoke and for the winner, a place in the quarter-final. It’s a game that has many sub-plots to it, not least the fact that Russell Martin really needs to win this game because a defeat here would really see a lot of the fan base given more cause to point a finger at him. A lot of that fanbase won’t be present tonight because as I write, ticket sales have not been great. I get it if you live out of town because travelling to mid-week games can be an absolute pain in the arse with Southampton seemingly infested with roadworks and train cancellations. There is also the idea the Carabao Cup in particular has become so devalued over the years with Premier League clubs in particular playing fringe players in all rounds up until the quarter-final or semi-final and of course it’s extra money on top of the season ticket.

Stoke aren’t doing particularly well in the Championship this season and currently sit 19th, just the five places above Portsmouth, who they had their last win against which was a very enjoyable watch as they won 6-1. It was a shame they took the foot off the gas in the last half an hour to be honest. Since then though, Stoke have not managed another win in four attempts which is usually enough of a drop in form for them to sack their manager like they have done once already this season with Stephen Schumacher departing after just a few games.  In that regard they certainly seem to be the Watford of the North. We played them twice last year reason of course.  Our away win at the Britannia was against Alex Neil, our home defeat was against Stephen Schumacher and this game is against Narcis Pelach.  They up a few familiar players with Sam Gallagher now playing for them and he is usually upfront alongside Tom Cannon who they got on loan from Leicester at the start of season, who scored four goals in the aforementioned defeat of our nearest and dearest. They also have Lewis Koumas on loan from Liverpool, who scored against us in the FA Cup last season when Liverpool put out of team with an average age of 17 and still beat us comfortably.

Russell Martin seems to be aware of the importance of winning this game and has said post Manchester City that would we be going with a strong lineup for this game and it wouldn’t be 11 changes or anything like that. I’m not convinced to be honest because the likes of Adam Armstrong, Tall Paul, Ben Brereton-Diaz, Ryan Fraser, Max Cornet, Big Les, Joe Aribo, Charlie Taylor and Alex McCarthy would be looking to be playing in this game.

As it was, it was six changes with Wee Man, Arma, Aribo, Big Les, Sugawara and Bree all starting in front of a half full St Mary’s.

It really is like the majority of our Championship home games last season as Saints keep hold of the ball and Stoke defend in depth. We work the ball wide to Adam Armstrong whose low cross is cleared out to the edge of the box where Aribo fires in our first shot of the evening but comfortably saved by the keeper.

A Defender Is Now Our Main Goal Threat

It's a possession-fest with not much threat and we win a corner as we approach 20 minutes, which the linesman has just guesses at because he wasn’t remotely interested in giving it until everybody appealed.  Over it comes from Fernandes along the line of the 6 yard line and THB has got completely free and unimpeded by anybody, nods it powerfully into the net.  Dunno where the keeper was but we'll take it.

A lovely ball around the corner by Sugawara sends Armstrong away in absolutely acres of space and with all the time in the world.  He advances on goal and then with two players in the middle, he doesn’t have a clue and smashes it straight at the keeper at the near post. Piss poor it has to be said.  I don’t blame him for having a shot but it has to go across the keeper.

It seems that there is no danger as Sugawara gets seen off by Dixon in the Stoke penalty area but the defender reckons without the tenacity of Yuki to win it back and when the Saints defender gets in front of him and takes possession of the ball again, Dixon swings a leg and boots him and it looks a bit soft but I can see why the referee gave it.  We have a penalty taker on the pitch today and it’s Arma and bang, first goal of the season and he certainly takes a good penalty.  2-0 now and it should be more or less done from here.

Cruising to a Comfortable Win at this Point

It’s time for the first charge of the day as Wee Man goes off.  It’s a bit strange because he doesn’t look injured and on comes Maxwel Cornet on the left and we have that rarest of things, right footed winger on the right, left footed on the left.

It all seems so easy as we appreach half time.  Stoke break up the right and Vidigal gets trashed by Big Les and it’s a free kick about 40 yards out.  It’s chipped into the mixer in nondescript fashion and there’s a header and it bounces off Sugawara who has got himself in a mess and Phillips flicks it past Ramsdale from close range. We have literally conceded with more or less the first time they’ve got into the penalty area.  Shit.

Half-time and that’s put a slightly different slant on it. It’s been a ridiculously one-sided first half but we have left the door open and Stoke can walk through it and will now think they have a chance in the second half.  Stoke goal aside we’ve been dominant but have slipped into that mode where we create nothing.  No one is prepared to shoot from any distance and we’re not trying to find Archer in the middle.

Ten minutes of the same boring shit goes by and Stoke come again down our left and a cross-shot deflects off of Bree and lands perfectly at the feet of Cannon beyond the far post and he rams it into the roof of the net.  I think they’ve been in the penalty area twice and now it’s 2-2.

Russell gets on his radio from the stands and on comes Tall Paul and BBD for Archer and Fernandes, meaning Arma moving back into the midfield three.  Now we have the big man on up[ front we of course don’t play to his strengths and we are still creating nothing from our possession.    Stoke now look dangerous ever time they advance and Moran starts dribbling past players and gets into our penalty area and seems to go round about four players before Sugawara eventually gets a tackle in and we hack it away. We got a bit fortunate there as THB left his leg out and if Moran had gone down then it would’ve been another penalty.

Talking of penalties – they are now looking likely and there’s more headscratching substitutions as Arma and Bednarek are replaced with Sulemana and Sam Amo.  It looks like Sulemana is at left back with Bree at centre back next to THB.  It’s anyone’s guess who is in midfield and whilst we work that out, Cornet fucks up and puts THB in the shit and Manhoef is his clean through and it looks like he’s bundled it past Ramsdale, who has made himself very small and it looks like it’s rolling in but Sugawara gets back to clear it off the line.  All eyes on the referees watch… nothing.

Sulemana to his credit, tries to put a cross in towards Tall Paul but it’s headed back out to him.  The £25 million man takes his time and rolls it back to Bree on the edge of the box and the man nurtured by the man from the Welsh Mining Village, smashes it from outside box and into the net.  Get in.  I wait for the apocalypse but it doesn’t happen, so I therefore deduce that we can actually shoot from outside the box if we want to.

Now to manage the eight extra minutes with three defenders, two midfielders and five forwards.  Big Les is at centre back now and the back four is protected by a clearly knackered Joe Aribo, and Sam Amo and no one else really.  We see it out and thank fuck that’s over with. 

Through to the quarter-finals we go and that’s just about all you can say about it. You don;t want to be negative because we haven't won many games this season but here comes the truth.  Fucking hell that second half was absolutely grim until someone finally had a shot from outside the box and lo and behold, buy a ticket and sometimes you win. I guess you could say it was a classic illustration of getting over the line without playing well and we would kill for a win of that nature against Everton in the league on Saturday but make no mistake.  However, from the moment Stoke pulled a goal back just before half-time until James Bree finally took that shot from outside the box, we were fucking atrocious, as bad and ineffective with and without the ball as you could possibly be.

We showed absolutely no clue how to get efforts on goal. Yes we scored twice in the first half, once from a corner and once from a penalty but from open play, nothing. We have a central striker in Cameron Archer who has been on good form but we have no idea how to get the ball to him. We never play the ball into his feet from midfield and when we get into the wide areas we cross the ball in the air which is of course not his strength.

A vast majority game was played in front of the Stoke team who would drop back to the edge of the box whilst we passed the wall around side to side in between the halfway line and about 30 yards out. We carried on this ineffective and quite frankly, piss boring style of attacking throughout the second half despite changing virtually every attacking player.  Many got gametime for the first time in a while, so you would expect them to be keen to impress.  Maybe they were keen but that didn't really help.  Of our underperforming wingers, Max Cornet was given a chance for about 65 minutes and did nothing with it. Ben Brereton Diaz came on and was fucking awful.  Ryan Fraser started the game before going off ill and he did nothing either.  Adam Armstrong scored a penalty and other than that showed an ability to have absolutely no idea what to do when it came to delivering a ball into the box.  
 
Tall Paul came on for the last 20 minutes, which you would have thought would have been the signal to change how we attack. Did we put crosses into him? I can remember one and that was so high that all he could do was knock it off for a goal kick. You simply have to mix it up when you are attacking or else you become very very easy to defend against.  Wingers need to take on the full-back occasionally, we need to play the ball into the strikers feet occasionally and we need to shoot from outside the box more often. Stoke’s defence was not tested at all for about an hour.  Bree’s goal was probably down to the surprise element because Stoke probably weren’t thinking there was any danger and didn’t set up to defend a long-range shot because unless it's our third choice right back, no one thinks of doing it. Maybe the fact that Russell Martin was sat in the stands, with a different vantage point to usual, will turn out to be a good thing. 

We Look Shit From Up Here

Having said our attack was dreadful – so was the defence. Defensive cover was provided by Big Les, who started like a monster and had a good first half but has a tendency to give away free kicks in bad areas and with the way be defend set pieces, that's not great.  Every time Stoke came forward in open play, which wasn't often, it was like a bomb had gone off in a penalty area with bodies everywhere and no one looking like they had any sort of composure whatsoever when put under any pressure. They scored with their first attack which was a hopeful free kick tossed into the box on the 44th minute and then they scored with their first attack of the second half and they very nearly won the game themselves when Sugawara managed to get back to clear an effort off the line.

In the first half we were absolutely miles better than Stoke but their goal before half-time seemed to kick the belief out of us and the second half was absolutely painful to watch. I have been thinking a lot recently about how you can get away with things at Championship level that you can’t get away with the Premier League level. Today was a prime example because we were absolutely shocking in that second half but still managed to win. We were absolutely shocking in the second half against Leicester and look what happened.

So, having got through somehow, and seen how Wednesday’s games panned out, we had the draw for the Quarters and it’s all Prem sides.  Palace were the only ‘bottom half’ side in the draw and we didn’t get them…. No, we got the holders at home – Liverpool.  The Scousers will be shitting it after watching us despatch Stoke.  Sarcasm alert.

Up the fucking Saints