FA Cup 2nd Round - Northampton 2 Southampton 3

Just 540 minutes from Wembley

FA Cup time again and once more, my brain is just not working. The FA Cup starts in January doesn’t it… not any more. Northampton away in the 2nd Round and a chance to be in the draw with all the teams we’ve got used to playing over the last few years. We of course, played Northampton in the Carling Cup back in August and won easily enough. Would today be any different?

The team had a few changes to report with Trotman banned, James rested, Davis injured last Tuesday and worryingly, Connolly out with a groin injury. It’s worrying because he’s missed the last two seasons with…. a groin injury. Chris Perry, Paul Wotton and Papa Waigo came into the breach and the formation changed to 4-5-1.

Away we go and Northampton are the first to show with Saints not putting anything together at all. I’m in the car on my way to the cinema at Ocean Village with my nearest and dearest and they are making far too much noise for someone who wants to listen to the radio. Actually, the bits of commentary I do manage to hear are making me think that the babble of children is more interesting.

It all sounds very flat with even the usually enthusiastic Merrington finding little to cheer. He gets all animated about a penalty shout for Northampton when Harding needlessly shoved someone in the back but as we all know, penalty shouts that are not given don’t matter a toss when they’re not given against us.

3.45 and we’re all in place in the cinema and the ‘Please switch off your mobile phone’ screen comes on, just as mine beeps at me, 1-0 Waigo… here we go, here we go, here we go, I want to do the Waigo dance but I think my kids might kill me if they are treated to dad dancing in a populated cinema. Beep beep, 2-0 Lallana. Look back a few weeks and I was having a pop at Lallana and his lack of heading ability and guess what’s just happened… a close range header. I bet it came off his ear or his nose. “2-0 to Saints, half time” I say to no one in particular. “Get in” says a random bloke behind me who I have never met in my life before. I switch the phone off… do I bollocks... I switch the phone to silent.

A good half hour passes before anything football related crosses my mind. Personally I think that the game was over as soon as the half time whistle went but I am twitching a bit when it’s a vibrate, vibrate in the pocket (stop it!!!!). Have you ever tried getting a phone out of your jeans pocket when you’re sat down ? I suffered the obligatory, wrist crush injury but managed to get the phone out and it’s worth it, Hammond 3-0 from yet another close range header.

Ten minutes later and it’s vibrate, vibrate, 3-1 Hammond (o.g.). Nice one Deano. I wonder if it rivals the Trotman own goal at Orient.

Final Score North 2 South 3… where did their 2nd goal come from…. Ah, who cares. 93rd minute penalty apparently, probably a sympathy decision I thought.

Whilst it’s annoying that yet again we haven’t managed to keep a clean sheet, it doesn’t seem to matter today. Job done and through to the next round without going to a replay. Pards agrees with me in his summing up and the world is a happy place, well this end of the M27 is anyway. The Skates have lost 4-1 to Man Utd and are still bottom of the league… which brings me onto the obvious topic of conversation for all Saints fans tonight… who do we want in the next round ?

Again, I’m with Pards when he says that if he could choose he’d take a winnable match at home. I personally have no interest in playing Man Utd or Chelsea after last years game against the Reds. OK, we’d give it a much better go with this team but it’s one of the only matches in 34 years of watching Saints when I was in the ground and wished I wasn’t and at the end of the day, we got dicked 3-0 by their reserve side playing at half pace. If we’re going to play a big club then give me Arsenal away as we’ve never been to the Emirates and I’d love to see a tussle of midfield skills between Fabregas, Arshavin, Walcott, Nasri, Rosicky and Wotton. It’d be like watching Peter Kay in that advert where they’re all playing keep-uppy and he just wellies it three miles.

I would not want to play the Skates, mainly because they’d get a load of cash from the sell-out crowd, especially if it was at SMS. I’d like them to get Hull at home and a) lose and b) lose in front of 6000 fans. Gate receipts from that wouldn’t even pay Storrie’s Bill from the Inland Revenue. Also, deep down I think they’d probably still be too strong for us and I would hate for there to be any interruption in their season of total misery.

I feel that for the Saints, today was just something to get through. It was a novelty playing in the first round and it was a tougher game away at Bristol Rovers, but this match was more of a hindrance than anything to get excited about (and my sketchy blog of the match itself probably illustrates this). It is worth giving the opinion though, that if this had been played last year, we would have lost.. The magic of the FA Cup can come back at full power for the 3rd Round, whoever we get and wherever we get them.

The draw is on Sunday and we’ve got……………….. <> Rotherham or Luton Town at home. Gotta be happy with that...

League 1 Match 18 - Hartlepool 1 Southampton 3

The fixture computer operator has been drinking again ! Hang the Monkey !

Hartlepool away …. Where’s that ?... Must be close because the fixture computer would never give you an away match on a Tuesday night that was too far away… Sat Nav says ‘Drive towards Newcastle and stop 30 miles short’. Not too far then. I have to admit that I didn’t really know where it was, other than that it was ‘Oop North’ and the reason I’m starting with reference to the trip is to pay tribute to the 635 who made the trip on a Tuesday night in the pissing rain. You are quite mad but I salute you…

I am fully ‘Saints Player’ enabled for this match so have the delights of Dave Merrington and Kris Temple to listen to. I have the TV on silent and am watching Debrecen v Liverpool. The games kick off and after watching two minutes of Liverpool I am worried that I may fall asleep. Once I find Barcelona v Inter Milan, I’m happier.

Pards had spoken after the Norwich game for the need to ‘go ugly’ and he took that literally with his one change of the night with Murty replacing Antonio in a like for like swap. Murts will be adding extreme pace to the right flank and Michail will be sat on the bench eating a pie. This change gets Lloyd James away from right back (which is a great move) and into the anchor role of the midfield diamond with Lallana at the front and Hammond and Schneiderlin to the sides.

There is a force 9 blowing straight down the pitch in Saints favour which means that we can send it 80 yards up the pitch and Lambo and Connolly can get neck ache. It sounds like football is impossible and Dave Merrington tells us stories of the journey up with Trotman not fancying the flight in the wind and rain and Lambert forgetting his passport which shows you how far away Hartlepool is. Actually, he needed it for photo id… I wonder if he could have shown them one of those t-shirts from the Saints Shop. Meanwhile, on the pitch, Trotman and Jaidi sound like they’re trying to knock planes out of the sky with their version of the long through ball.

Hartlepool are playing most of the little football that is on offer and take the lead after working it down our left and getting in a cross which is headed in by Monkhouse, no relation to Bob, I assume. Over the past few seasons, 1-0 down, up north, in the rain would have meant a 5-0 defeat but I have confidence and this is rewarded 15 minutes later when Lambert put Lallana through on the keeper to make it 1-1. More hoof and hope for the rest of the first half with Lallana being the only player on the Saints side who is prepared to get it down and pass it. Honourable mention goes to Schneiderlin who is being praised for his graft so it appears he can do it if he wants to.

The second half starts and it’s evident that the wind is now favouring the Monkey Hangers (WTF is that all about ?... look it up here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_hanger) but they are having problems locating their front men as well. Ten minutes in and Lallana picks it up on the left and like Connolly on Saturday, comes infield and curls one into the far corner for 2-1. Even the Hartlepool fans applaud as it’s that good.

Hartlepool on the attack again and Davis pulls off a blinding save from a point blank header but appears to injure himself in the process and has to be replaced by the Pole in Goal. I like Bart and think he’ll be a really good keeper if given a decent run in the side but Stu and Dave are reacting like it’s the death knell of Saints season. To be fair, the comments are based on how good Davis is rather than anything negative about Bart but over the top or what. They go on about how many point Davis saves us a season which is fine but no one mentions that he cost us two on Saturday – he’s good but he’s not fantastic guys…

For all the world it sounds like it’s going to peter out and we’ll win 2-1 and no one is looking like scoring until the Monkey Hangers goalkeeper, makes the kind of mistake that would make you want to re-nickname the team ‘The Goalie Hangers’ and passes it straight to Lambert, 5 yards out, 3-1. It’s amazing how many times this year that Lambert has profited from the opposition keeper having a shocker but I suppose that if you keep shooting, you get lucky.

Inspired by their keeper, Hartlepool get annoyed and a bad tackle on Lallana sparks a 19 man melee, the net result of which was Hartlepool were down to 10 men after a 2nd booking and 3 Saints saw yellow, all 3 of which were not in involved in the tackle. Trotman showed great intelligence to run 50 yards to pick up his 5th booking of the season and a one match ban.

Kris (who can't spell his own name) then explained that Trotters would miss the FA Cup tie on Saturday but pondered whether this was the case as Preston had already said he couldn’t play in it. For good measure and great comic effect, Dave then repeated the exact same thing. Genius on the radio.

Anyway, game over, 3-1 win, back on track. Still in the relegation zone but with our next 3 matches looking very winnable, we should be looking to climb out and hopefully stay out. It was a gutsy win tonight in bad conditions, an ugly win if you like. The bad news from the night is of course the injury to Kelvin Davis but I have every confidence Bart will step up. I always felt he had a raw deal from Whisky George and he’ll hopefully get a chance to play a few games starting with the FA Cup tie on Saturday at Northampton. A win there and we’re in Round 3 with all the big boys and the Skates.

Well done the 635.

League 1 Match 17 - Southampton 2 Norwich 2

To laugh or to cringe ?

Along with Saints and Charlton, the other team to have a double relegation miserable recent history is Norwich City and they were our visitors on Saturday. Norwich had fine recent form and were in a playoff position, having recovered from the 7-1 drubbing handed out by Colchester on the opening day, a Colchester who were managed by Paul Lambert who is now manager of Norwich and captained by Dean Hammond who is now captain of Saints. The captaincy issue had been the main issue of the week really with Hammond being given the armband as Pards didn’t want the keeper to be the skipper, a decision I agreed with.

I was expecting changes in the team following the rubbish against Brighton but maybe because of an injury to Wotton or maybe because of a desire to make the same players sort it out, the team was unchanged which must have been particularly galling for Wayne Thomas who really bolstered the defence in the last game. There was a welcome return to the bench for Graeme Murty who in the warm up, didn’t look as ‘pied up’ as I thought he would.

The game kicked off in swirling rain and Norwich settled the quicker with some good possession football, interrupted only when the ball skewed off of some part of Trotman’s anatomy for a throw in or a corner. Saints were finding it hard to get anything going until the ball found its way to Schneiderlin who took a touch, looked up and hit a glorious crossfield ball, which went straight out of play about 40 yards in front of Antonio. The genius of the Frenchman was apparent though as he knew that Norwich were going to take the throw and lose the ball to Connolly who would slide in Lallana who would finish brilliantly with his right foot from the edge of the box. 1-0 and an assist for the mercurial French youngster.

Saints took over for the next 20 or so minutes and really should have added to the lead with Cap’n Hammond having a header tipped over and Schneiderlin’s powerful shot being deflected wide. Norwich gave us a reminder just before half time when Davis had to palm away a good effort from the lumbering Holt.

After this one real chance of the half for Norwich, Dumb (of Dumb and Dumber who sit behind me in the Kingland) is whining the following questions amongst others…”Why are they always better than us?”, “Why do they win all the headers?” and “Why do I bother coming to matches because all I do is moan like a bastard through every single minute of every one regardless of what the score is or how well we’re playing”. I may have made that last one up and I know all Season Ticket money is vital to the club but you don’t need people like this. I’d pay double if this guy could be banned.

1-0 to Saints at half time and just about deservedly so.

Half time was taken up with a presentation to Micky Channon who was receiving a Doctorate from Southampton University for services to football and horse racing, in the pissing rain. There was a quick run down of his stats as a football and as a trainer and then he gave a quick interview which was barely audible given the diabiolical PA system. Following that they showed a film on the scoreboard which was remarkable in that Mick Channon scored 225 goals for Saints, 21 for England and even 16 for Norwich and guess how many of these goals were on the film ? Yep, none.

No changes at half time except that Dumb could now whinge in the opposite direction. Norwich are on fire at the start of the second half and pin us back and our defence is creaking like something incredibly creaky indeed. We’re creaky on the right where Lloyd James is really struggling when put under any pressure, creaky on the left where Dan Harding is just about hanging on despite suddenly looking a bit slow and creaking in the middle where Trotters is getting to the ball but it’s going anywhere. The one saving grace is the big man Radhi Jaidi who is back to near his best after his mare last week.

It couldn’t last though as Martin burst down the Norwich left and was scythed to the ground by Lloyd James with one of the most stupid tackles ever for one of the clearest penalties ever. Hoolihan stepped up and Kelvin tipped it onto the post from where it pinged back to Hoolihan’s feet in front of an empty goal, the lucky bastard.

Or midfield was being completely outplayed at this point with Cap’n H having his worst ever game for us, Schneiderlin having his usual game for us in a tough match and Antonio offering nothing at all. It was no surprise when Antonio was replaced with Murty. This had two advantages in that it bolstered the midfield and it got Liability James the hell away from right back.

Seven minutes later we were back in front as Lallana fed Connolly on the left and he cut in before curling a wonderful effort over the keeper and in to the far top corner. Goal of the Season, competition closed. It was nearly game over ten minutes later as Lambert set up Lallana for a spin and shot which flew just wide. Boy did we pay for that miss when Martin let fly from 30 yards only for Davis, under no pressure and with a full view, to spill it out for Hughes to make it 2-2. “We’re going to lose this now” came a whinge from behind me. “WELL YOU’LL BE F*CKING HAPPY THEN WON’T YOU?”. I probably shouldn’t have said that.

Now it was all Norwich again and they had a goal disallowed for offside and looked the more likely winners but Saints came back again with Connolly narrowly wide. With five minutes to go, Pards replaced Lambert, who had again struggled to have much of an impact, with Papa Waigo who immediately got caught offside. Mellis came on for Lallana and in the 90th minute we had a break with Mellis striding forward purposefully with the ball with Waigo in support. He delayed and delayed the pass until Waigo had reached his usual position of 5 yards offside and then passed to him. Up went the flag, on went the Waigo, round the keeper and then underhit the shot which was cleared. Plonker, final whistle.

2-2 was probably a fair result for what was a very entertaining game. Though we were in front twice, our defending as a team never looked convincing and we are as far away from a clean sheet as ever. Hopefully Murty’s return from injury will mean Lloyd James nowhere near right back again and Connolly’s form and ever improving fitness is really going to be beneficial to us in the months ahead… starting with a trip to Hartlepool on Tuesday which promises to be a truly horrible trip but one which we should be looking to bring 3 points back from. We have now only two points out of the last nine but whilst the Brighton defeat was a bad result, I don’t feel that this one is as Norwich looked a class apart from a lot of the teams I’ve seen so far this year.

The Hand of Frog

"Let go, Claus..."

"The Hand of Frog" was the headline in the Irish Sun...

I was in a Dublin boozer on Wednesday night watching Ireland in their play off match against France. Make no mistake, I’m England through and through and I also know that the Irish would support anyone against England. I feel however that I’m (mostly) above all that shit so if some personal friends of mine are supporting a team, I’ll join in… unless they’re Skates of course.

Ireland were winning 1-0 at 90 minutes after a 1-0 defeat in the first leg, so extra time started and to be honest, I couldn’t see a goal coming from either team and was looking forward to some serious angst-ridden penalties without England being involved. I had surprised myself with how much I was getting into it and even spilt some beer in the pub-mosh when Robbie Keane scored.

You’d have to have been on the moon to not know how France’s goal came about. A straight ball was played into the box, Ireland let it bounce (which was piss poor defending whatever way you look at it) and the ball hit Thierry Henry’s arm and was going out for a goal kick before Henry shovelled it back in with his hand and squared it for Willam Gallas to nod in from his normal goalscoring distance of four inches. Henry then celebrated like a madman behind the goal. Watching in real time, you couldn’t quite work out how the ball had ended up in the net but the replays were horrible and so it came to pass that a player with a fantastic reputation for fair play, trashed it in an instant.

In 2003, Saints played Arsenal in the cup final and after 30 seconds, Henry broke through and Claus Lundekvam hitched a ride holding onto the Frenchman’s shirt. Henry strode on for what seemed like minutes, with Claus being dragged along, still holding his shirt like a man tied by a rope to the tow bar of a speeding car. “Let go Claus” we all said as Henry shot and Niemi smothered it.

The fact was that Henry stayed on his feet and if he had done what 99% of players would have done and gone over, we’d have been 1-0 down fro the resulting penalty, Claus would have been sent off and probably Brett Ormerod would have been substituted to have been replaced by Paul Williams and we’d have probably lost 5-0. Interestingly though, Henry later got booked in the same game for taking a dive so there were flaws in his make up in 2003 when we was probably the best player in the world.

On Wednesday night, Thierry Henry, now a shadow of the player of 2003, cheated to keep a ball in play and set up a vitally important goal. FIFA, the guardians of the global game, preach fair play at every opportunity and their website is filled with stuff about it and there’s even a Committee for Fair Play and Social Responsibility. So what are these keepers of the faith going to do about it.

a) order a replay – they’ve already said they won’t
b) ban Henry for cheating – possible but I doubt it

c) sod all – we have a winner

Sepp Blatter, President of FIFA, needs no encouragement to come out with some complete shite or other on a regular basis but here’s an issue where he can actually do something useful or at least make a statement against cheating etc….. hello, anyone there.

It all stinks. Firstly they change the rules and seed the playoffs which they were never going to do until it became clear that France, Portugal and Germany were all struggling to qualify. There was no way FIFA were going to risk France getting drawn against Germany in a play off and one getting knocked out so they seeded it and Blatter said that they were going to do that all along but hadn’t told anyone.

As it’s turned out, the Germans got through (it was really too much to hope for) and now the French and Portuguese are there too. I’m sure FIFA could have done without the controversy but it will all die down and then who will care. It’s only Ireland after all. It’s like Saints trying to get a penalty at Old Trafford…. It isn’t going to happen.

In the FA Cup blog a while back, I talked of how the Champions League is all about the cash and no one wanted there to be any upsets with big clubs getting knocked out and sadly, the World Cup is the same. No one at the top is interested in the integrity of the competition – only that the biggest, richest countries qualify and maximise the revenue for everyone with a vested interest.

When the tournament starts next June I’ll be mad for England but I’ll be hoping the French get stuffed. They don’t deserve to be there and unless they replace the manager and can turn up a midfield before the World Cup, they won’t be any good anyway. When they won it in 1998 they had Zidane, Deschamps, Petit and Vieira in midfield…. Now they have Lassana Diarra and two other guys who did so little I can't remember their names.

Thierry Henry has really shot himself in the foot. As I write I see he’s suggesting there should be a replay but this is just damage limitation and an empty gesture as he knows this isn’t going to happen. Whilst admitting the offence, he’s also said that it’s not his fault as the referee didn’t see it which is basically saying that blatant cheating is ok if you don’t get caught. I bet he now wishes he hadn’t done it and taken his chances on France winning the penalty shootout but in my view, he made a conscious decision to cheat with the second touch of the ball and his celebration was an attempt to ‘look natural’ as you would when your side had scored an important goal… and what the hell was that all about… sitting on the pitch with Richard Dunne at the end. I believe he knew what was coming.

The good news is Thierry, no one out side of Ireland will really give a toss by the time June rolls round, certainly not FIFA. They won’t replay the game and to be honest, I’m not sure I think they should. It really means that the use of technology to help referees is a must and everyone should try and find a way to make it happen, rather than continually finding crap reasons why it shouldn’t. Maybe the problem is that if there was technological help, the desirable outcome of matches wouldn’t be so easy to reach.

The final word on this goes to an anonymous poster on a forum. Despite my pro-Irish stance, I laughed when I read this…

Anon says: I was working in Ireland in 1986 when that sh!tbag Maradona punched the ball in. The Irish all thought it was hilarious…. So fuck ‘em.

23 years on, that still rankles…

League 1 Match 16 - Southampton 1 Brighton 3

Says it all really...

Brighton came to us on a Sunday as lambs to the slaughter… or so you’d have thought if you looked at the form guides going into the match. We were very good, they were very bad, we were at home, foregone conclusion etc etc.

They had a new manager however in Gus Poyet and we had to be careful of ‘new manager’ syndrome. This is one of the things that they always talk about in punditry circles about how a team that was previously playing badly (hence manager getting sacked) suddenly picks up a few wins with a new man in charge. It should be a load of rubbish because at the end of the day, bad players are bad players but though I hate to admit it – we should be worried. Whilst I have no idea about Poyet’s abilities as a manager, he is an imposing sort of guy who comes across well and of course, he was some player. I can imagine the Brighton players being lifted by him walking into the club. The new manager has to have something about him however for this to work, so if there are any Chairmen out there thinking of giving Jan Poortvliet or Steve Wigley a job in order to get ‘new manager bounce’… then I’d think again. Would the arrival of Gus be enough to inspire a win against the mighty SFC ? It shouldn’t be but who knows…

The team lined up as expected with Neal Trotman getting the nod ahead of Wayne Thomas who dropped to the bench. The announcement of our line-up was punctuated by loud boos from the impressively large Brighton contingent for Hammond and in particular Harding – both ex-Seagulls. The Seagulls fans showed their class though by immaculately observing the one minutes silence of All-Saints Day – fair play to them. The SFC crowd line up was different to the last few games in that I’d actually made it myself to my first home game since the Gillingham win, which was the first match of our undefeated run.

That match starts and Saints are looking lively, mainly though Antonio on the right who was giving their left back kittens and Connolly in the middle who was running and harrying and generally showing what a good player he is. Once Brighton got a foothold after about 5 minutes we began to creak a bit with Brighton forward Forster and Murray finding too much room too easily. It was apparent very early on that Jaidi and Trotman’s usual ‘nightclub bouncer’ approach was not going to be as successful as usual as both forwards were very mobile and the Brighton midfield was not being challenged quickly enough by Hammond and Schneiderlin.

Sixteen minutes had gone and what was looking increasingly likely, came to pass as Brighton took the lead after a decent move down our left, isolating Harding 2v1, a decent cross and a good finish by Murray who got in front of Jaidi. Crap defending but a good goal and we’d have been raving had we scored it. Still, surely now we’d wake up and batter them…. nope.

Five minutes later and Murray burst through a Rupert Lowe’s ego sized gap in our central midfield and defence and hit the post, only for the rebound to come straight back to him for a sitter which he sadly, didn’t miss. 2-0 to Brighton and no one could say they didn’t deserve it and they really should have been out of sight a few minutes later as Forster got free with Davis loitering on the edge of his box and it really was a bad miss to not get it over the marooned keeper.

Saints finally had a shot when a Lambert free kick was well saved by Kuipers in the Brighton goal who from this moment on, started time-wasting which is the right and professional thing to do…. but it’s bloody annoying. Not so annoying though was Saints getting awarded a penalty on 42 minutes as Lallana was assaulted when trying to reach a cross by a defender who obviously hasn’t watched an videos of Adam trying to head the ball – just leave him, there’s no danger… but there is from a Lambert penalty which was dispatched with typical aplomb. 2-1, Half time and I thought we’d be fine and probably go on to win it.

Thomas came on for Trotters at half time… tactical or injury…. I’d say the former as Trotman was bloody awful in the first half. Thomas, from where I was sat, looked like he should have been sent off within a minute of coming as he smashed into Brighton player elbows-first. When you get away with it though I guess it’s good play and ‘setting out your stall’.

As the second half wore on I gradually changed my mind about us probably winning it because we were basically still terrible. Brighton had Lambert well shackled and he was winning nothing so hard though Connolly worked, he wasn’t getting a sniff of goal. Kelvin was having one of those games where he may have well not been there. There didn’t seem to be any organization, nor any command and claiming of crosses though he did make one blinding close range block to prevent us going 3-1 down. Jaidi was also having a complete mare and though Thomas had shored things up, it still didn’t look good.

Our midfield was nowhere to be seen in a defensive capacity with Schneiderlin in particular being woeful with the game completely passing him by. He had a decent chance to win a tackle at one point and slid in showing mock aggression before bottling out at the last. Most of our attacks were coming down the right with Lloyd James on the ball. Brighton were letting him advance up until about 40 yards out before letting him boom over aimless cross after aimless cross. Rubbish to be honest. From the one decent cross that James put in, sadly it landed on the head of Lallana and no surprise, it went wide.

Waigo came on for Antonio and Mills for Harding but nothing much happened as Saints defence continued to look all over the shop and the attack looking as blunt as a pair of safety scissors and it was totally deserved when Brighton got a third as James was totally done down the right flank for a cross to pick out Crofts to slam in the decisive goal. There was still time for Waigo to liven things up and he worked himself a great opening before having his shot deflected wide. Not our day.

There’s a cliché that says that you learn more from defeat than you do from victory and this is very true. My personal report card reads…. Lloyd James is still a liability at right back… Trotman and Jaidi will struggle against quick forwards…. the midfield is too attack minded and Wotton, despite having much less ability, would be far more effective than Schneiderlin. Also, we have no plan B if Lambert is not having a good game and the whining shit who sits behind me really need to have a word with himself. On the plus side I thought Connolly was excellent and Antonio again looked the part though he wasn’t as effective in the 2nd half as Brighton got used to him.

One of the key things in life is, in my opinion, not to over-react. 4 wins and a draw in the last 5 league games is pretty good and we were always going to lose sometime – I just wasn’t expecting it to be today. However, Brighton were much better than us and totally deserved their win. There are bound to be a few more kicks in the nads before the season is done but I still think we’ll march onwards and upwards. Norwich at home on Saturday… dress rehearsal for JPT Semi Final.

Johnstone Paints Trophy 3rd Round - Southampton 2 Charlton 1

Now, do I lie about it meaning more to beat Charlton or not...

JPT time again and it’s Charlton at home for us. The Charlton fans will be looking forward to it as it’s against the manager who they see as the anti-Christ and us Saints fans will be looking forward to hopefully keeping the winning run going. In the last round, Saints got a gate that was bigger than all the other games put together but no chance of that tonight as Sky, in their wisdom, have decided to put this on the TV. In this case, I’ll forgive them as I at least will have a chance to watch it in my Dublin local. I can’t see there being a problem getting a seat in front of the TV for this one.

Watching Saints in the pub over here is usually a painful experience as we usually lose and people walk past, wondering why you’re getting so animated at a game that doesn’t involve the big 4. The first Saints match I watched over here was the playoff defeat to Derby. At the start of the game it was just me and Kelvin immediately flapped a goal in. My short outburst of swearing brought a few raised eyebrows. By the time Do Do Do Johnny Viafara had put us 2-1 up I had made so much noise that I had a small gathering with me. Leon Best’s ridiculous own goal (still don’t know how he did that, the tosser), Rasiak putting us in front again and the penalty shoot out starting meant I now had a crowd and by the time Idiakez sent his penalty into orbit, I had a lot of sympathy, a big bar bill and the beginnings of a headache which ultimately would last for two days.

The team selection tonight would tell us a lot about how seriously Pards was taking it. In the last round he rested a few but we were playing a League 2 side so it was understandable. Tonight we’re playing against a strong side and we don’t play again until Sunday so I’m hoping for everyone being present and correct…. and I was happy. Be it because Pards really wants to with the JPT or be it because he wants to stick one finger up to Charlton, we had the same 10 outfield players as Saturday with Bart in goal instead of the rested Kelvin. The only minor surprise is that Wayne Thomas kept his place ahead of Trotman who Preston had kindly made available for this one.

Saints steamed into Charlton from the off and really should have had the lead in two minutes as Charlton keeper Ikeme came for a cross and got no where near it leaving Captain Hammond with a free header at the back post with half a goal to aim at….which he totally made a mess of. Charlton awoke from their slumbers and did nothing as Antonio scared the hell out of them down the right and smashed in a shot which Ikeme beat away. Chances followed for Lambert and Connolly and then there was a tricky moment as Charlton got in our half and Bart had to pick up a half hit scuffer from Wagstaff.

On 35 minutes Saints finally took the lead as a James corner was missed by all the usual suspects and smashed into the net by Wayne Thomas for his first goal since a jumpers for goalposts match on the village green in 1985. The near 14,000 crowd (wow!) crowd at St Mary’s and one man in a pub in Dublin expected more and two minutes later, Connolly cut in from the right and curled a lovely left footed shot a foot wide of the far post.

We have got to try and sign Michail Antonio. All wingers are frustrating at times when the delivery is a bit wayward but this lad makes things happen and he commits defenders. He’s not frightened to shoot either and he forced another good save from Ikeme before half time when he cut in off the wing and smashed in a shot which t some part of the keepers anatomy and deflected onto the near post. Charlton meanwhile, were terrible.

Half time, Southampton 1 Ikeme 0. Pint of Guinness please.

Saints were forced into a change at half time with Schneiderlin being replaced by Trotman. Whilst it would have been amusing watching Trotters slot into central midfield and spraying passes about in that cultured way of his, I was thankful that we reshuffled with James going into midfield and ‘goalscoring centre back’ Wayne Thomas being moved to right back.

No doubt with the angry words of Phil Parkinson ringing in their ears, Charlton kicked off the second half and attacked a bit. They put me in mind of the Saints side of last year under the watchful eye of Jan the Complete Moron – one lad up front who is totally unsuited to playing up front on his own and much more suitable players on the bench. Still, the lone striker ‘wash trying very hard to make a goal for the boysh’.

On the hour mark, Papa Waigo came on for the clearly tiring Connolly who has played more football in the past week than in the previous two years. The dancing man was immediately involved, cutting in from the left wing and curling a shot for the far corner that was tipped away well by that bloody goalkeeper again. Unperturbed, following a neat passing move involving Waigo and Lallana, Lambert tried exactly the same effort only this time, Ikeme developed chocolate wrists and couldn’t keep it out. 64 minutes, 2-0 and really… game over.

The last half an hour was pretty tame but I thought there might be some stick for Deon Burton when he came on, being an ex-Skate and all that. There was none however and I think this was because no one recognized him as the last time he was here (playing for Brentford I think), he had a huge afro that was conspicuously absent. Highlight of this period of the game for me was Lloyd James executing a real cruncher of a tackle on Jonjo Shelvey who deserves all he gets, simply for being called Jonjo.

92 minutes were up and Saints were sitting back trying to play out the game when the usual happened. Following a great save from Bart, the ball was returned and Leon McKenzie fired home from 6 yards to make it 2-1. I never had one single moment when I thought Charlton would score again and in fact, they didn’t get in our half again aside from the one desperate boot forward as the final whistle went.

Positives are that we won and we’re now in the Southern Area Semi Finals against one of Hereford, Norwich and the Fake Dons. It’s a one legged affair still so I’m hoping for anyone at home, preferably Hereford. Bart did what he had to do pretty well and had no chance for the goal and the team as a whole looks very confident and capable of scoring all the time. Unbelievably, Charlton are one of the better League 1 sides so it’s a good win… on this showing though, we are light years ahead of them and the league positions will be crossing come the season end. Negatives were that we sat too deep in the last 20 minutes and really should have been 4 or 5 up by the time Charlton got their goal. Mind you, Ikeme made some brilliant saves but as is his lot when you’re a keeper, will be remembered for the balls he made of the 2nd goal.

Yes, I was the only person watching it in the pub.

Next up…. Brighton at home on Sunday.

FA Cup 1st Round - Bristol Rovers 2 Southampton 3

R.I.P.

At the start of the season, if someone had asked me to rank the competitions in order of relevance for Saints, I'd have said League, Johnstone Paints Trophy, FA Cup, Carling Cup. Ranking the JPT above the FA Cup is sacrilege of the highest order but lets face it, we have as much chance of winning the FA Cup as Pompey have of winning the 'Best Run Football Club' award.

I love the FA Cup – it's fantastic because we won it very soon after I started taking an interest in football but also because of the upsets, the fact it's an open draw with no seeding and all that stuff, the fact that it's a one off game, the fact that a lower league team can still get to the final etc etc. We got to the final ourselves in 2003, helped by favourable home draws in every round and all the big boys knocking eachother out. Compare and contrast with the Champions League where Liverpool this year, for example, have been abysmal and have only won one match out of 4 but still have a decent chance of qualifying for the next round. When is there ever a semi-finalist you don't expect… can't have the big boys getting knocked out as in the words of Abba, it's all about Money, Money Money in a rich mans' world. The FA Cup – one bad performance and out you go…. It's better and it's how it should be.

The draw for the first round this year could have been a bit kinder as we got Bristol Rovers away. Since they inflicted our last defeat however, they're form has been abysmal so I'm not expecting a cup exit tonight. Saints have been deprived of the services of Neal Trotman who has been prevented from being cup tied by Preston and we also cannot call on Jacob Mellis for the same reason as Chelsea don't want him cup tied which is odd. Mellis won't play for Chelsea in the FA Cup this season as long as he has a hole in his ass but it suggests to me that he'll be on loan at a Championship club when January and the 3rd Round comes rolling round. As it stands, I won't miss him.

To the game and Pards has decided to go with the 4-4-2 formation which has finished the recent games we've had and been successful. This is a move that will obviously find favour with all the armchair managers who all know what's best. Michail Antonio (now ours until January) and David Connolly get starts with Papa Waigo and Paul Wotton dropping to the bench. The unavailable Trotters has been replaced by Wayne Thomas as we have to keep our 'big ugly bastard' quota up.

I've got my usual Friday night match farce to look forward in order to keep in touch with the match. This involves text messages, internet text commentary, chucking money in an internet machine at Dublin airport and not finding out about the second half at all until the plane (hopefully) lands back in Southampton. I've got a pocket full of euros and I'm throwing them in the machine, logging onto Saints 'Player' and listening in to the live commentary…. and it sounds dull. Bristol Rovers are doing all the majority of the attacking and the commentators in true Radio Solent style, all go 'oooooooooh and Lallana heads over the bar'. Yep… wasn't Lallana at all but Dean Hammond.

Anyway, half time approaches and I hear 'Will the one remaining passenger for flight BE389 to Southampton, please come to the gate'. Oh dear… off I go. The second half kicks off as the reception dies and I'm alone with my thoughts on a 120 seater plane with about 40 people on it. For the hell of it really, I try to tune in the radio on my MP3 player to see if it can pick anything up… surprisingly it can but only Radio 2 who must have a massive audience, 24,000 feet up over the Irish Sea. Ten minutes later, the Captain speaks, saying we are just passing over Bristol…. I wonder…. A quick re-tune of the radio and …. Sod all.

Half an hour later. Jesus Christ we're winning 3-0 courtesy of Connolly twice and Antonio. I'm immediately thinking of the fact that Pards seems to have the golden touch regarding his selections though I'm a bit concerned to read that Gobern has replaced Harding at left back. Gobern is Bambi and a passable midfielder but I guess that if you can't throw a player in when you're 3-0 up with 20 to go then when can you. Gobern out of position, cross, goal, 3-1… Hmmmm, no worries. 91 minutes, Gobern tangles with a forward, penalty, 3-2.

Final whistle…. Phew!!!
Whatever way you look at it, it's a good win and we're through to the next round and that's all that matters. Due to the fact that I've been a bit slow in getting this blog entry together, we all know that we've been drawn away to Northampton in the 2nd Round so whilst a home tie would have been preferable, we should be able to make it to Round 3 and have a chance to have a crack at one of the big boys, or Pompey if they're still in existence by then. Northampton had Stuart Gray in charge when we played them in the Carling Cup in August – needless to say, he isn't there now as he kept up his average management appointment length of 4 matches.

The other positive from this match is of course, the form of David Connolly who has now played approximately 180 minutes for Saints and scored 4 goals. Michail Antonio is currently looking the like the player that Nathan Dyer might have been for us if he'd had a brain and it'll be interesting to see how this one plays out if he stars from now until the January transfer window. At present, he seems surplus to requirements at Reading but maybe they'll want him back to fly down the wing and then stop and wait ten minutes to allow Rasiak to get in the box.

We have another cup game coming up on Wednesday night with Charlton the visitors in the Johnstone Paints Trophy. This is the same Charlton who've just been knocked out the FA Cup by Northwich Victoria from the Midlands Ansells Bitter Sunday League Division 8. The magic of the FA Cup…. Love it

League 1 Match 15 - Leyton Orient 2 Southampton 2

Bad memories, thanks Barry !

Leyton Orient away and a first return to Brisbane Road since 1978 when a Tony Funnell goal secured a draw and the point required to get Saints promoted to Division 1. Division 1 was a thing that existed before the Premier League Brand that we have today. I know very little about today’s opponents aside from the fact that Barry Hearn is the Chairman, the same Barry Hearn that brought us Chas n’ Dave singing Snooker Loopy which started the decline of snooker as a popular sport at the tail end of the 1980's. Of more recent relevance is the fact that Barry Hearn also thought that Saints should have further punishment for entering administration, something along the lines an automatic two division relegation. I don’t like Barry Hearn.

Saints team news saw nothing happen. Hammond was fit for midfield and Connolly was fit for the bench. Saganowski, despite a two goal performance away to Forest Green Rovers Reserves in midweek, didn’t make the trip. Once more it is mildly amusing to reflect on Saga’s career trajectory which has gone from the Euro 2008 finals to Forest Green Rovers Reserves away in just over a year.

What I’d heard in the build up to the game was that Saints had sold 3100 tickets for the trip and couldn’t get any more and they were actually changing hands on the black market. Selling out our allocation meant that we should have about 40% of the support in the ground so it should be a great day out. It’s days like this that make me jealous that I can’t get to away games anymore…sniff! Don’t feel sorry for me though as I’m in a water park in Florida with my family and a lot of fat people.

Had I been at the game, I expect my mood would have changed for the worst however when the O’s went in front with a header from Unpronounceablename. Now fully awake, the Saints piled forward and spent the rest of the first half knocking on the door in much the same way as they had in the first half against the fake Dons. No dice though and half time arrived with us still 1-0 down.

When Saints go into the 2nd half a goal down, Paul Wotton must know by now that he has ten minutes for us to equalize at best, before he gets hauled off and we switch to 4-4-2. A goal duly arrived in the 55th minute with a bullet header from Neal Trotman and Wotton was saved…. Or was he? Nope. Unfortunately, Trotters had put the O’s 2-0 up with an own goal and so Wotton departed, soon followed by Waigo with predictably, Antonio and Connolly coming on.

I’ve retrieved my phone from my locker at the water park at this point and am awaiting text goal alerts but once again, a text message with a gag at the expense of a recently deceased celebrity brings a smile… it’s a good job I’m not a Boyzone fan.

75 minutes, beep beep, 2-1 Lambert from a Lallana assist, come on!!!

83 minutes, beep beep, 2-2 Lambert from a Connolly assist, COME ONNNNNNN!!!!

94 minutes, beep beep, full time. Ummmm, how do I feel ? Hot… it’s 90 degrees here.

In the cold light of day I’m a bit disappointed with this result but when you are 2-0 down away from home with 15 to go then you take a draw. One question thrown up are when will Pardew go 4-4-2 from the start as in the last 2 games, we’ve dominated and scored goals when we’ve switched. Also, Michail Antonio has proved to be a real asset in the last 3 matches and his loan runs out after today’s game… the common concensus is that we should keep him on if at all possible.

For the second week in a row I’ve had to laugh at the comments from the opposition manager. Last week, the fake Dons assistant manager tried to make out they were the better side which even drew a slagging from the MK Dons fans. This week, the Orient manager Geraint Williams, said that over the 90 minutes that they were the better side… OK.. I’ve only got the stats in front of me and I know stats never tell the full story but they had 2 shots on target to our 9, and 4 off target to our 8. We also shaded possession by 52% to 48% and had 13 corners to 5. At one stage, courtesy of Trotters 50p head, Orient had had 1 shot and scored 2 goals.

Contrast the Orient dreamer summary with Pardew’s summary which gave credit to Orient for the way they battled but said that that we created so many chances and we should have won. Who do you think is telling the truth here? There is a school of thought that you want to big up your players but they know when they’ve been under the cosh and you will generally find that fans have more intelligence than you realise and will know when you’re talking crap.

I was hoping to be out of the relegation zone after today but we’ll have to make do with being 5 games unbeaten in the league and still moving upwards. I don’t really want to get into all this ‘if we got the 10 points back’ bollocks but …… if we had the ten points back, we’d be in 7th place, one off the playoffs. In addition…. it would really annoy Barry Hearn but not nearly as much as Snooker Loopy annoyed the whole of western civilisation.

Next up…. FA Cup First Round for the first time in 50 years…. Bristol Rovers away and I feel that Lambo will be counting down the days to that one…