League 1 Match 18 - Southampton 0 Brighton 0

Brighton at home and does anyone want to hear about my journey from Brighton where I work... ok then. I managed to leave an hour early at 4pm and I got home to Hedge end at 6.45pm via the backstreets of Worthing – the place where traffic goes to die – and Chichester where the queues were the same, only more posh. 7.44 and into St Mary’s I go. I like it when the away end is full as it instantly raises the game above the norm with the banter flying back and forth with the Brighton fans leading the way and the Northam replying with chants that all seem to have a ‘bum’ reference them. I wonder why.

Disaster on the team news front with Chappers pulling out injured to be replaced by Schneiderlin. Connolly is not on the bench for reasons unknown and those two dropping out leaves a bench resembling a kindergarten with Aaron Martin, Ryan Doble and Oscar Carlton Palmer Gobern on there.

Away we go and we start well, pushing forward and forcing Brighton back. Brighton want to play however and are taking some serious chances playing it around their back four with a confidence that far outweighs their ability. Barnard, Lallana and Hammond are all snapping into tackles as Brighton piss about with it and it’s looking very encouraging. Not wanting to play though is Brighton keeper Ankergren who is warned by the ref for wasting time after two minutes! Five minutes in and Deano, generating serious stick from the Brighton fans every time he touches it, is hacked down on the edge of the box. Sir Rickie takes it and it’s heading to the bottom corner but Wankergren gets down and it bobbles off his hand, onto the post and away for a corner.

When Saints have the ball, Brighton are very cynical with Chamberlain in particular being on the end of body checks and shirt holding. We also get the first ‘handbags’ we’ve had at SMS for a while as Barnard doesn’t touch the keeper but Greer decides he’s going to get in his face and try and make something of it. Fancy a drink at the White House afterwards mate ?

On twenty minutes SMS collectively gasped as an elephant thundered up the pitch in the form of Radhi Jaidi who intercepted and set off on a gallop, playing the ball to Barnard and continuing his run to meet Barney’s cross with a header that flew predictably wide, which was a shame as it would of been one of the great SMS goals had it gone in.

Deano was running the midfield and found himself storming past players on the right wing before Brighton got cynical again and Battipiedi grabbed a hand full of shirt rather than try to make a challenge and got himself deservedly booked. It was all Saints at this point with Schneiderlin, playing further forward than usual, playing in Lallana who shot straight at Wankergren.

More shots flying in and some determined and committed defending from Brighton with El-Abd getting himself badly injured in the process and it taking ages to stretcher him off. Obviously he was badly hurt but it played into Brighton’s hands a bit as it broke up the play at a time when Saints were totally dominant. The sense of annoyance was heightened five minutes later when Lallana was clearly fouled in the box but neither ref or linesman were interested.

Schneiderlin is trying to put himself about but manages to clatter a bloke over by the dugouts. It’s not too bad and to be fair, the Brighton player doesn’t make a meal of it but the Brighton bench jump up and down and wave their arms about until the ref books him. They must be very very proud of themselves. Having been booked, Morgan then displays total idiocy by pulling back a guy who has run past him. I have no real idea how he got away with that and whilst the place would have gone nuts if he’s been given a second yellow, there was no argument really. Luckily it was over the other side of the pitch from all the Brighton bench arm waving and imaginary card brandishing.

There were four minutes of injury time to make up for the eight minute injury and the five minute time wasting by Wankergren but not a lot happened aside from a decent chance falling to Dicker but his deflected shot was well pawed away by Superkelv and so we went in at 0-0.

We manufactured a very good chance in the 50th minute when Richardson, getting forward more and more, took a Schneiderlin pass and swung over a peach of a cross onto the head of Sir Rickie eight yards out who rose like a salmon ... I mean a whale and headed over the bar. Bad, Bad miss I’m afraid. A Free header from that close in a tight game really has to hit the net.

Brighton’s mindset was again shown up when Ashley Barnes was substituted. He walked at snails pace towards the dug out and the ref ran over and warned him, to which he responded by not going and faster so the ref booked him. Unbelieveably, he still didn’t speed up so the ref really should have sent him off which would have been worth it just to see the Brighton bench do all the flapping movements they had been doing all game.

And then, potential disaster as Brighton broke down the right and worked it infield to where Murray ran across Dickson and went down in the area, nowhere near the ball. The flag of doom went square across the linesman’s chest...penalty. Mild mannered Radhi was so incensed he managed to talk his way into the book and after much discussion with the ref, presumably about the identical one we didn’t get given in the first half, up stepped Chris Wood... only for Superkelv to fly across and push it away. Ha! Twas a good save but a comfortable one really – go the right way and you’ll save it. It was neither high enough or hard enough but who cares. Let’s push on.

Double substitution ahoy on 75 minutes with Holmes and The Gulyman on for Barnard and Schneiderlin with the hope that they would combine as effectively as on Saturday. A corner was the best that they could come up with and from it, Brighton broke and Richardson cleared the resulting cross away as he faced one of those horrible decisions like the one facing Dan Harding a couple of weeks ago. Luckily he chose not to stick it in his own net.

By this time I’d have taken a draw as we seemed to be spent. Jaidi in particular was completely knackered, managing to find new ways to not get the ball clear. I thought for a moment that Aaron Martin was being summoned to replace him but eventually Butterfield came on for Chamberlain for the last 5 minutes with what I assume was a brief to shut down our right hand side. It was somewhat alarming to see a Brighton player with the freedom of that side of the pitch whilst he got his bearings.

Lallana put Guly through but he was offside in Waigo-esque circumstances and so the final whistle went and our six match winning run at SMS was over.

0-0 and disappointed to be honest. We kind of blew it by not scoring in the first half when we were totally on top and the second half was more of a struggle as Brighton sorted themselves out. It would have been a complete travesty if they’d won it with the penalty and thanks to Superkelv, they didn’t. It’s somewhat ironic that there were two near identical penalty shouts in the game – they got theirs, we didn’t get ours so maybe we should get all Celtic about it and cause a referee strike. Nigel was as annoyed as I’ve ever heard him in an interview, not very impressed with the antics of the Brighton bench but he was pleased with our first half and rightly so. I didn’t think we played well in the second half and as the game wore on, I felt it became more important for us not to lose. Overall though – we should have won, we deserved to have won.... but we nearly lost.

As for Brighton – well they were one of the most unlikeable outfits I’ve seen in recent times at SMS, from the time wasting, the cynical play, the histrionics from the bench, the histrionics from the players. What’s the rule this season with goalkeepers ? How long can they hold it before rolling it out and kicking it. Ankergren earned the silent ‘W’ in front of his name with his pushing of whatever the rule is to the limit from the first minute of the game. That said, the referee who warned him in the 2nd minute, should have booked him in the 5th minute when he did it again and then the problem would have been sorted. Still – they’re top and fair play to them and they’ve got a draw from one of their most difficult fixtures of the season – grudging praise I have to admit.

Cheltenham at home in the FA Cup on Saturday and I expect we’ll see a few fringe players given a run out such as Holmes and The Gulyman. If Chappers is still injured then we may well see Oscar Gobern given that Scheneiderlin is banned and Wotton is nothing but a fond memory. I have tickets just in front of the Directors section in the Itchen so I’m expecting a game where the smell wafting around is of aftershave and prawn sandwiches as opposed to the Kingsland where the smell is of piss and Werthers Originals.