"Get out me way, I wanna smack the bastard"
Following the rather dull draw against Hartlepool, a general mood of gloom had appeared to descend over the Saints faithful. We are 5th in the league and if we win our games in hand then we are 2nd. We have taken more than 2 points a game in the last 10 matches so what’s the problem. Oh yeah… people are incredibly impatient and demand that we win every match. Have fans always been like this or has the mentality of the ‘hire and fire’ chairmen than infest the game, seeped down into the average supporter. Everyone who pays their money to watch a game has the right to expect whatever they want I guess but it makes me wonder if fans are ever happy with their team – however well they do. If we come 2nd and go up automatically at the end of the year, there will be people bitching because we should have come 1st. If we go up through the playoffs then people will bitch because we didn’t go up automatically. The net result in all of these scenarios will be the same – we will go up one division. If we fail to go up this season then the Samaritans hotline will be in meltdown.
To bring all the moaning bollocks into perspective, just before the game we learned that Dean Richards had died at the ridiculously young age of 36…. which is 6 years younger than me. He was a fantastic player for a couple of seasons for Saints, as the successor to Ken Monkou and the predecessor of Michael Svensson in partnering Our Claus, in the middle of defence. For once in my life I was in the know when he followed Hoddle to Spurs. My Mum and Dad were house hunting at the time and Dad was a bit taken aback when Dean Richards opened the door and showed him round. Dad’s first words were “so you’re off then?”. I was gutted when he left as he was so good which seems to be a sentiment echoed by the fans of all the clubs he played for – Bradford City, Wolves, us and Spurs. RIP Big Man.
To the teams and Nigel made a mistake and accidentally handed in last weeks teamsheet as were completely unchanged, first XI and bench. Swindon had David Prutton on the bench whose time at Saints was forever soured by him going all nutjob on a linesman after he’d been deservedly sent off. He looks like he’s been backpacking for a year or two and has not had a haircut or a decent meal. I bet he still claps the fans though.
The first real action of the game was a Swindon attack where Chamberlain showed how much of a team player he is by getting back into our own penalty area to make an important challenge just as the overweight scruffy bloke in their midfield was about to shoot. Chambo then displayed the more widely known part of his game by running at the left hand side of the Swindon defence, ignoring the calls from Sir Rickie and Chappers to square it, went alone and his shot pinged off of the base of the far post and bounced back into play and we all strangled our goal celebrations and sat back down.
We didn’t have long to wait for the first goal as five minutes later, Fonte brought the ball out of defence and played it to Sir Rickie’s feet. Showing the delicacy of touch of Dennis Bergkamp (I shit ye not) he knocked it past a defender who dived in like a tit and laid it off to the Gulyman. One pass later and Lallana was through on the keeper and he fired it under him for 1-0.
Swindon, looking nothing like the side who had beaten us on the previous 4 occasions, seemed to roll over and accept the inevitable as we tore them apart. Harding made a forceful run down the left but found it very easy to get to the line from where he hung up a cross which was headed down by Sir Rickie for the Gulyman to drive against the post.
A second goal before half time would have totally killed it but we took our foot off a bit for the last ten minutes and the only incident was Fonte having a bit of a dive in their penalty area. Half time and relatively happy.
The second half began positively again for Saints but the two chances we created fell to Guly who showed that his strikers instincts were not in the building but on a bus, speeding away from SMS. For all the decent things he does, there is a problem with the fact that he’s not clinical in front of goal. Following the two misses, Saints went to shit and allowed Swindon back into the game. Our strikers were not holding the ball up at all and Sir Rickie was having one of his ‘can’t jump, won’t jump’ games. Hammond was competing well in midfield but Chaplow was completely off the pace.
Swindon managed a quick break down our left and Ritchie ran into a space where one of Harding or Lallana should have been. He cut onto his left foot and hit it to the near post where once again, Kelvin just waved it by as it flew in. You can never say categorically that it’s the keepers fault on goals like this but it’s another one where there’s a question mark. It’s near post and he hasn’t even got a touch. Maybe it deflected but I don’t think it did. Poor goalkeeping, again…. And Bart is now injured. Ritchie is of course, one of the youth team that the Skates deemed to be not good enough so they could spend a load more money they didn’t have on Premiership player wages.
Nigel responded straight away, replacing Chaplow with Schneiderlin and soon after, replacing Guly with Barnard. Schneiderlin soon got in on the act playing a wonderful ball over the left back for Chamberlain to control and burst past him only to be cynically hauled back. The referee, who looked about 90, didn’t even book him but did show a yellow card to a random Swindon player for mouthing off. Justice was done from the resultant free kick as Harding’s delivery was powerfully headed in by Sir Rickie… and I had been calling for him to be taken off about 5 minutes earlier.
No sooner had we recovered from that, we had a corner on the left. Lallana rolled it to Chambo who skipped out away from the goal and from the corner of the box, delivered a cross right onto the head of Radhi Jaidi who couldn’t miss. His goalscoring celebration was as bad as it was funny.
Swindon’s answer to us going 3-1 up was to bring on David Prutton who got a decent round of applause, which he wouldn’t have got if he’d come on at 1-1. It was very nearly 4-1 a minute later as Butters took a quick free kick to put Hammond away down the right and his superb cross was met by Fonte who got too much of a contact on it and headed over when a flick header would have brought a goal.
The difference that our two subs made is quite remarkable with Barnard offering a much more mobile target up front and Morgan having the guile to pick out the pass. Morgan found himself breaking forward with Chamberlain and instead of shooting (which he probably should have done) he slid it though for Chambo to smash in the net, only for the flag to go up for a tight offside.
The game then became a case of Saints vs Lucas in the Swindon goal. Sir Rickie hit one of those piledrivers that only he can hit and Lucas managed to get himself in the way, a split second before it knocked him over. He saved his best save though for a superb volley by Oscar Gobern of all people as he co-ordinated all four of his giraffe legs and managed an excellent effort rather than falling over in an uncoordinated heap like he usually does.
So, as we moved into injury time, that looked to be that but Lallana picked out Barnard and as Swindon all stopped and appealed for offide, he dribbled round Lucas and squeezed a shot in from a near impossible angle, in exactly the same way as Guly wouldn’t have. Huzzah! Saints 4 Swindon 1 and Prutton clapped all four sides of the ground.
A very odd game this one with us being pretty good for the first third and the last third but that middle third…. Jesus, we were shocking. Swindon for their part, were shite. They just looked like they were going though the motions. Ferry in midfield was industrious but the forwards were non-existent and Douglas and Prutton looked like what they are – journeyman pros. They didn’t look like they really wanted to be there. To be fair, they’ve lost Charlie Austin and Pericard, who is a handful, was injured but even so, I’d be a more than a bit worried about their chances of staying up if I was one of their fans.
Nigel focussed on the positives in his post match interview and he has a decision to make now as the team was 100% better when Schneiderlin and Barnard came on. In a reversal of recent weeks, Brighton lost but bloody Bournemouth won away from home in the 91st minute. The real worrying one is Peterbrough winning 5-0 away at Oldham…. What sort of result is that Fergie Lite, you miserable wanker, we won 6-0 there.
Next up, a trip too the Black Country and Walsall on Tuesday night. My advice for anyone going is …. Ansells.
Dean Richards, Rest in Peace.
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