NPC Match 20 - Doncaster 1 Southampton 0

The Loan System 1 Saints 0

Today we’re at Doncaster in a bottom versus top match. It still feels odd to me to be the team that’s expected to win but we are, indisputably expected to win and I said before we played Coventry recently, if we are serious about winning the league then these are the games you have to win.  It’s not that clear cut against Doncaster though as they have done a deal with the devil, or more specifically, Harry Redknapp’s pet agent, Willy McKay, who I thought had been banned.

McKay has come up with this idea which from his point of view, is a decent idea.  If one of his players is not getting a game, then he brokers a deal by which the parent club pays 90 – 95% of the wages and the player goes on loan, thus putting them in the shop window for a potential transfer in January or getting them match-fit for when they return.  Nothing wrong with this so far until you realise that he’s obviously working for one club, Doncaster Rovers.  Donny then of course, end up with a squad of players, far better than the club should reasonably expect to have turn out for them.  My main problem with the Donny model of the loan system is that if everyone did it, the clubs with the strongest squads would be the ones who have the best ‘pet’ agent.  Not really what football is all about is it.?

I have always had a bit of a problem with the loan system and this is more evidence for the prosecution as far as I’m concerned.  I know we’ve benefited in the past from loaning players in and out but the amount of loans that go on distorts the competition in my view.  If it was down to me it would be 2 players maximum loaned in at any one time with a maximum of 4 in a season.  If you sign the player permanently in January then it doesn’t count in your quota for the season.

Talking of loans – we don’t have any now as Jos Hooiveld has signed on the dotted line to become a permanent Saint, a contract he thoroughly deserves for his performances this season.  Big Jos lines up for us in an amended line up. The major news and big worry is that Sir Rickie has failed to recover from his knock from the Hull game and has been replaced with Steve de Ridder and The Fox returns in place of Dan Harding.  Willy McKay Rovers are shorn of their highest profile star with Senegalese international and well known piece of shit El Hadj Diouf having a hamstring injury which he got when he overstretched when trying to spit at someone..  They still have Beye from Villa , Marc-Antoine Fortune from West Brom, Goulon from Blackburn, Ikeme from Wolves  and  Ilunga from West Ham in the side though.  They also have Billy Sharp who was an alleged target for Saints in the summer.  Hopefully we wouldn’t join Lukas Jutkiewicz and Nicky Maynard in scoring against us in our last couple of away matches.  As well as all this lot, they have ex-Saints Simon Gillett who is just back from New Zealand having been tossed about by England Rugby players.

The 11 players we had on the pitch posed a few questions regarding the formation.  Morgan on the right doesn’t work so is he giving that another go with De Ridder up front, or is he playing de Ridder on the right with someone else up front? Are we going with a narrow 3 in midfield with Adam in the hole?  Nigel is not only thinking outside the box today, he’s thinking outside the box, outside the house, outside the bus and all the way to outside the funny farm.  Morgan is up front with the Gulyman, bringing his prolific 2 goals in 4 years to the party.  Well this will be interesting and I’m worried.

It all starts positively enough though and we boss possession without really doing anything with it.  The first chances of the game both fall to McKay Rovers and two players who they actually own.  First off it’s Simon Gillett running unopposed through our midfield and forces Superkelv into a sprawling save.  Fortune got himself running at the Saints defence but Jose Fonte Baby come up with an immaculately time tackle to halt the charge.  Then Brian Stock finds himself ont he end of a decent build up down our left and sees his shot shovelled against the outside of the post by Superkelv before it went out for a corner.

We create a clear chance on 20 minutes as the Gulyman a Morgan pull off an excellent 1-2 to sent Morgan through on goal but from a narrow angle he goes for the near post and the ball slams into Ikeme’s head and off for a corner.  A more natural finisher would have gone across the keeper instead of smashing it near post which is exactly what he did in the Hull match last week.

The rest of the first half borders on the very very boring with Saints only creating one real chance of note as a ball sits up for the Gulyman to volley it goalwards, forcing Ikeme into another decent save.

Half time and not enough made of the possession that we had and a formation / personnel change needed.  As the teams re-emerge , we get the former with de Ridder going up front, Morgan in the holding role behind Deano and Corky and kind of no one on the right.

As usual, Saints dominate possession and go forward more in hope than expectation.  We’re the better side but neither team look like scoring and then one does... and it’s not us.  Following an excellent run and cross from the gulyman which is cleared, a big hoof downfield catches Big Jos daydreaming and Jose covers but doesn’t stop Fortune getting the cross in.  With both centre halves out of the game, Billy Sharp finds the ball at his feet about 10 yards out and he’s not going to miss from there.  1-0

A quick summation is all that’s needed for the last half an hour as it was complete shite.  Barnard and Holmes came on for Cork and de Ridder which at least gave us a balanced team but overall, we did sd all and just surrendered the game.  There were half-hearted headers from Barney and the Gulyman, which were not troubling the keeper at all and that was it.  At the other end, we were lucky to get away with one when the lino gave offside when it clearly wasn’t, two seconds before Deano hoofed one of the Donny forwards over in the box.  With about 15 to go, there was none of the belief that I usually have that we will score.

Full time, Doncaster (bottom) 1, Saints (top) 0.  Rubbish.

Well what a garbage result that was and I can’t help but feel that Nigel got this one wrong.  Too much pissing about with the formation I feel and expecting a player with two goals in four years to be a goal threat was wildly optimistic at best.  Barnard or de Ridder should have started up front with the Gulyman or maybe Lallana even, with Harding coming in on the left.  The half time changes actually made the team worse and we never looked like scoring in the second half.  The only saving grace from today was that West Ham contrived to lose 2-1 at home to Burnley and so we stay two points clear at the top but the gap to 3^rd place is now only 5 points.  Yes of course we would have taken that at the start of the season but it’s annoying none-the-less..

Can our away form now officially be described as ‘dodgy’?  Personally I think it can as players and the manager are now talking about it in interviews.  We have to be careful of it not becoming a complex and making ourselves believe that we can’t win away from home.  Sir Rickie missing today was a massive problem as we all knew it would be but I feel a lot is down to Chappers not being fit.  We were too open in away games before he got in the side and after the defeat at Cardiff, he started playing and we got better in away games.  Chappers gets injured and we start losing on the road again.  This needs to stop and it needs to stop pretty quickly as our next away game is of course, against the Skates.

Next up we have Ian Holloway with his Quite Funny / Complete Idiot mood swings as his Blackpool side visit SMS.  Their main player recently has been another loanee, Jonjo Shelvey who has been recalled by Liverpool.  Hopefully Sir Rickie will be fit so there is no need for us to be radical and try Danny Butterfield up front.  It puts today’s team selection in context when you realise that Danny is a more prolific scorer than Morgan. 

Keep the faith and no slitting the wrists.