Premier League Match 32 - Southampton 2 Hull 0

Keep the Faith

Surely a fixture against Hull City at home is the perfect game for you when you need to get back on track.  After all, they are missing The Great Gaston who will be doing his usual and having no impact on the game, only this time there won’t be the level of expectation that there usually is as he isn’t allowed to play as he’s on loan from us.  There is a real danger of the season petering out for us which would be a real bastard after the season we’ve had so far.  We really should have beaten Everton last week but at least we had the excuse of the fact that we always lose at Goodison.  There are no excuses for home against Hull.

A quiet week had been had and the only noise was the sound of made up bullshit from the media regarding our outgoing players.  Whatever will be, will be… as the song goes.  As for Hull, well this was supposed to be the season where they kicked on but when you look at it, they signed players from bigger clubs who were basically taking a step down to join them and you always question how good or how motivated these players actually are.  When they signed Huddlestone, Livermore, Ben Arfa and Ramirez, the general feeling was that these were good players and they would be comfortably in mid table.  However, scratch the surface and you know that Ben Arfa and Ramirez are brilliant one game and then disappear for and if they’re so great, why did Newcastle and Saints let them go.  The same applies with Spurs flogging Huddlestone and Livermore.  The Spurs reject contingent was also swelled by Michael Dawson’s arrival.  Nikica Jelavic was great at the start for Everton but quickly tailed off and they were happy to let him go.  He’s done very little for Hull and is always injured.  Another big signing in the summer was Abel Hernandez who is a Uruguayan international but he isn’t exactly Luis Suarez.  I would be slightly worried how they’d cope financially with the wages that the permanent signings would be on, if they fail to avoid relegation.

There is a surprise on the team sheet for us with Nathaniel Clyne being absent and Maya Yoshida in the starting XI.  The more predictable changes see Mané coming in for Elia and Steve Davis back in for JWP.  Clyney s on the bench which suggests he’s merely being rested for a game and he’s joined by Paolo Gazzaniga who has always sported a dodgy barnet and today is no exception.  As we are about to get underway, Toby Alderweireld is heading out to the right back berth.

Away we go and Hull gift us a golden chance in the first 30 seconds as Livermore tries to knock it back to Harper and it nearly gets half way there and Long is through.  His first touch is shocking and he shins is past Harper and then can’t keep it on the pitch before it runs out of play.  There are two shocking touches rom Long in this little sequence.  The first one where he knocks it onto his own shin is bad and the attempt to keep it on the pitch having shinned it round the keeper is pretty ropey as well.

Once that little incident had passed, Hull were looking the slightly less shit of two teams who weren’t very good.  A crossfield ball from Dawson went to Quinn who easily beat Alderweireld and fed Aluko and the only professional who’s got a sister who is a better player than him, shanked his effort wide.  Following a poor pass from Morgan and some serious backing off from Yoshida, Aluko gets another shot in and Superkelv is the first goalkeeper given any work to do.

Graziano of course hasn’t scored since he left school but he comes pretty close when Long takes down an Alderweireld crossfield ball and the it bounces intot he box where Pellè hits it well but Harper spreads himself well to block.  It’s a rare moment for us going forward because in the main we are having a shocker.  Hull are closing us down well and we’re either hoofing it or losing it.  Steve Davis is the next to lose the ball and Aluko again drives forward before skimming a decent effort just past the post.

A hoof upto Graziano is next and Alex Bruce has got both arms around him but Mr Friend doesn’t give it.  He gives a free kick and a yellow card to Graziano though when he frees himself and accidentally whacks Bruce in the face.  Well that’s how it looked to me anyway.  Shite refereeing because if you blow for the first foul then the second one doesn’t happen.

We’re still being shite in general and it’s Maya’s turn next.  We have a corner and it gets knocked out to Maya who loses it and Hull break with N’Doye feeding Aluko.  Big Vic is back and he appears to close him down and win the ball but Mr Friend has noticed a quick pull on the Hull player and Big Vic is in the book for the 10^th time this season and therefore banned for the next two matches.

Alderweireld takes a pot shot from wide which is straight at Harper and that’s the end of the first half, a first half in which we’re been shit.  Hull are very limited but we’re making them look half decent.  So many poor performances out there with really only Superkelv, Jose Fonte and Graziano doing anything decent.  I spent the half time interval telling anyone who’s listen that I’d get Clyney on for Long, go with three at the back and get Mané up front with Graziano but Ronald wasn’t listening and off came Big Vic to be replaced with JWP.

Hull are still pressing well at the start of the second half and Superkelv has his first dodgy moment since Fraser’s injury with a horrible under-pressure clearance which slices off  hif foot up in the air and José Fonte has to smash it anywhere.  The first decent chance of the second half falls to Hull as Elmohamady feeds Aluko who knocks it back to Livermore whose low drive is smartly kept out low by the sprawling Superkelv.

Toby then pings a ball over the top of McShane at left back and in front of Shane Long whose touch is again horrible but Bruce comes across and needlessly trashes him.  Even Kevin Friend can’t fail too give that and he duly obliges.  Sadio Mané looks like he wants it but the captain is over and telling him to give the ball to JWP who confidently dispatches it Sir Rickie style hard and high past Harper to make it 1-0.  I was half expecting a bit of a sulk but Sadio Mané was the first one of=ver the JWP as he celebrated. Get in.

We don’t really deserve to be in front and we are grateful to Bertrand on the line to clear a Chester header following a corner.  Mané has had a poor game and he’s off to be replaced with Tadic and Elia is on for Long soon after. Shane applauds the Hull fans and they in turn kind of ignore him.

Tadic has gone to the right wing and one thing is apparent and that is that he’s far too good for McShane who he turns inside out about four times before crossing. Saints are down that wing again and Tadic cuts infield and plays a a nice abll to Morgan who drives to the line, cuts in and knocks a little pass to Graziano who smashes it in the net for 2-0.  Game over methinks and me also thinks the Big Italian will be rather relieved that he’s finally scored.

With ten minutes to go, Hull are all done and we have a decent chance to make it 3-0  as Toby plays a lovely 1-2 with Graziano before picking out Steve Davis with a lovely low cross but the man who never scores waves his left foot at it and wafts it hopelessly over the bar from 10 yards.  It was really too much to ask for him and JWP to both score in the same game.

In the end it was quite comfortable once the penalty hit the net and we cantered it from that point on really.  In the first half we were absolute shit and no one aside from Superkelv was having a good game.  In the second half the number of players playing well was much higher.  Maya Yoshida in the first half for example was absolutely woeful but in the second he was outstanding and it was a similar story for Morgan Schneiderlin, Graziano Pellè, Ryan Bertrand, Toby Alderweireld and José Fonte.

The substitution by Ronald Koeman and the tactical change that the introduction of JWP enabled was key to turning the game around and it’s so good to know that we have a manager capable of doing this.  He was also very honest in his appraisal of the game, saying that the first half was unacceptable and he’s spot on with that.  Though Hull had the better of the first half, they were still shit only that we were worse.  We only had to get out of first gear for about 15 minutes to win the game comfortably.  If the measure of a side is how they react to adversity then Hull are shite.  Once the penalty went in then they had nothing.  They kept trying but Superkelv could have been in a deck chair for the last half an hour.  I like Steve Bruce and he’s always very complimentary about Saints but it would be a major surprise to me if Hull stayed up – they have nothing up front and 0-0 draws are not going to get you out of it.

Having said that about Steve Bruce, he did have a bit of a moan after the game about the Graziano incident, saying that he should have been sent off.  I can see his point but it didn’t look like he meant it to me.  At the time I thought it was a case of the referee causing the problem as he ddidn;t give the obvious free kick when Alex Bruce grabbed hold of Graziano and as he’s freed himself he’s caught him.  If the ref gives the first free kick for holding like he should then we don’t have a problem.

I thought Graziano was superb today.  His hold up play was absolutely top class as was his passing.  He had to chances at goal, scored one and brought a decent save with the other.  He annoyed me at one point when he didn’t get a pass from Long and he was still throwing the big ‘Mamma Mia’ and looking at the sky for effect when we’d won the ball back and were looking to pass to him.  Ryan Bertrand got annoyed at this as well and was pointing this out to the Saints bench at the time.

Ha ha ha – Spurs lost at home to Villa so with Liverpool paying on Monday, we are up to 5^th.  Unfortunately, Liverpool have a bye as they are playing Newcastle at home and they are shite.  It appears to be ‘advantage Saints’ in the race for a Europa League spot but let’s for a moment get unrealistic and not that Manchester City are in 4^th and appear to be in freefall after a chastening 4-2 dicking by United who now seem nailed on for 3^rd place.

Next up is an away trip to mid-table Stoke City.  We’ve already beaten them twice this season so why not?