League Cup 2nd Round - Brighton 0 Southampton 1

You Go Down the Wing and Cross it Nath!  I'll Sort It!

An away trip to Brighton in the Reserve Team Trophy. You can hope all you like that the manager is going to play as close to a first-team is possible to try and get some confidence or to work on team shape or pattern or something like that but you know deep down that it’s going to be all the fringe squad players that are playing. You also know that Brighton, whose main priority this season is going to be very much staying up, are going to do exactly the same thing. As the more established Premier League side with a bigger squad, you would expect our side to be better than theirs but since when has anything ever worked out the way you thought it would.

In the event, Saints made 10 changes with only Elyonoussi surviving from the Leicester defeat. The only Academy youngster in the side was Matty Targett with both Josh Sims and Harrison Reed having gone out on loan this week. There was a place on the bench for Sam Gallagher with both Ings and Long not being involved at all. Making their first appearances of the season were Angus Gunn , Steve Davis, Maya Yoshida and Jan Bednarek.

It’s like a testimonial with the only difference being that there are no competition winners out there or someone’s 8 year old son.  Anyway, putting negativity aside for a second, we really should take the lead on 8 minutes when following a JWP cross and a deflection, Elyonoussi sees his point bank header blocked and then Yoshida’s follow up is easily cleared off the line.

Brighton’s reserves, not many of whom I’ve heard of, create a chance with Jahanbakhsh (who I have heard of) running through some non-existent challenges on our right and firing just over the bar from the edge of the box.  The rest of the first half is utter forgettable shit with just a shot wide from Armstrong after a decent run and a long ranger from Gabbiadini which actually forces a save out of Button in goal for the Seagulls.  Boring 0-0.  Half time.

You just know that this game is 0-0 and penalties or 1-0.  Brighton have the first attempts to make it the latter when Armstrong bottles out of at tackle on our right and it’s the old cross from our left routine with a slight twist.  Usually, the ball sails over Stephens and Cedric’s man heads at goal.  This time with Stephens at right back, it sails over him and Gyokeres heads down but Gunn gets across well to push it away.

JWP is unlucky with a free kick which hits Button in the chest as he decided not to use his hands for some reason and there’s an almighty scramble in our penalty area, the highlight of which is a great block from Bednarek to deny Kayal.

On 70 minutes, Sparky decides to try and raise the game above tedium level because he couldn’t be arsed with a penalty shoot-out and on comes Gallagher for Romeu.  The new boy immediately starts putting himself about and putting defenders under pressure.  It’s good to see.  More subs a few minutes later with Redmond and Auston coming on for Gabbiadini and Armstrong and then a glorious chance to take the lead.  Button has a fucking nightmare, toe ending a ball with his standing foot before playing an airshot and Gallagher nicks it off him, stays composed and tees up Austin who has two defenders on the line but surely he must score right?  Just put your laces through it right?  Wrong – wanky sidefoot easily kicked off the line.  Fuck sake.

One last chance with Brighton now playing for penalties. Gallagher to Elyonoussi who switches play superbly out to Redders on the left.  The man with the new found confidence stands up the defender, takes him on and floats over a superb left foot cross right on the head of Austin who thumps home a header which Button gets a hand to and can’t keep out.  Thank you and good night.

The most important thing about any game of Cup football is to win it and to be in the hat for the next round. I am using this as a justification for the fucking dreadful game that just happened. Our reserves were marginally less shit than their reserves. The identity of the goalscorer did illustrate a point that I have been crapping on about for a while now which is that Charlie Austin is better as a substitute because we don’t have to burn a substitution every time he starts because he’s too knackered to play more than an hour and he will be better against tired defenders.

All three substitutes were game changers today. Sam Gallagher was excellent when he came on and he added a completely different dimension to our attack that Brighton couldn’t deal with. The other two subs were Redmond and Austin who combined for the goal. Elsewhere, I was really hoping that Jack Stephens would put his hand up as alternative to the recently dreadful Cedric at right back but he totally failed to do so, looking like a fish up a tree for most of the match and the old failing in the air was horribly evident as well and led to the closest Brighton got to scoring.  Steve Davis had a tidy match in midfield and Matt Targett showed in patches, why Fulham were allegedly willing to spend £15 million on him.

It is not a surprise to me that our second string wasn’t much worse than the first string. We have a deep squad which is pretty equal in ability right across it. There are a few who didn’t play tonight who would make the team better like Vestergaard, Ings and Bertrand but other than those three you could almost mix and match.

Next up is a much more important league game against Crystal Palace away.  Another tough game but one that we really need to be getting something out of. I know it’s only the fourth time but you really don’t wanna be in the bottom three which is where we will be should we get beaten on Saturday.

PS… we got the shittiest of shit draws in the next round… Everton away.  For fucks sake.