EFL Championship Match 25 - Southampton 2 Plymouth Argyle 1

Play to the Whistle (In Spanish)

Festive game number three and Plymouth Argyle at home which on paper, should be another three points if we approach it properly. Argyle have been kicking around lower mid table for most of the season so far but with the lowest budget in the division, the only aim this year is to stay up and it was all going pretty well.  That was until a week or so ago when Stephen Schumacher, their highly rated manager who got them promoted from League 1 last season, decided to leave a club where he was revered, in a lovely part of the world and move to Stoke City.  Stoke is of course a place where the fans will turn on you in an instant and which seems like a bit of a poison chalice job and Stoke itself is of course, not as nice a place as Plymouth, or in other words, a shithole.

The reaction of the Argyle faithful has been fairly philosophical but having been in that position when managers leave to not necessarily make a massive step up, I would be fucking livid, especially given the assurances a week before that he was not looking to leave. However, if you take off your partisan goggles for a second - the three-and-a-half year contract he signed has probably secured his and his families future, even if he goes the same way as Nathan Jones did when he went to Stoke and gets sacked after six months.

Since Schumacher left, Argyle have responded with a 3-3 draw at home to Birmingham and a 2-2 draw away at Cardiff but regardless of their current form, they are a team we should certainly be beating at home, residing as they do on 28 points, the exact same number as Swansea.  Neil Dewsnip, the current Director of Football is in charge today.

The only news to come out of Saints since the last game is that Joe Aribo is likely to be going to the African Cup of Nations with Nigeria. If you had asked me three months ago whether I’d be remotely bothered about his potential absence, I first would’ve questioned how the fuck he got in the Nigeria squad and been delighted for him getting some game time as he wasn’t getting it here. As it is though, he has started the last five games and has contributed well so we are actually going to miss him when he goes. Russell Martin has in my book, said the right things in that the club wouldn’t even try and stop him going, such is his pride at playing for Nigeria. Fair enough.  He also, in a roundabout way, hinted that Joe had now taken on board how hard he has to work to be effective at this level.  The Nigeria extended squad also contains Tall Paul Onuachu and Nathan Tella, who will probably defect to another country just when he is about to become useful. (UPDATE: Joe made the cut for the tournament, whilst the other two did not)

There’s a couple of rotation changes today with Stuart Armstrong and Aribo on the bench and starting places for Charly Alcaraz and Will Smallbone.  Shea Charles is also in the side with Flynn Downes nowhere – ill again.  This game is of course kicking off at 6pm on a Friday, which is an absolutely bullshit time for a football match to take place with Sky taking precedence and the match-going fan coming a very distant last on the list of priorities.

The big screen in the ground shows a video of clips from our unbeaten run and then fades to black and the word ‘NEXT’ comes up on the screen, followed by the Plymouth badge.  I don’t like stuff like that.  It never sits well with me when the social media team are allowed free reign.  For me, an important characteristic of a Southampton person is to be humble and it's never good to give motivation to the opposition.

Anyway, right from the first whistle you can see what kind of game it’s going to be with Plymouth basically sat in a 5-3-2 formation, which is more or less 5-5-0 out of possession and not being interested in pressing in our half. It’s understandable from their point of view but it’s going to make it hard work.  However understanding I try and be however, when their goalkeeper Conor Hazard starts wasting time after three minutes, it really pisses me off, especially when the referee knows it and gestures to him to get on with it. Just fucking book him and then see what he does.  There are 30,000 people in here wanting to see a game of football, not to see the keeper fuck about over a goal kick.

Five minutes gone and it looks momentarily like we’ve found another way to make Hazard get on with it by taking the lead as Ryan Manning crosses a ball in from the left, behind the defence and Che Adams takes a superb touch with his right foot and then smashes it pass Hazard with his left, which is the one he never seemingly wants to use. Great finish but the fucking flag’s up. Bollocks.

Having been denied this time, we try again and it’s time it’s ridiculous effort as Adam Armstrong picks the ball up in the centre circle and from just inside the Plymouth half he smashes it left footed and its sails over the top of the goalkeeper who is not getting there and lands on the roof of the net just behind the crossbar.

Two minutes later and following an Edozie ran down the left, a bouncing ball breaks to Alcaraz about 25 yards out and he just smashes it on the turn through the massed ranks of Plymouth defenders in about a foot wide of the post with Hazard struggling.

Another chance comes and goes from a Manning corner and it’s met at the near post by THB, who flicks it goalwards and watches it bounce off the far post while everyone else plays statues and Plymouth get away with it again. How we haven’t scored yet is ridiculous.   Another attack down the right ends with KWP running at defenders and then Shea Charles putting in a lovely ball between the goalkeeper and 6 yard line but more statues.

This honestly could be four or five already – but it’s zero and when another attack ends with a foul on Adam Armstrong on the edge of the box and it’s not given, it’s sucker-punch time as Argyle get into our half for the first time, building up down their left and switching it Morgan Whitaker on the right with just Edozie for company but it does he does brilliantly to block and the danger passes.  That’s a major difference from the start of the season when Edozie would have been ten yards away from the player as he scored.

Sammy's Tackling Technique Might Not be Textbook But It's Effective

Half time and somehow it’s 0-0.  Patience required as you have to believe that it will come, as long as we keep going.

Sure enough, it’s the same pattern at the start of the second half with Alcaraz picking up the ball on the left and running at the Plymouth defence past three defenders before his shot is deflected and saved by Hazard and Adam Armstrong is unfortunately only 5 foot seven and can’t head in the rebound.

Out of nowhere Plymouth smash a long ball which is brilliantly taken down by Whitaker who manages to work the space and put in a brute of a cross with his left foot and there is Bali Mumba at the back post to head into the net - for fuck‘s sake.  Clearly the linesman agrees because the flag goes straight up to stop all the celebrations dead.

Trust Me Lads, You Still Don't Want VAR in the EFL

Saints get on with it and straight up the other end with Alcaraz swapping passes with Edozie, which takes a defender away, allowing Alcaraz to take it on to his right foot and curl an absolutely stunning effort over the keeper and into the far side of the net. One end to the other, fucking have it and perhaps there is a God after all. The Argyle players are all around the referee but what is he going to do? Once your goal has been disallowed you get back in position you don’t just stand there moaning about it.

Now a goal behind, there is no discernible change to Argyle’s tactics, other than the fact the keeper isn’t wasting time any more.  It’s still nine men behind the ball at all times with Saints knocking around about forty yards from the goal.  Bednarek flights a lovely ball over the top to meet the dome of Smallbone running forward and he tries to just place a header past Hazard which he manages but sadly, just the wrong side of the post.

The chip pass has obviously been identified as an opportunity so we try the same again with THB and his effort finds Che Adams he gets goalside of the defender and the goalkeeper absolutely shits himself and just stands there in does absolutely fuck all allowing Adams to knock the ball into the net with the outside of his right foot from about five yards. 2-0 and it really should be game over.

Brave Goalkeeping at It's Finest

Substitution time with Adams, Smallbone and Alcaraz or coming off for Fraser, Stuart Armstrong and Aribo.  Aribo continues his impressive form straight away by holding off a player and knocking a ball through to Adam Armstrong who takes his time before smashing it with the keeper making a decent save, to be fair… to the time wasting bastard.

Adam Armstrong and Sam Edozie depart the scene to be replaced by Jack Stephens and Sekou Mara and it all goes to shit for ten minutes as we get a little bit sloppy until Jack Stephens bounces are very average pass back to Baz, who takes a heavy touch to put himself in trouble and as Hardie closes in, Baz tries to get out of the shit with a body feint and nothing happens and Hardie just knocks it into the net. For fuck‘s sake.

With six minutes left, Saints have the arse about the ridiculousness of the current scoreline and have now fully woken up and go on the attack - KWP putting Ryan Fraser clean through and the Wee Man has to score but hits the goalkeepers foot.

96 minutes and Argyle are having a go now for a ridiculous smash and grab and put us under a little bit of pressure and Shea Charles treads on the ball and it ultimately ends with Whitaker having a shot from 25 yards which sails harmlessly over the bar.  The End.

Well that was considerably more nervy than it should’ve been. To be honest, we should’ve won this game as comfortably as we did against Swansea and Blackburn in our previous two home games. 2-1 is a ridiculously flattering scoreline for Plymouth but at the same time, they will come away with a sense of injustice because of the perfectly good goal that they had disallowed – and it was.  It’s never offside and of course it would’ve put them in the lead and goals change games. However, I feel that if it had been allowed to stand then they would’ve been none of the complacency in our play for the last half an hour to allow them to eventually make it 2-1 and look like a close game.

I'm not having complaining that that three of their players were ahead of the ball and celebrating the goal when we went straight up the other end and scored.  Their goal was disallowed straight away, so I don’t have much sympathy for them to be honest because whether it’s a wrongly disallowed goal or a genuinely offside goal, if it gets disallowed you’ve got to be ready for the game to restart.  The good thing about that from a Saints point of view is that we attacked quickly and directly and scored as a result.

The trouble for us was that at times, it was just too easy. In the opening fifteen minutes it looked like we were going to obliterate them and it was just a matter of time before something ended up in their net but we got a bit passive at the end of the first half and went in level. The second half was all us and then came the disallowed goal on one of Argyle’s rare forays into our half. It was a wonderful goal from Alcaraz to put us ahead and Che Adams bundled in the what turned out to be the winner.

Plymouth manager Dewsnip had obviously been influenced by our recent home results and admitted that he basically sent out his team not to get battered.  Fair enough – it’s all about staying up for them and with the manager having jumped ship, I totally get it.  I understand why the goalkeeper Hazard was time-wasting like a motherfucker from the third minute onwards but the officials do my head in.  It’s ironic that Argyle fans will be going on about the officials when in the first half in particular, all they did was help them by allowing them to waste time and then barely adding any. Two minutes was a ridiculously light amount of extra time for the first half. 

Hazard certainly got on with it after we went ahead though he perhaps showed one of the major limitations of his goalkeeping on the second goal when he totally bottled making any sort of challenge as Che Adams round.  You have to dive into the spokes in that particular scenario and show a bit of bravery.

Our goalkeeper of course didn’t cover himself in glory tonight, as Baz had a buffering moment when he made the shocking decision of trying to body swerve the onrushing Hardie. That decision comes from complacency at the game being too easy, in exactly the same way with Charly Alcaraz made that ridiculous decision to chip the penalty against Blackburn when it was all too easy. Complacency is our enemy, especially when we are dominating games.  Seventeen games unbeaten can make you think you’re unbeatable I guess.  We all know that’s not the case.

With the side being rotated slightly for tonight, it was a chance for Will Smallbone and Charlie Alcaraz to step up and in the main they both did, particularly Alcaraz who is an absolute natural to play the role that Stuart Armstrong plays. There is a place up for grabs in midfield of course with Joe Aribo off to the AFCON, so impressing in whatever minutes you get between now and then, is clearly going to stand you in good stead. Shea Charles also in a very good game in place of Flynn Downes.

I wasn't sure that all the subs were needed at 2-0 but in my eyes, anything Russell Martin may or may not have done wrong in the second half of that game was totally excused by the fact that he made it abundantly publicly clear he had no interest in meeting Rishi Sunak after the game, who graced the ground with his no doubt, non-paying presence.  I'm surprised he made it for the 6pm kick off time on a work day.  Would have thought he’d have been busy?

We now have seven wins in a row at home and it’s now seventeen games unbeaten. The gap to Ipswich closed again by another two points tonight with them drawing at home to QPR and Leeds defeat at West Brom means we have suddenly opened up a six point gap on them. In just three days we visit Ipswich’s nearest and dearest neighbours, Norwich City and though this is going to be a tough game, another win is most definitely needed.

Happy New Up the fucking Saints Year!

EFL Championship Match 24 - Southampton 5 Swansea 0

Sam Doesn't Even Need to Look the Right Way

At the tail end of last season, when our relegation from the Premier League had been confirmed, we announced that the perpetually fucking useless Ruben Selles was not going to be our manager and the name in the frame was Russell Martin, the manager of Swansea. The Championship season had of course had already finished and Martin was in dispute with Swansea and quite clearly wanted to leave. Saints approached and it became apparent that Martin wanted to join and then it all kicked off over the compensation. Saints wanted to pay a certain compensation figure, based on the fact that we were in the Championship next year and Swansea wanted us to pay a higher figure because we were still technically a Premier League club even though we were mathematically already down and that Russell Martin’s first game in charge was going to be in the Championship. This dragged on and two boards of grown men and women were unable to act as adults and come to an agreement.

We moved on and so did Swansea, appointing Michael Duff and the fortunes of the two clubs have diverged somewhat with Saints fifteen games unbeaten and Michael Duff being sacked a few weeks ago after generally being derided as a PE Teacher - all of which tells you that Swansea have not been doing particularly well. So now we have it, The Great Compensation Derby.

Russell Martin will have a bit of a strange day today as he still clearly has a lot of affection for Swansea and the supporters there, as illustrated by his ‘Swim away’ goading of Cardiff fans a few weeks back. From a football point of view this will be an interesting one because the number of the Swansea players will know Martin’s way of playing and will know how Saints are going to go about things. They are managerless at the moment with Alan Sheehan taking caretaker charge of today’s game.

I’m a little bit concerned about today because there is no way this should be anything other than a comfortable home win but Sods Law and the Martin connection tells me that it might be otherwise. I’m a bit worried that today might be a day that we cough up a shit goal though losing the ball near our own penalty area as the Swans players will know all the passing moves etc.

The starting XI comes out and Jack Stephens is in it so naturally, the thought process is that we are going to 3 at the back, which seems completely mental as we are on a fifteen game unbeaten run with playing a back four. Basically, Stephens is coming to the side in place of Smallbone, with Manning replacing the injured Bree. Maybe it’s a desire to do something that Swansea won’t be expecting, given the links between the two clubs.  Once in the ground watching the warm-up, it is always worth waiting to see the back line practising their passes and how they line up. From that it looks like Jack is playing right back in a back four because KWP is nowhere to be seen in that particular drill.

Away we go with both teams looking to play, which is good news and it does very much look like the Russell Martin Derby with both teams trying to keep the ball.  Flynn Downes gives away a free kick 40 yards out and in it comes into a good area and Cabango knocks it across and Yates on the stretch smashes it miles over the bar. There was a distinct lack of urgency and movement in the Saints defence but the flag belatedly went up for offside which maybe explains it.

However, offside isn’t saving us from the next chance as Swansea build up down our right and then a big switch out to Humphreys at right back and his cross is met by the completely unmarked ex-Skate Jamal Lowe who absolutely shites it miles over the bar like the irrelevant Skate that he is.

Joe Acknowledges the St Mary's DJ

Saints now start playing, with Edozie getting his first run at his full-back and he completely pisses past him, cuts it back to the edge of the box, Stuart Armstrong’s shot hits Adam Armstrong on the arse and bounces out to Joe Aribo and with a swing of his mighty left peg, it’s on target and then defelcted past the keeper and right into the corner of the net for 1-0.  Fuck me, I thought I’d never see the day and then it all gets very tinpot with the goal music and not only is it not the normal goal music, it’s the music behind the Joe Aribo chant which is of course Spandau Ballet’s Gold.  I think it’s a massive cringe but I have been very outvoted by the crowd around me.

The Cornish Cafu at right back manages to look dangerous and somewhat awkward at the same time as he burst forward and feeds into Adam Armstrong in the ‘D’ and it’s a good turn and shot which is pushed away by Rushworth.  Back come Saints and Edozie absolutely pisses past Humphreys again and flashes a ball across face of goal with no one running in to make any contact. 

Cullen who has already been booked then crudely crashes into Manning as he tries to burst forward.  In the old days, that’s a talking to and ‘one more and you’re off’ but now that has to be a second yellow but no.

Half-time and in truth, Swansea have been one of the better teams we played at home this season so far, at least having the nerve to try and keep the ball and not just let us have it and set everyone behind it. It’ll be interesting to see how they deal with being behind in the second half.  Saints have been ok – Edozie being the brightest spark and I’m not sure this KWP on the wing with the Cornish Cafu at right back is working particularly well.  Also, Adam Armstrong has been way off so far but he’ll probably get an assist for that Stuey shot hitting his arse and bouncing out to Aribo, always believe in your soul etc.

No changes for Saints at half-time and from their own throw, Swansea try to knock it back to the left sided central defender, Nathan Wood, who was linked with Saints in the summer, and under pressure from Arma, he bobbles a horrible pass across to Rushworth who plays a massive fucking airshot and Edozie gets to the ball beyond the back post and backheels it and there’s a big bundle as the defender tries to clear it but that’s clearly over the line and the referees watch confirms it. 2-0.  The keeper has his head in his hands – what a twat.  I could feel sorry for him but it’s hilarious when it’s not your keeper.

But maybe it’s not quite done yet… Alcaraz and Smallbone are on for Downes and Stuart Armstrong, leaving us with the midfield three of the two newly inserted subs and Joe Aribo, which is quite horribly lacking in defensive nous and running but I guess Russell obviously thinks that the game is done and we have to trust him in this regard.  Swansea have a bit of the ball for ten minutes whilst we adjust to the changes and there’s more changes as Wee Man Fraser and Adams come on for the superb Edozie and Jack Stephens.

Wee Man Is Becoming Very Popular

Swansea give the ball away again on the right and Adam Armstrong picks it up and runs and picks out Fraser on the edge of the box and he emphatically strokes it into the top corner of the net to give goalkeeper absolutely no chance. 3-0.  The word you are looking for is ‘clinical’.

Arma goes off to be replaced by Sekou Mara and KWP has reverted to right back with Stephens going off and attack wise, he proves that he is more effective from there straight away, bursting into the box, playing a 1-2 and then from a narrow angle, drilling it straight at the goalkeeper who manages to not make an arse of himself and blocks well.  We don’t have long to wait for number four though as Aribo gets away from his marker on the right and finds Mara and his pull back along the six-yard line is despatched by Ryan Fraser again, first time into the top corner. 4-0.

Swansea bring on a couple of has-beens in Yanick Bolasie and Joe Allen but all Bolasie can do is inspire the Swansea fans to chant his name and all Allen and can do is crash through Charly Alcaraz twice and pick up a deserved booking.

Swansea give the ball away again and Fraser again does that thing where he makes the slightest space and then stands up a superb cross, the goalie has a fucking mare being too close to the near post and Che Adams brings it down on his chest and miraculously, fires it into the roof of the net instead of smashing it straight at the keeper. Five.

We want six… damn, full time.

When we scored four against Blackburn in the last home game, the reason why it happened could be strongly linked to the fact that they only had ten men and just wanted to get out there. Today, Swansea didn’t have that excuse but they reacted very badly to the adversity of the shit second goal that they let in with the keeper playing an air shot. Once again though, we took advantage of the situation and absolutely buried them with three goals as the game wound down.  In the first half, I found myself thinking that Swansea one of the better sides that we have played at home this season as they were decent on the ball and given a better finish by Lowe, would’ve been 1-0 up. You can’t just give up when something goes against you though and if you do that, you deserve to get absolutely stuffed.

Swansea right back Humphreys had an absolute beast of a game. Firstly, Sam Edozie went past him at will whilst he was on the pitch.  Then Humphreys must have been delighted when Edozie went off and then he then watched on as his replacement Ryan Fraser score two goals in five minutes.  Swansea were trying to play a style of football that they were not good enough to do. Matt Grimes kept picking up the ball in midfield and knocking it around thinking the defenders were all as good on the ball as he is and the likes of Nathan Wood just can’t pass the ball around under pressure as demonstrated by the second goal. A shit bobbly 5-yard pass to the goalkeeper is always going to end in disaster.  That was a great piece of invention from Edozie to get that ball goalwards.  Most of our other players would have turned on that and tried to beat a player again.

There were two great finishes by the Wee Man, who is now becoming a bit of a Cult Hero with the St Mary’s faithful. Taking the passes from Adam Armstrong and Sekou Mara to give the keeper absolutely no chance.  Then the Wee Man dug out a superb cross for the fifth goal when, after another shocking bit or Rushworth goalkeeping, Che Adams managed to kick a football in the right direction.

I hope to hear the Aribo goal music another ten times before the end of the season….for fuck‘s sake!

Yep, They Looked Shit As Well

Jack Stephens had a half decent game at right-back but he’s not suited to playing that position really and it’s never a long term solution.  Not least because playing KWP on the wing certainly doesn’t get the best out of him. Ryan Manning had a good game against his former club apart from one defensive shambles when he was far too far in field opening up the Manning Chasm for the cross that ultimately should’ve put us 1-0 down but for the ex-skate not getting his feet in the right place.

So, I thought that today could be a banana skin because of Sods Law and the fact we were playing Russell Martin’s old team. I guess I was wrong. These are the great days people - and it won’t always be like this. We will lose games between now and the end of the season but for the moment anyway, the team looks pretty relentless, the ability to change the game off the bench is there for all to see and we have scored ten goals scored and conceded none in the last three games, which have all been well won.

Sixteen games unbeaten now and with Leeds defeat today, we have finally moved up a place and are now third, just five points behind Ipswich. It’s been a good day for us today with all three of our main rivals dropping points but as you know, in three days time, we go again and we can’t afford any fuck ups against Plymouth. On, on and up the fucking Saints.

EFL Championship Match 23 - QPR 0 Southampton 1

 

Taylor's Strikers Finish - Not Like Our Actual Strikers

Four games in ten days with Christmas in the middle and it all kicks off today at Loftus Road, in the first repeat fixture of the season as we take on QPR.  It isn’t the first repeat of two managers setting up against each other though, because Gareth Ainsworth, he who looked like he came straight from the set of Lord of the Rings, has been sacked by QPR and replaced with the very little known Marti Cifuentes, who up till now had only managed four clubs in Scandinavia. Rumour has it that after Ainsworth got sacked, he was still waving at QPR fans trying to get them to make more noise to deflect away from the fact that he’d been sacked. Strange bloke but I’m sure he’ll turn up somewhere.

Under Cifuentes, QPR have showed signs of life and though still in the relegation zone, have got themselves back in touch recently with three wins in a row against Stoke, Preston and Hull.  However, in the last couple of games they have drawn at home to ten man Plymouth and lost to Sheffield Wednesday so maybe the new manager bounce has happened and now they are reverting to type.

Anyone who thinks this is going to be an easy away game needs to give their head a bit of a wobble though because QPR haven’t lost at home since Leicester beat them in October so there’s no way that this is a gimme. QPR caused us a lot of problems at St Mary‘s and we were somewhat fortunate to stumble over the line with a win.  Ilias Chair and Sinclair Armstrong were both particularly dangerous and in Lyndon Dykes, they have a striker who is so good that he occasionally keeps Che Adams out of the Scotland starting lineup. You probably can’t hear the sarcasm in the way I wrote that.

Russell Martin’s press conference today revealed that we had a fully fit squad to choose from, apart from long-term absentees Ross Stewart and Kamaldeen Sulemana. I was calling Ross Stewart a long-term absentee when I thought he was going to be back in January but now it appears that his hamstring injury is worse than feared, which means he has gone from “long-term absentee” to “who knows when the fuck he’s going to be playing again”. Estimates now say the start of next season, which is sad news but he's now nearing Agustin Delgado status.

With the transfer window about to open, I would suggest we need more goals to be signed by the Sport Republic cheque-book, especially if the aforementioned Adams departs and that seems likely. There will always be a Premier League club stupid enough to ignore current form.

Around the time that Russell Martin was announcing a completely unchanged starting 11 and bench from the Blackburn game, words came through that in the early kick-off, Leeds had won 4-0…. Booooo! … and it was against Ipswich… Yessss!  So, a bit more incentive for today.

Today at Loftus ‘Restricted View’ Road and QPR start the game really well and press Saints into errors which then allows them to break through Chair on the left hand side and carries the ball forward before firing in a low the cross which Baz dives out and collect well.  Bree is going to have his hands full out there.

Aribo, who is playing at 20 mph, while everyone else is playing at 100 mph, gets tackled just inside the QPR half of the ball squirts loose to Chair, who looks up and properly goes for it from just inside our half, smashing the ball towards goal and there is a brief moment when it looks like he’s done a Beckham but it drops about a yard over the scrambling Baz and the crossbar.

Saints show up in attack straight afterwards, with Bree getting  in a cross and it’s half cleared to Smallbone at the edge of the box but his effort is blocked and was going wide anyway. Edozie then attacks from the other side and dances across the top of the penalty area past couple of players, before taking aim and putting it just wide of the far post.  I was hoping for a throwback to the home game against QPR when Skate Begovic dived over an effort from a similar place.

Chair Leaves Breezy's Hamstring Flapping in the Wind

Chair vs Bree resumes on the QPR left and he gives a full back twisted blood before scuffing a shot through Smallbone’s legs and Baz pouches it easily enough.  Bree seem to pull up halfway through chasing back down the line and he tries to play on for a few minutes but it’s no good and down he sits, to be replaced by Ryan Manning.

Manning gets up and running straight away and feeds into Stuart Armstrong, who junks inside a player and plays a lovely ball into Smallbone on the penalty spot before he can get a shot away, Paal comes across and clears out everything.  Great tackle by the left back. 

A common complaint about Smallbone is that he doesn’t sprint anywhere but he puts in a bit of a burst which takes Dozzell by surprise and he brings him down out on the right.  Ryan Manning swings it in, flicked on by Adam Armstrong and at the back post THB has manhandled his way past his marker and cushions a volley past the Skate Begovic to make it 1-0 just before half-time.  Get in.

And we're off to Stockley Park:

"Hi - can you wait five minutes and check exactly how Harwood-Bellis got completely free and his man ended up on his arse?"

"Er, you're refereeing in the Championship aren't you?"

"Oh fuck, yes I am"

"Getting it in early for next year?"

"What do you mean?"

"Saints are going up"

THB Points at the Guy That Was Supposed to be Marking Him

The talk at half time probably said something along the lines of not having our usual flat start tot he second half but we ignored that and After ten minutes of the second half it looks like QPR are getting on top and Russell Martin goes pro-active and calls it early, with Downes, Smallbone and Edozie replaced with Charles, Adams and Fraser.  Suddenly, we don’t look like we are going to have our backs to the wall for the rest of the game and with QPR attacking with getting no shots on target, Saints are always a good bet on the break and the referee ignores Adam Armstrong being taken out off the ball and Aribo knocks a short pass in to KWP, who takes on five players dribbling into the penalty area before he gets crowded out.

Apart from Chair, the only decent QPR attacking player is Willock and he had a chance on the left but when composure was needed, the lashed it wildly over the bar. The same player then turns up on the right and gets in a shot from the edge of the box which again is straight at Baz.

Stuart Armstrong is having another good game but then has a beast of a moment when he picks up the ball in the centre midfield and inexplicably passes it straight to QPR player forcing Shea Charles to do what no one did up at Coventry and take the guy out and get a yellow card. Paal’s left-footed free-kick flies off the wall and goes for a goal-kick, to much hilarity.

Under pressure, Saints play some superb football out from the back with Manning playing it along the line to Adams, who (proper centre forward play klaxon) holds the ball up really well before knocking it round the corner to send the Wee Man scampering into the QPR half. He gets his head up and picks out Charles on the edge of the box, whose side footed effort is well saved and Aribo’s follow-up is blocked.  We are not settling for 1-0 and are trying to put this to bed and down the left again with Manning and Fraser eventually setting up Stuart Armstrong to step inside and drill the shot straight at the Skate.

Che Adams then take centre stage as we build down the right and work it across to Adams on the left and he has a choice of shooting or sliding it along the ground for Adam Armstrong to tap in but in the event does neither and chips in across which misses everybody.

The intention to see out the game is signalled with one captain being replaced with another – Adam Armstrong replaced with Jack Stephens and we are back with Che Adams, who does brilliantly to close down the QPR defender as he’s about to smash the ball long and the ball bounces through but onto his least favourite of his two week in feet and instead of smashing it left-footed he tries to get his right foot around it and chip the goalkeeper with the outside of his boot but can only knock it back to him at knee height. It’s beyond pathetic it really is. I don’t think there’s a striker in the top two divisions of English football who would’ve tried to do that and failed so badly.

As we approach 92 minutes, we get a bit intricate with our passing on the left and we lose it and QPR look to break and Shea Charles absolutely wipes him out with an arm across the neck. That’ll be a second yellow then and off you go.

QPR are still trying to play out from defence even though they are not very good at it and after a horrific attempt to control a throw-in by the QPR centre back, Adams picks it up in the penalty area and gets absolutely trashed but the referee is blind or stupid or both so that’s not a penalty.

The Manning Guide to Defending

94 minutes and as always happens, QPR win a corner in the 94th minute and up comes bloody Begović from the back, looking for his second career goal against Saints and it’s swung in from the right hand side and it’s an excellent delivery to the back post and there is Stephens rising above everybody to flick the ball out knowing full well that he was going to get completely clattered and ultimately that’s the last action of the game.

And with that masterful defensive header from Jack Stephens, the game is over and three points going back down the M3, probably via Bracknell because M3 junction closures always spring up out of nowhere.  What a game that was, in the second half especially. At 1-0 up, we still went for it and created loads of chances to score a second but couldn’t manage to do so. This of course gave QPR the odd opportunity but in all truth, they didn’t really test Baz at all.

I do however think QPR will comfortably survive as they looked decent and worked really hard.  They pressed well and played some good football but just lacked any sort of cutting edge. The big donkey Dykes was exactly the big donkey that we all kind of knew he would be and so any good work by Chair or Willock, was ultimately for nothing.

Saints had a few players who put in nothing performances in the first half with the usual suspects, Aribo and Smallbone not remotely being at the pace of the game.  Smallbone had a strange match. Ultimately, it was his burst of pace that caught the defender off guard that led to him being brought down for the free-kick from which are winning goal came from. On the other hand, the rest of the game, the lack of pace and intensity that he showed meant that he was almost identified as a pressing trigger for QPR, losing the ball multiple times and putting us on the back foot.  It was no surprise when he was taken off on 55 minutes.  Aribo on the other hand, really grew into the game in the second half and the likes of Stuart Armstrong and Ryan Fraser came to life. The back four was solid throughout with Ryan Manning having a very good game against his former club when he came on as a substitute for the luckless James Bree.

One player who was unlucky today was of course Shea Charles who picked up two yellows, basically covering for other people’s mistakes. He took a yellow card after a Stuart Armstrong mistake and then took another after we over-committed in the 90^th minute. One word of advice though is that if you just step in front of a player the referee might not see it but if you clothesline them, even the referees at this level are going to see it and give you a yellow card.  What the referee didn’t see was a ridiculous challenge and the penalty area on Che Adams which of course should’ve given us a penalty but as I say every week in this wonderful non–VAR competition that we are in this year, we win some, we lose some.

Today was one of those days when fouling Che Adams in a penalty area was a complete waste of effort because you might as well just let him out the ball because there’s a 99% certainty that he will fuck it up.  I can't get over that chance he missed.  OK, anyone can miss but to miss like that is something else.

It was a really good day for Russell Martin in that he learned the lessons of the Watford and Huddersfield games and we went for it after going 1-0 up. The substitutions he made on 55 minutes were spot-on, as was the change to introduce Jack Stephens for Adam Armstrong. It wasn’t long after Stevo came on that Shea Charles got sent off, after which Stevo went to right back to allow KWP to pressure QPR in their own half.  Regardless of the superb last minute header by Stevo, he is going to have to wait because not only did THB scored the winning goal, his partnership with Bednarek was absolutely faultless and goes a long way to explain why QPR were never really a threat on our goal.

One down, three Christmas and New Year games to go. Next up is the Boxing Day visit of Swansea in the Compensation Derby. Bring it on, Merry Christmas and Up the Fucking Saints.

EFL Championship Match 22 - Southampton 4 Blackburn Rovers 0

We Have Lift Off, Perhaps.

Blackburn Rovers visit St.Mary’s in the last home game before Christmas, and it’s a chance for us to put another three points on the board having drawn the last couple of games on our travels. Blackburn arrived at St Mary‘s having just beaten Bristol City at home. In general, they seem to be the sort of team that beats the likes of Bristol City and other strugglers like Birmingham and Stoke but they had no joy against Leeds and also lost away at Sheffield Wednesday recently, who are admittedly showing signs of life.

Blackburn’s manager of is Jon Dahl Tomasson who I remember as a big money flop signing for Newcastle back in the day, before eventually moving on to the likes of Feyenoord and AC Milan where he forged a very successful career.  The group of players of players at his disposal includes Sam Gallagher, a centre forward who was never really given a chance at Saints before he was sold to Rovers. It looks like he’s been injured recently so we are unlikely to see him today.

Most of their goals this season have come from Sammie Szmodics, who has 14 goals which for a player who doesn’t play as an out and out number nine, is pretty impressive. They are a team who don’t have a great defensive record so this really should be a game where we get amongst them and if we go ahead, really put the foot down.

As the team is announced, there are a few changes which on the face of it look fairly positive. Sam Edozie gets a start and there is the welcome return of Flynn Downes into the midfield. James Bree has also been called up to take the place of Ryan Manning who I think is being punished, not so much for the mistake that he made on giving the ball away against Coventry but his lack of action after that. Maybe that’s the reason Shea Charles has dropped to the bench as well with Joe Aribo keeping his place.  Blackburn have eleven players on the pitch and they have about eleven fans in the away end. It’s hard to remember a more sparsely populated away end.

Away we go and unsurprisingly it’s the usual pattern or Saints possession with the opposition sat deep and waiting for the chance to break.  KWP is at left back with Breezy on the right and it looks like Stuart Armstrong as a false 9.

Blackburn do spring an attack and get down the left-hand side and the ball is pulled back from the by-line to the onrushing Wharton on the edge of the box and Downes slides in doesn’t quite get there and trashes him.  Free kick inside the ‘D’. Szmodics absolutely smashes it past the wall and Baz blocks it but can’t hold it but then reacts quickly enough to block the rebound and Edozie manages to clear it.

The referee Graham Scott his one who we’ve had in the Premier League before. I remember him being involved in the legendary 9-0 defeat at Old Trafford with some of the worst VAR officiating I have ever seen in conjunction with on-field referee, Big Mikey Dean.  Anyway, he gets the next decision right as KWP turns out of trouble and Callum Brittain just grabs him and pulls him back even though he is only a few yards outside of the Saints penalty area.

We should’ve had a penalty as Stuart Armstrong ball-juggled his way away from Carter, who basically just grabbed his shirt and threw him on the ground, practically begging for a penalty to be given. Referee Scotty was having absolutely nothing to do with it however.  They’ll even out over a season.

Get It In the Mixer, Compete For It

40 minutes gone and Saints are playing decent football without much threat and it’s only when Edozie gets it on the ball on the left that we become a bit more direct because he has his full back on toast. On this occasion he wins to corner. In comes the corner from Breezy on the left and it’s an in-swinger along 6 yard line and in amongst all the big central defenders competing for the ball, there is all eight stone of Sam Edozie who flicks out a leg in front of a defender and knocks it into the net. Get in.

Half-time and all is well.  It hasn’t been brilliant and the fact that we are rotating players into the centre forward position doesn’t seem to be causing as much consternation in the Blackburn defence as we hoped, but there is definitely something to work with in the second half. Blackburn don’t look much to be honest and it’s going to be a case of whether we can make this comfortable or not. No changes and away we go again

Normal service is resumed with Saints controlling possession and we work a chance to Stuart Armstrong on the edge of the penalty area from the left-hand side he goes for the far corner with his right foot and keeper Wahlstedt takes off to claw away a very good save.

It Was At That Moment, That He Knew He Had Fucked Up

Edozie takes on his man and gets barged to the ground with Scotty giving us a free kick, only for a Rovers player to welly the ball up the pitch in frustration.  To massive amusement we realise it’s the already booked Callum Brittain and Scotty pulls out a yellow and then a red card.  What a fucking idiot. As he walks off he gets a consoling pat from Russell Martin who probably says “cheers mate“ as it goes, but the Blackburn manager Tomasson completely blanks him.

The ten men are unsurprisingly parking everybody behind the ball whilst we knock it around. Smallbone plays a ball in to meet Downes run and he slips as he knocks the ball inside the defender and Stuart Armstrong finishes easily past the keeper to make it 2-0 and this game is well and truly done.

Russell Martin clearly thinks so as well because it’s time for the substitutions with Ryan Fraser coming on for the excellent Sam Edozie and Jack Stephens gets his first game for a few months replacing THB. Not long after that we get Sekou Mara and Charlie Alcaraz on for The Armstrongs.

Alcaraz looks determined to make an impression and slides an excellent ball through to Mara, who does what he can in a limited time he has but it’s a good save by the keeper as he flies out. The less said about Aribo’s follow-up effort the better but we can all guess which row of the Chapel it landed in. I’m going for a row EE.

Stephens then chips over the defence and Mara is in and clean through until in comes a challenge from the clumsy Carter, still determined to make up for not giving a penalty away earlier and he flattens Mara to give us a penalty. With Adam Armstrong off the pitch, there are a few discussions going on but Alcaraz has the ball and after a word from Captain Jack, he is the man to take it. I’m not overconfident as he steps up and he proves me entirely right by trying to chip the ball down the middle and floating it over the bar. Fucking hell, what a load of shit.

Messi Taught Me This... Watch!

Saints seem to feel that they have a duty to keep pushing for goals after that and with Blackburn attacking more in hope than expectation, Saints win it back and break four on three and work the ball out to Ryan Fraser on the left and he gets to the edge of the penalty area and cuts in on his right foot before going for the far corner but Wahlstedt pulls out another top drawer save to keep the score down.

Not to be denied though, and it’s time for Fraser to do his usual out on the left and work himself just enough space to flash a cross over with his left foot and there is Mara at the back post to slide it into the net for 3-0 and with 95 gone, you would assume that was that.

No so as Blackburn just want to get out of there now but Saints keep pushing as the clock ticks towards 97 and Smallbone takes aim from the edge of the box and it’s another decent save by the keeper, but there is Alcaraz to smash the rebound into the net. He doesn’t celebrate too much just puts his hands together as if to apologise to the supporters. Young lad, he’ll learn.

Well wasn’t that a nice end to the game with the opposition completely falling apart and us actually been good enough to take advantage.  It was a bit of a strange game in fairness, with the first half being largely forgettable from our point of view as Blackburn’s game plan of stifling the shit out of it worked pretty well. We basically played with a different centre forward at every opportunity with Stuart Armstrong, Joe Aribo and even Will Smallbone taking turns to be the most advanced player but the end result was that we hardly got a shot on target in the first half and despite all our possession, scored a goal through a corner into the mixer and Sam Edozie getting on the end of it and flicking it in.

We started the second half better and though they weren’t doing any attacking, Blackburn were still in the game at 1-0 when they suffered one of the most hilarious and pointless red cards that I can ever remember seeing. Getting a second booking for kicking the ball away has to be right up there with one of the most brain-dead things you can do as a professional footballer. It wasn’t as if he just tapped it away either and it was over officious refereeing. He fully wellied it the length of the pitch. Dickhead. The managers response and completely ignoring him as he walked off, said it all.  Oh and his first booking was for pulling a player back 80 yards from his goal.  He clearly wanted next week off.

After that, you have to say that Saints were excellent and ruthless in putting the game to bed (apart from one incident of course but we’ll get to that later). Stuart Armstrong’s excellent finish put the game to bed before we have the icing on the cake with the girls from Mara and Alcaraz.

We have course had a ridiculous dickhead moment of her own as Charly Panenka’d a penalty over the bar in embarrassing fashion. At least he had a good grace to apologise when he did score a goal. Honestly though, other members of the team had worked so hard to win that penalty and to shat it over the bar like that borders on the disrespectful.  Don’t do it again if you ever get to take one.

Having won 4-0, are all our goal scoring problems solved?  Of course they’re not but it was nice to score a few and it can only give confidence for the tougher days to come.

For me today, the main success was Sam Edozie who was by far and away the best player until he got substituted and having scored again and proved effective from the start, he really should stay in the team for a run of games now. Elsewhere, it was another clean sheet for Baz and I would say playing Bree on the right and KWP on the left was a success in terms of attacking output. In attacking terms, Kyle doesn’t offer quite as much on the left as he does on the right but Bree offers nothing at all on the left and puts some good balls in from the right. At least the opposition have got to worry about both sides of the pitch with this combination.  Defensively, the back four and the goalkeeper dealt with any sporadic Blackburn threat pretty efficiently. It was interesting to see Jack Stephens get given twenty minutes at the end to get him back on the pitch and the message of that substitution was that Mason Holgate may well be thinking he would be better off returning to Everton.  Talking of substitutions, Sekou Mara coming on ahead of Che Adams sent a message as well in my opinion.  There is an opportunity in our forward line to really break into the team and make a difference and Sekou has to aim to be the man.  Whether he is capable of doing that is another question altogether.

It was another good day for Stuart Armstrong in midfield, capped of course with a very good goal and Flynn Downes returning just made the whole engine room more dynamic. Joe Aribo was solid enough in midfield and at least now he’s not a liability.

Blackburn manager Tomasson had the red card to use in mitigation for his team getting stuffed and also somewhat strangely, called us a Premier Leaue Club with a Premier League Squad.  Off the top of my head, I'm wondering how many of our squad have been decent at Premier League level at some point in the past... KWP, Bednarek, Stu Armstrong... that's about it from the starting XI.

Our 14 game unbeaten run is next to be put to the test couple of days before Christmas, at Queens Park Rangers where once again, nothing less than a win will do. It was a day when a couple of the results went for us with both Leeds and Ipswich only managing one point each today. We are now level on points with Leeds and ten behind Ipswich. Maybe it can be done after all.

Up the fucking Saints.

EFL Championship Match 21 - Coventry 1 Southampton 1

 

Who's This Goalscoring Winger and Where's He Been?

I always get in a bit of a time warp when I think about Coventry City.  They were the team along with ourselves that for years, defied the odds at the bottom of the Premier League in the 90s and always stayed up, until one day of course, we didn’t.  Both teams of course went on the down to League 1 journey for various reasons.  Saints of course found their way back to the top flight where we stayed for 11 years but Coventry haven’t and at various have been playing in borrowed stadiums and generally having an ownership nightmare with the infamous SISU (remember them?).  Our most memorable relatively recent game against them was the game that sealed our promotion at the end of the 2011/12 season when we won 4-0 at St Mary’s. Sir Rickie being carried from the pitch by the supporters is the enduring image of the day.

Coventry Memories

The Coventry of today are managed by Mark Robins, who is roughly 6 years into the job which is a level of longevity that you don’t often get at Championship and League 1 level. As a rule, he has them playing decent football and having seen them play Leicester on the first day of the season and being very unlucky to lose, I expect them to be slightly higher in the table than they are.  As it stands, they are in the big middle bracket of teams who will have one eye on the playoff places and who won’t be anywhere near the relegation shake up at the end of the season.

Russell Martin has been a little bit cryptic in his press conference for this game is suggesting that a player who plays regularly will be left out so everyone is guessing who that might be. My money is on either Stuart Armstrong or Charlie Alcaraz. Maybe though, there’s a shake up coming in the defence with Jack Stephens being fit again though I would severely hope that is not the case because it’s not the defence that’s been our problem recently.
 
It’s also been a bit of noise this week about Mason Holgate, who may be returning to Everton who have the option to recall him. Whilst I think it would be sensible from our point of view to keep him here, you could understand Everton being slightly bothered about his lack of minutes and maybe the player himself would like to go back and fight for his place there as opposed to here. With Jack Stephens being fit again, he has definitely dropped a place down the pecking order through no fault of his own, so I couldn’t blame him if he wanted to go back to Everton or go out on-loan somewhere else.

When the team news landed, it saw changes in midfield but it wasn’t Flynn Downes coming back unfortunately.   A midfield three of Shea Charles, Will Smallbone and one of Joe Aribo and Stuart Armstrong seems somewhat lacking in pace., containing as it does, two players who don’t run much. Alcaraz got left out but there was no place for either Ryan Fraser or Sam Edozie, leaving the whole of the front six looking somewhat pedestrian.  It seems a bit odd as one of Russell Martin’s pre-game soundbites was for the forward players to basically make things happen.

The game started and immediately settled into what you would expect to be the pattern, with Saints having the vast majority of the possession with Aribo seemingly stationed on the left wing.  The first time we stretched the Coventry back line was KWP beating players down the right but nothing came of that as the ball ricochets off Stuart Armstrong and out.

A good tackle in the Coventry half by Smallbone sends Aribo away down the left and his first time cross bounces off one of Che’s Trampolino boots though Shea Charles struck the loose ball into the net, he had clearly kicked through a Coventry player in order to win it, so no surprise that it was disallowed.

When Coventry finally attack it gives us another chance to win the ball and we have a three on three break with Stuart Armstrong finding Adam Armstrong out on the right and he cuts inside and smashes it straight at the goalkeeper.  It’s the kind of three on three break that every team in the world practices in training, but we’ve bollocksed it.

There is minor excitement after Aribo wins a corner and we go all ‘training ground set piece’ and it’s quite a nice move involving Manning and Stuart Armstrong who feeds the ball into Adam Armstrong and he smashes it goalwards but it’s well blocked by a Coventry defender.

Che then slides are very good ball in between the defenders for Adam Armstrong who has two choices, either take it first time or fuck it up and he chooses the latter, by taking a touch and getting shoved off the ball.  You can sit on the ground appealing all you like but that’s
never going to be a penalty in a million years.

Coventry‘s first real pressure on our goal comes after a corner has been headed out and they work it back in on our left and well inside the penalty area, Smallbone goes sliding in and makes little or no contact with the ball and he’s very, very fortunate that the Coventry player doesn’t throw himself to the ground because that looked like a penalty to me

Saints have moments up the other end but nothing concrete and a bad final ball and a bad finish happen in the same move.  KWP has as a chance to pick out someone on the edge of the box but over hits it and when Manning returns it from the left, it drops to the feet of Adam Armstrong, who smashes it at a passing aeroplane

Coventry are getting more and more of a foothold in the game now in a week challenge by Che Adams at the edge of the box sees a shot just wide of the post and then the tricky Sakamoto on the right wing tees up former Everton donkey Ellis Sims with a chance he’s clean through against Baz, but in typical clueless fashion, he just smashes it straight at his chest.

Half-time and meh! Not a lot going on here in terms of looking like scoring. Very pedestrian as predicted and in an attacking sense we seem to have a bit of a conundrum.  Our midfielders are not good enough to put chances on a plate for our strikers and our strikers are not good enough to convert half chances or score a goal out of nothing. On a few occasions we have got in and around Coventry‘s defence, it has look slightly shambolic so that’s absolutely has to be more pressure on them in the second half.

Ballboy Gets Ball Back After Arma Shoots

Disappointingly but predictably, no changes are made at half-time and it carries on much the same as you’d expect with us in possession and Adam Armstrong smashing another shot at the moon.  There is a massive warning from Coventry just after that as they build up again down the Manning Chasm on our left had an easy ball in is met by the in-form O’Hare, who crashes a shot off the bar and over.

It’s a warning that is not heeded however as Smallbone and Aribo get in a bit of a panic and put Manning under pressure. He should deal with it, but he turns the wrong way and loses the ball to O’Hare who drives forward.  I am screaming at Manning to pull him down but he does fuck all and O’Hare gets the ball away to Wright, who cuts inside THB and smashes it into the net. Once he has lost the ball Manning absolutely has to take the yellow card there for the team but for some reason, he seemed determined to show that he was not fouling the player. All well and good mate, but now we are one nil down.

With Russell Martin readying some substitutes at the side, it is just a case of who comes off because to be perfectly honest, any of the front six could be removed and they couldn’t complain. In the event it’s Che Adams and Shea Charles who go off to be replaced by Ryan Fraser and Sam Edozie.

With the injection of attacking players and of course still being behind, immediately comes a bit more life with a Edozie and Aribo combining down the line on the right to set up a shot for Stuart Armstrong that he drills straight of the goalkeeper.  Down the left we go with Manning, Stuart Armstrong and Fraser and after some play which sees us put together some nice passing, give the ball away a couple of times and win it back a couple of times, Stu plays a ball to Fraser and his cross into the middle is flicked on by Adam Armstrong and Edozie controls it at the back post before drilling it across the keeper and into the net. Great finish.

Saints have definitely got Coventry a little bit rattled now and we continue to win the ball high up before Edozie’s cross is cleared to the edge of the box where Aribo picks it up, jinks round one player before taking aim at the top corner and narrowly putting it over.

Another move involving KWP, Edozie and Aribo gets the ball to Adam Armstrong about ten yards out and his first shot is blocked and his second flicks off a defender and off the top of the bar for a goal-kick, of course. At least this one wasn’t aimed at a passing meteorite.

There are about ten minutes to go and we’re on top and then…. nothing.  We almost lose it as Coventry cut us open and create a decent chance with Baz pulling off an excellent save at his near post in spectacular fashion to preserve the point.

The end.  In the main - boring shit. It looked stodgy from the team selection and that was exactly how our performance panned out. We had a brief fifteen minutes of urgency when we went behind but once we equalised, we just went back into passive mode like we had settled for a draw. With all due respect to Coventry, they were absolutely bang average and not to beat them when you’ve got designs on getting promoted is absolutely piss poor.

It's probably an okay result if it was a normal season in terms of points total needed to be challenging the top two automatic promotion places. However, in this season where we have two runaway teams, a draw at Coventry following a draw at Watford, it’s really not good enough. Put it this way, today was the kind of performance and result that leaves me thinking that the success or otherwise of our whole season is going to be resting on three games in May.

I’m looking at the stats after the game and apparently, we had 78% possession and from there we mustered three shots on target. Coventry’s 22% possession produced four shots on target. If you convert that to minutes, Coventry had the ball for approximately 20 minutes and got four shots on target, so one every five minutes of possession, whereas Saints had the ball for 75 minutes and had three shots on target, approximately one every 25 minutes.

Asa team, we are not scoring the necessary amount of goals to win games like this comfortably, which we should be doing.  It does make you wonder about the lack of minutes that Sam Edozie gets.  He was told at the start of the season to increase his end product and he has – so where has he been?  Benched in favour of Suledjenepo and losing the impact sub role to Ryan Fraser, who to be fair, has been very good at that.  Moving forward there definitely has to be a case for one of them to start and the other to come on if required.  Russell addressed afterwards that we don’t score as many goals as the other top sides but it’s up to him to give us the best chance to do so.  He talked about letting the strikers off the leash before the game and that’s something that would certainly suit the like of Edozie and Amo-Ameyaw for that matter.

At the other end, the goal we conceded was absolutely dreadful, with Smallbone and Aribo pissing around on the left-hand side and putting Manning in the shit but when Manning loses the ball to O’Hare, he just has to take one for the team and bring him down before he gets to pass away but he doesn’t.  The other point with the goal is that our midfield did not get back and Shea Charles didn’t cover himself in glory because if he had sprinted back instead of jogging, he would’ve been there to meet Wright when he checked inside THB.

We can still make it a decent week when we take our 13 game unbeaten run into Saturday’s visit from Blackburn.  Nothing less than three points will do.

Up the fucking Saints