Carabao Cup 1st Round South - Gillingham 3 Southampton 1

Russ Waves Goodbye to Five Players

A trip to the Priestfield Stadium to take on Gillingham in the Carabao cup First Round Southern section, which sounds as tinpot as it comes. Regardless of this, it’s an important game for Russell Martin and the gang and a chance for some of the outlying members of our squad to show that they can step up and play the Russball style of football now being preached across the whole club.

It pains me to say it but we will have to concentrate solely on the league this season and our efforts to get promoted. When we were in the Premier League, I was thought there was a chance that we could get to the League Cup Final and indeed we have in recent times and we’ve had a few decent runs but this season it’s different and whilst I’m not saying we should sack it off, we certainly shouldn’t prioritise it in any way. Consequently tonight, I am hoping for and expecting to see a massively changed line-up from the game against Sheffield Wednesday.

The team was announced and it was a bit of a strange one and it was very difficult to see where everyone was going play from the 11 names that were announced. There’s was either going to be some one strange playing in midfield or at centre back and it was the latter, with Perraud as the left sided centre back alongside Lyanco.  Jayden Meghoma was in at left back with Shay Charles, Stuart Armstrong and Sekou Mara the midfield three, with Sam Amo, Djenepo and Captain Che up front.

Not in the team and not on the bench was Romeo Lavia, fresh from another leaked bid by Liverpool which is still about £5 million short of what we have been asking for all along and about a tenner more than the one that was rejected last time. They don’t fucking get it do they. Needless to say, one Romeo wasn’t in tonight’s squad, Liverpool fans flooded the Saints Twitter timeline with their opinion that it meant it was happening. I think it will happen, but I live in hope that it happens… and he moves somewhere else…. anywhere else.

Away we go and it was all a bit half-arsed right from the start with everybody getting used to where they should be and nothing much happened until 12 minutes when James Bree dribbles into a cul-de-sac and loses the ball.  One pass down the line sends the winger away and a low cross is met at the back post by the unmarked Nadesan to put the Gills one nil up. Absolute dog shit to be honest, both in the way we lost the ball and in the way we didn’t defend.

Saints do start to play through Charles and Sam Amo and the ball is eventually worked out to the left where Djenepo takes on his man and knocks it back and Mara who takes a shot from too far out and straight out the goalkeeper.

Gillingham are happy letting Saints have the ball in her own half and for now we are building up well with Sam Amo again been put away down the right-hand side and he beats the full back twice before pulling the ball back and it bounces off a defender to Mara who smashes it out for a throw on the far side.  Fucking useless

Unperturbed, Saints carry on building up nicely through midfield with Stuart Armstrong heavily involved and out it goes to the Clown Prince of Mali, Moussa Djenepo. He’s obviously spent a lot of time getting dreadlocks put into his hair, time that could probably have been better spent actually going out and learning how to play football and his eventual shot is straight down the goalkeepers throat.

We seemed to be exclusively having shots from 25 yards out and there’s another one as Armstrong tees up for second Mara and attempts a left-footed volley which is well out of his ability range and unsurprisingly, it goes wide.

Despite us having all of the possession since the goal, Gillingham have the ball in the net again just before half-time but it’s disallowed for a push which on first viewing, you couldn’t see.  You can already see it’s going to be a long night.

Half-time and this has been absolutely shit. Half paced and half arsed and is it any wonder, given some of the shite we’ve got it on the pitch?  Russell Martin makes two changes at half-time with Stuart Armstrong coming off, I assume because he’s building up his minutes and being replaced by Joe Aribo. Also off is Sekou Mara with Kami Doyle coming on.

Good Effort Alex

A ridiculously harsh free-kick is giving away by Lyanco about 45 yards out on the right hand side giving us another chance to demonstrate our defensive set-piece prowess.  In it comes, headed down by a free man at the back post and McKenzie get something on it and it rolls apologetically into the net whilst McCarthy flops over like a falling tree. Embarrassingly shit. 

It gets worse though as Djenepo shields the ball out after he’d won a tackle to give Gillingham a corner. Utter prick. Why he did this is anyone’s guess but my guess would be it’s because he hasn’t got a fucking clue what he’s doing.  In swinger, headed down, half cleared and then smashed back in by McKenzie and it flies into the net before McCarthy can move.  3-0 to Gillingham.  Pathetic.

It’s now all Gillingham as they brilliantly build up down down left hand side before the cross comes in and it’s met on the volley about 15 yards out and by Nichols and fuck me, Alex McCarthy actually got in the way and the ball hit him and bounced to safety.  Breaking news, the hologram has made a save ladies and gentlemen.

More subs as Charly Alcaraz and believe it or not, Tall Paul, come on to try and stop it getting even more embarrassing. It comes down to Kami Doyle to twist and turn in midfield and find a good forward pass to where Alcaraz picks it up, draws a defender and then buries it past the keeper. Typically, it’s one of our good players who scored the goal.  There’s about 10 minutes to go including injury time and another goal straight away might have made it interesting but nothing doing, out we go somewhat pathetically.

Fucking hell - that was dreadful.

In the scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter that we lost and I think that long-term this will do us a lot of good because it proved what we all know already, that a lot of these players just aren’t good enough and now the new management has seen this first hand in a competitive game.

Russell Martin’s interview after the game was particularly scathing and it doesn’t take a genius to work out by process of elimination, who he is talking about when he says that some have their futures elsewhere.

First of the positives – he was impressed with the young players who started the game, in particular Sam Amo but also Shea Charles and Jayden Meghoma.  He also excused Stuart Armstrong and Joe Aribo as they are building up their fitness and need the minutes.  He clearly hasn’t worked out Aribo as yet.

As Far As January Signing Go, Charly is Clear

Those that are left and not spared are Alex McCarthy, Lyanco, James Bree, Moussa Djenepo, Tall Paul and probably Che Adams as well. I think everybody knows that the first five names on the list are not up to it and Che either needs to move or get his head right.  Yes, we have a lot of players in our squad, as has been mentioned by the manager recently… but we have a lot of shit players in our squad.  The most pointed individual criticism from the manager was saved for Sekou Mara, with Martin basically saying that he doesn’t train properly, with the proper intensity to take it into a game.  If your new boss has formed that opinion of you within a few weeks then that’s pretty damning.

Prior to the game there was talk of Uncle Roy Hodgson being interested in taking McCarthy to Palace.  McCarthy played for England under Hodgson at one stage so I hope this isn’t a sign that Roy is losing it.  We’ve got to hope that no one from Palace is looking at the second goal tonight.  In hindsight it would have been good to give Joe Lumley a game tonight and though it's an obvious joke, Joanna Lumley would have done better on the second goal.

 Lyanco - we all know the drill by now - passion merchant who tries to make up for his deficiencies by giving his all.  This is admirable of course but ultimately his footballing ability will always let him down in the end and it did frequently today.  Djenepo - well giving him that new contract least season was always an absolute joke and that's what we've had for the first year of that new deal - just a joke.  Still, only another two years of him to put up with.   Tall Paul - an object lesson in how not to invest money.  £18 million quid fee and 3 years in wages... well played Rasmus.

James Bree gave a good interview after the game and I actually felt sorry for him.  He's desperately trying to prove that he's good enough and knows he hasn't done so as yet and that this was a missed chance.  He implied that he'd have had a better chance in a full strength side and whilst that's undoubtedly true, I still haven't seen anything from him that backs up the assertion that Nathan Jones signed the best right back in the Championship for us. With Tino gone and KWP being too good for the Championship, he may get his wish but he has to show a hell of a lot more than he has done so far.

The one outlier is Romain Perraud who was not mentioned specifically but he was given a hospital pass today by Martin because he is never a centre back and he has virtually missed all of pre-season as well.  That’s the one thing I will criticise Russell Martin for is the lack of a proper central defender to partner Lyanco. Surely it would’ve been better playing someone from the academy who is used to playing in that position. Alternatively, he could’ve risked one of Jack Stephens or Jan Bednarek for this one game.

The fan reaction to this defeat has been predictably over the top. How can you even be surprised bearing in mind the number of starting eleven players who we all know are shit. I feel sorry for those who spent good money to go to the game and they are entitled to feel angry about it, but the rest of us need to give our heads a wobble and calm down.

There is nothing much to say about this game other than the fact that it was only a kid who has just turned 17 in Sam Amo-Ameyaw, who pushed his claims to be in the first team in the Championship against Norwich on Saturday. He is certainly the only one to put his hand up and make the manager think.

Bring on Norwich on Saturday at 3pm.