EFL Championship Match 11 - Southampton 1 Rotherham 1

 

Rotherham Get In Our Half - Bazunu Not in Picture

Usually, when I look ahead to see who we are playing next, the team name instantly conjures up memories of games from the past and I’ll be aware of the clubs recent result and recent history.  Not today however because we are playing Rotherham in a league game for the first time since the 19th of March 1966, 57 years ago. To give that some context, it was before England won the World Cup and from Southampton‘s perspective, our centre forward that day was Martin Chivers who eventually moved on to Tottenham and was replaced by Mick Channon.  It’s a long time ago and our goal that day was scored by the legendary Terry Paine, now 84 years old. There have been 3 cup games between the sides since then. The League Cup in 1993 and 2008 and an FA Cup tie in 2002, notable for being one of the games that Agustin Delgado actually played in. Somewhat bizarrely, we lost all three of those cup games and haven’t actually beaten in Rotherham since 1965 when the aforementioned Chivers scored twice in a 3-1 win. We missed Rotherham when we were on our trip around League 1 as they were in League 2 at the time, so this fixture is a bit of a rarity.

The Rotherham of recent times have been a yo-yo club between League 1 and the Championship, either getting promoted or relegated six seasons running before managing to stay up last season. This season is pretty perhaps predictably, going to be a struggle and they currently sit second bottom with five points from the opening ten games and just the one win. I remember us looking at Middlesbrough’s record before we played them a few weeks ago and this feels similar. The goal scoring threat for Rotherham will probably be provided by Jordan Hugill, the very definition of a journeyman striker who suddenly found himself playing for West Ham about five years ago before being proven to be out of his depth and now he finds himself at Rotherham.

There was some good news coming out of St Mary‘s this week with Charly Alcaraz signing an extension to his contract to take him up to 2028. Call me cynical but this may well be protecting his value for a future transfer. I can’t imagine for a minute there’s not a release clause in the contract in the event of us not getting promoted at the end of the season. In other news, he got called up to the Argentina squad so will spend the next international break rubbing shoulders with World Cup winners and a certain Lionel Messi. This can only be a good thing. It looks like playing in the Championship and not playing for a huge club is not a impediment for getting called up for the World Cup winners. If only England had a manager like that.

Also came news that there is a movement to try and get my usual walk to St Mary’s renamed the Lawrie McMenemy Itchen Bridge.  Cool – why not?  It will always be the Rupert Lowe Bridge in my eyes however and watching England in the Rugby World Cup and the ‘Swing Low’ song just serves as a reminder of that questionable time in Saints history.  Given the history of  Lowe-life and Lawrie, it will be somewhat ironic if it is renamed as mooted.  Whilst you’re at it, change the lights on the bridge from blue to alternate red and white… or to alternate yellow and blue in honour of Lawrie’s greatest achievement – 1976 and all that.

To today and just the one change with Che Adams coming in for the rested Charly Alcaraz.  This should be a game for Che to show what he's got in this division.  Saints tear into them from the off with Stuart Armstrong making a good positive run down the right hand side and getting a cross in which is headed away as far as KWP who takes it down on his chest and jinks in between three defenders as heads towards the line before standing it up to the back post.  Che gets up early and smacks his header against the post but it drops down to where Stuart Armstrong has continued his run to and he knocks it into the net from 3 yards. Simple as you like.  Now lets fucking batter these.

3.03 pm and Stu Kicks off the Avalanche of Goals

Every time we get the ball straight after the goal, we look dangerous with Sulemana testing out the right back for pace before cutting inside and unleashing with his right foot but Johansson in the Rotherham goal makes a decent save, tipping over the bar.  Jugular time lads.  A ball up to Adams who flicks it round the corner to KWP and his cross is flicked in brilliantly by Adam Armstrong but the flag is up. Offside. Fucker. To be honest, it does look offside on first view.  It’s funny – I still haven’t got into the habit of instant celebrations since we fucked VAR off this season.

We are still looking like we are going to win about 6-0 and Peltier crashes through the back of Sulemana to give us a free kick wide on the left.  In it comes from Manning and Adams has a free header from the penalty spot and nods it down well but again, too close to the keeper who gets down well to make another decent save.

Half an hour of battering them and just the one goal to the good and the game lulls into a kind of holding pattern as if we’re playing for half-time.  It really shouldn’t be a problem but it’s strange that they’ve been no threat at all and now we’re not doing what we were doing at the start of the game.  Rotherham look happy to let it all calm down and carry on producing nothing with the ball.  The half peters out and in we go eventually, after a stoppage for a medical emergency in the crowd.

There was a longer than usual break for half time, given the aforementioned medical issue and away we go again.  Saints are unsurprisingly unchanged and what the fuck is this?  We produce ten minutes of absolute nothingness as we pass the ball about endlessly without going anywhere. Rotherham are just sat there, quite happy with life and we’re not making it difficult for them at all.  Yes we have all the possession and are in control but we’re not doing anything with it.

Russell Martin seems to recognise this and it’s a triple substitution with Stuart Armstrong Adam Armstrong and Sulemana all departing to be replaced by Lionel Messi’s heir apparent, Ryan Fraser and Sam Edozie.   We create a great chance to put the game to bed as KWP slides in Fraser and his low cross is perfect for Smallbone, who sidefoots powerfully towards goal but Johansen fucking saves it again.  Has to score from there.  The keeper shouldn’t even be seeing it until he’s fishing it out of the net.

There’s an interesting development as the Rotherham goalkeeper Johanssen has the ball and the centre half goes down on his haunches and the goalkeeper throws the ball out of play.  The subs are all ready to come on and away we go again with Che throwing the ball back to the keeper.  Punted forward by the keeper and Downes goes up with Hugill but the ball drops on the edge of the box and THB nods it straight back to Hugill, who volleys it first time over Bazunu who is completely out of position.  1-1. For fuck‘s sake.

We now have to wake up and put our foot back on the accelerator pedal but we are finding it very difficult to do and unbelievably Rotherham looked more likely to score and Baz has to makes a decent save from Rathbone. It doesn’t look particularly scientific from Saints now and it’s more in hope than expectation. We have Joe Aribo and Sekou Mara on the pitch now and a low cross into the box is missed by Bednarek but when the ball bounces clear he takes another swing it, gets it past the goalkeeper but it’s smashed away from on the goal line.  A bit more huff and puff and a bit more urgency but nothing much comes of it.  Just the five minutes added cos the ref clearly hasn’t clocked the keeper wasting time since the tenth minute.  The end.

Oh do fuck off!!!

It’s bordering on the absolutely fucking criminal not to have won that because basically, I’d be amazed if Rotherham aren’t the most limited team we will play this season.  We absolutely should’ve been out of sight at half-time, especially after the opening half an hour when it honestly looked like we could’ve scored six or seven. Yes, the goalkeeper had a bit of a worldie but absolutely no excuses for only being 1-0 up. The opening half hour was how Russell Martin’s style of football is supposed to work – pass it quickly, pass it forward, overload and overwhelm, pull them about all over the place. The opening of the game was electric from us and apart from the goal that we did score, we had one disallowed for offside against Adam Armstrong and the goalie made a tremendous save from Sulemana.  

Then it all died as from about half hour mark until Rotherham scored, we didn’t play the ball forwards and work their defence – possession for possessions sake.  The start of the second half was absolutely bizarre where we had the ball for about five minutes straight without going anywhere.  Just before conceding, the keeper made another really good save from Smallbone.

And then they score and how do Rotherham score? I didn’t realise at the time but apparently their goalkeeper put the ball out for a throw in so they could make some substitutions.  There was no injury and we gave them the ball back from the throw – like a team of 11 years olds would do.  Directly from there, they scored so that goes down as a really stupid bit of naivete.  Long ball, gets knocked down and the guy just smacks it over the goalkeeper who is 10 yards off his line for reasons best known to himself. Once that ball gets nodded down and we don’t pick it up, then Bazunu has got to be back on his line.  He’s done well recently but that was shit today.

There were I reckon, five mistakes that led to the goal.  The first was of course giving them the ball back.  Next up was Downes going up for the header against Hugill instead of Bednarek.  This caused mistake three as no one took Downes’ role to pick up the dropping ball.  THB had a chance to clear and shat a header straight to Hugill and hey presto – mistake five which is Baz having a wander.  Piss poor.   What was Baz doing out there?  Making a fucking passing angle? 

Once Rotherham scored of course we had to go forward again but we already made the substitutions with Adam Armstrong and Sulemana having gone off.  What this meant was that we had to try and step things up again after half an hour of playing passive keep ball and we also had to do it with the likes of Ryan Fraser, Joe Aribo and Sekou Mara on the pitch – not to mention Che Adams in his signature Adidas Trampoline boots. After the equaliser, there was a big bundle involving Bednarek that should’ve ended up in the net but didn’t and not a lot else and it all seemed a bit panicky.  It’s always difficult to put your foot back on the gas when you’ve taken it off for a while.

From listening to Russell Martin’s interview after the game, I only found one thing to disagree with as in the main, he saw the game exactly the same way that I saw it.  What I disagree with is the fact that he thinks it’s a good performance if we keep hold of the ball, whereas I think it’s a good performance if we are actually stretching the opposition and putting them under pressure. The middle third of the game was just possession for possessions sake and we didn’t stretch them at all and that to me is not a good performance.  I find it hard to believe that Russell would have been telling the players to reign in the attacking, so I don’t really know what happened. We were so good in the first 30-35, better after they scored because we were desperate but that middle third was completely wasted when we were passive and just bang average.  It doesn’t seem that it takes much encouragement for the players to revert to that.  Maybe they get scared but honestly, there was nothing to be afraid of today.  Against a top side you draw their sting by retaining possession but Rotherham had no sting at all. 

Flynn Picks Out Entitled Twat in the Crowd

Flynn Downes was involved in a bit of an incident after the game, taking exception to something said in the crowd and not liking the fact the team was booed off by some.  Whilst I think that booing a team off should be reserved for when a team doesn’t try (lots of last season), Downes has to appreciate that frustration happens when you piss away two points against a team like that.  Ironically, his interview shows that he does get it and that’s what gives me hope, that players (and the manager) seem to understand what’s wrong.  Downes described parts of the game as being like walking football and he's dead right.  Speaking as a fan who comments on football, I would suggest that players ignore fans who comment on football in the main.  There are always going to be fans reacting on each end of the spectrum, all the way from 'Happy Clapper' to  'Realist', all the way down to 'Entitled Twat'.

Moving on - we’d have all taken seven points from nine going into the last three games off the back of four straight defeats but having won the first two, you have to beat Rotherham with the minimum of fuss.  Not us though. We just have to hope that it’s building and that Ross Stewart can give us a more clinical edge if he ever gets fit.

Onwards, international break and a difficult trip to Hull upon our return.  Up the fucking Saints.