After yet another international break we have a
trip to Hull to kick off the next batch of fixtures. Not an easy game by any
stretch of the imagination with Hull being unbeaten at the MKM stadium this
season and in fact, the unbeaten home run goes back to March of last season.
The team contains some familiar players including Liam Delap, son of Rory who
we were heavily linked with a season or so ago, like we are with all Manchester
City youth products. He is likely to lead
the line today, supported by Jaden Philogene who tore it up for Aston Villa in
pre-season before surprisingly being sold instead of loaned out to a
Championship club, with Hull being the beneficiaries of that decision at Villa. In a roundabout way, they’ve also been the
beneficiaries of Saints decision not to persevere with Alfie Jones, a promising
centre back from our Academy who looked like he would break the drought for
that particular position from our Academy, but we decided against it and away
he went, initially to Gillingham before rocking up at Hull where he is now
captain and has played 100 games for The Tigers and fair play to him. Elsewhere, they have John Michael Seri in
midfield who not so long ago, signed for Fulham in the Premier League for £30
million. So, they have a few players
dotted around who will cause us problems today. Sadly they don’t have suntanned
arsehole Phil Brown as manager anymore but instead have Liam Rosenior, who
always talks a good game and comes from the same football style school as
Russell Martin so today could well be a comparison of who plays this style of
football the best.
Russell Martin tried to explain his style of football at the tactical
talk evening that was held at St Mary’s during the week. Seeing as I am a
supporter in my mid 50s who has been watching Saints in person for about 50
years, I went to this talk with a healthy dose of cynicism in tow, which comes
from having seen every manager since Lawrie McMenemy come and go. I didn’t
really know what to expect but I did find myself agreeing with the reason that
the club is trying to play this style and I also found myself realising that
the current manager knows that at the end of the day, it is all about results
and if he doesn’t get them, then he will be replaced with someone else but,
that someone else will be trying to play the same style of football as we do
now. We do have people at the top now who are very committed to this particular
plan and whilst you are never going to get the situation where every fan likes
the plan, it’s more important that the players like the plan and I can
certainly see the logic behind it and everyone pulling in the same direction
will certainly be a start. It certainly
feels better than last season when the people that mattered were all pulling
but it was more like horses attached to each limb of the club and pulling in four different directions.
So, Hull City on the banks of the Humber, in the Frozen Wasteland of the North
and the weather is predictably shit. Russell Martin has picked what is rapidly
became his first choiceXI with Charly Alcaraz having returned from Argentina in
time to take his place in the front three. There was an injury doubt over THB
when he pulled out of the England under 21 squad but he is present and correct
as well.
3 o’clock and away we go and the weather is still shit. The game immediately
looks like it’s going to be quite open with both sides trying to play in a similar
style and Smallbone has an early effort which is deflected up in the air and
the backpedalling Allsopp in goal, shovels it over the bar.
At the other end, a break down our right sees Philogene take the ball down well
before sliding it through to Delap which is aided by THB falling over. The son of Rory delays in the same way that
his father used to do whenever he had the ball at his feet and by the time he
gets round to shooting is blocked out by a combination of KWP and Bednarek.
Saints are beginning to make inroads down the left with Sulemana adding the
experienced Cyrus Christie to the list of Championship right backs left eating
dust. He burns him off and pulls the ball back from the goal line but it runs
all the way across to KWP on the right and faced with Philogene, a winger who
cannot defend, KWP pissed past an embarrassing attempted shoulder-to-shoulder
and rolls the ball back for Will Smallbone to casually roll it into the net
left footed. Great run by KWP and a really decent finish and get in.
One of the things that you can be sure of with Saints this season is that we will find a way to get in everyone thinking this might be a routine win, before punching that particular vision in the bollocks within a few minutes.
Hull build down our right through Philogene and his ball across runs out to the other side in similar fashion to our goal and when Lokilo puts it back into the mix a bit, a lucky bounce off a challenge between THB and Twine sees the ball drop to Delap who really isn’t going to miss from there. Shite. 1-1 and 25 minutes gone.
The rest of the first half is relatively even but Saints are coughing up too many chances. Philogene takes aim from a long way out and Baz producer is a decent save and Delap again finds himself getting on the end of a ball crossed in and smashes it downwards and towards the goal for Manning to head away. Mainstream reports will say ‘off the line’ but in fact, it was about five yards out.
Though we are conceding chances, so are Hull with Sulemana again burning everyone down the left before his cross eventually finds its way out to KWP on the right. KWP cuts in across the top of the box before letting fly with his left foot and it deflects of of Greaves head and loops just over the bar.
Half-time and whilst it’s not been a bad performance by any stretch of the imagination, there hasn’t quite been enough intensity about us, certainly without the ball and it’s been far too easy for Hull to get through. I also feel that today we haven’t looked after the ball well enough either, which of course puts more focus on our defending.
Second half and we’re unchanged and it’s mainly Hull creating moments start the second half with Delap getting across from our left and Philogene really had to take it first time but by the time he sorted his feet out he was blocked and the ball bounced to Morton whose effort was actually blocked by his own player and so the danger passed after KWP and Smallbone had a little conversation about who was going to mess up their possession stats by hoofing it out.
Around the 60 minute mark it was a bit of a sea change in the game as Saints suddenly started to look the more likely. Alcaraz went close went picked out by an Adam Armstrong pass and his first time effort was excellently saved download by Allsopp. It was pretty much his last contribution as he was replaced with Che Adams and Sulemana also departed to be replaced with Edozie.
Having made the decent save from Alcaraz a few minutes earlier, Allsopp was at it again after Flynn Downes had burst through a couple of challenges on the edge of the box before turning and teeing up Smallbone on the edge but in truth, his side footed effort didn’t carry enough venom to beat a decent keeper in decent form.
Saints were now undoubtedly the better side going into the last 15 minutes, with Charles, Fraser and Mara replacing the tiring Armstrong brothers and Smallbone. There was however only one side out there settling for a draw but we couldn’t force a decent opening and we were in the fifth of five added minutes when Mara won a throw out on the right hand side. KWP took it to Downes, who burst past a rather weak challenge to get to the line before pulling the ball back into the middle to where Ryan Fraser had got away from his marker and swept a side foot volley into the net. Let’s go fucking mental. 95th minute, lovely, not enough time left for even us to fuck it up.
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Make no mistake, this is an impressive win with Hull having only lost twice all season and on the same points as us going into the game. None of those defeats had been at home as said earlier, so they are basically very hard to beat but we did it. Going away up North also always adds another layer of difficulty to the assignment so I found this to be a game where there was lots to be positive about.
Like the Rotherham game, there were parts of the game where we looked superb when it all clicks and obviously, we need to play like that for longer periods in these games to win games more comfortably. Russell Martin seems to be working out what's the best use of his squad after the dodgy four game losing streak and I’m also becoming increasingly impressed with his in-game changes and tweaks as we came out of the start of second-half in much better shape and with much more intensity than we had in the first half. This is becoming a bit of a theme and a far cry from the days of Ralph Hasenhuttl, when we were always despairing at his lack of ability to see what was happening in the game and change it whilst it was going on.
There were some excellent individual performances. THB and Bednarek once again looking like a very decent partnership with the correct blend of attacking the ball and sweeping up behind. The skipper is going to be waiting for an injury or suspension to get a game at this rate. Elsewhere in the back four, KWP had a magnificent game at right-back, once again proving that he is by far the best attacking right back in the league and long may that continue for a player who really looks like he’s enjoying his football even though he is far too good for this level. Ryan Manning managed to pick up his fifth booking of the season and so will miss the Preston game. How a player who barely makes a tackle gets five bookings in ten and a half games is a bit of a mystery though I suspect if you look at tactical fouls, he'd be right up there.
Flynn Downes had probably his best game in a Saints shirt, though relatively quiet in the first half, he came alive in the second, driving the team forward and two of the best bits of play of the whole game were his bursts from midfield to create the chance for Smallbone that was saved and what turned out to be the winning goal for Fraser.
It’s also an obvious thing to look at the goalscorer and Ryan Fraser hasn’t contributed a great deal in terms of goals and assists since he arrived from Newcastle in the last days of the transfer window, but his work rate has been excellent when on the pitch, particularly defensively. Playing in a largely unfamiliar number eight role, he certainly stepped up today when needed, arriving unmarked at exactly the right time and that was a bloody good finish which many other players would’ve belted over the bar. He gave a great interview at the end of the game as well, basically saying that he's playing to earn to chance to stay here - can't knock that. Over the past year or so we've had enough players playing to get away and not scoring any last minute winners at the same time.
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