EFL Championship Match 34 - Southampton 1 Millwall 2

 

In Your Own Time Baz

The visit of Millwall to St Mary‘s should be just what everyone ordered after our home defeat against Hull on Tuesday. Since we played them last, Millwall had appointed a new manager and plummeted towards the relegation places and if current form continues until the end of the season, they will be playing in League 1 next season, as amply illustrated by the two nil defeat at home to Sheffield Wednesday last week. The trigger was pulled on Joe Edwards and Neil Harris returned for his second spell as manager at the club where he was a goal scoring hero for so many years. In truth, from the outside, it seems a bit of a panic appointment with no real logic behind it, a bit like Sheffield United appointing Chris Wilder, simply because he’s been there before and not because he’s got any track record of being any good.

Anyway, Millwall will be hoping for new manager bounce and Saints will be hoping that Russell Martin gets it right today because we could be playing in front of a half empty ground with everyone in the pub if the names Smallbone, Rothwell and Stuart Armstrong are named as the midfield.
 
Itchen Bridge 2pm and the name I’m drawn to in our starting XI is Jack Stephens, which of course means that the shorhorn has been out.  Next thing is to look around the rest of the team to see who is missing and it turns out it’s Ryan Manning, so I assume that we’re going to go for something similar to what we had against West Brom a few days ago.  Mercifully, Joe Rothwell is not in the team and has been replaced with Joe Aribo. The substitutes that all came on and did well against Hull have all been selected so the front line is Wee man, Che Adams and David Brooks which means that Adam Armstrong has been dropped for the first time this season.  The Millwall starting lineup contains the name Michael Obafemi.  Party boy himself and his agent are still managing to find teams they think he’s going to apply himself. He still looks like a top-heavy middleweight boxer so I would anticipate him pulling a hamstring in about half an hour.

Away we go and what the fuck is this?  Kyle Walker-Peters is playing at left back and it looks like THB is playing right back with Captain Shoehorn in the middle.  So, it appears we have moved two of our best players from our regular back four into unfamiliar positions. Not only that, it appears that Captain Shoehorn is playing in unfamiliar position himself because he’s pushing up into midfield when we’ve got the ball. The first time we lose the ball it’s clear that no one really has a clue who is supposed to be at right back. Let’s just hope we’ve got this nailed down in the three days we’ve had to practice it since the whole game.

Anyway, it all starts well enough with Stuart Armstrong deciding to make up for the fact he was terrible in the last game by taking on three players down the left-hand side and beating everybody. He gets to the line and gets it across and Brooks volleys it down and it’s looping up towards the goal but the keeper Sarkic flaps it away.

The next involvement from Sarkic is a Big boot forward from the Millwall goalkeeper and Smallbone leans on Flemming, who collapses to the ground and the referee buys it, mainly because Smallbone has his hands on him.   He hasn’t pushed him but there you go.  Free kick about 40 yards out and Savile chips in and Baz hesitates and then goes and he’s late and Tanganga gets a head to it and it lobs into the net. He looks offside for a brief second but he isn’t because Stephens is a yard behind the rest of the defenders.  Fucks sake, what a start. Behind at home yet again.

We get the ball down and start knocking it about and Che Adams is absolutely trashed by Tanganga after he’s laid the ball off and the ball goes loose to Wee Man who is equally trashed by Leonard the right back.   That’s the second time Leonard has gone straight through Wee Man.  Referee Thomas Bramall should card them both at least but he only books Tanganga.  Stuart Armstrong‘s cross into the box is headed away and knocked back in by Smallbone and Adams gets up at the back post to loop a header over the goalkeeper but villain of the peace Tanganga is back on the goal line to head over the bar.

Wee Man is clearly in pain after the assault from Leonard and one of his crosses gets headed away and Millwall break into the area where we have no right back and the Millwall winger cuts in on his right foot and curls it about a yard wide of Baz and therefore the post. Fraser goes down after the ball goes wide and has to be replaced with Sam Edozie.

We are playing some decent stuff despite the slightly incongruous presence of Captain Shoehorn in midfield and we attack on the left and KWP picks it up and gets to the line but he won’t use his left foot to cross and instead turns out on his right foot and knocks it to Brooks. On to Stuart Armstrong who gets his head up and chips a lovely ball over the defenders for Che Adams to reach with his head and nod it through the goalkeeper to make it 1-1.  Now lets bury them.

Nice goal Che, Now Get Substituted

Instead of that though, Millwall put us under a bit of pressure with a cross from the left going over everybody and over to the other side back in it comes and Party Boy has his back to goal but turns and hits it and it hits Bednarek and bounces through to Baz. It’s one of those contacts on the ball where are you know that there has been a hand involved and the ref gives it and no real complaints. Flemming stepped up and scuffs it but it hits the inside of the post and goes in and he gives it the big one in front of the home end. Prick.

Half-time and this has been a struggle. I don’t really know what’s going on with the formation but it just seems mad to me that we’ve moved to have our best players and look rather disjointed. As the players re-emerge for the second half, there is no change for us but one thing never changes and that’s that if Michael Obafemi starts a game at St.Mary’s, then he gets substituted at half-time. See you later Party Boy you utter waste of space.

There’s not a lot going on in the opening 15 minutes of the second half. Tanganga flicks a Brooks cross over the bar before it gets to Adams and the referee of course gives a goal kick and the subs predictably get called fairly early but I can’t be too enthusiastic about Adam Armstrong and Joe Rothwell coming on, particularly as they are replacing Che Adams and Joe Aribo.  Why in particular are we taking Adams off?

The subs nearly make me eat my lack of enthusiasm as Stuart Armstrong gets away down the left, gets to the line and pulls it back. Adam Armstrong misses the ball as it rolls under his foot and Rothwell must score but no – straight at the fucking goalkeeper.

On 70 we get Suledjenepo coming for Brooks and Manning replaces Captain Shoehorn so we now have KWP playing as a conventional right back like he should’ve been all along and his cross into the middle is meant by Adam Armstrong who is not the requisite height and heads over the bar.  Che would have had a better chance of scoring that.

It’s all huff and puff and not a lot else and time goes by, mainly with Millwall wasting it.  90 minutes up and Suledjenepo puts over a cross and Adam Armstrong in the middle meets it again and he gets in the right direction this time down towards the corner but Sarkis gets across to make a decent save.

Well that was another absolute pile of shit from the moment the team was announced until the final whistle. An absolute clusterfuck from start to finish brought on entirely by Russell Martin overthinking everything. We’ve just gone 25 games undefeated and at that point he abandoned his like for like replacement when people got injured strategy, and we’ve been largely fucking shit. If Flynn Downes is injured, just play Shea Charles. It’s not fucking rocket science, it’s just common sense.  Stop trying to be too clever because as they have proved numerous occasions already this season, our players are not good enough for it.

Remember back to the 4-1 home defeat against Leicester when we had all this full-backs in midfield bollocks which didn’t work. Well here we are again only this time it’s Jack Stephens going from centre back into midfield like some shit Cornish Franz Beckenbauer and what that meant was that when we got caught on the break which we inevitably did, THB moved across to centre back and then there was fucking no one at right back unless Will Smallbone managed to get over there and if he did, there was no one in midfield.

The German Jack Stephens in his pomp

When Stephens stepped into midfield, he seem to be a magnet for the ball and the reason for that is that Millwall didn’t bother to mark him because why would they so e was always the free man. He played some decent propaganda passes and looked like there was an element of surprise with him turning up there when it came to actually do something creative like cross the ball, of course couldn’t do it because he’s a centre back and that’s not his game and that’s not his fault. The other problem was is that Joe Aribo, who was superb when he came on against Hull, hardly saw the ball because it now seemed too congested in midfield. So, if you wanna play Jack Stephens in midfield, then play him in midfield and then at least we’ve only got one player out of position instead of trying to come up with some clever bollocks that leaves us with three players out of position and others impacted adversely by the decision. If you definitely want to play Jack Stephens then leave one of the centre backs out and again, don’t disrupt the entire fucking team.

Oh and also, once again, stop playing Smallbone as the defensive midfielder if you’re not going to get the right structure around him.. It doesn’t fucking work, it hasn’t worked at all this season so don’t fucking do it anymore. He is not a bad player but he is absolutely shit at the number six role unless you sacrifice to other players to keep close to him to cover up his deficiencies. There is no shame in not being able to play the number six position and most would all love to live in the world where every player could play every position but we are not there. Some of our players can’t even play one position properly.

It just seemed like all totally unnecessarily over complicated bollocks. Millwall would be in the bottom three if they had lost today but we changed our own whole game plan from what has been really successful this season on a whim and we made them look good. Two attacks, a free kick in a penalty, two goals. Dogshit. I understand is changing the game plan for West Brom because that was a specific task away from home against a good team. This was fucking Millwall at home, where up until this week we had won about ten games in a row or something but both in this game and against Hull, Russell shit the bed. I’m wondering if any of the support staff are brave enough to say that they don’t think something is a particularly good idea.

In the second half, we huffed and puffed, still with the shite bat shit mental formation without ever really looking like we were going to score and then we finally went to a proper formation with about 70 minutes gone by which time the pattern was set for this particular game. Shea Charles still didn’t make it onto the pitch and instead what we did and it took until 70 minutes to actually bring on full back in Ryan Manning and take off Jack Stephens, who had been playing for 10 minutes as a conventional left back,  After his horror show against Hull, we brought on Joe Rothwell to bring his particular brand of “what the fuck is this guy doing“ to the proceedings. Adam Armstrong has been shit for the last few weeks and needed a rest but we brought him on and took off Che Adams who had already scored today and was probably playing with a bit of confidence. All of it absurd, all of it self-inflicted and all of it completely unnecessary.

Millwall‘s game plan was obvious and it was get stuck in leave a bit on every player you tackle and play on the break. And Ryan Fraser got booted out of the game today and had to be substituted in the first half in the same way that Edozie got booted out of the game against Norwich. There wasn;t even a yellow card for todays assault by Leonard on Fraser. This is the same old pre-VAR discussion about players needing to be protected. Heavy tackles have always going on since the game was invented but both against Norwich and today, the offender should’ve been sent off. The referee largely let them get away with the rough stuff and Saints played completely into their hands by not having a proper set up for when we lost the ball.. Once the free kick it been awarded for the first goal however, it is totally down to Gavin Bazunu not making his mind up quickly enough to come for the ball and then not electing to punch it. If you come for the ball as a goalkeeper and get beaten to it by an opposition attacker in the air, then you have fucked up. The second goal was handball and there’s no getting away from that.

So, absolute shit and Russell Martin’s desire to be Mr Clever Bollocks is in danger of undoing a hell of a lot of good work that is going on recently. With this style of football, you cannot win games if you don’t have a defensive midfield strategy with suitable players.

Russell was absolutely raging at the referee and what he allowed Millwall to get away with at the end and also kind of defended the tactics and blamed the bad goals for the reason that we lost.  Yes the goals conceded were crap but interestingly he also called the second half flat and I wonder why the second half is flat? Maybe Russell is feeling the pressure a little bit from having so many games this month. He has said in the past that the three-game weeks leave him drained and we’ve had about three of those back to back.

Next up, no worries, it gets easier, Liverpool away in the FA Cup and if we don’t have a defensive midfield strategy for when we lose the ball in that game, they are going to go in dry and we are going to be leaving Anfield like we’ve been sat on a horse for two days.

EFL Championship Match 33 - Southampton 1 Hull City 2

 

Fabio Makes the Most of His Guaranteed Game Time

Onwards, ever onwards and four days after the last one, yet another game in the championship with the visit of Hull City to St Mary’s.  Hull have been pretty busy in the transfer window just gone and for me, should be doing slightly better than they are, residing on the fringes of the playoff race.

There was a lot of talk in January of Fabio Carvalho from Liverpool joining a Championship club on-loan for the rest of the season but if the media are to be believed, and we all know that usually they aren’t, Liverpool wanted some sort of guaranteed gametime which he was never going to get at Saints, so Hull stepped in. To date, he has been a bit underwhelming but he will be a dangerous presence this evening as well Jadon Philogene, who they signed from Aston Villa in the summer and who decided to rival Joe Rothwell for goal of the season a couple of weeks back with a ridiculous rabona finish into the top corner, which was absolutely filthy.

Their main striker this season is Liam Delap who scored against us at the KC Stadium but Delap is injured so at the moment leading the line last week was the one and only Billy Sharp, now 47 years old but still around.  I have to admit that I forgot about him when he semi-retired at the end of last season and going to play in the Micky Mouse League in the States.  Billy will always have a place in our hearts for his role in our last promotion so let’s hope he plays no part in deciding the outcome of this promotion campaign for us.

There is still a question over Flynn Downes for this game but Che Adams is reported fit and well and it just remains to be seen who gets picked, with Mara having done reasonably well as a central striker against West Brom and Adam Armstrong’s best position undoubtedly being on the right hand side. There is also the question of David Brooks and whether he starts after his goalscoring cameo against West Brom on Friday.

An hour before kick-off and the team news drops and ….. what the fuck is Russell Martin doing?  He’s picked “that” midfield again for fuck‘s sake…..  you know, the one that lets in all the goals. Smallbone is the defensive midfielder, flanked by Stuart Armstrong and Joe Rothwell.  Fucking hell. Has he forgotten the Bristol City and Huddersfield games? Well let’s just hope that they take a leaf out of the way the midfield played against West Brom and stay compact. The rest of the team is pretty much as you’d expect with Mara keeping his place and Edozie starting instead of Wee Man.

Right from the start you can see this is going to be difficult because Hull are pressing really high with four players. They are also closing down our midfielders and there appears to be no easy out ball for us.  We take some ridiculous risks around our 6 yard line and just about get away with them. Hull are of course going to try and play from the back as well and do so to good effect down our left before switching it to the other side and Zaroury tries an effort from long-range which flies just wide.

We switch to the other end and Allsopp plays a risky one into Seri who is tackled by Smallbone. The ball bounces free to Rothwell who just has the goalkeeper to beat but he tries to slide it through his legs and more by luck than judgment, Allsop blocks it aweay for a corner. It’s a bad miss.

Hull are doing the same thing that Saints usually do in that they are being calm in possession, especially the goalkeeper and his waiting for the free man which in this case is the left back who has got away from Adam Armstrong who has dozed off. One long ball catches out our entire front six with all three of the midfield absolutely nowhere. They work the ball to the edge of the penalty area and Philogene has a blast which Baz parries out but it’s straight to Zaroury who runs into the net.  Fucks sake. Saints defence all stand around pointing at each other.  No one points at the midfield because no one can point that far as they are fucking miles away.

Once we restart, there is very little response from Saints. We still can’t play the ball out of the defence and resort into banging it up the pitch. We do manage to get the ball to Stuart Armstrong in midfield but he turns and gives the ball away and Hull work it to Philogene on the right who skins Ryan Manning before blasting it at the near post where Baz blocks it, with his head.  Only one team looking dangerous here.  Another ball from Baz into Rothwell's feet and he has no idea what to do with it and Seri nicks it and lashes over the bar.

We really should be changing something here because it’s not working at all and there is nothing to remotely suggest that it will.  Saints are knocking it around with between the defence and goalkeeper and no one ahead of them wants the ball. Rothwell has his back to play and Smallbone is marked and not moving, whilst Stuart Armstrong is fucking nowhere and eventually Rothwell shows for it, Baz plays it into him and he takes a horrendous touch and then tries to run it past Philogene, who wins the ball and then Rothwell completely fails to react as Carvalho runs off him to pick up the pass right in front of Baz and knocks into the net and all fifteen travelling Hull City supporters go mad again.

We’re struggling to even deal with basic defending now and a big punt forward goes straight to Manning with nowhere near him and he tries to knock it back to Baz but it’s a 50p head effort and Baz has a head away himself from outside the box and it drops to Zaroury who luckily for us, lobs it wide.  A surging run by Coyle, the right back across the pitch and through the are where our midfield should be before find Zaroury once more and we get lucky as he drills it wide of the far post.

We have half a shout for a penalty as Coyle clearly slaps the ball away following a Stuart Armstrong cross but the ref takes the easy decision and give the free kick against THB for a slight push, which in no way caused Coyle to take off with his arm up.

Half-time and that was fucking shit - should probably be four goals down. Russell could honestly make five substitutes and no one could complain. All of the midfield and the forwards could go as they’ve been horrific.  No effort, no intensity, nothing.  As it is it’s only three subs are made with the axe mercifully falling on Adam Armstrong, who has done fuck all, Mara, who has done even less and Joe Rothwell who has been at the heart of everything shit that’s been going on. On come Joe Aribo – complete with captains arm band, David Brooks and Che Adams and they cannot possibly make it worse.

Russell Ponders His Midfield Selection

Brooks immediately creates a decent chance after only five minutes, meandering across the pitch before finding Edozie, then picking up the return pass and then finding Manning in the box and his right footed effort is just wide of the far post.  The point is that we connected through midfield and created a chance.

Aribo is showing great strength in midfield and puts Brooks away again who feeds Adams and his first-time effort goes wide of the near post. It’s better but not working the keeper at all.  It’s time for Wee Man who replaces Edozie.

Wee Man makes ground down the left and plays infield to Adams who falls on his arse but the ball finds Aribo. Aribo was trying to get it onto his left foot but in front of his left foot he finds Adams lying on the ground blocking him, so he can’t shoot straight away and has to keep wriggling till he finds an opening and his eventual shot sees the ball spoon up to David Brooks and his volley lands on the roof of the net

87 minutes and like he’s been doing since he came on, Brooks is buzzing all over the pitch trying to make things happen and he floats in a cross from the left which Che Adams throws his head out and it’s blocked but he works the ball back to Aribo and the big man crashes it into the net to make it 2-1 but there are only three minutes in normal time to go

Cue 80s Music

If we are expecting an avalanche, it didn’t really happen and when Aribo makes a rare mistake in the left back position, Hull break forward again with two shots coming in and two committed blocks, one each by Bednarek and THB.  And that’s your lot – game lost when he team was picked.

Well, we had a go in the second half and it was much better but we gave ourselves too much to do after Russell’s team selection and an absolutely shocking opening 45 minutes. I cannot for the life of me understand how you can pick those three in midfield and expect it to be any different to how it was against Huddersfield and Bristol City. With those three in midfield, by half-time we had let in eight goals in just over a game and a half. Individually they were shocking and collectively they were even worse.  We should have taken the lead of course with Rothwell missing that chance but you can’t afford to go two down against decent sides and expect to get away with it. We got away with it against Huddersfield, but Hull are considerably better than them.

Every manager has their blindspots and I can’t criticise Russell Martin too much but he had one earlier on this season where he had to get Jack Stephens in the team and he has one about Joe Rothwell because he’s a new signing.  After seeing all of his appearances, all we know that Rothwell does well is shoot and make runs ahead of the ball.  He can’t do anything else, so the midfield positions in our team do not suit him.  Is he a six,,,no, is he an eight… no.  He's a 10 or he’s nothing and should only play in that position as a rotation option for when Stuart Armstrong can’t manage two games in a week.  One thing I definitely do know is that’s that he has absolutely no idea what he’s doing in Russell Martin style of football as he had no idea what do when receiving a pass from the central defenders or the keeper and he has upset the whole balance of the midfield in the squad, let alone the team. What gets me is that playing him in the same midfield as Smallbone and Stuart Armstrong has been proven not to work very emphatically before this game. 

One reason that we played well against West Brom was Stuart Armstrong working incredibly hard to keep himself close to Smallbone so he didn’t get isolated.  He either couldn’t be bothered to do it today or more likely, just physically couldn’t do it twice in four days. He spent most of the first half loafing around in a kind of left-wing position, which may have been part of a tactical plan but he just looked disconnected from the other two midfielders who were really struggling.

Because the midfield was shocking, the defenders had no one to pass the ball to so we couldn’t build up through the thirds. Hull were very good and pressed us in our own half so with the midfield not functioning and not moving, we were left with trying to hit the strikers and with Mara and Adam Armstrong both being varying degrees of shite and neither being able to hold the ball up, it just didn’t work.

After Hull scored their first goal, it was blatantly obvious that change was needed and we needed to make a substitution at that point and not wait till half-time. You’ve either got to make subs in the first half if it’s that bad or you change style to get through the difficult spell and be a bit pragmatic and maybe make sure you’re only one down at half time.

None of the midfield or strikers could complain if they got hooked at half-time but Russell did at least hook the most deserving with Mara, Adam Armstrong and Rothwell coming off. Mara once again was given an opportunity and absolutely stunk the place out. Yes he didn’t get many passes but there was a distinct lack of effort. Adam Armstrong also suffered from a lack of service but it was he who totally dozed off to allow the build up for the first goal and he has gone right off the boil in the last four or five weeks and probably needs a spell out of the team.

The players who came on in the second half all did themselves a lot of good with regards to starting on Saturday.  David Brooks, Ryan Fraser, Che Adams and particularly Joe Aribo were excellent. Aribo is a different player to last season. He seems more determined, more dynamic and he looks fitter, which I think is the key thing. Though Sam Edozie was our best attacker who started the game (which is a very low bar), Fraser added a massive amount of dynamism and running which given a bit more time, could’ve earned us an undeserved point. All Che Adams had to do was look better than Mara and he did that just by looking interested.

Well shit. The undefeated run has gone and now the home run has gone so no excuse for any complacency or stupid team selections or not being on it.  We have proven we’re not invincible and with both runs over, everyone knows they have to up their game, starting with Millwall on Saturday at home.

Yes we were shit…but up the fucking Saints.

EFL Championship Match 32 - West Bromwich Albion 0 Southampton 2

 

Someone in Bournemouth Has Boiled Piss Right Now

Boing, boing, fucking boing. Just three days after our first defeat in 25 games, we do not have the ideal game to get us back on track with a trip to The Hawthorns to face West Bromwich Albion who have comprehensively proven themselves to be the best team outside of the top four in the Championship this season – The Best of the Rest if you will. They, like Bristol City, also gave us a very good game at St Mary‘s that we were somewhat fortunate to win.

Whilst failing to win this wouldn’t be the end of the world, another defeat would be somewhat worrying for the self-belief in the squad and the belief of the supporters. I don’t expect anyone seriously thought we were going to go the rest of the season without losing but the bubble of invincibility would someone be punctured by two defeats in a row and would maybe play on peoples minds, bearing in mind the four-game blip we had at the start of the season. I am confident we are a much better side than we were then so I’m expecting a response today to what was a pretty substandard outing on Tuesday.

West Brom manager Carlos Corberan and has impressively managed his squad into the playoff positions, an achievement especially notable given the off-field chaos that is happening at the club at the moment. News from the West Brom camp is that they appear to have a prospective new owner who will be sat in the crowd today, so this will be a bit of an occasion for them.  Promotion to the Premier League this season would make the new guy happy with his investment. When we played them at St Mary‘s earlier in the season, the two biggest threats were the veteran Matt Phillips and Grady Diangana, but neither of those have been playing recently, Phillips through injury and Diangana through being involved in the Afcon.

Talking of which, Joe Aribo is expected to be back in the squad today and apart from travel and what that takes out of you, he should be fresh as he didn’t get too many minutes in Nigeria’s run to the final. The main injury worry is of course over Flynn Downes and if he’s not available then Russell Martin has to find a solution which preferably doesn’t involve a midfield like we’ve had when conceding all the goals over the last two games.

The other news that followed the Bristol City game was about director of football Jason Wilcox, who David Ornstein of all people was touting that he was likely to be offered a position at Manchester United. Needless to say, no one at Saints knows anything about it so this is clearly a media driven unsettling tactic and of course United have just approached a different former City man as head of football operations, so the link is obvious. Well, if Manchester United wants something from your club then usually there’s not a lot you can do about it and it ends up happening sooner rather than later. Though at a much higher level, this has elements of Joe Shields about it, who made his name in youth football at Tottenham before being offered a first team level role at Saints before buggering off to the bright lights of another big club, namely Chelsea. Let’s hope that Wilcox will want to see the job through here but I’ve thought that on many occasions about many players and many backroom staff over the years so I wouldn’t get your hopes up.

Team news and on the face of it, it’s not too bad. Shea Charles has been given another chance in midfield alongside Smallbone and Stuart Armstrong, which is as close to first choice as we are going to get today with Downes missing. Sekou Mara has been given a run as the central striker which means Adam Armstrong reverting to the wing of the major surprise is in defence with the shoehorn coming out again to get Jack Stephens into the side, this time it looks like he’s at left back.

The Referee Applies the Rules and Sets Himself Up For Load of Abuse

Jack wonders why the Skate Bastard Talking to Our Manager?

I am dreading us producing another lethargic performance like we had against Bristol City but we start well and there’s a zip about our play as we play the ball about and West Brom can barely get a touch.  The first touch they have is on seven minutes, when following a challenge in our left back area on Mara, the ball is rolling along the touchline until the Baggies hyperactive manager Carlos Corboran decides to stick his foot onto the field of play and actually touches the ball, believing it had gone out I assume. Following a quick word with the linesman to confirm that the ball hadn’t gone out of play, the referee comes over in waves a red card at the West Brom manager, which seems ludicrously harsh until you realise that thems the rules, so harsh or otherwise, he has to go.

This ridiculous miscarriage of justice (as they see it) now has the Baggies faithful baying for blood every time the referee moves.  He is now getting given ridiculous amounts of shit for crimes like, giving Saints a corner when a West Brom player puts it out, or for the howling error of giving us a free kick when one of their players goes through one of ours. The main problem is that West Brom can’t get a touch of the ball in any controlled fashion.

When we get going again Saints are knocking around the back and Baz puts THB in the shit by leaving one a bit short but we scramble well and Bednarek takes charge and gets it out right and we break through KWP and the ball eventually end up with Fraser on the left and his shot flicks off a West Brom player and goes wide for a corner, to howls of protest at the this horrible correct decision injustice from the West Brom fans. We take it short and Stuart Armstrong swings over and Wee Man has got himself completely free at the back post to brilliantly cushion a volley across the goalkeeper and into the net.  Oh look, more pissing and moaning from West Brom towards the referee, in particular from Darnell Furlong who has got himself well under the ball and he was never gonna get anywhere near it and he happened to bump into Sekou Mara who was not moving. Not even in the Premier League with VAR and their directive to disallow every goal if at all possible, is that getting disallowed.

Ladies and Gentleman, Wee Man

West Brom‘s prospective new owner has been here for twenty minutes and seen his manager get sent off and the team go a goal behind. He almost sees another goal straight after that as Adam Armstrong gets free on the right wing and hammers the ball across with Stuart Armstrong narrowly failing to get a touch as he slid in. Again, a West Brom defender has got a toe to the cross coming in to take it away from Armstrong, again the referee correctly gives a corner, again he’s given no end of shit by the West Brom players and supporters.

West Brom finally wake up and start causing us a few problems and after a bit of pinball, Swift takes over and hits one from 25 yards out and it’s always curling wide and Baz has it covered anyway. The direction of travel of the game has certainly changed a little bit with West Brom pouring it on now and a cross from the left is met by Furlong in the middle and his side foot volley, hits Jack Stephens and flicks over the bar.  Cue much arm waving and imploring of the ref, again.  When that it ‘hit’ Jack Stephens, what I actually mean is that it looks like he stuck his arm out and pushed it over the bar with his hand. They are going mental about it but the referee is having none of it. Maybe it’s a case of cry wolf? Who knows.  It certainly isn't as clear as they'd like to think it is. 

In comes the corner and the head of Yokuslu and Stephens has the nightmare scenario of being one yard out, facing his own goal with the ball in between him and the goal line and a player up his arse.  He can do nothing and hope everyone misses it or he can do what he did – swing a leg at it and somehow send it over the bar.

Anyway, we have made it up to half-time but there needs to be a bit of a rethink for the second half because we were severely under pressure for the last fifteen minutes or so. No changes in personnel and away we go.

After kind of nondescript first 15 minutes of the second half, it’s time for an energy boost from the bench, with Shea Charles and Ryan Fraser being replaced by Afcon Aribo and Sam Edozie.  Soon after, David Brooks replaces Adam Armstrong who has had a pretty average game.  Carlos Corboran has obviously got on the phone from his office to his look-a-like assistant and instructed him to make a triple sub and the only reason I’m talking about this is because it was very funny seeing ex-Skate Jed Wallace‘s reaction to being substituted. Let’s just say he wasn’t particularly happy. Sit down Skate bastard.

Mara throws himself to the ground in the penalty area whilst being held by Kipre but you’re not gonna get a penalty for that and from the next attack, Aribo drives forward and tries to feed it into Mara but he loses it and West Brom try and pass out defence back but a great tackle by Bednarek wins it back.  Smallbone to Aribo, out to Stuart Armstrong, into the penalty area to Edozie, low cross to Brooks, one touch away from the defender, goal, brilliant goal.  Yaaaaaassssssssss! What’s most impressive is the way Brooks first touch takes it across and away from the lumbering Erik Pieters.

The game is done now.  Sulemana cames on for us to flatter to deceive for a bit in place of Mara.  There is just one alarm in the last five minutes as Diangana gets to the line and stands up across for Yokuslu and Baz uses his feet superbly to get across the line and tip it over the bar. It’s such an impressive save that West Brom have to delay taking the corner for about five minutes whilst all of our defenders go through the full routine of hugs and fist bumps with Baz.

Final whistle.  After the lethargic performance against Bristol City just three days ago, there was always the worry that we might be a bit burnt out but what a response that was. This season has had many excellent wins but this was probably the best of the lot as we gave a pretty perfect demonstration of what Russell Martin football is all about. We dominated the ball, controlled the game and barely let West Brom get a foothold at any time.

After the rather bizarre red card shown to Corboran, which by the letter of the law, had to be administered, we took over with Ryan Fraser score in the first goal, straight off the training ground. It’s one thing to practice something in training but it’s another thing to execute it as well as that during the match. It was a superb cross by Armstrong and a wonderful finish by the Wee Man.  Mara’s part cannot be underplayed with his positioning but it aint a foul if he just stands there.

The other main incident of the first half was of course the shot by Furlong which was cleverly shovelled / deflected over the bar by Captain Jack. In the Premier League, with about 20 minutes on VAR, it probably would have been a penalty, but this is the Championship so move on.  Jack then produced a very impressive clearance off the line. I’m not sure he entirely meant to scoop it over the bar but that, along with the extra height defending all the crosses into the mixer, justified his selection on its own. He looked a bit like a fish up a tree on the left at times but it was worth the change today for his defensive qualities.  We’ve used James Bree in similar fashion at times this season where we have a back three on the ball and a back four when they’ve got it.

Of the other slightly surprising selections by Russell, Shea Charles had a much better game than he did against Bristol City and added solidity in midfield and got his head on a few set pieces that were launched into the box by West Brom. He also provided cover behind KWP when the full-back went bombing forward.  It’s obvious that Russell had spent the time since the Bristol game devising a plan to stop us being so vulnerable on the counter attack with Downes not being fit.

Surprisingly, Will Smallbone was deployed as the defensive midfielder but crucially, both Charles and Stuart Armstrong worked so hard to make sure that he didn’t get isolated where his lack of pace would be a problem.   Will, for his part, was very disciplined and didn’t get caught ahead of the ball anywhere near as much as in the games against Huddersfield and Bristol City.  Basically, we were much more compact in there and everyone did their job defensively.  When Charles got substituted, Joe Aribo came on and carried on the good work as we closed the game out with minimal fuss apart from the one save that Baz had to make , which owed everything to his speed at getting across the line to get himself to the right position to make the save.

In an attacking sense, the subs came on and did their thing with Joe Aribo and Sam Edozie both coming off the bench to be heavily involved in the second goal for another substitute, David Brooks.  It’s brilliant to see Brooks doing well and clearly enjoying his time here so far.

Russell Martin gave a very interesting interview after the game where he talked about how much he didn’t enjoy the Bristol City game when he watched it back, which probably fed into how well we played today. He had the opportunity for the Sky cameras to explain his style of football and came across as a manager totally at ease with his own philosophy and entirely comfortable in his own skin. He will probably be linked with Manchester United by the fucking Athletic now as well.

Talking of which, it turns out that no one has heard a dickie bird from Manchester United, not Jason Wilcox, not Russell Martin, not Phil Parsons the chairman - so it is 100% Manchester United leaking things to David Ornstein to try and sound out Wilcox without approaching him. Scumbag tactics but what do we expect? There was a time not so long ago when David Ornstein, like Fabrizio Romano was kind of credible but now they’ve sunk to kind of tabloid level, making and facilitating the news rather than reporting it.  

This was a serious performance in response to the setback on Tuesday. This is a performance that says to Leeds and Ipswich that we are not going to fall away and that we are going to keep going till the end of the season and we are not gonna make it easy for you. It’s important and it was a brilliant performance and result today. 

Back up to 2nd place for a few hours at least until Leeds visit Plymouth for the lunchtime game on Saturday (UPDATE: they won 2-0).  Leeds got promoted on Wednesday when they went second in the league if you listen to the very noisy element of their fan base (most of them). The games never stop for us however and it’s another difficult one on Tuesday with the visit of Hull City.

Up the fucking one game unbeaten Saints.

EFL Championship Match 31 - Bristol City 3 Southampton 1

 

If Ever a Picture Summed Up Our Full Backs Defending

A trip to Ashton Gate to take on Bristol City in another one of the recent run of games where we get to play a team who we weren’t brilliant against, when we played them last.  At St Mary‘s, Bristol City came with a game plan, in what was manager Liam Manning’s second game in charge, to sit deep and play on the break and that worked pretty well for them and if it wasn’t for wayward finishing and an inspired goalkeeper performance by Baz, they may have got more of a reward than the 1-0 defeat they eventually got, courtesy of a left-footed curling strike from the edge of the box by KWP.  

The issue that Bristol City had that game was that once they went 1-0 down, they had absolutely nothing else other than sitting deep and we were quite happy to pass the ball around and not really give them a chance in the second half. It was almost as if they settled for losing 1-0, which was somewhat bizarre and I wouldn’t have been happy if I was a travelling Bristol City fan to that game. This will no doubt be different with more onus on Bristol City to attack, as home teams usually do, unless they’re Norwich.

Tonight’s game of course comes just three days after the Huddersfield win and just three days before a trip to West Bromwich Albion. This is probably the toughest few days of the season so far and if we get out of these two games with four points, I’d be pretty pleased with that. I think you accept that in the Championship there are times when you’re going to be playing Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday but Saturday, Tuesday, Friday, Tuesday seems unnecessary.

The news coming out of Russell Martin’s press conference was that Flynn Downes would be missing and that Stuart Armstrong would probably be okay. This leaves us with the real possibility of a Smallbone, Armstrong, Rothwell midfield three which if it plays like it did against Huddersfield, will be a complete open-door policy….. averted, Shea Charles is playing with Stuart Armstrong on the bench.  Edozie comes in for Fraser and Brooks starts instead of Adams.

Away we go and we look sluggish from the opening whistle. There’s really not a lot going on in terms of passing and we allow Bristol City to dictate the opening 10 minutes without causing us too many alarms.   When we eventually settle down, we actually look okay and Rothwell pushes the ball to Edozie inside the penalty area.  He tries to feed it in to Brooks but it bounces back off the defender and sits up for Edozie who tries to cushion a volley and flights it over the keeper but it bounces off the top of the bar and over.

Bristol City have obviously got a game plan to get down the sides and put the ball into the box and we get lucky as they set up Jason Knight who falls over as he controls the ball. THB knocks it back to Baz who then casually chips it over Smallbone, straight to Roberts on the left.  His cross into the middle and THB has to come to the rescue and a superb tackle which sets Brooks away on the right hand side and he skins two players before playing the ball onto Smallbone and he gets the ball before the goalkeeper but can’t manage to chip it over him.  Shit defending trying to give a goal away but it did give us a decent counter attack.

The Manning Chasm is making an appearance today with crosses coming over from his side, usually from Albanian winger Mehmeti.  One finds Bell at the back post, who brings it down before scuffing it into the side netting.  They are not particularly having to work very hard to create chances and sooner or later they’re going to get it right.

Bristol City nearly get in again straight down the middle with a ball along the deck but Baz has an excellent starting position 35 yards out and the forward clearly doesn’t fancy it and shits it as Baz clears the danger.

Saints next attack grinds to a halt on the edge of the box but Charles gets in well to win the ball back.  A 1-2 with Manning and he slides a lovely ball to Adam Armstrong who has a clear sight of goal but hits it straight in the fucking keeper again and Bristol City break on us again down through the Manning Chasm and Mehmeti runs at Bednarek and his shot loops off the Saints defender into the side netting.

Half time and 0-0 and we’ve not been brilliant and Russell has clearly got tired of Shea Charles passing the ball straight out of play and replaces him with Stuart Armstrong, thus giving us the midfield that was the open door policy against Huddersfield with Smallbone as the defensive midfielder with Stuart Armstrong and Rothwell in front of them.  To be honest, the whole midfield have been shit.  Rothwell looks like he hasn’t got to grips with Russell Martin style of football yet and Smallbone, who has been playing to a reasonably high standard the last few weeks, has been back to his anonymous self so far.

Straight from the kick-off Bristol City try and pass around but cough up possession by passing it straight to Adam Armstrong.  He slightly over hits his through ball to Edozie on the left and he neither crosses nor shoots and the sliding David Brooks can’t get connect with the ball but instead, gets a healthy connection with the goalpost.

Brooks is eventually back to his feet in the game settles back into a scrappy sort of nothing affair.  Bristol win a throw out on the right hand side and Mehmeti tries to play a give and go and gets a bit lucky as it bounces back to him off Smallbone and he wriggles his way through and slides it across easily and Bell slides into the net from 4 yards out.  I momentarily hope for offside but of course it isn’t because it was Smallbone’s touch back to him.

Edozie is really the only Saints player looking likely to do something and he twists and turns past three players before finding Stuart Armstrong and his cross is met at the far post by KWP on the volley and he connects well but a decent saved by O’Leary.

Despite being our best attacker and us being one down, Sam Edozie is off along with David Brooks to be replaced by Sekou Mara and Ryan Fraser.  Manning tries to get Wee Man in the game but passes it behind him and picked up by Bristol and away they go, over to our right and another cross over everyone finds Mehmeti at the back post and his effort is blocked away for another corner.  It’s a good job the guy hardly ever makes the right decision.

Who the Fuck Was Marking Him Then?

Fraser gets a cross in from the left which is headed clear and Smallbone should pick up the loose ball but makes a bollocks of it and Bristol City break again and play through Harry Cornick and THB blocks the cross, it hits Cornick and the referee gives a fucking corner anyway. Useless prick.   In it comes and a free header for Rob Dickie past Baz and THB can’t keep it off the line.  Fucks sake.  It's all very well saying it shouldn't have been a corner but you have to defend it better than that.

2-0 down and the last throw of the dice is Sulemana for Rothwell, who has been completely anonymous all game.  Will our £25 million man do anything?  Of course not but he gets into the flow of the game straight away by giving the ball away a couple of times. Sulemana gives the ball away to start the next Bristol City attack, down through the Manning Chasm and McCrorie’s cross into the middle finds Cornick who sweeps it brilliantly past Baz and into the net. 3-0

Believe!!!  No, not today and this is nearly over. 94 minutes and Sulemana actually plays a ball for a player in the same colour shirts him with Stuart Armstrong picking it up on the left and crossing.  It’s flicked on by Mara and KWP emerges from behind Cornick to nick the ball just as Cornick swings his leg to clear and all he can do his boot KWP up in the air.

Even this Championship referee can’t fail to give that and so we get a chance for a consolation and Adam Armstrong puts it down and easily dispatches it, sending O’Leary the wrong way.

We were always going to lose at some point.

I feel that tonight there were too many players who just hit the wall and gave below average performances and when you get too many of those, you’re never going to get a coherent team performance. We were shite to be quite honest and got what we deserved and Bristol City played well, executed their plan well and totally deserved to win.

They had a game plan to keep the spaces tight with lots of players behind the ball and then spring on the counter attack when we gave it away and we played into their hands by giving it away far too often, which usually meant our full backs were caught too far up the pitch. The fact that Bristol City didn’t score in the first half was totally down to the fact that they couldn’t get anyone to connect with all the crosses that were coming in from our vacant full-back areas. We were just about holding our own at half-time with a score of 0-0 but then Russell’s blindspot came to the fore again when he thought we could play with Will Smallbone as the defensive midfielder and predictably, the roof fell in, same as it did against Huddersfield.  Over the course of the Huddersfield game and this one, we have played a total of about 100 minutes with Smallbone as the defensive midfielder, with Rothwell and Stuart Armstrong (two Number 10s) making up the midfield and we have let in six goals. It's not really Will’s fault because he is totally unsuited for playing that role. All he can do is try his best but it’s almost like putting a striker in goal. He might do the odd good thing, but he is going to get found out.  Honestly, Stuart Armstrong would do a better job as the deepest of the three – mainly because he can run.

When I saw the team chosen to start the game, I was okay with it. Shea Charles is a strong presence in the defensive midfield role to replace Downes.  He didn’t play very well and he gave the ball away a lot, usually by passing it straight out of play. That of course is anathema to Russell Martin so he hauled him off but when he went off, any defensive solidity we had in midfield went with him.  Remember, it was 0-0 at half-time when Charles was substituted so no matter how badly he played with the ball, we still weren’t losing.  A scrappy 0-0 today would have been fine.  Unfortunately, we went for the chaotic approach in the second half that will always lose you more games than it will win.  We got away with it against Huddersfield but not today.

There were however, substandard performances all over the pitch today and it’s probably easier to point out those who weren’t. KWP kept going for the whole game trying to make something happen going forward but as I said earlier, he kept pushing up on the right wing like you were supposed to do and then we gave the ball away behind him and they broke into the space that he left. With no Flynn Downes in the second half to cover those breaks, we were always going to end up in trouble.  Sam Edozie was also decent and as said earlier, was easily our best attacker until he got taken off.

Sloppy passing seem to permeate throughout the team today. Shea Charles gave the ball away repeatedly in the first half, as did Joe Rothwell, as did Adam Armstrong, as did THB, as did Ryan Manning. Nothing seemed to connect. In the second half we bought on Ryan Fraser and Kamaldeen Sulemana who both just gave the ball away repeatedly. The snappy passing and snappy movement that you need in order to pass the ball just wasn’t there.  As with the Huddersfield game – the midfield was wide open and we can’t control the game when it’s like that.

Russell Martin’s interview was as you’d expect, positive about what we had achieved over the previous 25 games and he did quite rightly point out that we had two good chances to take the lead in this game, one being the opportunistic effort by Edozie that bounced off the bar and the other one being the chance Adam Armstrong hit straight at the goalkeeper.  We also had the Brooks Versus Post incident, which we in truth, made a mess of.  Any of those chances go in and it’s a different game with a 1-0 lead.

Brooks vs Post

Having lost after 25 games, we now have to get back on the horse and start another run and it will be good if it started in three days’ time against West Brom. That is a proper tough game and on paper, it will be tougher than tonight but to be fair to Bristol City, they gave us a hard game at St Mary‘s and played with a similar game plan today, only today we didn’t get the first goal and Bristol City found a way to eventually stick the ball in the net, which they didn’t do at St.Marys. Fair play to them.  They had a bit of furtune on both of thir opening goals but sometimes you need that.

We were always going to lose at some point. Now it’s about how we respond.

Up the fucking Saints

EFL Championship Match 30 - Southampton 5 Huddersfield 3

 

Weston Shore is Better than Bournemouth Beach Isn't It?

It seems like at the moment, the fixture computer has given us a chance to make up for our sins from earlier on in the season. First up Rotherham, now up Huddersfield, who we went away to during this unbeaten run and we had one of those games where we didn’t play particularly well, took the lead and then in almost complacent fashion, tried to coast to the end of the game and fucked it up when an attempted cross deceived everybody and ended up in the net.

As also tends to be the case at the moment, the opposition have changed their manager since the return game with Darren Moore becoming Darren No-Moore and his place being taken by caretaker Joe Worthington, who will soon be replaced we are led to believe, by Michael Duff, the man who took over from Russell Martin at Swansea and who after a few games, was labelled a PE teacher by the Jack Army.  Looking on objectively, you would say that Michael Duff could be excused for not wanting to rush through his appointment in time for today’s game, given how well Saints are playing at the moment.

Since the Watford game, the only news to come out of Saints has been positive with the return of Kamaldeen Sulemana. There is a very real possibility that we will have him, David Brooks and Sam Edozie all on the bench, ready to wreak havoc against a tired Huddersfield defence.  As long-time readers will know, I am yet to be convinced by Sulemana and would place him a very definite third behind Ryan Fraser and Sam Edozie in the left wing pecking order.  I also feel that the fact that he cost to club the thick end of £25 million quid is one of the reasons why he was playing as much as he was before he got injured. Still, clean slate and all that and let’s see what he’s got.

Saints are unchanged, with the team exactly what you’d predict from the last league game.  Away we go and not a great start with KWP dragging an early effort across goal.  It’s not a great opening twenty minutes or so, with very little goalmouth incident going on, with Huddersfield pressing aggressively from the front and in midfield and Saints seeming incredibly lethargic all over the park.  We are not taking our time to build up through the thirds and are instead we are playing a couple of passes and then looking for the chip over the top which might work if we had anyone on the pitch who could hold the ball up.  Che Adams is supposed to be able to do that but he is wearing the Adidas Trampolino boots again, so the ball is bouncing anywhere other than to another player in a red and white shirt.  Rya Fraser is being given 50-50 balls to compete with much bigger defenders for and Adam Armstrong is not seeing much ball at all.

We are struggling particularly in midfield to get a grip on things, and it doesn’t help when Flynn Downes goes down injured.  He tries to play on, has some raw chopped liver, goes down a second time and that’s the end of that for him.  I know that Russell is not going to bring on Shea Charles and my eyes are rolling into the top of my head as Joe Rothwell comes on to replace him.  The eye-rolling is not for Rothwell as such but for the fact it means that Will Smallbone will be dropping back to that defensive midfield position that just doesn’t work when the opposition is getting amongst us like Huddersfield are.

Sorba Thomas picks up the ball on the right side and runs at Manning before switching the ball wide and when it comes in from Rudoni, Thomas hits it and it seems to flick off of Manning and zips into the net.  Thomas then runs behind the goal and goads some kids in the Family Stand and then the Chapel and before doing a TikTok dance with his teammate like an absolute fucking bellend. Don’t know you are mate, so fuck off.

If I didn’t know who he was before, I did soon after as Huddersfield piss through the non-midfield again with Thomas again doing the damage and his low cross finds its way to Kasumu on the edge of the box and he rifles it high into the net giving Baz no chance. Fucking hell lads, for fuck’s sake.

Well, the unbeaten record is severely under threat as we go in at half-time two goals behind and we deserve to be two goals behind. This hasn’t been a smash and grab so far as Huddersfield have come with a game plan and executed it superbly and we have fallen into every possible trap that we could. We have been shit to be quite honest, coming up with no answers to the questions being posed.  However, booing the team off that is in the middle of a 24 game unbeaten run is idiotic..  Personally, I’m casting my mind back to Jonno Pace against MK Dons in 2011.  Who’s gonna be the hero?

Pick the Bones Out of That

Che has been put out of his misery and David Brooks is on and we start the second half with a completely renewed purpose and go flying forward. I kind of sense that we have to get one back fairly quickly.  The previously anonymous Stuart Armstrong makes good ground down the left and plays Wee Man through on the left and he gets bundled off it for a corner.. In it comes from Stuart Armstrong, punched out by Nicholls to the edge of the box and Rothwell producers a kind of sidewinder volley that sends the balls screaming into the top corner. What a ridiculous fucking strike that is.

Huddersfield kick-off and it ends with Baz, so we go again eventually building up through KWP on the right.  He finds Brooks who cuts infield and plays a ridiculous reverse pass between the defenders to pick up the run of Rothwell who takes a touch before drilling it across Nicholls and high into the net again.  What on earth is this.  I am amused that I questioned bringing him on.

The momentum is all with us as Smallbone picks up a ball in midfield and plays a perfect ball to send Adam Armstrong in on goal.  No defender is going to catch him and as he approaches Nicholls, the stadium gets ready and… he produces an absolute wanky chip straight to the goalkeeper who just stands there and catches it.  To be honest, that’s almost as bad as Charly Alcaraz and his chipped penalty.

Sensing that they’ve got a lifeline, Huddersfield settle down again and more non-existent midfield shield from us and Matos strolled up from left back and tries a pot-shot and it hits Smallbone and deflects miles up in the air and it could go anywhere but of course if drops perfectly over Baz and into the net.  Fuck. Off.

Russell goes to the bench again with twenty to go and and we’re just going for it with Sulemana and Edozie both coming on. A few minutes later and Sekou Mara is on to replace Adam Armstrong and you can’t complain about that one at all because Armstrong has generally been poor today and I still can’t get over that chip.

Immediately after Mara comes on, Saints build down the left Manning eventually knocking the ball wide for Rothwell to run onto and his low cross along the 6 yard line towards Sulemana is obligingly toe pokes by Less, the Huddersfield central defender and he sends it flying in at the near post given the goalkeeper no chance. 3-3.

Sekou Turns Up Again

Huddersfield are done and looking increasing fragile now.  Brooks gets bundled over but no penalty given and we recycle the ball back to KWP, whose ball in behind is reached by Brooks who just to get his foot round it and pulls it back to the edge of the 6 yard box and Mara spins and crashes it into the net.  Mental.

With Huddersfield now being cooked, we don’t need another goal but you can never have too many.  Sulemana and KWP knock is about on the right before we lose it but Brooks get a foot in to block an attempted clearance and it shoots across the goal and Mara has a wrestling match with a Huddersfield defender before calmly rolling it back to Edozie, who skips around the one defender who is not on his arse and crashes into the net to make it five.

The board goes up and there are 13 minutes to go, the vast majority of which is being added because of Huddersfield wasting time from about a quarter of an hour mark onwards but the game is dead now. We could score more if we wanted to but don’t need to and Huddersfield are done despite making a whole raft of substitutions.

Well that was absolutely mad. That first half was absolutely terrible with us being second to every ball and not being patient enough to keep the ball and try and break Huddersfield down. It was all too rushed and looking for the chip over the top too early and it was generally pretty poor. The substitution which occurred when Flynn Downes went off totally lost us the midfield with Joe Rothwell coming on and Smallbone reverting to playing as a defensive midfield. Suddenly we had no defensive nous in there and the defence became exposed and in ten minutes we had conceded two goals and gone in at half-time with a massive amount of work to do. The second half with renewed energy and bollockings no doubt dished out, we absolutely steamed into them and with two brilliant goals in two minutes, ironically scored by the first half substitute Joe Rothwell.

Then a key moment straight after that as Adam Armstrong was clean through with just the goalkeeper to beat but tried a chip and enough said and Huddersfield went back in front with a ridiculous deflection that looked miles up in the air and gave Baz no chance at all.

With us seemingly drifting towards a 3-2 defeat, Russell Martin rolled dice again with the substitutions and having talked up the bench and how strong it was before the game, it worked for him. Joe Rothwell again was majorly involved in the third goal with his cross been turned into his own net and the fourth and fifth or down to two more subs, Mara and Sam Edozie. A quite ridiculous afternoon.

Sammy Seals It

I know it sounds daft to criticise the first half substitution because he scored a couple of goals and got an assist  but at the tactical meeting where Russell Martin laid out his football philosophy, he spoke of controlling the game and limiting the opposition. You can’t do that with no midfield when you haven't got the ball. We got slightly fortunate today and that our bench is so strong it’s like a cheat code to make up for any mistakes that happened earlier on in the game, be that from players or manager. We might get away with it a few times in the Championship but you can’t be playing games with so little in midfield because you will lose more often than not.

Usually, it takes a defeat to be classed as a wake-up call but this game today should certainly be classed as a wake-up call for us, even though we won. We didn’t put the work in the first half and were deservedly two down at half-time against a Huddersfield team looked really organised and looked like they had a game plan which we were struggling with. The game plan was a close us down aggressively, especially in midfield and that’s why the substitution before halftime was so mystifying because, and I’ll say it again, playing Smallbone as a defensive midfielder could work if the other team is passively sitting off but if they’re getting amongst you, like Huddersfield were then it’s just a disaster waiting to happen especially with Rothwell not being the most press-resistant player either. The problem for them was that they couldn’t keep going for 90 minutes, which ironically ended up being 103 minutes because of the amount of time that they wasted.

As I’ve said many times before, complacency is the biggest issue when you are on a long unbeaten run and we got away with it today. Coming up next week are away trips to Bristol City and West Brom and we cannot afford to have any complacency because those are two teams who on paper and according to the league table, are better than Huddersfield. The bad news is today that we’ve probably lost Flynn Downes and Stuart Armstrong but we have players to come in and all I hope for against Bristol City on Tuesday, is that Russell Martin gets the balance of the midfield right and if Downes is out injured, then for me, Charles has to play.

It was of course the proverbial game of two halves today but one player stood out as being good for 90 minutes.  At times it seemed like Jan Bednarek was the only defender we had and he led the defence superbly through the game considering the lack of help they were getting from the midfield. Another major plus was David Brooks. I’ve never really appreciated how good he was before, but the guy is exceptional and it’s ridiculous that Bournemouth have let him go out on-loan. The vision that he showed on the second goal to pick out Rothwell’s run was amazing and there was a couple of passes in midfield where he threaded the ball through three players, that were ridiculous.

But Has He Got Jonno Pace?

But, what about the Rothwell Incident (sorry!).  That volley was absolute filth - the technique absolutely ridiculous and you can't strike a volley any cleaner than that. Just imagine if one of the big boys had scored a goal like that.  This years Jonathan Forte has been found - two goals from an unexpected source to rescue a game where we were 2-0 and playing badly.

Ipswich dropped two points today, needing a last-minute equaliser to snatch a draw at home to West Brom but no such problem for Leeds who easily buried Rotherham at home. Leeds will be certainly looking for us to drop points on Tuesday and Friday but win them both and it’ll be a four point gap at least by the time Saturday rolls around.

Up the fucking 25 unbeaten Saints.

FA Cup 4th Round Replay - Southampton 3 Watford 0

 

Sekou Can Fly As Well

The replay no one wanted is here with Watford making a Tuesday night trip down to St Mary’s. Win this tonight and this will be the first of five midweek games in a row, which is a quite mental schedule and will include a 5th round mid-week trip to Anfield.  Whoopee.

Watford manager Valerian Ismail thinks he has the answers and that though Saints will be much changed for today, he knows our system and how to combat it. On the one hand he has a point because they have drawn twice with us this season but on the other hand, both of those games have been at Vicarage Road and this one isn’t.

There was a lot of interest around the team selection for tonight, with the last day of the transfer window meaning that neither Mason Holgate or Charlie Alcaraz are still at the club and they would definitely have been playing tonight. As it was, four players survived from the starting lineup from the weekend in Jan Bednarek, Che Adams, Will Smallbone and somewhat surprisingly, Flynn Downes.  Joe Lumley was given another chance to show the goalkeeping is easier when you use your arms. Shea Charles was deployed out of position at right back with youngster Jayden Meghoma on the left. Captain Jack partnered Janny B at centre back. Midfielder included Joe Rothwell it’s Stuart Armstrong’s usual slot and Che was flanked with Sekou Mara and Tyler Dibling.   Watford looked a little more at full strength that they had in the initial FA Cup meeting and the main thing was that Wesley Hoedt was present and will doubtless have an evening of shit raining down on him from the Northam End.

Away we go and pissing down and Tyler Dibling is the first to show as the Dutch Caleta-Car tries to pass his way out of defence but gives the ball straight to Smallbone. Dibling picks it up and meanders his way past left back Morris before putting it right across the goal with no one running in to finish it off.

The first shot on target comes from another Dutch Callum Davenport mistake, as he virtually scuffs his nose on the pitch stooping really low to head the ball out but it’s returned by Dibling to Downes who slides in but can only half hit it straight at Bachmann.

Watford are catching us with too many midfielders in front of the ball and their first threatening attack sees them pissing through midfield with Downes out of position and Smallbone showing his usual sprint speed to get back in there.   The ball eventually finds its way to Kone, who shoots, deflection off Bednarek down and looping up and Lumley watches with feet planted as it bounces off the top of the bar and over.

The first goal will be important tonight as if we get it, it will give the makeshift team some confidence and mean that we don’t have to empty the bench in order to try and claw the game back like last time.  We build down the left with Mara picking up the ball in lots of space and he gets to the edge of the box, gets his head up well and slides in a lovely ball to Che Adams, six yards out with just the goalkeeper to beat. Guess what happens? Yep, hit the fucking goalkeeper and as he tries to step round the sprawling defenders, the Dutch Mason Holgate gets a foot in and stabs it off for a corner.

The rest of the first half was absolute shite and no more really needs to be said about it. It was just ‘going through the motions’ bullshit and just waiting for half time.  All of our attacks were breaking down on Mara or Adams and it was only Dibling offering any spark in attack.

Second half and still pissing down and Watford break through midfield again and Chakvetadze gets into the box followed by Shea Charles and dives between two players, neither of whom attempt to tackle him and hits the deck. Fucking embarrassing mate and the referee does get it spot it and dishes out a yellow card.

Almost straight away we pick the ball up on the left and Rothwell drives into the penalty area and tries to play a 1-2 Adams but either by luck or by design the ball doesn’t go back to Rothwell and instead it finds Sekou Mara and he uses the swinger of a left foot that he never normally uses and smashes the ball past Bachmann at his near post.  Get in – I can’t believe he's done that!

You Can't Stop Him Like That Mate

Tyler Dibling is really showing up well now and cruises past Morris again on the halfway line and set off towards goal before crashing to the deck. The referee decides that this is also a dive even though there is no logical reason why he would’ve done it, unlike their guy who was in penalty area.  Levelling up.

Unflustered by it, Dibling turns up in the right-back area and knocks it back to Lumley who instead of whacking it up the pitch decides to play and turns the ball to Downes.  He looks like he’s in trouble but spins out of it and via Charles, Dibling takes off again in a big diagonal run and gets 40 yards before being absolutely carted by Thug Porteous as he releases the ball to Adams.  On to Mara, one touch, thunderbastard, goal.  No one expected that – not Mara, not any of the other players, not any of the fans and certainly not Bachmann who saw it flash by him at the near post again.  Having been shit on both of the goals, Bachmann collapses and we have a little break while he gets himself substituted. Just fuck off mate. Watford bring on Ben Hamer in his place.

Sam Edozie is on for Dibling and almost immediately Adams put him through with another clever ball in between the lumbering pair of the Dutch Lyanco and Porteous but all Sam can manage is a back pass.

Che Will Tear You Apart

Watford are not in the mood for Edozie and his tricks and Sierralta carts him up in the air, somersault and everything, rather than try and win the ball.  Will we make him pay? Rothwell fires it over, Watford’s defenders all stop and Adams peels off the static defence to knock it into the empty net from about six yards.

Watford’s performance has tailed off, which is hard to imagine bearing in mind they’ve been shite all game and there are more goals in the offing as Porteous tries to pass out of defence like he’s actually a competent footballer and gives the ball away. One pass and Edozie is clean through coming in from an angle and he tries to give the keeper the eyes which he does successfully, but then he fucks up the finish and hits the inside of the near post and sees it bounce away.

Porteous then tries to do the same thing again and loses the ball this time to Edozie and it bounces to Sam Amo who just has the goalkeeper beat and he manages to knock it over Hamer as he comes out and hits the fucking post as well.

Liverpool here we come and that really couldn’t have been much easier. Let’s draw a veil over the first half which was absolutely shit.  Che Adams missed an absolute sitter when he managed to increase his xHitTheFuckingKeeperFromAnywhere stat. Watford had that one chance which deflected and bounced off the bar.

In the second half however, we stepped it up and Watford didn’t and the goals started to flow through Mara and Adams. Watford just packed in and to be honest we should’ve scored two more but Edozie and Amo-Ameyaw brought our ‘missed sitter’ count for the game to three.  Sam Amo in particular looked gutted with his miss.  It’ll come fella.

The Dutch Holgate Applauds the Fans That Used to ... oh never mind.

To be fair to the Dutch Alan Bennett, he didn’t have the best of games with his passing but he actually looks too good a player to be playing for team that Watford side. Quite a few times he swept the ball out to wide players who couldn’t control it or didn’t look after it and his frustration was obvious.   He kept on losing his shit with his own players whereas when he carted over Sam Amo at the end, he made sure he picked him up.  He certainly deserves better than having to partner Ryan Porteous, who is just a big clumsy park-football thug and should certainly have got two yellow cards over the course of the game.

Whereas in the first game at Watford, none of the fringe players really did anything to make the manager sit up and take notice but that wasn’t the case today. Tyler Dibling was probably the biggest plus and having been somewhat nondescript at Vicarage Road, he certainly turned on the style today and what a style it is, very languid but very effective in the way he dribbles past players and then puts his body in the way so they can’t catch him. It certainly is a very young Le Tissier in the way that he moves and the socks around the ankles certainly add to the persona. He was excellent today.  Jayden Meghoma was another 17 year old who put in a really good shift.  He looked a lot better defensively today as well which will come on leaps and bounds as he gets used to mens football.  A couple of decent players in the making there.

Most headlines will go to Sekou Mara for his two goals. He started the game fairly well for the first 20 minutes or so and then the second part of the first half he didn’t look interested in the slightest and may as well not of been out there. Goals change perception however and they also changed his enthusiasm for the game and having scored one he looked a completely different player and the second goal was a brilliant strike.
 
Che Adams had a somewhat inconsistent game, missing an absolute sitter in the first half but he then got the assist for both of Mara’s goals and then knocked one in himself as he was alive as a free-kick came into the box when no one else was.  Overall, for a 90 minute performance, you take a goal and two assists and he is definitely going to be massively useful to us in the Championship run-in, despite his contract running down.

Joe Rothwell showed a bit more of what he was about despite being on the receiving end of a couple of late tackles, especially the one from that useless late lump of shit that is Porteous.

It was an interesting day for the referee as well as he correctly booked Chakvetadze for his embarrassing dive in our penalty area and then seems to want to even it up by booking Dibling for going down in the middle of the pitch when he had absolutely nothing to gain and had already beaten the player.  Edozie then got booked for one which for a glorious moment, I thought was going to see Porteous get a deserved second yellow card.  I’m not a fan of diving and hate our players doing it but hypocritically, if it gets rid of the opposition shithouse then it’s worth the risk.

Bring on Liverpool. Maybe they will be out of contention for every other competition by this time and it will be the last chance for Klopp to sign off with a bit of silverware. Probably not though and with both teams having ridiculous fixture congestion before and after the fixture and the 5^th Round being scheduled for mid-week, there’s no way either team will be at full strength which is a bit of a shame and shows what are the powers that be think of the FA Cup these days.

Still, we have about five league games before then and it’s much more important to go to Anfield with our unbeaten record still intact and if we do lose at Anfield, so fucking what.

Up the fucking Saints Reserves.