The three-game season starts now with a trip to The
Hawthorns to play West Bromwich Albion in the Championship play-off first leg.
I remember when the play-offs first came in in 1987 and thought they were
absolutely absurd, because prior to them, the team finishing third took their
deserved place in the division above, based on being proven the third best team
over the season and no one ever complained about it. At the time of the change,
it seemed gimmicky and all a bit American but here we are now, 30 years later
and it’s now part of the fabric of football in this country. If we didn’t have
the playoffs of course, then our season would be over and we would be in the Championship
next year but as it is, we have the chance to achieve something spectacular by getting
promoted back to the League of Greed.
Standing in our way initially are West Bromwich Albion who finished one place
below us in the final reckoning in the regular Championship season. They have
basically been in fifth place ever since the season settled down in about
October of last year and have always been seen as the best of the rest, outside
of the top four who of course made a bit of a break for it. We have of course played them twice this year
and beaten them twice, the first of which was a slightly fortunate 2-1 win at St
Mary’s, where Adam Armstrong popped up with a late winner having controlled the
ball somewhat fortuitously with both his shins before rifling a shot across the
keeper and into the far corner. The previous game at West Brom, brought us a
relatively comfortable 2-0 win, when Russell Martin put on a bit of a tactical
masterclass which included adequately replacing the loss of Flynn Downes and
most notably, Jack Stephens playing his hybrid left back/midfielder role which
worked in that game but didn’t work very well afterwards. Corboran against
Martin will be a key battle today and who knows what either will come up with.
West Brom, like ourselves, finished the season in slightly flat fashion, with
three defeats in a row, followed by a decent win on the last day.
I’d like to think that West Brom will be going into this with masses of
confidence because of those three defeats and also, they win on the last day
was against Preston, who over the last month of the season have been the worst
team in the division by a mile. Saints have also of course lost three games in
a row but last week’s excellent win at Leeds has given everyone a boost and I
would imagine we are the more confident going into this game given that win and
the fact that we’ve beaten West Brom twice this season, there should be no
inferiority complex.
What Saints have to prove is that they can do it when it really matters, when
the pressure is on because recent history does not look too clever in that
regard. Over the past few seasons, whenever we’ve had the opportunity to do
anything, be it move out of a relegation zone, move into the top half of the
league or even this season when we had the chance to consolidate second place,
we have 100% record in shitting the bed and not achieving it. The last time I
remember us having a serious milestone to achieve was when we played Newcastle
at home on a Friday night with a chance of going top of the league early on in
the season. We managed that but we have managed nothing significant since. Is
it in the fabric of the club to bottle it when it becomes important? We will
see.
If you had asked the average West Brom fan at the start of the season what they
thought the season would look like, they would’ve been quite happy with mid
table obscurity but Carlos Corboran has got a tune out of the team at his
disposal and they’ve been pretty consistent all season and now, with a new
owner, things are looking up for the Baggies. Hopefully, not too much though. Corboran
has a good reputation and it’s largely anticipated that he could set up his
team in such a way for us to make it very difficult to break them down. West
Brom will know that they cannot afford to be behind after the first leg so I’m
expecting today to be somewhat cagey.
Corboran is also hyper and the sort of manager whose antics get on your
nerves with all his bouncing up and down and gesticulating on the touchline. He managed of course, to get himself sent off
against us last time when he kicked the ball whilst it was still in play.
Team news and unsurprisingly, it’s three at the back with wing backs, as per
the Leeds game. Just reading down the
list of names and all good… Sekou Mara… What? Why? Che is injured and Ross Stewart isn’t ready
to start yet. I guess it was a choice
between Mara or Sulemana… or playing with ten.
Saints kick-off and knock it back to McCarthy, who boots it long and West Brom
pick it up and we spent 10 minutes not touching the ball as the crosses come
flying into the box and West Brom pick up all the second balls. We stand firm
however and eventually start to play our way into the game. It’s all high energy and the crowd are up for
it but not much quality and nothing on target for McCarthy to deal with.
When Saints start to play, the first chance comes as Aribo drives through
midfield before sending the ball right to KWP, who cuts in and hits it and it
flicks of Townshend and goes just wide of the far post.
We look properly into the game now and following a Baggies clearance out to our
left, Downes win the ball back off of Fellows and finds Aribo who takes out two
defenders putting Downes in on the keeper but from an angle, his shot is
blocked by Palmer straight up in the air and drops to Adam Armstrong, who tries
to smash the cover off it when it returns to earth and as is usually the case,
doesn’t get a clean connection on it and puts it into the side netting. To be
honest that’s poor. Downes should’ve
taken it first time and Armstrong should definitely have got that on target but
unfortunately, he’s done his usual and lashed at it.
Another attack brings a corner on the left as Diangana trips over the corner
flag trying to prevent it. In it comes
from Smallbone, headed up rather than out and Mara attempts an overhead kick
which goes so far wide that it’s barely worth talking about in terms of it
being a shot. A stat-padder if ever there was one.
West Brom put together their first really decent move down our right-hand side
and win a free kick when Diangana is tagged by Aribo. They take a quickly then
work out to Fellows on their right and he pisses past Manning and stands up
great cross of the back post and Diangana meets it and heads down and we all
silently mouth the word “fuck”, but McCarthy gets across well to block. Great save that.
Half time and it’s been tense and a bit dull.
Not bad though because we’ve drawn the sting out and played the better
football. Fellows vs Manning is a bit of
a worry however. No subs for either team
and away we go.
West Brom have the first chance as the much-hyped Mikey Johnson gets a ball
over from the left and Furlong gets in ahead of Aribo and jabs it wide with the
soul of his boot. It’s a pretty even
opening of the second half with not a lot happening. Saints are having decent possession but
nothing much happening up front.
The substitutions happen with about twenty to go and it’s three forwards coming on with Wee Man, Brooks and Ross Stewart on for Manning, Mara and Adam Armstrong. We’ve changed formation as well with Jack at left back, which puts him directly against Fellows and that particular battle doesn’t start too well as following some not brilliant, attempted challenges by Aribo and Stephens, Fellows pulls a low cross back to Diangana near the penalty spot and he hits it and Macca saves again. Smallbone clears it to Brooks, who lobs it over the defence to Stewart who has stayed onside. Stewart takes the ball out of the left hand side before lining up Furlong and cutting across the box and hits it. It flicks off Bartley and Palmer who has dived the wrong way sticks a foot out and saves it whilst we all go “yeaaaaaaaaaaaa-fuck” or something like that.
The last fifteen really petered out with both teams settling for a draw. There is only one real incident as Diangana tried his luck on the right against Fraser and goes past him until gets to the edge of the penalty area and dives like a motherfucker. Absolutely disgraceful cheating and luckily the referee didn’t give anything. There may have been the slightest accidental contact but the Olympic level throwing his arms out was spectacular. Fuck off.
Well I said it would be cagey and so it proved with both teams seemingly settling for a draw. As far as we are concerned, I think it’s a decent result because being a goal down would’ve been an absolute fucking nightmare playing against a Carlos Corboran team. I feel that if this has been a single game affair today then we would’ve done a lot more in an attacking sense than we did today. I was a bit surprised at West Brom’s lack of intent to go out and win this but I guess Corboran just isn’t built that way. Two players in the opposition box at most.
The 2017 player of the season version of Alex McCarthy turned up today, making a very good save in the first half from Diangana’s header and pulling out a smart save from the same players’ low shot in the second half. He also took every cross and long throw that came his way with consummate ease and confidence. One shite pass but overall excellent.
That second half chance for West Brom which led directly to Ross Stewart‘s effort 30 seconds later, was kind of the limit of the goalmouth entertainment in the second half. Our efforts in the first half were from KWP and the Downes/Armstrong incident and that was it. Overall it wasn;t a great attacking spectacle and 0-0 is fair.
The major shock/disappointment/incredulity in the starting lineup was of course Sekou Mara, who has done absolutely fuck all this season to warrant been given their responsibility to play in the biggest game of the season. The only reason he was selected of course was because Ross Stewart is not fit enough to start games yet. It’s a bit like winning a race because everyone else has fallen over. Maybe Sulemana would have been better - I know he’s done nothing this season either but there always seems to be the possibility that he might. Mara is very consistent in that you know what you’re going to get… not much.
The bloke hasn’t even put in a decent substitute appearance for about four months and today was exactly as predicted. In the first half, his main contribution was to roll up one leg of his shorts and jog about for five minutes with one up one down. Then he rolled the other one up and ambled around till half-time. One decent turn in the second half where he was fouled was the limit of his involvement. When he went off it was a blessing and Ross Stewart looked decent and dangerous when he came on. If the keeper hadn’t made that unbelievable save from the deflected shot then it would have been a story and a half. It still might be.
It was also a relatively quiet game for the referee Sam Barratt, who was decent and handled the game well. He only had one potential issue with the dive at the end and got that spot on.
Defensively today it was another clean sheet and we were okay, without being watertight. We did cough up possession occasionally with some sloppy stuff around the edge of our own penalty area with both Jack Stephens and THB being guilty at times. Ryan Manning had a tough game against Tom Fellows on our left and that is something that we do need to sort out for the second game because Jack Stephens struggled there as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if James Bree is considered a better option in the return game on Friday but for me, he’s been pretty hopeless recently and a winger of Fellows pace would be Bree’s kryptonite. Flynn Downes was as usual, the main man in the centre of midfield, driving forward to good effect with both Smallbone and Aribo starting the game well before fading into the second half.
Overall, I think Russell Martin will be happy with that end result and it will be interesting to see how we set up for the second leg. Will we play three at the back at home or will it be the more usual 4-3-3 formation? Whichever way he decides to go, as long as Che Adams recovers, we will at least have 11 proper players out on the pitch which will give us an advantage over today.
Half-time in the tie and absolutely nothing to fear in the second leg. Let’s fucking do this. Up the fucking Saints
I hadnt thought about the option of playing ten men. Maybe we should still consider it; Russell Martin like to spring surprises!
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