EFL Championship Match 18 - Southampton 1 Bristol City 0

Behold, I am Magnificent!

One benefit of being in the Championship and having no international breaks in the near future is that if you have a shit result, then you will probably only have to wait three or four days for the opportunity to put it right and that’s the situation that we find ourselves in today with a visit of Bristol City to St Mary‘s, just a few days after the shambolic shitshow of a second half at Huddersfield. Bristol City come to us on the edge of the play-off places which is probably a bit of an over achievement with the squad they have, so fair play to them.

They changed manager relatively recently, which was a bit of a surprise from the outside, with ex-Saints boss Nigel Pearson being manoeuvred out the door and replaced by Oxford United’s Liam Manning.  Manning has so far won one and drawn one of his two games in charge but this will of course be his biggest test so far.  Known for favouring a possession-based style, it’ll be interesting to see the match-up today.  

Big Nige was manager of Saints at the end of the Michael Wilde season which was the season that saw Stern John almost single-handedly keep this up with two goals in the last game of the season against Sheffield United.  Pearson was brought in to rescue the situation after Whisky George Burley had literally pissed away the first three-quarters of the season and though he only won relatively few games, Pearson kept us up. Then, Rupert Lowe came back and because he knew best and because Pearson was relatively popular (and no one sang any songs about him swinging from a bridge), didn’t give him the job and gave it instead to Jan Poortvliet, who was up until recently, unquestionably very high in the “Worst manager we’ve ever Had“ stakes.  After last year, he went down a couple of places.  Pearson was very similar to Mark Hughes in that he did the bare minimum and kept us up but unlike Hughes, was not offered the job for the following season which probably saved him from being sacked about ten games in, which of course is what happened to Sparky.

Team news today will focus on whether Russell Martin’s annoyance at the result and performance against Huddersfield, translates into any team changes from the start. I would say that Kamaldeen Sulemana and Ryan Fraser are under the most threat out of those who started on Saturday.  In the event, Fraser was replaced with Alcaraz and there were two that were more surprising with Smallbone and Bree, making way for Charles and Manning.

Away we go and two minutes gone and there’s a bit of an altercation on the right hand side with Adam Armstrong and Sykes squaring up and after a slight push by The Saints captain, Sykes throws himself about 10 yards and performs about three rolls. It’s absolutely fucking pathetic by the Bristol man but it’s enough for Keith Stroud to brandish a yellow card at Armstrong. It’s one of the positives of the Championship that you don’t get as many diving shithouse players as you do the Premier League but Sykes now has his card marked as far as I’m concerned.

The first chance of the game comes from a THB diagonal which doesn’t quite reach Sulemana but the clearance gets nodded back to him and he’s away in on goal, cutting in from the left but his finish is ultimately, crap and just rolls to the goalkeeper.

There is then another incident involving Sykes as KWP is the slightest bit late to a tackle but down goes Sykes with the maximum effect and once again, the referee buys it at the Saints man gets a yellow card. This is the first referee this season who is really getting on my tits and we’ve only had fifteen minutes.

Sulemana and Alcaraz combine through the middle to tee up Adam Armstrong who takes too long to get a shot away and it’s blocked for a corner. The short corner is eventually crossed in by Stuart Armstrong and bounces out for Adam Armstrong to smash over the bar.

When Bristol bother to venture out of their half they actually show some promise, finding good space out on the right wing in the Manning Chasm and the cross is headed out by the aforementioned Manning.  In comes the corner, flicked on and Conway has a free header at the back post about 5 yards out and just casually nods it over the bar.  That was really shit from us and luckily, really shit from Conway.

Having not done so so far, it’s time for us to actually work the goalkeeper with Stuart Armstrong picking up the ball in midfield and driving straight towards the penalty area before letting fly and though it makes the keeper work, it is ultimately straight at him.

Sulemana and then goes down with no one near him and it looks like he is morphing into Moussa Djenepo and this looks like a hamstring.  Off he comes and on comes unmistakable figure of the man wearing Adidas Trampolino boots. Yes folks, it’s Che Adams. We now at least have a centre forward with Adam Armstrong moved to the left and Alcaraz to the right.

Bristol decide to commit some players forward and look dangerous, working a decent opening once more in the Manning Chasm and when the cross comes in there is absolute carnage and Sykes meets it at the back post and gets it on target but Bazunu flies across towards the post to claw it away. Great save and the first thing he has had to do today.

After a decent move and a crap effort on the turn from Adams, Bristol City get through yet again, this time with a long ball over the top which finds Conway clean through against Baz but the first touch is bad and gives Baz the chance to dive at his feet with his hands and make an impressive save. Impressive because hardly any goalkeepers do this anymore as they usually come launching out with their feet and don’t really want to even do that because of the amount of players who just dive and get you sent off.

Half time and zzzzzz.  Dull.  We didn’t play with enough pace to trouble them and they just stifled the shit out of it and waited for mistakes.  Must do better and there are no changes as the second half starts.

How's This for Goal Threat ?

We build up down the left with Manning finding Adams and then Alcaraz and he looks to have put Adam Armstrong through but his touch is bad and it runs across him and he ends up out on the right where the edge of the penalty area meets the goal-line. He manages to turn and almost casually picks out KWP on the edge of the box and he takes one touch to control, two more to nudge it left and then just like at Preston, curls it left footed giving the goalkeeper no fucking chance at all.  What a brilliant fucking goal and call me a bastard but I always find it quite amusing when people are queuing for a shit burger, some shit coffee or some shit lager and they hear the goal music.

The first thing I thought of when that goal hit the net and Bristol City kicked off again, was how important it was because Bristol City will surely have to come out a little bit more now and we will have to learn the lessons from Saturday and push for a second goal which should make the rest of the second-half a lot more entertaining.

For a few minutes it looks like the floodgates will open but Adam Armstrong’s touch again lets him down but his battling qualities win the ball back off a dithering defender before he drills it straight at the keeper. In the carnage that follows, the ball was eventually teed up for Alcaraz to smash wide from the edge of the box.

Stuart Armstrong then aims a pass at namesake Adam who knows he’s offside, so he leaves it and Shea Charles is the rather unlikely figure closing in on the ball in the penalty area. He is tackled however and it bounces to KWP who should just absolutely smash it but instead he tries to tee up Captain Armstrong who duffs the effort through to the goalkeeper

With time running out and aware that the energy usually dips around this point, Russell Martin made a double substitution with Stuart Armstrong and Shea Charles being replaced in the midfield engine room by two players who don’t have an engine, Will Smallbone and Joe Aribo. Fucking hell.

We win a free kick on the right side when Flynn Downes is trashed by a lazy challenge. Adam Armstrong‘s freekick is nodded away but no danger because Ryan Manning picks it up and tries to find Aribo but the pass is an absolute fucking beast and doesn’t reach him and Bristol City break through Cornick and I don’t know about you, but I don’t fancy Joe‘s chances of catching him.  Joe and his caravan doesn’t catch him but Flynn Downes does as he steams back from absolutely nowhere to nick the ball and get fouled in the process. Brilliant play by our future signing from West Ham.

Four minutes extra to be added and Bree is on for Manning but the expected Bristol City onslaught doesn’t happen at all and Saints keep the ball pretty well, winning free kicks and corners down the other end until the final whistle blows.  Get in.

A phrase you’re going to hear a lot about this game is, “a win is a win“ and it absolutely sums this game up as far as Saints are concerned.  When you were playing a team who have no real interest in doing anything other than sitting in formation about 25 yards from their own goal, then all you can do is win the game and move onto the next one.

It isn’t going to be particularly entertaining because it takes two teams to make an entertaining game and with Bristol City, it was never going to be entertaining because their game plan from the first whistle was basically to sit in and hope that Saints give away opportunities with mistakes. To be fair, it nearly worked because if it wasn’t for Baz being on top form and City forwards shitting themselves at the vital moment, they would undoubtedly have scored in the first half.  

The frustration in the first half was that on the rare occasions when City committed any players forward, we would break the lines and if there were three or four City players the wrong side of the ball, we didn’t progress it quickly enough or switch play and just allowed them to get back behind the ball again.  Within about 30 seconds of the game starting, it was obvious that City‘s plan was to get everyone behind the ball and defend deep and narrow so we had to play a little bit quicker and a little bit more expensively to take advantage if they were caught upfield at all.

Their limitations became apparent after they went 1-0 down, when there was no discernible change to the way that they were playing and they basically settled for a 1-0 defeat from 46 minutes onwards after KWP’s goal.  We did that ourselves, many a time last season when we had loads of time to get back into it but in the end, don’t even have a shot.  If I’d been a Bristol City fan and I’d been made that trip to an away game, I would be very pissed off with a second-half performance and the lack of intent.   We did keep the ball very well in the second half but City just kind of let us do it.  They could have tried pressing high or even gone direct but for me, they didn’t try anything and made it easy-ish for us.

Baz Saves Us From the Second Half From Hell

The first half however, belonged to Gavin Bazunu. His two vital saves in the first half set up the win and if either of those had gone in then we probably would’ve lost 1-0 and the second half would have been absolute murder because City would’ve just sat with eleven men behind the ball for the entire second half and strangled the shit out of it.

Flynn Downes had a superb game in midfield… we are very lucky to have him and that’s really hope that this loan turns into a permanent transfer at some point in the future.  No West Ham – he’s definitely not good enough for the Premier League and you should snap our hands off for about £7 million.

Also not good enough for any Premier League pariah in January is KWP, who had his usual solid game at the back and found the time to get forward and smash in another superb left-footed goal. We do unquestionably have a lack of goal threat, so any goals from any source are most welcome.

Having not set the world alight with the substitutions against Huddersfield, Russell Martin had a better day today in my view. Bringing on Che Adams for Kamaldeen Suledjenepo was a good move because it gave us a focal point in attack that we just didn’t have before he came on with Charly playing centrally as a false 9, so this enforced substitution was in a sense, correcting that.  It probably would’ve been even better if we had brought on the real Che Adams instead of the impersonator who has been wearing the Saints number 10 shirt since the transfer window closed.   The good news is that it’s nearly time for January window so we might get a few goals out of him before then.  Today though, again the touch was awful and it almost felt like it was worth a round of applause every time we actually kept possession after Che had touched it.

"And Then I Put Two Players Who Can't Run in the Engine Room..."

It got better after half-time and there was a slight tactical switch and we went to 4-diamond-two formation with Adams and Adam Armstrong ahead of Charly Alcaraz, who was a lot more prominent in the second half.  Russell Martin’s next play with substitutes was to display bollocks of steel when at 1-0, with 15 minutes to go and needing more energy, he replaced the still energetic Stuart Armstrong and the solid Shea Charles, with two midfielders who can’t run in with the never-knowingly-sprinting Will Smallbone and Joe Aribo, a man who took his Apple Watch back because it thought he was dead.  If I had been Bristol City manager, that would’ve been the trigger to really press high and try and swarm all over the Saints midfield. Luckily, we got away with it because of the aforementioned acceptance of a 1-0 defeat.

A Win is a Win… Three points and onward we go to Saturday and the visit of Cardiff City to St Mary‘s. We now have a ten game unbeaten run with seven wins and both of those particular stats need to increase by one at the weekend.

Up the Fucking Saints.

Capital One Cup 3rd Round - Southampton 2 Bristol City 0

8539.... MY ARSE!!!!

I shall start with a rant.

Anyone who has been following me on twitter will have seen me moaning off about the ticket prices for this game, which is when all is said and done, a Carling Cup game against a team from League 1 where will be playing our reserve side.  I’ve got two season tickets and of course, this game isn’t included so for the club to ask £18 for an adult, £14 for a 11-17 year old and £10 for a kid is in my opinion, taking the piss out of loyal supporters and not remotely encouraging first timers to come along.   In business you call it a loss-leader, meaning that you lose a bit of money short term but there is a long term gain – in this case, new supporters who will want to come more often.  Would we really lose any money with having cheaper tickets? – a bigger crowd would maybe mean more food outlets needing to be opened and more stewarding but we’d have a better atmosphere and more match revenue from the megastore and from those food outlets.  It really isn’t rocket science.  I know both teams have to agree on the prices for cup games as the revenue is split but I just don’t understand why clubs want to play in front of an empty stadium.   If you only get the money from your own sales then maybe I could understand Bristol City wanting the prices relatively high as maybe and £8 cheaper ticket wouldn’t have increased their demand that much but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work that way.

 I can’t afford it, plain and simple.  It would be £28 for me and my lad, plus my two daughters would want to go as well meaning an additional £28.  Modern football and modern life has kicked me in the balls on this game as I’ve just had a bill for the car for £300, plus the start of a new school year and all the expense that goes with that.  I would dearly like to go St Mary’s, especially as I’ve not missed a game I’ve been available for since I was 16 (28 years ago) but at those prices it just isn’t happening.  The line in the sand has been reached.  In my opinion it should have been a tenner for adults, a fiver for 11-17s and free for under 11s, which I reckon would have produced a gate between 15,000 and 20,000.  Lets see how many we get turning up tonight, my prediction is about 5000 so we could probably have saved a bit more money by playing at Staplewood.  Rant over.

Mauricio’s team shows 11 changes from the Premier League starting XI but is surprisingly predictable with the one wildcard being the return of Tadanari Lee who has been recently recalled to the first team squad having appeared to be right out of the picture.  The bench includes Omar Rowe and Harrison Reed again who came on to good effect in the Barnsley match and also includes left back Matty Targett and centre back Jason McCarthy.  Targett will no doubt be next seasons back up to Luke Shaw in the same way that Calum Chambers this year has become the back up for Nathaniel Clyne. 

We of course have played Bristol City a few times recently as we’ve travelled through the divisions and we’ve almost always lost to them, usually without scoring.  It is really of no relevance to tonight though as the teams have travelled on slightly different trajectories since the last time we played.  City have a couple of notable players in Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Marlon Harewood who are both wardrobe sized centre forwards.  Harewood is a journeyman but a danger nonetheless who was playing in the Premier League a couple of seasons ago and Emmanuel-Thomas was last seen playing for Ipswich against us in the Championship and being a right handful.  Sam Baldock is in their ranks as well who I remember from his Fake Dons days before he signed for Fat Sam and discovered that you can’t control a ball that’s 10 foot off the ground when it reaches you.

Nothing much happens for the first 10 minutes aside from Saints possession but Corky pulls out a sloppy one and sells Davis short which allows a City player to nick the ball and Jos has no choice but to trash him and pick up a yellow card for his troubles.  The free kick is one off the training ground that never worked in training as Shorey and Emmanuel-Thomas make a balls of it and it hits Lee and goes for a corner which comes to nothing.

Three minutes later and we’re in front out of nowhere as Maya pings a long ball to fellow Man from Japan Lee who has peeled away to the right wing.  Lee finds JWP whose shot is blocked but he heads the rebound to Gaston who just lashes an unstoppable volley into the net to give the keeper no chance at all.  An obvious reminder of why we needed him to come on in the West Ham game.

Gaston is putting on a bit of a show now and chips a beautifully weighted pass over the last defender to Lee who spins and shoots but the keeper has done well and got right out to him and blocks it away for a corner.  The Gaston show continues as he picks up the ball on the left hand edge of the box and lazily curls a shot just wide of the far post.  Any more laid back and he’d be asleep.  Tadanari Lee is also showing up well, picking up a rare straight pass from Guly and turning the defender inside out for shooting but the keeper got a strong arm up to save it at the near post.

Bristol City are dangerous though as Yoshida lets Emmanuel-Thomas turn when he shouldn’t have done and then managed to get the same treatment as Tadanari had given the defender up the other end.  Emmanuel-Thomas’ eventual shot was at the old Superkelv weak link of the near post but this time he blocked it well.  “He’s let them in before at his near post” says Merringtitus.  No shit Dave.

We nearly score three times in the last minute of the half as Chambers gets down the wing and puts in a shite cross which nearly drops in the net and the keeper shovelled it over the bar.  People were blinking in disbelief when the corner fell to Corky on the edge of the box and he hammered in a left footed piledriver which didn’t threaten anyone’s life in Row Z as it was on target and the keeper parried it out.  Even if it had gone into the stand as usual, there was hardly anyone there to take cover anyhow.  We got a free kick for handball on the edge of the box and JWP’s kick was headed back by Corky and Maya managed to head it over the bar from three yards on the stretch.

Saints start the second half well with Lee linking up with Davis down the left and his cross narrowly avoiding JWP in the centre.  Chambers then got to the line the other side and saw his cross cleared for a corner which JWP swung over and Guly headed it straight down and bouncing up to the keeper.

Something then happened and we went completely to shit and we had 20 minutes of that training exercise of attack v defence – they attack, go close and then we give it back to them to have another go.  Bryan fired in a decent low shot which Davis tipped wide and then Bryan provided a lovely cross from the left and Emmanuel-Thomas showed his limitations by using the wrong foot to try and turn it in at the far post and succeeding in poking it wide.  Reid then curled in an effort which Superkelv was forced to tip over the bar.  Another Emmanuel-Thomas cross fizzed over with no one getting a touch and Saints responded by giving the ball away repeatedly and with metronomic accuracy.  Superkelv spread calm however by coming for the next cross and totally missing it.

Mauricio had seen enough by 73 minutes and brought on Harrison Reed for Tadanari Lee who’s had a good game and J-Rod came on for Guly who hadn’t.  Reed immediately got on the ball and drove at the City penalty area and fed J-Rod who smashed it at the moon.  Reed then cropped up on the other side and curled in a lovely cross which was cleared for a corner.  JWP’s delivery landed right on the head of Big Jos who just planted it into the net to make it 2-0.  It was against the run of the 2^nd half play but the introduction of Reed and Rodriguez had definitely given us the initiative back.  Omar Rowe came on for Steven Davis as the clock ran down but there was only a few minutes left for him to make an impression and that was it.  I switched off Radio Merrington and didn’t freeze my bollocks off walking back across the Itchen Bridge.

Through we go to the 4^th Round despite putting in an absolutely shite performance for all bar the last 10 minutes of the second half.  A very spirited Bristol City can take heart from that performance as they played pretty well as Sean O’Driscoll’s sides seem to do.  In Jay Emmanuel-Thomas they have a player who can do for them now what Nicky Maynard and Albert Adomah did for them in the recent past when they beat us every time.  however, he’s far too good for League 1 and it’s a bit of a mystery to me why he’s there.

What we are looking for in these ‘reserve’ games is for players to put their hand up and demand inclusion in the league side.  Tadanari Lee played well for an hour and it makes you realise what a folly the signing of the Little African Bloke was.  Chun is a better footballer in virtually every respect other than goal celebrations and he has a football brain.  I’m not saying for a second that he’ll ever be a regular starter in the Premier League but he’s a better option than Mayuka.  Steven Davis had his usual busy game in midfield and was one of the few not to go to shit in the second half and of course, Gaston scored a tremendous goal before doing his usual 60^th minute disappearing act.  Harrison Reed looked decent when he came on and the only player who went backwards was Guly who was shockingly awful.

The official attendance was announced as 8,539 or in the words of Jim Royle “8,539?.... MY ARSE!!!”.  If there were more than 6,000 people in the ground then I’m amazed.  I hope that whoever was responsible for pricing that game takes a long hard look at themselves and sorts it out for next time.  I ended up being very pleased that I didn’t go as I’m sure did anyone who gave it a swerve due to the cost.

The draw for the next round is happening on Wednesday and we’re now in the last 16 and I really don’t know what to hope for.  Of course there is more of a chance of progression if we get a home draw and if that happens, it’ll be a test of the powers that be at the club to set the prices correctly.  As far as I’m concerned, anything less than half full and they’ve completely got it wrong like they did today.  Whoever it is, bring it on.

Next up is Crystal Palace on Saturday – Come to me Ian Holloway you West Country village idiot.

STOP PRESS: We got Sunderland away – rumour has it that following Paolo Mussolini’s ever so surprising and unexpected sacking that they may have Gus Poyet in charge.  That’ll be interesting to say the least.  To be honest, its not too bad a draw in terms of a chance to progress but it’s a shite one for travelling fans and a difficult one for Mauricio – 1^st team or Reserves or a bit of both….

6 days to go - Nothing to Worry About!

Aaaargh!  We got no wingers !!!

Pre season is traditionally an exciting time for supporters regarding players coming to or going from their club.  As supporters we’re living in hope of signing a player who is going to be a game changer or signing a player who is going to strengthen a rather obvious weakness in your team.  It’s also a time where you have to be patient, especially this year as pre-season is longer than usual due to Euro 2012 and the Olympics.

The glaring deficiencies in the Saints squad are at centre half and on the wings where we have no back-up for the recognized first choices and no standout candidates respectively.  There are two weeks to go until the season starts and a further two until the window shuts but I’m beginning to get a bit concerned that an injury to Jos or Jose will see Dan All-at-Seaborne in the side to play against Aguero, Balotelli and Tevez when we kick off on the 19^th.

Let’s face it, he didn’t prove he was good enough to play against all those Total Football exponents in League 1, especially against the few sides that attacked us and played on the floor.  It’s obviously been decided that Aaron Martin is not ready and so he’s been loaned out to Palace and that Dan Harding is not good enough so he’s been sold to Forest (more on that later).  Elsewhere in the squad, Dicko, Barney and Johnno Pace have been told they’re free to move on as well so why is Seaborne still here when he’s arguably the most ill equipped for the Prem out of all of them?  Is it because that his long term injury means that Nigel and Crozzer haven’t made their mind up about him yet or is it that we can’t get anyone else in?  Why is it that Aaron Martin has been loaned out and replaced in the squad with the even younger Jack Stephens?  The answer is, in pure Adkinspeak, that “lots of work is going on behind the scenes”.  We know that but it doesn’t stop me worrying at our apparent lack of activity.

In the meantime we’ve been playing friendlies including one which bizarrely, was televised on Channel 5.  I thought our centre half problems had been sorted when I saw Ken Monkou pitch side at the Ajax game but sadly, the 48 year old colossus can’t hack it anymore even though I’d be less worried about him playing than Dan Seaborne.

A brief run through of the friendlies – we lost 1-0 to Ajax with the goal coming from Jose Fonte keeping to fine footballing principles and passing the ball out of defence which was OK until his pass went straight to an Ajax player who smashed it in the net.   There were decent performances with Adam Lallana and James Ward-Prowse being picked out by Ajax manager Frank de Boer who didn’t mention the fine debut from Paolo Gazzaniga’s hair which features a little ponytail to make him look hard.  Seriously – forget getting him to sing a song as part of his initiation – shave his head.

Wolves at home saw a decent performance and a 2-0 with goals from Billy Sharp and Punch.  Billy’s goal in particular was very well worked and Punch seems to be putting in a decent shift in pre-season despite being on most people’s list of players who won’t be here at the start of the season so fair play to him. 

A trip to Ashton Gate to play against last seasons double-defeat-inflicting Bristol City saw us dominate the opening of the game before going 1-0 down to a decent goal from the usually very average Jon Stead.  We created loads of chances playing decent football and missed them all before a good old fashioned cross into he mixer was headed down by Sir Rickie and Billy Sharp was there again to nick the equalizer at the back post and so the game ended 1-1 which proves that we have moved on massively from last season when we got beaten twice by this lot.  Bring on Manchester City….erm.

Before we can start dreaming of starting the season with a win at Eastlands, we had our final friendly against Udinese at home and I made a late decision that I was going to go.  I took to the new look Saints website and after 4 hours of trying to navigate my way round it and find the cost of tickets, I’d missed the match - part of that story may be true.  Actually, what happened was that I found of the prices and got hit with a large dose of ‘fuck that’ and so neatly dodged our 4-0 defeat, courtesy of some stunning goals including two from Di Natale who was last seen playing in the Euro 2012 final.  Reality check – oh yes.

As a general point though, the prices for the friendlies have been ridiculous.  By definition the games are just extended training sessions and we’re being asked to pay £20 for it.  I’ve seen it mentioned that Season Ticket Holders should be given free seats for friendlies ... why not try it and see how the money works out with a gate of 15000 instead of 5000.  Failing that, make the top price a tenner.

I never take friendly results as an indicator of an impending good / bad / indifferent season  but I have to say that I’ve been a wee bit concerned by our new formation which as I write, 6 days before our first game, we don’t have the players to carry off.  Nigel’s thinking appears to be that we need 3 players in the middle of the park and one of those should be Adam Lallana as he doesn’t have the requisite pace out wide.  OK – I buy that but it causes problems elsewhere.   If Adam is not on the left, we need someone else and at present, that someone is J-Rod who is no more a left winger than Jos Hooiveld.  Paying £6million-ish for a centre forward and playing him on the left wing seems odd and it illustrated perfectly against Udinese when we didn’t have the ball much and J-Rod spend most of his time running towards our own goal about 3 miles from the place centre forwards would usually be. Punch seems to be the man in favour on the right wing but as we know, he’s totally left footed and when was his last good competitive game in a Saints shirt?  Other candidates like Guly and Chappers do not have pace and the one who does, Steeeeeeeve isn’t anywhere the starting XI I would have thought.  Also of course, this formation leaves room for just one of Sir Rickie and Billy Sharp and both of them are the kind of players that need other players near to them. They both have many attributes but pace isn’t one of them.  Sir Rickie would be picked out of the two of them which would be harsh on Billy who has 5 pre-season goals so far.

The wingers issue has obviously not gone unnoticed elsewhere as in the last few days we’ve been linked with left winger Matt Jarvis from Wolves who has handed in a transfer request.  Wolves are playing hardball with Sunderland over the fee for their centre forward Steven Fletcher so I imagine they’ll be doing the same over Jarvis and I can’t see us playing £10million for him.  The other player linked is Matt Phillips from Blackpool and the great thing about this one is that we’ve got up Ian Holloway’s nose to the extent that he’s reported us for making an illegal approach, implying that we’ve gone behind his back.  It’s odd that Nigel’s said that he’s had a conversation with Holloway about it.  It’s also odd that Nicola Cortese has had discussions with the Blackpool Chief Exec about it.  Holloway seem to think we’ve not been stand up gentlemen about the whole thing but it’s ok for him to have a rant in a press conference.   I know he’s only looking out for his best interests but he is a cock but watch your back Ian,  it looks to me like people in the upper echelons of your club are trying to sell the player from under you.

The last actual activity that occurred regarding player movement was Dan Harding leaving to join Nottingham Forest.  I was never his biggest fan but he put in some decent performances for us, especially in his first season and knocked in a couple of decent goals when he found himself in the box.  I always found his defending to be poor especially when up against a physical player when he was always found wanting, especially in the air.  He would be buried alive in the Premier League so I’m glad he’s gone but good luck to him as in the main, he did a decent job.

So, 6 days to the start of the season.

Mood - Apprehensive

NPC Match 24 - Southampton 0 Bristol City 1

We're shit, we're always shit, who are we again ?

Bristol City are in town to try and prevent us going 6 points clear at the top of the league.  This is course, is a bit of a misnomer as everyone else plays tomorrow but never the less, after tonight, the league table will hopefully look very nice indeed.  We of course, lost at Ashton Gate about a month ago as we put in one of our stuttering away performances and they were on the top of “new manager” bounce.  They’re now in the depths of “we’re down the bottom for a reason” and I don’t think they’ve won since. 

The last time we played Bristol City at home, I didn't make the game as someone nicked my headlight from my car.  Not too much of a problem one would think until you consider that they'd ripped the bumper off and broke the bonnet so it wouldn't shut - all to nick a headlight off a Ford Focus, the most common car in the world.  I was in Portsmouth so I guess it serves me right and it may explain why they'd broken the mountings so it would be useless anyway.

I wonder what sort of reception David James will get – I think he’s still an excellent goalkeeper and a decent bloke but a Skate, is at the end of the day, a Skate.  I predict tonight will be a rear guard action by the Wurzels so hopefully he’ll have a mare.  Nicky Maynard is in the news for not signing a new contract and the City fans are giving him a hard time but if he plays then he’ll be a threat, as will Albert Adomah who tore Danny Fox a new one at Ashton Gate.

Nigel’s team selection headaches are interesting but I can basically see a similar pattern to the Palace game so I expect us to be unchanged.  Maybe Nigel will prefer Dan Harding to Fox to combat the very quick Adomah but ... out of our 3 left backs, maybe the forgotten man.... thingy...  Ryan Dickson is the quickest.  Surely Morgan played too well against Palace to be dropped for this one meaning Deano can once again keep warm on the bench with his gay jumper.

As it turned out, Nigel kept faith with the Fox at left back and Morgan in midfield but there was one change with Jose Fonte succumbing to a toe injury and being replaced with Aaron Martin.  Aaron’s spot on the bench was taken by Lee Holmes.

For the first 10 minutes we don’t touch the ball as Bristol City set out their stall and basically take the piss.  They’re passing it about, running at us and looking dangerous.  Every time we get it, we’ve lost it again within seconds as they snap into tackles and we don’t seem to have the pace about our game to impose ourselves.  When we eventually do get hold of the ball them we look dangerous as de Ridder skins his full back and gets his head up and feeds Lallana in space but he fannies around with it and the chance is gone.

We look terrified of Adomah whenever he gets the ball and he flies past Frazer and Morgan before lashing over the bar.  Whilst City look dangerous, they’re not working the keeper at all and we manage it when Morgan takes a pot shot from 30 yards which is flying in the top corner until James takes off and tips it over the bar.  From the resulting corner, Sir Rickie beats his marker and heads over when he really should have done better.

It’s end to end stuff though as more pissing about and ‘after you’ in our defence sees Superkelv have to claw away another Adomah blast before we break again and de Ridder forces James into a block before just failing to pick out Guly with the rebound and his cross is eventually cleared by the committed City defenders or bastards as I was calling them at the time.  In the build up to this, Sir Rickie had been totalled off the ball by Carey and in the one decision the ref got right all game, he went back and booked him.

We had a great chance to take the lead just before half time when Sir Rickie found himself on the right wing and ignoring the anti-Gas insults being thrown at him by the City fans, crossed.  The cross was headed up in the air by a defender and fell to the wrong man to hit on the volley as Foxy screwed his big chance well wide.

Half time and the natives are restless in the crowd because we’re not winning.  I have a discussion with a bloke who is incandescent with rage over us not signing anyone in the loan window in November.  Hmmm, remember Dany N’Guessan and Dale Stephens…. If you don’t it’s because they were pretty shite.

I expected us to tighten up in the second half but we don’t – the opposite in fact as a long range shot is spilled by Superkelv and Maynard fires in the rebound.  Fuck it… oh, hang on, offside, haaaaaaaaaa !.  Fact is that we and Kelvin got lucky there but we attempt to rub it in by taking a quick free kick while five City players are celebrating in the corner but Guly lashes the eventual chance over the bar.  Whilst it would have been a little unjust, it would have been amusing if that had gone in.

Aaron Martin is showing up well in defence for us and their defence is as uncompromising as ever with Carey getting away with absolute murder every time he challenges Sir Rickie in the air.  On the one occasion the ref actually sees fit to give a free kick against him for using the forward as a step ladder, he chucks his toys around like a man who is begging to get sent off.  Morgan has faded from the game horribly and he makes his one contribution to the second half by trashing Adomah and getting a deserved booking.

City create another chance and this time it’s Superkelv to the rescue as he gets enough on Person’s close range shot to allow Martin to clear and that bastard James is at it again as Cork’s fine run and cross, picks out Sir Rickie who takes it on his chest and smashes in a volley which has goal written all over it.  James wipes ‘goal’ off of the ball and re-write ‘not today sunshine’ on it and pulls off a great save.

With Connolly about to come on, the money is on de Ridder coming off even though he’s been our best player but it’s Lallana who comes off with Guly going left.  The impact craved though is arse backwards as Skuse fires in a shot from 40 yards, Notsosuperkelv makes a meal of it and flaps it into the path of Maynard again.  As we wait for the net to bulge, Kelvin is up and parrying away the incoming shot but is powerless to prevent Pearson rolling it into an empty net.  Shit… for real this time.

There are 10 minutes to go plus added time and I’m not optimistic today.  We throw on Deano for Morgan which improves things and then mysteriously, we throw on Holmes (a left winger) at right back in place of Richardson (right back and our best crosser of the ball) and still leave Guly out on the left (where’s he’s crap).  The only other personnel change that should happen is Carey getting sent off as he continues to kick the fuck out of Sir Rickie but the ref isn’t having any of it.  A Guly shot which is always going wide is all we manage despite the five minutes of added time that come and go as rather irritatingly, people file out of the stadium.

Well bugger.  Not because we didn’t go a calendar year without a home defeat as I couldn’t give a shit about that but just because we lost but to be fair, Bristol City played better than us on the night and deserved to win.  To take that further, they looked dangerous with the ball and very organized when we had possession and I can’t find anything to have a go at them about.   They looked better than any side we’ve played in this home run we’ve been on.  The referee didn’t help us in the slightest today though and on another day with another ref, Carey would have picked up 4 yellow cards on his own.  It’s not just the leniency in terms of cards though, it was the fact he let the centre backs climb all over Sir Rickie for the entire match.  Mind you, we should have been good enough to play through them and not go long all the time.

This wasn’t a terrible performance by us and we did create some chances.  If Joe Hart is England’s best goalkeeper, then even at 41, David James is the 2^nd best and he looked unbeatable tonight.  Positves for us were Steve de Ridder who was superb all night I thought and our best attacking player by a mile.  Aaron Martin also had a decent enough match to suggest we shouldn’t be worried when he’s called upon.  One worry was that Adam Lallana was terrible and hasn’t really fired since his injury lay off.   Morgan and Corky seemed to get tired in the second half and in my opinion, Deano should have been on at half time, even allowing for his gay jumper.  Guly was another who looked like he needs a bit of a break.

I’m going to have a moan about moaning.  Guly tries a flick and loses the ball and there’s loads of moaning.  Lallana backheels a throw in out of play and everyone goes ‘unlucky’ - if Guly had done that he’d have got slaughtered.  Also, 85 minutes tonight and they may as well have put ‘Ghost Town’ on the stadium PA as the home sections started emptying out.  Usually it happens on 90 minutes and the only reason I can think of for this happening five minutes earlier than usual is because we are losing, which after the year we’ve had, I find a bit pathetic.    Something made me laugh on the way out of the ground as well -  Steve de Ridder shanked his last cross of the game out of play and on the way out I heard someone saying ‘that de Ridder is fucking shit’.  Talk about the memory of a goldfish – anything that happened before 10 minutes ago doesn’t count.

It’s been a brilliant year and we’re top of the league.  Yes we could be further ahead but we’re in a better position than 23 other teams.  Do you want to swap because they all want to swap with us.

PS – On the Saturday after our game, West Ham managed to lose at Derby and Middlesbrough only managed a home draw with Peterborough so we managed to stay top by 2 points.  If this doesn’t tell you that no one is going to run away with it then nothing will.  Next up we have Brighton who have a load of injuries and suspensions and are falling down the league quicker than Pompey are spending money they haven’t got.

Happy New Year SFC fans.

NPC Match 18 - Bristol City 2 Southampton 0

Bristol City fans celebrate on their bus home.

Today we have a trip to Ashton Gate to play Bristol City who after a nightmare start to the season, are languishing in the bottom 3.  Their notable players are David James at 56 who is still a decent keeper and Nicky Maynard who we were linked with by the gutter rags in the summer.  Bristol City are however, on the upside of ‘new manager bounce’ (in direct contract to The Skates) at the moment having picked up 3 wins since Derek McInnes replaced Keith Millen. 

Talking of the Skates (which I haven’t done for a while) and we have the news of another dodgy owner (Antonov) arrested for alleged financial irregularities.  He joins a long line of illustrious names like (deep breath)... Dodgy Manager arrested and charged for alleged tax evasion (Redknapp), Dodgy Chairman arrested and charged with the same (Mandaric), Dodgy CEO arrested and apparently done a deal (Storrie), Dodgy manager in a Brothel (Grant), Dodgy Non-Existent Owner who was invented to buy time and pass the Fit and Proper Persons Test (Al Mirage), Dodgy Gun Running Criminal owner with Assets Frozen by the Courts (Gaydemak Snr), Dodgy Gun Runners Son Fake Chairman and Car Park Owner who wasn’t owning it as a front for his Dad cos that would be against the rules (Gaydemak Jnr), Dodgy Loan Shark Ground Owner (Chanrai), Dodgy Potless Owner and Ice Cream Salesman and not a Doctor really (Al Fahim), Dodgy Administrator with a strange approach to financial ethics (Andronikou), Dodgy Convicted Fraudster running the club for a bit (Azougy), Dodgy nonsensical appointment of the FA’s head of integrity as CEO (Lampitt) and I’m sure I’ve missed some.  So the new owner is at least a bit dodgy as well - Who’d have thought it?  They did get a 9 point penalty that made absolutely no difference though and a transfer embargo that made no difference either....  and of course, they still have to pay a whopping 20% of their debts over a 5 year period, starting whenever they feel like it - so fair’s fair.  One of the downsides of Colonel Gaddaffi’s family being killed / arrested is that they can’t be linked to being prospective new Pompey owners any more. 

Since the Brighton game there hasn’t been any actual news coming out of SFC, just bullsht in the papers. There was some interesting fall-out with Brighton being charged with failing to control their players in the aftermath of the dodgy penalty decision.  Interestingly it’s for the 2^nd one rather than the first so I’m guessing that this is about Ashley Barnes barging the referee, which he should have got sent off for.  Also, one of their players, Marcos Painter, he of the rugby tackle / assault on Sir Rickie which went unpunished was bleating that the ref swore at him.  Put your dummy back in you embarrassing Muppet.

Our Nigel names the same team as the Brighton match with Deano keeping Morgan out of the midfield and Barney keeping his place on the bench.

Both teams start in fairly positive fashion and David James gets come predictably stick from the Saints end.  Sir Rickie is getting dogs abuse from the Wurzels who aren’t too fond of his Bristol Rovers background.  There’s a big blow on 7 minutes as Chappers goes down with no one near him and it immediately looks bad.  It’s obvious that he can’t carry on straight away and so Schneiderlin comes onto replace him, going to the right wing.  To me, this is a bit of a negative substitution with de Ridder being on the bench but I can see why he’s done it.

Morgan adds a touch of quality though and Lallana played a nice 1-2 with the Frenchman before firing in a decent shot which James tipped round the post.  It was a decent save and hopefully that former Skate Bastard wasn’t going to have as good a game as he had against us last time.

City are feeding their right winger, Albert Adomah at every opportunity and it’s easy to see why as he flies past Danny Fox and looks like he’s going to be a right handful.  Hopefully he’s one of these quick wingers who can run and that’s it, has no end product.  It’s fairly even for the first 25 minutes but City and Adomah fired a warning with a quick break, ending with an ambitious effort which flew just wide with Superkelv scrambling.

A growing sense of uncertainty is in the air which is not alleviated when a bread and butter cross comes in from the left and Luckykelv makes a complete bollocks of it and juggles it round the post for a corner.  It’s all Bristol City now and the Wurzels are coming across loud and clear.  They think they’re going to score soon and so do I – can we get to half time though?

We have a rare foray into the danger zone which ends with Lallana’s goal bound shot hitting the Gulyman, who‘s playing like he had a few pints at lunchtime.  Normal service is resumed as Pearson fastens onto a Kilkenny pass and it through on the keeper but Superkelv forces him wide and he thankfully runs out of angle and squares it across to no one.  I am unavoidably reminded on the Cardiff away game (the last one we lost) when it seemed like there was only one team on the pitch and we hadn’t turned up.  Mercifully, half time was just around the corner so Nigel had a chance to hopefully sort it out.

Half time came and went and unless the team talk consisted of “let Adomah have the ball and let him run at us and shoot”, then I’m guessing that we messed up as it takes all of 2 minutes for City to take the lead.  Adomah runs and shots and Superkelv parries it.  We half clear it before once again, Adomah runs at Fox, cuts inside onto his left foot and hits a bit of a scuffer which flicks off of Foxy (I think) and flat-foots Superkelv who ends up on his knees as the ball rolls past him and into the net.  It’s a scruffy, horrible, crappy goal but you can’t say they don’t deserve it.

Seemingly stung into action, Saints win a free kick when Lallana is carted over in none too subtle fashion by Pearson and Fox’s free kick presents Fonte with a free header at the back stick which he 50p heads wide of the other post.   Fonte, empowered by his driving run forwards against Brighton which won that stonewall penalty, attacked the box before feeding Deano whose cross went back to Jose to tee up the Gulyman, who from 6 yards out, controlled it for the Bristol defender to clear.  In a game of few opportunities for us, this was definitely one of them.  Time for a substitution, Gulyman off, Steve de Ridder on.

Adomah is still causing us problems and his cross from the right is met on the volley by the left winger steaming in but Superkelv gets down well to block at his near post, prompting Merringtitus to spout his usual gem about what we don’t want to do, which according to Dave, is let in another goal.  No shit.

We’re faring a bit better in attack as Foxy takes time out from being skinned by Adomah to feed a ball into de Ridder who jinks himself past a defender before lashing it into orbit.  Barnard comes on for Deano for the last 10 but all we can manage for now is de Ridder going to ground in none-too-convincing fashion and for the second week running, we get a booking for diving.

With 5 to go, Saints push forward more in hope than expectation and lose the ball, giving Adomah yet another opportunity to run with it through the middle this time.  As he overruns the ball, Jos slides in and hoofs him up in the air but not before he’s poked it through to Maynard who takes it on and shoots and then watches as it hits Fonte, deflects onto the ground and loops up, sailing over Superkelv who can only watch.  2-0, another deflection but you can’t say it’s not deserved.

Merringtitus predictably gives it the “I told you we didn’t want to do that” but to be fair to him, he sounds gutted.  Usually he can find a positive, even in a poor performance but he’s struggling today, suggesting there really is nothing to see here.

Nigel was quite philosophical and honest afterwards, explaining that there was a lack of goal threat, no shots on target and he never felt like we were going to score.  The question on his mind was whether we were bad or they were good.  Bit of both I expect Nigel.  For me, more damaging than the defeat itself will be the injury to Chappers who has in my opinion been player of the season so far.  He provides and urgency and snap in our midfield which sounded alarmingly lacking when he went off, suggesting that a long term absence would be keenly felt.  He didn’t sound too downbeat on his Twitter feed in the evening so hopefully it won’t be too long before he’s back.  Everyone needs some Bald Psycho in the team.  We lost today to two deflections so you could argue that on another day, we’d have got a 0-0.  Let’s not get all Brighton about it and moan though – Bristol City deserved to win.

So, it was a bad day at the office, made worse by the fact that West Ham and Cardiff won.  Fans of those clubs in particular will be waiting and expecting us to have a wobble now and fall into the pack and we have to ensure we don’t do that, starting with the visit of Hull City on Tuesday night.  I think I’m correct in saying we haven’t lost two in a row under Nigel Adkins and I don’t see that coming now.  I see us bouncing back as we invariably do and putting consecutive win number 21 on the board.

Keep the Faith etc