FA Cup 3rd Round - Southampton 4 Walsall 0

Sekou Thanks Wee Man for Presenting Him with Yet Another Chance

The last time we played Walsall was our last game in League 1 in May 2011 when a 3-1 win was secured with goals from Guly do Prado, David “back from the dead“ Connolly and Alex “off to be a professional substitute for the rest of my career “ Oxlade-Chamberlain.  It was a great atmosphere that day and today won’t be like that, such is the dilution of the FA Cup these days.

‘When I were a lad’ in the 1970’s, winning the FA Cup was on par with winning the old Division 1.  People like to point at the year that Manchester United didn’t enter as when it started losing it’s shine and whilst I’m always up for blaming United for everything, for me it started the decline in importance when the Champions League and Premier League began offering absurd prize money.  You get about £4 million for winning the FA Cup, roughly the same amount for finishing two places higher in the Premier League.  When clubs would rather finish in the Top 4 than win the FA Cup, you have a problem.

Of course, today is third round of the FA Cup and our entrance into the competition. Walsall have got through two rounds already beating Sheppey United of Isthmian League South East Division in the first round and Alfreton Town of the National League North in the second round. Having dispatched a team from level eight of the football league pyramid and a team from level six, they now get to take on a level two side and Southampton.  The question is, will we be a level two side, or will we be a team of under 18s? Rumour has it that we can expect the likes of Sam Amo-Ameyaw and Tyler Dibling to make an appearance.

Walsall are mid table in League 2 and so it should be the type of game where we can rest a few players and still put out a team strong enough to win it relatively comfortably and get into the fourth round. I kind of think it will be interesting to play a bottom half Premier League team in the FA Cup at some point to see where we’re at, but we’d probably get two weakened sides in that scenario, so there’s probably not much point in hoping for that. Let’s just take it as it comes, starting with Walsall. After all, we’ve done pretty well as a level two side in the FA Cup in the past. Football has changed a little bit since then, sonny.

And to prove that, nine changes from the Norwich game with only THB and Jack Stephens remaining. Sam Amo and Jayden Meghoma start, with fringe players like Mara, Holgate, Smallbone, Alcaraz, Lumley, Charles and Fraser everywhere else.  Flynn Downes is on the bench with a commode and a big space all round him.  The youth on the bench is Cameron Bragg and Tyler Dibling.

Away we go and Saints are straight on it.  Five minutes in and THB lifts the ball over the defence and Ryan Fraser has made a superb run away from the full back and behind the centre back and he controls it and smashes it past the keeper for 1-0. Easy as you like, clinical.

Fraser was showing everybody the way with his intelligent running off the ball and he sends Meghoma away on the left and his superb cross is headed over the bar by Mara in slightly shit fashion.  Fraser again starts the next attack in the centre of the pitch and spreads the ball out of Sam Amo on the right and after taking on his man he knocks it back to Fraser, whose shot is blocked and pops up for Mara six yards out, surely…. Open goal… Row Z… Fucking hell.  Not clinical.

There was a minor scare as Knowles got a cross over from the right hand, which was met by Hutchison in the middle, forcing Lumley to push it up and over the bar but the offside flag was already raised.  Lumley has made a good start of the game to be fair with his ability to play out from the back being notable. He wasn’t to know this was offside either.

Charly, Stop Pissing About

Charly Alcaraz has had an interesting 20 minutes or so where he’s obviously decided that playing in this game against these opponents were somewhat beneath him and he was trying to showboat and nutmeg people and all he was doing is giving the ball away. However, he got one pass right to play in in Smallbone at the edge of the box and the languid one sidefooted an effort which was easy for the goalkeeper.

As we approached half time, Fraser again went past his full back on the left before crossing into the middle and the ball bounced down again for Will Languid and he smashed it over the bar. Alcaraz then tested out the keeper from range, which he spilt and Mara couldn’t quite get to the rebound in time.

The half time talk was surely about ‘one more goal’ but no one listened and we came out and were shit.  Holgate took a throw across the top of our own penalty area and Jack Stephens electing to play a blind pass towards Meghoma which was intercepted by Knowles and then smashed over the bar.

As our attempt give away ago hadn’t worked, we decided to try and improve with repetition and this time Mason Holgate presented the ball straight to the Earing who ran in on Lumley and managed to get closer to the corner flag than the goal with an attempt that could only be described as dreadful.

Having fucked about for far too long, it was time to put the game to bed.  Starting with Lumley and via Stephens, the ball went to Alcaraz on the left hand side breaking into the Walsall half.  Charly finds Fraser and he rolls it into the penalty spot where Mara takes a touch, turns and smashes into the roof of the net.  About fucking time. Really good finish it has to be said.  The Wee Man is clearly on a mission today and combines with Alcaraz to present another chance to Will Languid to sidefoot wide of the post, again.

Saints shuffled with THB going off, Holgate moving to centre back, Charles to right back and Che Adams coming on upfront and Mara dropping into midfield. With the aid of a deflection, Smallbone picks up the ball in midfield, finds Alcaraz, onto Fraser who just rolls it across the keeper right footed into the far corner of the net. Another superb finish for the Wee Man

Are we going to score every time we attack?  Yes we are as Alcaraz again turns provider, this time feeding Che Adams on the left and he bundles past a defender, like a Big Dog is supposed to do, before slotting it past the keeper left footed and a desperate defender on the line couldn’t keep it out.  4-0

It was then time for a couple more of the kids to come on with Dibling coming on Mara and Bragg on for Sam Amo.  Dibling in particular looked determined to make an impression coming in from the right hand side and making a yard before hitting the outside of the near post.  Bragg slotted into midfield as if he’d always played there. We made a chance for a Wee Man hat-trick in the last couple of minutes as Adams bundled through a couple of tackles to play him in but he could only pick out the goalkeeper.  As the final whistle went on a comfortable victory, it was noticeable but Ryan Fraser was absolutely fucked, having not stopped running for 90 minutes.

Well that was pretty comfortable in the end against very limited opponents. They were enthusiastic but didn’t have a single thing in the front half of the pitch, which at times was just as well because they had a couple of fantastic chances either side of half-time, presented to them by our defenders with horrible mistakes being made by Jack Stephens and Mason Holgate but at the end of the day we got away with it so it doesn’t matter.

The best player on the pitch by a country mile was Wee Man Ryan Fraser and his two goals and one assist do him justice because he was excellent throughout and set a brilliant example for any experienced player, chosen to play in this type of game. This role model thing is not something anyone expected from Fraser when he signed from Newcastle, given his previous reputation so fair play to him.  Other fringe first team players included Will Smallbone who was neat and tidy enough but on the occasions where he managed to break into the Walsall penalty area, he didn’t manage to get a single shot on target.  Charly had a great second half when he decided to play properly instead of trying to take the piss. He no doubt got a half-time bollocking and both of those two really have a lot to play for with Joe Aribo missing from the first team for the next three or four weeks.

Mason Holgate proved that he is worth keeping around if no solution can be found to send him back to Everton because he is a solid enough right back and with only KWP and Ryan Manning fit at the moment, it would be somewhat foolish to allow him to go back to Everton with no replacement being bought in.  He actaully looks better at right back than Jack Stephens does, not that that would get him in the team ahead of the captain.  If Holgate does go, the next in line at full-back is Jayden Meghoma, who was probably the pick of the young players who played today though not tested defensively.  He played with great confidence and some lovely crosses into the box with his left foot.

Sam Amo found it quite difficult on the right wing they did occasionally have the beating of his defender. It must’ve been slightly frustrating for him because of vast majority of our play was going down the left-hand side where Fraser was absolutely on fire. The same fate also befell Tyler Dibling when he came on because he was playing as the right sided number eight and then the right winger and again, all the play was going down the left-hand side. The fourth youngster was Cam Bragg, who came on in the defensive midfield position which is absolutely ideal when you are 4-0 up because you’re gonna get lots of touches of the ball and he did everything with a minimum of fuss and just keep the ball moving in what was a nice gentle first team introduction for him.

Joe Lumley Celebrates His Debut

Joe Lumley made his debut in goal and did pretty well, dealing well with everything he had to deal with like daisy cutter shots or back passes. He looks decent with his feet which maybe explains why he is the second-choice goalkeeper this season and not Lead Legs McCarthy who as I said last week, is great at taking corners in the warm-ups but that’s about it.  It’s not as if Lumley is inexperienced as he is only about 75 league appearances behind McCarthy over his career.  I doubt his wages are anywhere near either.

I was today looking for an answer to the question that is Sekou Mara. What is he? Is he any good? Is there anything there? Is he worth persevering with? After watching that display today, the answer to all of those questions for me is still “I don’t know“. There were some bad misses, terrible touches, some bad decisions and the fact that he kept on getting caught repeatedly on his heels and was clearly getting very frustrated but then he scored a really good goal which was a nicely taken finish. I would say that the finish shows that there maybe is something there but weather he has enough to make it as a Championship level forward, I think the jury is very much out still.

It was an ideal day for Russell Martin. He rested who he needed to rest and some youngsters got minutes and we won the game and no matter what your aspirations for the season, whether you’re prioritising the league or not, it’s always nice to sit in front of the TV and watch the draw for the next round. I watched in on Monday night and we got possibly the most piss-boring draw imaginable – Watford away.

Just Five Wins to Go

Anyway, that’s for another day and next week it’s back to Championship action with the visit of Sheffield Wednesday who were shit and then they got a new manager and now they’re not so shit. Up the fucking Saints.

League 1 Match 46 - Southampton 3 Walsall 1

Willo Gets Stuck In

Walsall were the visitors as we rolled up to SMS for the last time this season to what was a rarity… a game with no pressure on it…. for us anyway.  Win, lose or draw – it didn’t matter as we were up and it was Promotion Day.  I personally was looking forward to see if the collection of moaning bastards who sit around me would actually be happy but the game itself would be interesting because Walsall were one of three teams who could go down.  There were many permutations but in a nutshell, they needed to get a better result than Dagenham and Redbridge (who play like us apparently) who were away at Peterborough.

Walsall beat us earlier in the season when their keeper, Jimmy Walker had the game of his life and kept out about 25 on target shots.  Walker was in goal again today and the Saints side trying to finally get one past him today was pretty much full strength with the Gulyman returning to the right wing and Morgan Schneiderlin getting a start in central midfield.  Alex Chamberlain made a return to the bench which did not include either Dale Stephens or Dany N’Guessan, so I think we can safely say that that’s the last we’ll see of those two.  It would be interesting to see what the attitude of our players would be like – whose mind would be on the beach and who’s been out on the piss all week etc.  The Saints Creative Department has been busy again and we all held up cards which spelt out ‘COMING FOR YOU, CHEATING SKATE BASTARDS’ which should have looked good on the TV.

Any thoughts of Saints being in party mode were dispelled in the opening few minutes as Walsall defender Cook, gifted us the ball and Guly smashed in a shot which the flying fat bloke tipped over the bar.  We forged another chance straight away with Hammond, playing father forward as a result of Schneiderlin being in the team, arriving at the edge of the box and firing just over.

Saints were trying to pick their way through the middle of the Walsall defence, populated as it was, with Ollie Lancashire.  Sir Rickie chipped a pass to Connolly who headed down to the Gulyman who stretched a telescopic leg and flicked goalwards, only to be denied by another good save from Walker.

Twas a matter of time and the time arrived on 20 minutes when Cook played another crap ball and Schneiderlin broke up a Walsall attack before feeding Connolly who turned it into the path of the Gulyman who cut inside the left back onto his left foot and scored with ease.  Walsall looked very down at this point and from virtually the next attack it was 2-0 as Connolly, Hammond and Lallana almost overplayed it but eventually sorted it so out for Connolly to fire through the legs of a defender and in at Walker’s near post.

Long balls upto Jon Macken were the order of the day and he, with his face like a bulldog chewing a wasp, was getting progressively more irritated at being ‘trained’ by Radhi Jaidi.  It was nearly 3-0 as Deano hit the post from a tight angle before Walsall realised it wasn’t happening for them and replaced the holding midfielder with the odd name, with another forward.  The guy who’d gone off had not so much held the midfield, as waved a white flag to allow people to run through unattended.

On half time and out of nowhere, Julian Gray picked up the ball on the right wing, cut across Dicko and Lallana and curled a superb shot past Superkelv and into the net for 2-1.  Where did that come from?  Well, at least it would stop any complacency creeping in.

It was half time and there had been no moaning from the Chuckle Brothers, no whining, nothing.  I assumed they weren’t there but there they were, smiling and relaxed.  Excellent.  I still do not want them to renew their season tickets for next season.  We had one of the missing 10,000 sat just behind us as well who was obviously not used to the Kingsland central section, swearing his head off and being extremely pissed.  His girlfriend/wife who was sat with him was wearing the kind of fixed grin/grimace which showed both embarrassment and the fact that he wasn’t getting any tonight.

After a nondescript opening to the second half, Guly made way for Chamberlain who took all of thirty seconds to show us what we’ve been missing as he fastened onto a Hammond pass and hit the far post with Walker nowhere.  The ball ended up being fed back to Connolly in front of goal but he played an airshot when it looked easier to score and the ball hit his standing leg and went out for a goal kick.

Walsall had a flurry and Saints defended in a panic as Dicko failed to clear a ball, catching the airshot disease and Superkelv made a good save from Gray before Grigg the sub, stabbed the rebound against a post.  The Walsall boys were in full voice a minute later when Macken stopped chewing a wasp long enough to stab in a rebound when Davis failed to collect a shot from outside the box. Offside and a spot on decision.

It was game over a minute later as from the free kick, Saints went forward with Connolly and Lallana supplying Chambo who cut onto his left foot before curling a shot past Walker and in off the far post.  Beautiful goal and what a player we have here.

Chappers came on for Morgan who had been superb and an almighty cheer from the Walsall boys as it was announced that Dagenham and Redbridge were losing 4-0.  The season was over for all concerned at SMS but he may be 37 and overweight, but Walker was still performing heroics for Walsall, making two blinding saves in quick succession from Chambo and Connolly who both should have scored.  For my money, this is the best goalkeeper we've come across this season.

There was about 5 minutes to go when the stadium announcer requested that everyone stayed off the pitch as a little tin pot was to be presented to the team at the end of the game.  He got about 3 words out before being drowned out and my money was firmly on about 20,000 people being on the pitch at the end.  Final whistle, Fans on Pitch 30,000 Stadium Announcer 0.  We are going up!  I spoke to one of the stewards on the pitch who said that the club and the league fully expect home fans on the pitch and their job is purely to keep the away fans off – if they get on then the club gets hammered.

The Tin pot was eventually presented up on the balcony thing in front of the Directors Box and as presentations go, it wasn’t one of the best but it didn’t need to be.  30,000 happy people on the pitch is all you need really.  Smiling people, grown men crying, cheering kids – it’s what it’s all about really.  Didn’t see the Chuckle Brothers on the pitch but I’m sure they would have been moaning about something.

The post match interviews were not really about the game but about the celebrations and the season as a whole.  For me, this game was an odd one as it looked like we were going to win about 8-0 but then we took our foot off the gas a bit and Walsall could easily have got back to 2-2 but then they seemed to ease off when it became obvious that they were going to stay up as the Daggers were getting stuffed.  Regardless of who was easing off, Fatty in goal made 4 or 5 unbelievable saves to keep the score down.  For us, Chambo was frightening when he came on and could easily have had a hat-trick which would have sent the tabloids into meltdown about which club we’d accepted a ten million bid from.  I thought Guly and Deano had good games for us but star of the show was Schneiderlin.

I turned up with the family on Sunday, to watch the Saints Day game against the old boys which was played in a great spirit.  Anyone who got there early would have seen Paul Wotton launch a slide tackle on Chaplow and Hammond who were stood having a chat in the warm up at the time.  An early highlight was Chambo trying to beat Paul Williams for pace.  He tried to go round him on the right which was a mistake as you’re supposed to go round roundabouts to the left.  Big lad was Willo.  My 6 year old son opined that Willo was “even bigger than you Dad”.   No pocket money for you....

On the other end of the scale, Inigo Idiakez looked leaner and fitter than when he was playing for us while Paul Telfer, Jo Tessem, Claus Lundekvam, Michael Svensson and Ken Monkou all looked exactly the same as they did years earlier.  Claus gave a pre match interview to the annoying bald bloke which put me in mind of the film ‘Kingpin’.  So Claus, what have you been doing since you retired?’.,,, he should have said ‘Drinking’ but I don’t really know what he said because the PA is shite.  The game itself finished 4-1 to the current side with Idiakez opening the scoring before Sir Rickie and Guly made it 2-1 past Antii Niemi.  Paul Jones was in goal for the 2^nd half to concede to a Guly 35 yarder and a goal from Ben Reeves, one of our production line of Academy boys who are all 5 foot 8 with blonde hair.  We are cloning them in a lab by the look of it.  Lap of honour, job done, here comes summer.

As seasons go it’s been superb with our form at the business end of the season being nothing short of phenomenal with 40 points out of 45.  There is momentum that will still be there come August and the new season in the Championship.  I think that this side with no additions will finish in the top half but there will be additions (Nigel says) and we should be aiming for a playoff place at least.  We seem to play better against better sides and that should stand us in good stead. 

Just for giggles really, here’s a little league table made up on results the top 6 got against each other this season.  If it shows anything, it shows how everyone performed against the better sides this year, which is kinf of relevant as there are no dire sides in the Championship, like there are in League 1.

	BRI	SOU	HUD	PET	MKD	BOU
Brighton		1-2	2-3	3-1	2-0	1-1
Southampton	0-0		4-1	4-1	3-2	2-0
Huddersfield	2-1	2-0		1-1	4-1	2-2
Peterborough	0-3	4-4	4-2		2-1	3-3
MK Dons	1-0	2-0	1-3	1-0		2-0
Bournemouth	1-0	1-3	1-1	5-1	3-2

	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	PTS
Southampton	10	4	1	0	13	4	2	1	2	9	10	8	20
Huddersfield	10	3	2	0	11	5	2	1	2	10	12	4	18
Bournemouth	10	3	1	1	11	7	0	2	3	6	10	0	12
MK Dons	10	4	0	1	7	3	0	0	5	6	14	-4	12
Brighton	10	2	1	2	9	7	1	1	3	4	4	2	11
Peterborough	10	2	2	1	13	13	0	1	4	4	14	-10	9

...so... we look good to take on the better opposition next season.... and Brighton don’t.  Better learn to play like Dagenham and Redbridge, Gus!

Season player summaries to follow... WE ARE GOING UP!!!

Oh yeah... and we get the opportunity to put the record straight against the Skates who just might have players that they can afford by that time.  Doubt it though...

Season 2010/11 - The End!!!