Beating Derby County at home was done at an impressive canter; winning at Bramall Lane staked our claim as genuine automatic promotion contenders. So today's opposition offered us a perfect opportunity to stretch the gap over the chasing pack; surely this would be a straight forward win with something to spare. Saints have been languishing near the bottom of the league all season, nothing to worry about then, points in the bag, thanks very much.
Oh dear, how wrong could we be? Seven home wins out of eight has meant that we turn up to the Mad Stade these days expecting wins, and usually with plenty of goals. A wasted opportunity in the opening three minutes was to prove costly in the extreme: following a scything Jimmy Kebe run, Noel Hunt found himself with space in the area and brother Stephen a simple square pass away from slotting home the opener. But the pass was slightly behind Hunt Senior, who had to check back momentarily which allowed Saints defenders to regroup sufficiently and the chance was gone. Southampton were now galvinised. They had already started strongly, neat passing, closing down the space well and looking dangerous going forward. Sensing that they'd been let off the hook they took hold of the game in a way that no other team has been able to do at the Mad Stade this season. The extent to which we were on the back foot was such that a Southampton opening goal appeared to be a matter of not if, but when. SO it was that with 15 minutes on the clock the impressive Bradley Wright-Philips rose unchallenged to head Saints ahead. Questions have to be asked about our defending, should Marcus have come for the cross? Why was Wright-Philips all alone in the six yard box? The pattern o f the half was established; forced onto the back foot we looked rattled and bereft of attacking ideas. Andre Bikey, so often a colossus at the back, looked hesitant and off the pace; Stephen Hunt seemed unable to pass to anyone but a man in red and white; Noel Hunt could not get into the game at all, and James Harper was a peripheral figure chasing shadows in midfield. It was left to Marcus in goal to offer some kind of resistance which he did in the form of some stunning saves that effectively kept the deficit to just the one goal at the break. SC would have some teacups to smash if he was to turn this one around. Nobody expected substitutions at HT as there was nothing definite to put the finger upon; we were generally not very good all over the place, and they were generally a lot better in all departments - and things didn't change after the break. Within 5 minutes of the restart Wright-Philips doubled his and his team's tally with a fierce low drive from the edge of the box. Not a lot Marcus could have done, the ball had been lost in the final third and then we stood off giving BWP plenty of time and space to pick his spot. There seemed no way back and the large travelling contingent from the South coast looked like they were going to be celebrating a rare away win. Things didn't go all Southampton's way though, we managed to conjure up a rare piece of good attacking play which was neatly finished by Jimmy Kebe. What a shame that Kebe's opening goal for the club was in such circumstances - but could this be the platform for an wholly unlikely comeback? On the strength of the performance it would have been an act of robbery that would have made Dick Turpin blush. However, buoyed by the goal the next five minutes saw us actually take the initiative and we caused mild panic in the Saint's defence, we even managed to get the ball in the net again but from an offside position. Marek, Shane Long and even James Henry were thrown in to the frey, but to no avail. The minor setback of conceding a goal was not going to deter Southampton and they soon got back into their rhythm of slick passing, good movement and organised defending. For the Royals the game was up.
Sometimes in football you just have to hold your hand up and say that the better team on the day won. On this display it seems astonishing that Saints are struggling near the bottom, and maybe this will prove to be just a highlight in a poor season for them, who knows. We just didn't click today at all. Too many players had bad days, and as SC said after the game, it's hard to explain why. We can't use the excuse of the international break, these are professionals. Ultimately this will probably have no real bearing on our season, and we haven't become a poor team overnight. Maybe we aren't as good as we thought we were. No matter, such is the nature of the Championship that we have the chance to put things right in a few days time at Cardiff City.
It's easy to put things into perspective on days like yesterday. Before the start of the match a minute's applause was the moving tribute to young academy goalkeeper Stuart McEwan, who lost his life in a tragic accident the previous weekend. Football is only a game after all.
2 comments:
Wot no comments Steve - we've won 4 out of 4 since your Saints post. Not played fantastically well by any means but grinding out the results. Today's efforts against Norwich were almost spoiled by two golden chances that Norwich really should have put away in the first half. As the game went on the Royals looked more assured and again, the gaffer's subsitutions were inspired, with Shane Long causing the in box confusion that led to the penalty before taking the second with a sublime header. Norwich must feel a little hard done by - they certainly matched Reading for most of the game and had they taken their chances it would no doubt have been a different story....but hey ho we are 1 point off Birmingham, the blues having slipped up at Preston. It's been on the cards for a few games and if Reading take the 3 points at St. Andrews next week, my prediction of 2nd place by 20th December will come to fruition. Roll on 2nd place....here come the Royals!!!
Hi there Steve, I’d appreciate it if you emailed me. My address can be found on my profile page.
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