Update on the fan who collapsed on Saturday: Club update on the fan incident at St Mary’s Stadium | Article | Southampton FC Official Site
If you look at the highlights he’s not actually that far off his line, maybe a yard, if that, outside the goal box which isn’t outrageous in the scheme of things. I am just going to accept that it was a good finish from an unexpected shot. As for the save their keeper made from Smallbone I see he actually stopped it with his forehead. Lucky for the keeper as it then deflected over, because it was so flush. Unlucky for us as a glance off the side of his head and it’s in the back of the net.
I was so annoyed by the result that I did not want to check on this thread over the weekend. The first half was fantastic and I felt we should have had the game wrapped up within thirty minutes. The performance in the first half was much better than against Leeds other than the finishing but we reverted to type in the second half. It is quite interesting to look at the players who under-performed on Saturday. I am not a fan of Smallbone and thoiught that Tessum was right about his failure to make runs in to the box. I find that he is too static. That said, the substitutions were extremely poor with Stuey being our best player in my opinion, I felt that Alcaraz offered little and was under-whelming whilst Edosie was a shadow of Sulemana who also stood out for me in the dirst half. I agree about the comments concerning Mara and Aribo. No point bringing them on whatsoever. We will finish mid-table this year and I feel that there will be some changes n the coaching staff sooner rather than later. Not sure that Martin is the man to take us up.
I’m not the greatest fan of Smallbone but I will defend him with regards to Tessum’s criticism about runs into the box, based on the last week. Twice on Saturday he timed his arrival in the box to perfection, the shot that hit the keeper on the head and an earlier time in the first half when he was unmarked on the penalty spot but Sulemana went for goal instead of crossing. Last weekend against Leeds was another example of him getting into the box at the right time. He hasn’t been doing it all season but that he is now doing it could be down to our more direct approach to attacking.
As I said in my original post because we were dominating them with our quality and I felt that their effort would even things up as the game proceeded and tiredness affected our quality more than their effort. Just my thoughts at the time, none of us really know why we were so good 1st half and so bad 2nd after all I don't know about the propaganda, we clearly didn't play sideways first half, and we were putting in significant effort
However we did do that 1st half and very much didn't 2nd Our need for a striker continues, at least we may have an occasional one in AA ... at this level
