For the second game running we fought back strongly in the second period after a poor, aimless first-half. It all meant nothing in the end, though, after we conceded two goals on the break to substitute Rothwell and so our awful run continues.
BEFORE
After our second-half performance on Tuesday I definitely feel more confident that we can win another game soon, if not this afternoon. Rigg was great and I can't understand why it took so long for him to start a match. Aouchiche also gave us a lot of impetus when he came on and I think he also deserves a start. O'Nien will be out today and for the next match so there'll be a reshuffle in defence. I was there when we gave Southampton a good hiding back in early September and though their form has wobbled with three defeats in their last five matches, I'm sure we'll find them much tougher opposition today. I'll be listening to the match via SAFSEE and my match prediction is 2-2.
I got the team-news around 2.15 and there were two further changes in addition to O’Nien with both Ekwah and Hemir dropping to the bench. Replacing them were Ba, Mundle and Burstow. My heart sank when I saw Burstow’s name as I’d much rather have seen Rusyn starting. I got the stream online five minutes before kick-off and awaited developments…
THE MATCH
After two minutes Burstow had a shot but it went well wide. Commentators Barnes and Benno both said that there was absolutely no conviction in his effort. Brooks did a lot better just afterwards when his shot whistled inches wide of our post. Seelt was booked in the eighth minute for a pull and from the ensuing free-kick Stuart Armstrong put them ahead after a header from Bednarek had been parried by Patto. Ba had headed the ball back across goal for some reason best known to him. Benno couldn’t understand why we’d backed off five yards behind the ref’s spray. Barnesy said that it could be a long afternoon. Having been there when we were hammered 8-0, I could imagine. We conceded the first corner with almost twenty minutes gone and it was headed out by Ballard and then for a throw to us. I could hear our fans chanting. A poor clearance from Patto led to a shot from Adam Armstrong that wasn’t far wide and it sounded like we were just keeping them at bay without creating any attacks of our own.
A great challenge from Seelt prevented them going two-up but resulted in their second corner. We were making too many elementary mistakes and I feared that second goal wouldn’t be too long in coming. Bednarek pushed Neil over off the ball but ref Stuart Attwell didn’t do anything about it. Despite us being on the backfoot so far, we were still only one down as we passed the half-hour mark. Suddenly we mustered an attack and a Burstow shot hit the post from a tight angle before a Ba effort was blocked. That was definitely more like it but then Ballard was booked as we gave away another free-kick just outside our box. Patto saved well from Brooks’ kick. In the thirty-seventh Rigg brought down Manning on the goal-line and Attwell signalled a penalty. Adam Armstrong took the kick and put them 2-0 ahead before taunting our fans. There was some argy-bargy involving Ba, Jobe and a referee’s assistant but it wasn’t clear what had happened. It would take a monumental effort for us to make my 2-2 prediction and it felt more likely that it would end up 4-0. We hadn’t given up and a Mundle header was comfortably saved by Bazunu in goal and then we won our first corner after a Ba run. It led to a Neil shot that was jeered by the home fans. There were three minutes of added-time and it remained 2-0 as the whistle went. Southampton had sounded well in control and we needed to change something asap as Benno said our players didn’t seem to know what formation they were playing in.
I’d hoped to see Aouchiche and Rusyn on but there were no changes as we kicked off again. With Ballard and Seelt both being on yellows they’d have to be careful but that didn’t stop Balard shoving a Southampton player over and then Seelt fouling another. In the fifty-second we conceded another corner and another soon afterwards but we survived them. Then we did make a double switch with Burstow and Rigg going off to be replaced by Rusyn and Aouchiche. Southampton also changed two players with Smallbone going off and I wasn’t sorry to hear that as he’d caused us some problems. Barnesy said we hadn’t lost six games in a row since the start of the 2006-2007 season. We did get promoted that year, mind. Anyway, we were managing to concoct a few attacks without really threatening their goal at all. As soon as I typed that Mundle hit a left foot shot that kissed a post before going in to make it 2-1 in the sixty-second. With best part of half an hour to go a draw suddenly seemed a possibility. Hjelde also picked up a yellow but we were having a real go and produced three scoring attempts within a minute or so. Ballard went down injured and after several minutes delay it looked like he was going to be replaced by Styles but he ended up staying on. I took that as a good omen. I needn’t have bothered as within a minute Ballard was down again and Styles came on for him.
In the seventy-first Jobe curled a great shot into the top right corner from outside the box and we were level. Southampton promptly replaced two more players as our fans sang loudly. We were caught out by a counter-attack in the seventy-seventh and Rothwell hit a shot into the bottom left corner to make it 3-2. I had the feeling there’d be another goal somewhere and sure enough Rothwell soon got his second after they’d broken quickly. I couldn’t see us getting another two but I felt we might get a third goal and there was bound to be a fair bit of added-time. Ekwah came on for Mundle with a couple of minutes on the clock and I didn’t see the point of that. Seven minutes of added-time were announced and nothing of any real note occurred before it ended 4-2.
