After a bit of a Joe Strummer evening...should I stay (up) or should I go (to bed for a few hours)? it was off to the South coast for a mad game. For an hour we played "who can give the ball away the most often?" then had a mad ten minutes in which we drew level from two down and actually had the Saints rocking. Then we conceded two in as many minutes to lose 4-2 in a game of baffling substitutions as we continued our early pre-season by giving everyone a run out.
With the dust having settled on both our midweek performance and St Mary's stadium, it was the middle of another trio of long distance jobs. Four o'clock? There's nee such time! While departing Winchester, after cocktails, the rumours about Ballard's fitness were dispelled with the team news
Patterson
Hume Ballard Seelt Hjelde
Neil (c) Bellingham
Ba Rigg Mundle
Burstow
..and a bench of Bishuuurrrp, Rusyn, Jones, Lavery, Ekwah, Styles, Hemir, Pembele, and Aouchiche.
All of which made Ballard, at 24, our oldest starter, but apart from that we had to try and work out who was playing where. Definitely four at the back and hopefully Rigg getting closer to the centre forward. Well, that's what we thought, and at least the energetic Rigg and the unpredictable Mundle were in - mind, I'd given Aouchiche a start ahead of Bellingham.
Anyway, in our dayglo away kit, we attacked the far end, as far as our fans were concerned, and the others kicked off. We actually had the first attack when Burstow went through but shot across and wide after only a minute. That early promise quickly evaporated as we were second to almost every ball and gave away the ones we did get to first. To add insult to injury, Seelt was booked after only seven minutes for pulling his man back. As we were taunted by a mag shirt, they played the free out wide, and we didn't deal with the loose ball after Patto saved the header (sound familiar? and it was 0-1.
We were wondering why Ba was on the left and Mundle on the right, but we barely got the ball to them in any space so it hardly mattered. When Patto's clearance went straight to a Saint, they should have doubled their lead but put it over the bar. As the half hour approached we had a flurry of shots blocked before the customary Ballard booking on the corner of our box. We dealt with that free, but five minutes later it went wrong again when we conceded a penalty when we slid into the back of their man. Some Geordie took it, appeared to kick it twice, then gave us a bit back. 0-2 and looking worrying.
Mundle got a diving header on target in 40, but it was no problem for the keeper before Rigg set Ba away and we won a corner on the left. We played it short and eventually got it to Neil in the middle but he shot wide. There were three added minutes in which Patto made a couple of comfy saves, and we went in probably grateful it was only two. Naturally, we expected changes in either formation or personnel - preferably both- but we didn't get them. Mad, as we could probably have made some at about 3:15.
Consequently, we continued to watch a team that bore no resemblance to the one we were watching a few months ago. Instead of dominating possession, we were dominated and looked physically weak. Ten minutes in we did get some changes when Aouchiche and Rusyn replaced Rigg and Burstow - ah, man, give us a few minutes with two strikers on the field!
We started to look more positive, and Ba got into the box but cut back and they nicked the ball. Use your left peg, Abba! We played it about nicely for Hume to put it in, and when Mundle picked up the loose ball outside the box, he gave it some welly. His left-footer may have taken a deflection, but it was still a beaut and flew in to the keeper's left.
62 minutes, game on! After an hour of dross we were suddenly alive and the travelling fans came back to life with chants of "we scored a goal '. The players responded by going close three times, then Ballard sat down on halfway. To be fair, he'd not looked 100% from the off. After treatment he went off, they announced his replacement as Styles, and as we were wondering why it wasn't Pembele the change was cancelled. However, it was made on 70 with Styles going to left back and Hjelde going central. Baffling- Styles, not Hjelde.
Two minutes of more attacking play and Jobe stoned for his part in Southampton's opener by moving along the edge of the box and hitting a real snorter that curled high into the net to the keeper's left. Cue mayhem in our end, with a fair few responding to the earlier taunts from the home fans.
Blimey, this lot can actually play football! The Saints responded by bringing on Mara, and five minutes later he restored their lead as we we're leaving huge gaps at the back in our efforts to actually win. Two minutes later he repeated the trick and that was really that. We gave Ekwah the last three, plus the seven added, and Adil had a shot saved comfortably. Ekwah then wasted a free thirty yards out before we had a deflected effort that flew into the keeper's arms after he'd initially gone the wrong way.
..and that was it. It says a lot about the state of the team when fans were saying "well, I enjoyed that ten minutes." The previous seventy were pretty dire and the following ten were....deflated. Six in a row means worrying times and nervous glanced at the result of Stoke and the like.
Many of the Match? I'll not count anything outside that lovely, chaotically marvellous ten minutes, so I'll give it to Jobe for the goal. I know that's a bit hard on Rigg, who probably was the least bad while he was on.
