January 26 2006

Andy Johnson

It was a tale of two relegated teams at St Marys as the differences between the two sides could not have been clearer, writes Simon Pophale.

We have an abundance of riches up front while Southampton have had their forward line decimated since May, with Crouch, Camara, Phillips and now Walcott all having moved on.

George Burley was left with last seasons loaned out players in Jones, Blackstock and Omerod while we had the luxury of leaving Morrison and Freedman on the bench.

But this game ended 0-0 because we could not take our chances and we should also be grateful to Kiraly who made two outstanding stops at the end of both halves to keep the scores level.

Marian Pahars was denied twice by the Hungarian, the first of which on 44 minutes when he volleyed a cross from Higginbotham which Kiraly did well to tip over, then on 88 minutes to punch away a drive that seemed destined for the bottom corner.

Between these times, Southampton showed nothing, Kenwyne Jones and Brett Omerod failing to hit the target at all. Omerod missed an easy chance after only 4 minutes, hitting the side netting after Higginbotham had set him up.

From our own point of view, the first half could be summed up by our defence gifting the ball to the Southampton forwards and midfielders too often and when going forward, being too cute in the final ball.

Hudson, Ward and Hall all too often seemed to get in each others way and despite the Saints midfield having a lot of possession in our own half did nothing with it.

We on the other hand looked dangerous every time we went forward and McAnuff was causing problems from the first minute, setting up AJ and Macken, only to see their chances smothered by 18 year old Polish keeper Bartosz Bialkowski.

McAnuff sent a long ball to AJ on 19 minutes which he attempted to lob Bialkowski but the ball drifted wide. After the half hour mark both Micheal Hughes and Jon Macken had shots charged down as Southampton struggled to contain us.

Saints played like the away side and were happy to sit back and hit us on the break. Brett Omerod rounded Hudson but failed to hit the target close to the end of the half.

We came out 2nd half and immediately spurned a chance as Hughes crossed for AJ but he shot over from 8 yards. Meanwhile the defensive shakiness of the first half had disappeared and now, we looked assured at the back.

As the 2nd half went on, the only factor keeping the score down was the linesman, who gave a lot of decisions against us. Saints had their 12th man and despite all our attacking, it was becoming a frustrating afternoon.

Freedman and Andrews were introduced and on 63 minutes set up AJ who shot wide again from close range. Time was ebbing away and when Freedman set AJ clear on 81 minutes, he was denied this time by a late linesmans’ flag. Offside it wasn’t, scoreless it was going to be.

Right to the end we kept going and from a late corner, Hall had a header saved by Bialkowski and Kiraly had to be alert to keep out Pahars but at the final whistle, despite us extending our unbeaten run, it felt more like two points lost than a point won. Saints fans launched yet another attack on Lowe with a demonstration.

Hardly a surprise that the match was drawn, as the last 2 games ended in stalemates, but this match was more a case of us not taking chances rather than Southampton posing us any major problems.