Southampton At Norwich City The Verdict Monday, 1st Jan 2024 17:59 Saints dominated the game for most of the 90 minutes, but come the final whistle they had once again snatched a draw from the jaws of what should have been a comprehensive win, however at the end of this festive programme most Saints fans would be happy with the position we are in. Russell martin made three changes from the side that beat Plymouth Argyle, Jack Stephens, Flynn Downes & Stuart Armstrong coming back in and Will Smallbone, Shea Charles and Che Adams dropping out. They again reverted to what was essentially a back three with the two fullbacks pushing forward and a central trio supporting Sam Edozie & Adam Armstrong up front.
The first half saw Saints dominate from the start, Norwich were parking the bus on their own patch and hoping to catch us on the break, which in the main worked as they limited our chances in the first half despite 80% possession The Canaries were prepared to win ugly and had a succession of fouls on Saints players, the worst of which came on 25 minutes when Sam Edozie was caught with a follow through tackle that had studs up, replays showed how bad the challenge was and if there had been VAR the home side would have been down to 10 men. Ryan Fraser came on for Edozie and Saints continued their dominance but at the break it was honours even.
At half time there was a strange substitution, off went Jan Bednarek and on came Che Adams, it was an attacking move, but strange that it was Bednarek who went off, unless he was injured. The Pole had had a great first half and has formed a superb partnership with Taylor Harwood-Bellis in a back four and if we were reverting to that why would we break that up. The second half saw us again dominate and go close to scoring on several occasions not least when Jack Stephens hit the bar, Norwich were starting to tire and we were looking good. In the 70th minute we went ahead, Kyle Walker Peters did some great work down the right and crossed low and hard, a desperate lunge by a defender could only spin the ball up and Adam Armstrong fired home from about 6 inches.
This should have led to us going on to win, but the warning signs were there only minutes earlier when Norwich went on to the break and fired into the side netting and on 77 minutes we paid the price for complacency, we tried to be a little too clever and lost the ball cheaply that enabled Norwich to break quickly, but they had a long way to go and the ball should never have eventually reached Sargent who slotted home, too many of our players failed to get a tackle in and it was a disappointment. The final 10 minutes could have gone either way, Norwich got their heckles up, but we got our composure back and looked the more likely in the final few minutes plus 7 of injury time to snatch the game back, if we had Norwich could have had no complaints.
So where did we go wrong ? some would say we lack a striker, but the truth is in this game we didn't get the ball into the strikers enough, Norwich as i said parked the bus and we struggled to get clear chances, we had 21 attempts but only 4 on target and although some were blocked with some last ditch defending in simple terms ex Saints keeper Angus Gunn was not worked enough. Our wide players worked hard to create chances on both flanks, on the left both Ryan's Fraser and Manning had some good passing moves together and got in some good crosses, but ultimately The Canaries had come for a point and were determined to get it, they only came out of their cage for about 5 mins in the second half, but it was enough.
Also Norwich got stuck in and they got 5 bookings, we didn't pick up one, truth is we should have and someone should have taken one for the team to break up the build up to Norwich's equaliser. This is a disappointment, but it is not a disaster, taking it in context in a tough Xmas period we have taken 10 points out of 12 and in doing so made it 18 unbeaten and pulled Ipswich back to within 3 points, as we went to QPR just before Xmas we would have been happy if we knew this would be the next 4 games and 9 days. We have also got a 4 point gap on Leeds United and that is a nice cushion to have, as is the gap between us and 7th. As I always say a football season is a marathon and not a sprint and a promotion push even more so in that it is a war of attrition.
We are coming through stronger than our rivals and we are getting better with every game, but things are not yet perfect, but they are getting there, we now have nearly two weeks before the next League game, on Saturday we host Walsall and hopefully it will be a decent crowd boosted by those who have demanded that Sam Amo-Ameyaw and Tyler Dibling should get a chance, in the FA Cup 3rd round I think they might. Hopefully there will be some wheeling and dealing before the next League game and hopefully it will be a pivotal moment that takes our season on another level. Saints have done their supporters proud in the last 18 games and indeed every game bar that 4 game run of defeats. We are heading into the final 20 games now, the manager and the players and I mean ALL the players deserve to be backed to the hilt and not the nit picking of individuals.
In this game Ryan Manning showed why he is first choice at left back, Jack Stephens showed why he can be an asset in a back three and the late subs again showed that they can help close out games. Adam Armstrong showed why he is perhaps the best player this season, although Kyle Walker Peters did his best to show him he wasn't. They say a football team should win as a team, draw as a team and lose as a team, when you have a team that does then you back it as a team. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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