The difference between our last visit to Wales back in April and Saturday's defeat was shocking, perhaps the upcoming Spygate verdict had a lot to do with this, but we once again failed to keep a clean sheet and up front couldn't hit a barn door.

How on earth did Saints lose this game, they dominated it for most of the game and not only had the lions share of possession, but also 20 attempts on goal compared to only 8 for the home side.

In the early stages we had several good chances, Finn Azaz making the keeper work and Cyle Larin getting on the end of a few balls, but not managing to find the net.

It was pretty much one way traffic but the warning signs were there when Daniel Peretz had to make a decent save, but then from a corner we once again went to sleep and let Kiefer Moore head home, truth was if we had a man on the post it would have been headed off the line, not sure why we didn't given they had a big man like Moore up top.

Leo Scienza had been kicked off the pitch and didn't re-appear at half time with Sam Edozie coming on to replace him.

After the break we were soon back on level terms after James Ward-Prowse slammed the ball home after seeing his first effort blocked, surely now we would go on to win it.

But Wrexham dug in and almost scored again when a speculative effort from the half way line caught Peretz off his line and desperately back pedalling and flapping at the ball, luckily for him it hit the top of the bar and a goal kick.

A decent volley from Ryan Manning almost went in but rose just too much in it's flight.

In the 86th minute Tonda Eckert brought on Divin Mubama in what seemed a pointless gesture, at 1-1 surely Larin was our best option for a late goal.

A late goal did come, but it wasn't at the end we wanted it to be, we gave the ball away cheaply and there man went down the wing and played a nice low ball across the six yard box, Daniel Peretz tried to get it but failed to do so, Keven Schlotterbeck was helpless to do anything other than put it in his own net.

It was a poor goal to give away, to be blunt the keeper should have cut the ball out.

So a bad day at the office for Saints, but given the possession and chance we had, we really should have done better, the truth is that we can't keep clean sheets, the last 3 away games have seen an opposition player score with a free header, that is not a good stat.

The issue is that we are not organised enough at the back, we switch off at key moments, Keven Schlotterbeck is good, but he needs a good partner with him and neither Nathan Wood or Jack Stephens are that man, we needed an experienced central defender to come in with him in the summer window, instead we got Zach Abbott a youngster with limited experience and who might be the answer but who knows, he has not played enough games in his career to tell.

We lacked the fluidity that we had last season, we also lack the options that we had, last season we had contrasting options up front, Larin & Stewart were going head to head for game time & goals, they were different types of striker, yes both big men, but Larin was about strength & Stewart about guile, if one wasn't working the other one was.

Now we only have two options, Larin who has done brilliantly, but no player can score week in week out for sustained periods & Divin Mubama, who is yet to blossom, although he has shown some promising moments, but as of yet too little.

It is hard what to say or what we can do, we have 3 weeks in which by the end of of it we will either have the Sword of Damocles hanging over Tonda Eckert removed or perhaps a punishment that is not too severe, or we will have a new man in the dug out for the visit of Portsmouth.

This game really felt like a disaster, we missed a good chance to really make a statement, a win would have taken us to 5th place in our own right, just 4th points behind leaders Swansea and without that deduction we would have been top.

Instead it felt like we had hit rock bottom.

But the reality is that every season has it's setbacks, we might be getting a bigger one than this from the FA this week, but at least we will know what we have to do gong forward.

We now have to lick our wounds from Saturday and wait, then and for the first time since May, we can truly plan for the future with any sort of certainty, that weight has been on our shoulders for far too long and you felt at Wrexham it finally weighed us down too much.

Via Reuters

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