I wasn’t expecting us to win this one and, given the gulf in quality between the two sides, only losing by one goal wasn’t a disgrace. Southampton came into this match on a 14-game unbeaten run, whereas we lost to second-from-bottom Sheffield Wednesday last week. We defended well for most of the game, enjoyed a good spell at the beginning of the second half and would have kept a clean sheet if it hadn’t been for a momentary lapse in concentration when defending a Liam Manning free kick in the 43rd minute. But our lack of firepower up front meant we never really looked like scoring.
This was the first of four games over the festive period, with Millwall away on Boxing Day, Ipswich away on 29th December and Cardiff at home on January 1st. Not surprisingly, then, Marti Cifuentes rotated the squad, starting Chris Willock ahead of Paul Smyth and Lyndon Dykes instead of Sinclair Armstrong. That meant we lined up in a 4-3-3 formation as follows: Asmir Begovic in goal; Reggie Cannon, Jimmy Dunne, Jake Clarke-Salter and Kenneth Paal in defence; Andre Dozzell, Sam Field and Elijah Dixon-Bonner in front of them; and Willock, Dykes and Ilias Chair in front of them.
I was worried our heads might drop after going down to a 2-1 defeat at Hillsborough last Saturday, particularly after we’d been one-nil up until the 86th minute. Would that spell the end of the new manager bounce we’ve been enjoying since Cifuentes took over? In fact, we played pretty well, with no loss of confidence.
Chair put in a decent cross for Dykes in the 11th minute that the Saints’ goalkeeper managed to intercept, Dunne (who had a good game) blocked what looked to be a certain gaol in the 15th minute and Dixon-Bonner got a shot away in the 23rd minute that wasn’t a million miles away. Our best chance of the first half was a strike from Chair in the 30th minute that was heading for the bottom right-hand corner and needed saving. Kenneth Paal made a superb tackle in the 35th minute, managing to take the ball off the foot of Will Smallbone just as he was about to stick it in the net, and Dozzell got a shot on target in the 37th minute, which was deflected out for a corner.
It looked as if we were going to end the first half honours even, but Manning, who came on for an injured James Bree in the 32nd minute, put in a dangerous ball from a free kick in the 43rd minute that was flicked on by Adam Armstrong and found Taylor Harwood-Bellis at the far post steered it past Begovich. We’ve proved unable to score from set pieces this season and we’re not much good at defending them either.
We came out of the stops faster than the visitors in the second half, playing more aggressively, keeping a high line, winning balls in their half and creating more chances. Chair and Willock put in some decent crosses for Dykes to get on the end of and had a couple of goes themselves, as did Dozzell. If we were going to get anything out of this game, it was going to come during this spell of pressure. But, alas, none of the front three really looked like scoring, with most of the shots going wide or dribbling into the arms of the keeper.
Cifuentes’ substitutions, with Ziyad Larkeche replacing Dixon-Bonner in the 67th minute, Smyth coming in for Willock and Sam Armstrong for Dykes in the 74th minute, did little to change the game. The final two subs saw Charlie Kelman replace Andre Dozzell and Albert Adomah replace Reggie Cannon in the 84th minute.
Not too discreditable, then, but given how unlikely we are to beat teams at the top end of the table we have to be taking more points when we take on teams at the other end, like Wednesday, Plymouth and Rotherham. That means our game against Millwall, who are only two places above us, is a must win.
On the plus side, Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield both lost, so we’re still four points above the former and only two points behind the latter. Oh, and Michael Beale’s Sunderland lost 0-3 to Coventry in his first game in charge. 😜
You can watch the highlights on Sky Sports here.