I was reading somewhere that Saints have to play twenty-two
games in sixteen weeks before the next international break. Seeing as we are in
an eight-game unbeaten run, if we can extend that to thirty games by the time
the next international break happens, then I think we will be in a fairly good
place regarding promotion back to the land of VAR and financial fair play my
arse.
The first game of our twenty-two game run is away at Huddersfield and if we are
serious about getting promoted this year then this is a game that we clearly
have to win. Huddersfield started off the season with Neil Warnock in charge
and depending on what you read, he was sacked or gracefully pensioned off after
a few games and the present incumbent is Darren Moore, fresh from getting
Sheffield Wednesday promoted out of League 1. The headline result of Moore’s
time with Sheffield Wednesday was of course the play-off semi-final when they
were 4-0 down to Peterborough and then scored five goals in about 10 minutes to
overturn the first leg deficit. Of
course, this was not the norm. The norm was a very pragmatic, defence first
approach which he has taken into the Huddersfield job. Last time out against Hull, they basically
lined up 5-4-60 yards-1 and tried to defend the shit out of it for 90 minutes
which nearly got them a point but a late Liam Delap goal meant the tactics
ultimately failed. I am expecting
similar tactics today.
Hopefully, we will be good enough today so that Huddersfield tactics don’t
actually make much difference but in the first game back after national break,
you can never quite tell what you’re going to get, especially when some of your
players has been over the other side of the world. Russell Martin’s press
conference yesterday was encouraging though with him admitting that we were in
a better place than we thought we would be, regarding players coming back from
international duty and existing knocks and niggles. There is also the
tantalising possibility that Ross Stewart will be more ready to play after
another couple of weeks training since his outing against West Brom.
Charly Alcaraz, probably jet-lagged from a flight here from Argentina is the
only one missing from the starting XI with Ryan Fraser being given a chance to
show he should be a starter, rather than an impact sub. The other change today is that Russell Martin
is of course sat in the stands after his three bookings in previous games. There is the slightly absurd spectacle of him
being sat there with a radio mic so he can talk to the bench, which is about
five yards in front of where he is sat. He is sat on the end of a row with a
big guy who obviously works for the club sat next to him. I guess that this is to stop some random bloke
sitting next to him and chatting shit all through the game.
The first incident Russell oversaw from the stand was Huddersfield bundle down
the left-hand side before Thomas shot well wide. Our first bit of threatening play sees THB
switch it wide to Sulemana and we go all Brazil 1982 for a second with Sulemana
with a couple of back flicks and Adam Armstrong and Smallbone combining to try
and put Stuart Armstrong through but eventually the number of Huddersfield
bodies does enough to crowd us out and get the ball clear.
KWP then links up with Stuart Armstrong who dribbles into the box and passes at the
opportunity to shoot to sliding Fraser on the right but the wee man is
pressured into hoofing the shot well well over the bar.
The game then falls asleep with us having the ball and Huddersfield dropping
nine players deep and allowing us to to have it.
We are content to pass it around and not go anywhere and it’s
boring. As we approach 40 minutes it
wakes up and KWP on the right cuts the ball into Adam Armstrong, who displays
poor centre forward play in allowing a defender to get a boot to it but it
rolls out to Stuart Armstrong who smashes it first time, past the keeper, against
the post and out. Shit.
Stu Makes Things Happen
We do however appear to be fully awake now and Smallbone plays it through inside the full back to Sulemana, who cuts inside and sees his shot blocked into the side netting. Bree’s corner from the left is cleared out as far as KWP on the right and via Downes the ball goes to Smallbone on the edge of the box who does what site should do far more often and lets fly and keeper Maxwell makes an almighty flap of it but manages to keep it out.
The five minutes of pressure then pays with some patient play around the edge of the box before Smallbone finds Stuart Armstrong on the left his first time across his met by Adam Armstrong, who darts in front of his defender before stabbing the ball into the corner of the net. Brilliant finish and happy days.
Half time and a second goal will clearly be enough to put this to bed. There doesn’t appear to be any need for any changes, just a need to keep the intensity up and keep the ball, push for a second and not do anything dumb. We had in truth been largely untroubled all half but there were a couple of breaks by Huddersfield that we had eventually snuffed out, mainly because they only committed one player forward.
However, Saints start the second half like a fucking drain with Bednarek giving the ball away on the half-way line which gives Huddersfield the platform to build up down the left with Thomas flashing a ball across the box which is eventually stabbed behind for a corner by Bree. More Huddersfield pressure down the left-hand side ends with more chaos and Koroma’s shot deflected wide.
Huddersfield now have their tails up and we are absolutely still in the changing room and it doesn’t take too long for Russell Martin to replace Sulemana with Edozie. It’s been another hit and miss display by Sulemana. Looking electric in places and coming out after half-time and looking like he just can’t be bothered when it gets a bit difficult.
Headley bundles past three half-arsed challenges on the left which gives Koroma another chance to shoot which Baz flaps away somewhat unconvincingly. We are trying to play, as you expect but no one is putting their body on the line to secure and keep possession, with both Stuart Armstrong and Smallbone coughing up possession cheaply to give Huddersfield the ball and give us some defending to do.
Saints finally get some play in the Huddersfield half and on 70 minutes, Stuart Armstrong knocks a ball back for Edozie to shoot but it’d well saved by Maxwell and Fraser’s follow is blocked for a corner which nothing comes from.
Ten minutes to go and it looks like we’re not really going put Huddersfield away so it’s now a case of can we hang on or not. Koroma causes more problems down the right and fires over a brilliant cross along the 6-yard line and Thomas just has to run into it but, probably impaired by his ridiculous hairdo the ball slapped him on his 50p head at an angle the sent it wide. Dreadful miss.
More Huddersfield pressure and Edozie gives away a dopey freekick on the edge of the box. In it comes and Helik, all 6 foot 8 of him, being marked by Wee Man Ryan Fraser, heads wide of the post with a free header.
It seems a little bit too late but on come Manning, Stewart and Charles in place of Bree, Stuart Armstrong and Fraser but it’s still all Huddersfield with Jackson who looked across it in with his left foot and his inswinging cross flies over Bednarek and bounces and beats the dive of Bazunu into the far corner. For fuck‘s sake - it’s a slightly fortunate goal but we cannot possibly complain about Huddersfield equalising.
Seven minutes of injury time to go and we show a bit of urgency but not enough and when the final whistle went, I was happy enough to get out with a point. No last-minute goal and in truth we didn’t deserve one. The horrible, almost complacent start to the second half killed the tempo of our performance and we could never pick it up again. It was like we expected Huddersfield just be dazzled by our brilliance and accept their fate and not do anything. Great lads – however, we gave them the encouragement at the start of the second half and to be fair to them they kept on pressing. Okay, it’s a lucky goal because basically it was a cross but you can’t deny that Huddersfield deserved the point for being the better side in the second half.
It was a bad day all round and maybe Russell Martin being in the stands rather than dugout played a part. The substitutions came far too late. Once the other team puts us under pressure for a sustained period of time and starts getting a foot in, then it is not the kind of game for Will Smallbone and he needs to come off as soon as possible. Shea Charles should’ve been on for him a lot earlier than he was. It wasn’t just Smallbone who is off the pace in the second half. Sulemana went from being a regular threat in the first half to being absolutely nothing in the second and the same happened to Stuart Armstrong. Adam Armstrong did as usual, not a lot and then scored a very good goal but his second half performance was lacking as well. Ryan Fraser did nothing but cement his place as an impact substitute – the trouble being that he started the game today.
The goal conceded was fortunate as said but could have been prevented. Bednarek misjudges the flight of the ball and you could argue that Bazunu did also by assuming that Bednarek was going to head it. Maybe that’s harsh on the keeper but I do wonder if he could have done better.
You can’t win every game of course and at least we kept the unbeaten run going but that second-half performance was absolutely pathetic. In all honesty, the first 35 minutes of the first half wasn’t great either as though we controlled the ball and had a lot of possession, we created precious little with it with nothing sticking up front. On about 40 minutes Stuart Armstrong hit the post, Smallbone made the goalkeeper work and then we scored…. And then we thought we’d done all we needed to do. It’s not good enough though just to score once and expect the other team to do nothing.
Russell was allowed down from the stands to do the post match interviews and wasn't happy. Stopping short of outright blaming the players, he blamed the players for not following instructions and the lack of second half intensity. He doesn't tend to give too much away in interviews as he's very level headed but the frustration of being in the stands and the annoyance at the performance was plain to see. It's comforting to know that like me, he gets annoyed about shite performances.
On to a home game on Wednesday against Bristol City where we have to get back on track after today’s disappointment. Other promotion chasing teams had mixed results with Ipswich losing and Leeds dropping points at Rotherham. We would have gone up to 3rd place with a win but maybe this is a point gamed rather than two dropped but it doesn’t really feel like it right now. All we have can do is worry about our own performances and results and the league table will ultimately look after itself.
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