Boing, boing, fucking boing. Just three days after
our first defeat in 25 games, we do not have the ideal game to get us back on
track with a trip to The Hawthorns to face West Bromwich Albion who have
comprehensively proven themselves to be the best team outside of the top four
in the Championship this season – The Best of the Rest if you will. They, like
Bristol City, also gave us a very good game at St Mary‘s that we were somewhat
fortunate to win.
Whilst failing to win this wouldn’t be the end of the world, another defeat
would be somewhat worrying for the self-belief in the squad and the belief of
the supporters. I don’t expect anyone seriously thought we were going to go the
rest of the season without losing but the bubble of invincibility would someone
be punctured by two defeats in a row and would maybe play on peoples minds,
bearing in mind the four-game blip we had at the start of the season. I am
confident we are a much better side than we were then so I’m expecting a
response today to what was a pretty substandard outing on Tuesday.
West Brom manager Carlos Corberan and has impressively managed his squad into
the playoff positions, an achievement especially notable given the off-field
chaos that is happening at the club at the moment. News from the West Brom camp
is that they appear to have a prospective new owner who will be sat in the
crowd today, so this will be a bit of an occasion for them. Promotion to the Premier League this season
would make the new guy happy with his investment. When we played them at St
Mary‘s earlier in the season, the two biggest threats were the veteran Matt
Phillips and Grady Diangana, but neither of those have been playing recently,
Phillips through injury and Diangana through being involved in the Afcon.
Talking of which, Joe Aribo is expected to be back in the squad today and apart
from travel and what that takes out of you, he should be fresh as he didn’t get
too many minutes in Nigeria’s run to the final. The main injury worry is of
course over Flynn Downes and if he’s not available then Russell Martin has to
find a solution which preferably doesn’t involve a midfield like we’ve had when
conceding all the goals over the last two games.
The other news that followed the Bristol City game was about director of
football Jason Wilcox, who David Ornstein of all people was touting that he was
likely to be offered a position at Manchester United. Needless to say, no one
at Saints knows anything about it so this is clearly a media driven unsettling
tactic and of course United have just approached a different former City man as
head of football operations, so the link is obvious. Well, if Manchester United
wants something from your club then usually there’s not a lot you can do about
it and it ends up happening sooner rather than later. Though at a much higher
level, this has elements of Joe Shields about it, who made his name in youth
football at Tottenham before being offered a first team level role at Saints
before buggering off to the bright lights of another big club, namely Chelsea.
Let’s hope that Wilcox will want to see the job through here but I’ve thought
that on many occasions about many players and many backroom staff over the
years so I wouldn’t get your hopes up.
Team news and on the face of it, it’s not too bad. Shea Charles has been given
another chance in midfield alongside Smallbone and Stuart Armstrong, which is
as close to first choice as we are going to get today with Downes missing. Sekou
Mara has been given a run as the central striker which means Adam Armstrong
reverting to the wing of the major surprise is in defence with the shoehorn
coming out again to get Jack Stephens into the side, this time it looks like
he’s at left back.
The Referee Applies the Rules and Sets Himself Up For Load of Abuse
Jack wonders why the Skate Bastard Talking to Our Manager?
I am dreading us producing another lethargic performance like we had against
Bristol City but we start well and there’s a zip about our play as we play the
ball about and West Brom can barely get a touch. The first touch they have is on seven minutes,
when following a challenge in our left back area on Mara, the ball is rolling
along the touchline until the Baggies hyperactive manager Carlos Corboran
decides to stick his foot onto the field of play and actually touches the ball,
believing it had gone out I assume. Following a quick word with the linesman to
confirm that the ball hadn’t gone out of play, the referee comes over in waves a
red card at the West Brom manager, which seems ludicrously harsh until you
realise that thems the rules, so harsh or otherwise, he has to go.
This ridiculous miscarriage of justice (as they see it) now has the Baggies
faithful baying for blood every time the referee moves. He is now getting given ridiculous amounts of
shit for crimes like, giving Saints a corner when a West Brom player puts it
out, or for the howling error of giving us a free kick when one of their
players goes through one of ours. The main problem is that West Brom can’t get
a touch of the ball in any controlled fashion.
When we get going again Saints are knocking around the back and Baz puts THB in
the shit by leaving one a bit short but we scramble well and Bednarek takes
charge and gets it out right and we break through KWP and the ball eventually
end up with Fraser on the left and his shot flicks off a West Brom player and
goes wide for a corner, to howls of protest at the this horrible correct
decision injustice from the West Brom fans. We take it short and Stuart
Armstrong swings over and Wee Man has got himself completely free at the back
post to brilliantly cushion a volley across the goalkeeper and into the net. Oh look, more pissing and moaning from West
Brom towards the referee, in particular from Darnell Furlong who has got
himself well under the ball and he was never gonna get anywhere near it and he
happened to bump into Sekou Mara who was not moving. Not even in the Premier
League with VAR and their directive to disallow every goal if at all possible,
is that getting disallowed.
West Brom‘s prospective new owner has been here for twenty minutes and seen his manager get sent off and the team go a goal behind. He almost sees another goal straight after that as Adam Armstrong gets free on the right wing and hammers the ball across with Stuart Armstrong narrowly failing to get a touch as he slid in. Again, a West Brom defender has got a toe to the cross coming in to take it away from Armstrong, again the referee correctly gives a corner, again he’s given no end of shit by the West Brom players and supporters.
West Brom finally wake up and start causing us a few problems and after a bit of pinball, Swift takes over and hits one from 25 yards out and it’s always curling wide and Baz has it covered anyway. The direction of travel of the game has certainly changed a little bit with West Brom pouring it on now and a cross from the left is met by Furlong in the middle and his side foot volley, hits Jack Stephens and flicks over the bar. Cue much arm waving and imploring of the ref, again. When that it ‘hit’ Jack Stephens, what I actually mean is that it looks like he stuck his arm out and pushed it over the bar with his hand. They are going mental about it but the referee is having none of it. Maybe it’s a case of cry wolf? Who knows. It certainly isn't as clear as they'd like to think it is.
In comes the corner and the head of Yokuslu and Stephens has the nightmare scenario of being one yard out, facing his own goal with the ball in between him and the goal line and a player up his arse. He can do nothing and hope everyone misses it or he can do what he did – swing a leg at it and somehow send it over the bar.
Anyway, we have made it up to half-time but there needs to be a bit of a rethink for the second half because we were severely under pressure for the last fifteen minutes or so. No changes in personnel and away we go.
After kind of nondescript first 15 minutes of the second half, it’s time for an energy boost from the bench, with Shea Charles and Ryan Fraser being replaced by Afcon Aribo and Sam Edozie. Soon after, David Brooks replaces Adam Armstrong who has had a pretty average game. Carlos Corboran has obviously got on the phone from his office to his look-a-like assistant and instructed him to make a triple sub and the only reason I’m talking about this is because it was very funny seeing ex-Skate Jed Wallace‘s reaction to being substituted. Let’s just say he wasn’t particularly happy. Sit down Skate bastard.
Mara throws himself to the ground in the penalty area whilst being held by Kipre but you’re not gonna get a penalty for that and from the next attack, Aribo drives forward and tries to feed it into Mara but he loses it and West Brom try and pass out defence back but a great tackle by Bednarek wins it back. Smallbone to Aribo, out to Stuart Armstrong, into the penalty area to Edozie, low cross to Brooks, one touch away from the defender, goal, brilliant goal. Yaaaaaassssssssss! What’s most impressive is the way Brooks first touch takes it across and away from the lumbering Erik Pieters.
The game is done now. Sulemana cames on for us to flatter to deceive for a bit in place of Mara. There is just one alarm in the last five minutes as Diangana gets to the line and stands up across for Yokuslu and Baz uses his feet superbly to get across the line and tip it over the bar. It’s such an impressive save that West Brom have to delay taking the corner for about five minutes whilst all of our defenders go through the full routine of hugs and fist bumps with Baz.
Final whistle. After the lethargic performance against Bristol City just three days ago, there was always the worry that we might be a bit burnt out but what a response that was. This season has had many excellent wins but this was probably the best of the lot as we gave a pretty perfect demonstration of what Russell Martin football is all about. We dominated the ball, controlled the game and barely let West Brom get a foothold at any time.
After the rather bizarre red card shown to Corboran, which by the letter of the law, had to be administered, we took over with Ryan Fraser score in the first goal, straight off the training ground. It’s one thing to practice something in training but it’s another thing to execute it as well as that during the match. It was a superb cross by Armstrong and a wonderful finish by the Wee Man. Mara’s part cannot be underplayed with his positioning but it aint a foul if he just stands there.
The other main incident of the first half was of course the shot by Furlong which was cleverly shovelled / deflected over the bar by Captain Jack. In the Premier League, with about 20 minutes on VAR, it probably would have been a penalty, but this is the Championship so move on. Jack then produced a very impressive clearance off the line. I’m not sure he entirely meant to scoop it over the bar but that, along with the extra height defending all the crosses into the mixer, justified his selection on its own. He looked a bit like a fish up a tree on the left at times but it was worth the change today for his defensive qualities. We’ve used James Bree in similar fashion at times this season where we have a back three on the ball and a back four when they’ve got it.
Of the other slightly surprising selections by Russell, Shea Charles had a much better game than he did against Bristol City and added solidity in midfield and got his head on a few set pieces that were launched into the box by West Brom. He also provided cover behind KWP when the full-back went bombing forward. It’s obvious that Russell had spent the time since the Bristol game devising a plan to stop us being so vulnerable on the counter attack with Downes not being fit.
Surprisingly, Will Smallbone was deployed as the defensive midfielder but crucially, both Charles and Stuart Armstrong worked so hard to make sure that he didn’t get isolated where his lack of pace would be a problem. Will, for his part, was very disciplined and didn’t get caught ahead of the ball anywhere near as much as in the games against Huddersfield and Bristol City. Basically, we were much more compact in there and everyone did their job defensively. When Charles got substituted, Joe Aribo came on and carried on the good work as we closed the game out with minimal fuss apart from the one save that Baz had to make , which owed everything to his speed at getting across the line to get himself to the right position to make the save.
In an attacking sense, the subs came on and did their thing with Joe Aribo and Sam Edozie both coming off the bench to be heavily involved in the second goal for another substitute, David Brooks. It’s brilliant to see Brooks doing well and clearly enjoying his time here so far.
Russell Martin gave a very interesting interview after the game where he talked about how much he didn’t enjoy the Bristol City game when he watched it back, which probably fed into how well we played today. He had the opportunity for the Sky cameras to explain his style of football and came across as a manager totally at ease with his own philosophy and entirely comfortable in his own skin. He will probably be linked with Manchester United by the fucking Athletic now as well.
Talking of which, it turns out that no one has heard a dickie bird from Manchester United, not Jason Wilcox, not Russell Martin, not Phil Parsons the chairman - so it is 100% Manchester United leaking things to David Ornstein to try and sound out Wilcox without approaching him. Scumbag tactics but what do we expect? There was a time not so long ago when David Ornstein, like Fabrizio Romano was kind of credible but now they’ve sunk to kind of tabloid level, making and facilitating the news rather than reporting it.
This was a serious performance in response to the setback on Tuesday. This is a performance that says to Leeds and Ipswich that we are not going to fall away and that we are going to keep going till the end of the season and we are not gonna make it easy for you. It’s important and it was a brilliant performance and result today.
Back up to 2nd place for a few hours at least until Leeds visit Plymouth for the lunchtime game on Saturday (UPDATE: they won 2-0). Leeds got promoted on Wednesday when they went second in the league if you listen to the very noisy element of their fan base (most of them). The games never stop for us however and it’s another difficult one on Tuesday with the visit of Hull City.
Up the fucking one game unbeaten Saints.
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