going there at exactly the wrong time. Their start the season was the
traditionally dodgy one the team who qualify for the Europa League seem to have
but they have sorted it out now and have won their last three games including a
ridiculous 2-0 win away at Manchester City.
In the two games against them last season, I really didn’t think they were that
impressive. Sure they beat us 2-0 at Molineux but we were the better side for
most of that game and we smashed them easily at St Mary‘s. It can’t be denied
though that they had an impressive season last year, particularly in matches
against the top six big boys. It’s a good job we not one of them then.
The international break was interesting to say the least with England putting
in a really poor performance in the Czech Republic and losing. Like the Kosovo
game, this really showed up some of the limitations and certain players did
their course no good at all. Michael Keane was again dreadful and Declan Rice
didn’t look like the saviour of the English midfield that he is supposed to be.
Both of those got dropped for the game in Bulgaria which ended in a 6-0 win but
will be remembered purely for Bulgarian fans racially abusing all the black
players in the England team. I can’t add anything to the debate that hasn’t
been said already but until we start chucking these teams out of international
competitions then nothing is going to change. It’s like anything in football.
If you want to sort things out then you have to impose some proper punishments.
Closing sections of grounds clearly doesn’t work. Minimal fines clearly doesn’t
work. The thing I still don’t understand about the Bulgaria game was that after
the referee stopped the game for the second time, a large majority of the
meathead racists filed out of the ground. I find it very strange and hard to
believe that they did that of their own accord and you can’t imagine a big
group of idiots, containing the sort of people who would aim monkey chants at
players, would leave relatively quietly if asked to do so.
There’s not much to say about Saints in the international break that we’ve just
had except that Ross Wilson has moved to Rangers, which is a subject I’ve
covered elsewhere. Ralph’s press conference before this game hinted that there
may be a change in goal and also stressed how hard the players have been
working during the two weeks without a game.
There was some anticipation at seeing the team sheet for today’s game but when
it was announced, the feeling was a little bit flat. Vestergaard was back in
the team as part of a three-man defence with Bednarek and Yoshida. JWP had
retained his place in midfield despite an incredibly average season so far and
there was no change in goal after all, with Angus Gunn given another chance to
do 90 minutes without doing anything horrendous. The spine of Wolves team is
much the same as last season with Rui Patricio, Connor Coady, Willy Boly, Joao
Moutinho, Ruben Neves and Raul Jimenez all present and correct. The manager, Nuno
Espirito Santo has not yet been poached by a bigger club and he still looks
like Nathan Redmond‘s dad.
snapping about but there’s not really much incident aside from an Ings chance
from a narrow angle which is easily saved and a neat 1-2 between Hojbjerg and
Ings which the skipper curls miles over the bar. The 20th minute sees Wolves defender Ryan
Bennett goes down to be replaced by a Real Madrid loanee, Vallejo Who
immediately shows that all he has learnt in the Real Madrid academy is how to
be as dodgy as fuck. Meanwhile, we have got our own dodgy defenders on show.
Long ball forward and Vestergaard has dozed off and loses the flight of the
ball which goes over him. Gunn has come racing out like a pillock, too fast and
too far and Jiménez has knocked it round him and runs into the empty net. The
flag has gone up for something and it turns out that the forward’s controlled
the ball with his arm. It goes to VAR just to confirm it and the on field
decision stands. Well spotted linesman and the referee books Jiménez for his
troubles.
Not long afterwards, Wolves break up the left on the ball goes loose for a
second but Yoshida for some reason stands there appealing for offside or for a
foul or something and allows Wolves to nick the ball again. It goes on to
Cutrone who flicks a shot towards goal. Angus Gunn can do nothing but push it
sideways and there is Jiménez to knock it into an empty net. Fuck it. Doesn’t look
like there’s going to be any way that this is disallowed as we prepared a
kick-off. Farcically, the word then comes through that Cutrone has been offside
in the build up and it’s going to be disallowed. When the pictures come
through, sure enough, he is about two feet offside so you can bitch about it
all you like, but the goal has been correctly disallowed.
Half-time and to be honest we look like we could potentially get something out
of this game if we could discover some sort of cutting edge and Wolves continue
to have all their goals disallowed.
shite. Under no pressure he passes
straight to Ings on the edge of the box and he tries to curl a shot around
Coady but doesn’t get hold of it and it ends up as a virtual back pass. Vallejo carries on in his quest to try and
give us a goal by chipping an aimless floaty straight ball into the midfield
area. Hojbjerg wins it and powers it forward and Coady has a brain fart and
just misses the ball. Ings is away, cutting across Boly before finishing to the
goalkeepers right. The Fratton Park need slide is out again and we are 1–0 up. Wolves look to VAR but there is none.
9 minutes is all it took. Doherty picks up the ball on the right hand side and
weaves into the box past Vestergaard and Romeu and then bellyflops to the
ground under a challenge from Hojbjerg . On first viewing it looks incredibly
soft and he’s definitely helped himself to the ground but the referee gives it.
The VAR check shows that there is contact between Hojbjerg and Doherty but that
Doherty has instigated it by dragging his leg… but in VAR world, contact means
contact and we can’t possibly overrule the referee. It does make you wonder
what the fucking hell this part of the system is there for.
Gunn’s penalty saving technique has been called into question before because
collapsing into a small ball in one corner of the goal doesn’t lead to many
penalty saves. He tried to put Jimenez off by dancing along the goal line
but when the kick is actually taken, Angus doesn’t really move one way or the
other and it’s 1-1.
Substitution time with 20 to go and an interesting test to see if Ralph wants
to win this game or if he’s happy with a point. I was hoping for Boufal instead
of JWP and we nearly got that with Boufal coming on and more or less taking
JWP‘s position but JWP got bunted to right back and Valery got hooked off. I
guess That Valery’s early booking makes it sensible to take him off but I am
terrified that Nino Espirito Santo is immediately going to switch Traore to the
left wing.
10 minutes of not a lot and it’s time for another change when Romeu, who has
been arguably our best player, is removed to accommodate JWP back in the middle
and this time it’s Kevin Danso who is given the opportunity to add right-wing
back to the list of positions that are not his own where he has played for
Southampton.
We are looking like the better side as we approach the end of the game and Boufal
takes time off from running down blind alleys and mazies is across the pitch
before being clattered to the ground by Dendoncker. It’s a long way out but
JWP’s freekick is spearing towards the top corner but Patricio gets across well
to keep the score level.
Full-time and a point and a job well done.
It can’t be denied that that is a fair result and as far as we are concerned,
certainly a point we would’ve taken before the game. Wolves will point of the
two disallowed goals they have even though both of them were disallowed
correctly and we will point out the slightly dodgy penalty they got given. We
didn’t have much of a cutting edge and relied on their mistake to give us a
goal but in truth, if he the team was going to win it in the last 10 minutes,
it was us.
Danny Ings is now working harder and looking fitter than he has done at any
point during his time at Southampton. He took his goal superbly, picking up on
the mistake by Coady but the way he moved across Boly to ensure he didn’t get
tackled was the master stroke that gave him his fifth goal in four matches. I
know the ones against the useless skate bastards shouldn’t really count but
they do.
Elsewhere, Nathan Redmond had a good game apart from occasionally holding onto
the ball slightly too long and there were decent performances from Romeu And
Hojbjerg in midfield. We got a bit lucky in defence at times and actually got
away with some horrendous defending on both of the disallowed goals. Angus came
flying out to far too fast yet again on the first one and that was after
Vestergaard had totally lost the flight of the ball. On the second one, Yoshida
stood still and appealed for something rather than going into clear the ball
but he got lucky again when a genuine offside happened a bit later in the move.
VAR had a mixed game. The referee and linesman between them spotted that Jiménez
had handled the ball for the First disallowed goal so all VAR did was confirm
it. VAR got the offside that the referee and linesman missed on the second
disallowed goal so that was good but why the fuck did it take so long because
when you saw the pictures, it was pretty clear cut.. The Wolves penalty was
given by the referee so I think it has to be a clear and obvious error of VAR
to overturn it. There is contact by Hojbjerg on Doherty but Doherty initiated
it by dragging into Hojbjerg’s leg. From me, VAR should be overruling that one
as Doherty has put himself on the ground. At least we know how VAR is being
used now. Basically, the referees decision will stand unless it is fucking
horrendously wrong which in some ways is okay but that’s not how it works with
offsides where if the linesman doesn’t flag then the goal will be disallowed if
the striker is offside by the width of a blade of grass. In the case of Doherty
and the penalty he has just won. Applying VAR in this way is not going to
discourage forwards from diving because that if there is any contact at all and
the referee falls for it, then it is not going to get overturned. In my view,
the referees both out in the middle and in the VAR room have got to grow a pair
of bollocks and actually decide if a striker has been put on the ground by
contact or if he has put himself on the ground.
If we wondered before the game whether it was Angus Gunn or JWP who had the
compromising photographs of Ralph, we now know that it is JWP. Not only was he
dreadful today but we took the regular right back off and moved it JWP there to
keep him on the pitch and then took off a central midfielder and move JWP back
to there. Both of the substituted players, Valery and Romeu were both adding a
hell of a lot more to the effort than JWP. Aside from the free-kick right at
the end, there really wasn’t much of a contribution from the golden child and
at one point I found myself trying to guess whereabouts on the first man, every
JWP delivery from a wide area would hit. Would it be knee-high or hip high or
shoulder height?
After stopping the rot of three defeats in a row today, we next face Brendan
Rodgers excellent Leicester City side at home. Leicester are currently third in
the league and looking like a very good side and certainly one that will give
us a lot of problems. I am however, more optimistic after today as we looked
much better, more cohesive and more like a team than at practically any point
this season. Bring it on.
League 1 Minus 10 
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