A Monday night trip along the coast to the East,
neatly bypassing Portsmouth, to the Amex Stadium to play Brighton in front of
2000 of their fans, which according to high-profile fans of Manchester United
and Manchester City, will give them an enormous advantage. We will see.
Brighton have had about 20,000 more than us on our last couple of visits down
there and we’ve managed to win both times. With today’s game being on a Monday
night, and the majority of this weekend’s games already being played, Saints
slipped down to 8th so really need a win to put ourselves back in the title
race. Ha ha ha.

In order to help us do that, it’s been nice to see Danny Ings back in training
though it has become a notable undercurrent of most press conferences recently,
that he has not signed a new contract that has been offered to him as yet. This
is unlike Jan Bednarek who has committed until 2025 which is great news from a
player who you would think, is only going to get better. With Nathan Redmond
also fit and ready for return to action we should have more or less our
strongest squad available. There was even positive news about Mohammed Salisu
but I think you can safely assume that he will play for the B team before he is
in contention for a first team start.

Brighton are of course managed by Graham Potter and he has been charged with
changing the style this season but he is hamstrung by the fact that he hasn’t
got any forwards who are really worthy of the name, so for all their pretty
approach play, they are still going to struggle to score too many goals. Neil Maupay
did a decent enough job last year and he is usually backed up by one of Aaron
Connolly or Danny Welbeck.  Welbeck,
along with our old friend Adam Nivea Twat Lallana, is one of two injury prone overpaid has-beens
that they signed in the summer. Mind you, I’m sure they would say the same
about Theo Walcott but in Theo’s case, we have yet to commit to 3 years of high
wages. Lallana, unsurprisingly for a player could only play for 60 minutes when
he was 24, has already been injured about three times since he moved to
Brighton, his latest injury coming after an eight minute substitute appearance
against Liverpool.

Elsewhere, Brighton are solid enough defensively with a combination of Webster,
Dunk, Burn, Veltman and White (who was released by Saints at 16 – I had no
idea).  In goal, they have Mat Ryan who
combines unbelievable saves with moments of extreme flapping, and he did ruin what
would’ve been the moment of last season when he stopped Vestergaard’s 40-yard pile
driver by tipping it onto the bar.  At
wing back (usually), Brighton also have the massively hyped midget Tariq
Lamptey who got absolutely rinsed at St Mary’s last year, so much so that he
had to be substituted.  On the other side
is Solly March who is a winger who is decent going forward but can’t defend for
shit,  so there should certainly be some
opportunities out wide.

For me, Potter has a bit of a free-hit this season as I cannot see them being
in the bottom three but equally, they are not going to pull up any trees either
so it is certainly a game that we should be looking to go and win.

Ralph went for consistency in the starting line-up in that we had the same
starting XI as last week but with Redmond and Ings on the bench, along with
Forster, Diallo, Stephens and bloody hell, Salisu – we look very strong there.
Shane Long is on there of course in case there is a need to bring a striker to
control the ball with both knee, which is a skill move that few attempt and
even fewer can master. Ralph’s a pre-match interview tells us that he didn’t
want to start Danny Ings because he doesn’t like starting players that he knows
he’s going to have to take off.

Away we go and we don’t start off to convincingly.  It’s a bit like the start of the United game
where we get hustled out of our passing rhythm. 
A ball into KWP on the right-hand side is a little bit short and Brighton
and break on us through March down the left hand side. He gets to the edge of
the box before rolling it across to meet the run of Welbeck, who demonstrates
why he’s never been a good finisher and passes it straight to McCarthy.

Our piss poor start of the game is confirmed a few minutes later as Connolly flicks
the ball up in the air and Welbeck and JWP challenge for it and for some reason,
JWP has got his arm up in the air and the ball flicks off it and at the current
climate that is always going to be given as a penalty.  Bollocks. 
What’s his arm doing up there? No one on Sky, not least the dismal Alan
Smith, points this out of course because after all, they’re only paid to tell
you what’s going on… but the reason JWP’s arm is in the air is because he is
appealing for a handball by Welbeck and you can see his case but the bottom
line is the ball has hit JWP his arm and his arm is up in the air so it is
always going to be a penalty. Up steps Pascal Gross, a small stutter and he sends
McCarthy the wrong way to give Brighton the lead. Having watched the replay, it
did in fact look like a handball by Welbeck but again, no one on Sky gave a
shit.

We’ve been average everywhere but Djenepo in particular is having an absolute
mare. Having already been booked, he is running round like Sonic the Hedgehog
on speed and every time he goes anywhere near a Brighton player, I am terrified
that he is going to get sent off. He looks so out of control. I am not going to
be remotely surprised if he doesn’t come out for the second half.

Saints finally managed to put a bit of pressure on towards the end of the first
half and win a corner as Armstrong’s close range shot is blocked. Over it comes
from JWP and fuck me, what a header. Vestergaard is literally miles above Lewis
Dunk and crashes the header past Ryan who has absolutely no chance.  Do you remember about a year ago when he
struggled to get off the ground?  This is
a masterpiece of timing, technique, power and of course, being fucking massive.

There is a classic bit of refereeing from David Coote as the half comes to a
close. Saints win a throw-in over on the right wing and the linesman clearly
flags for Saints throw. A Brighton player picks the ball up and takes it and
the referee wavess play on. Well that’s just fucking brilliant. What a clown.

JWP Shows Jannik How He Gave the Penalty Away

Half time and we’re fortunate to be level because we’ve not been great.  Brighton are pretty poor to be honest and I
feel that we only need to up our game a little bit and this is there for the
taking.  To that end, Djenepo is taken
off and Ralph clearly thinks that Danny Ings can play 45 minutes, so he comes
on with Walcott dropping to the left-hand side. 
The pairing with Adams just hasn’t worked today – not really their fault
given the poor service but Ings coming on makes me feel better about
everything.

Still, we start poorly again and Bednarek has a wobbly moment and comes rushing
out for a ball is never going to get and they are around him and there’s a
brief period of chaos before the ball ends up comfortably with McCarthy.
Tempting fate this perhaps but you are always going to struggle to score when
you’ve got Welbeck and Connolly upfront. Just not good enough. Plain and
simple.

We now begin to take over and a lovely touch by Ings sends Armstrong away and
he drives forward before finding Walcott who cuts in on his right foot and curls
it just wide of the far post.  It’s like
he aims there and is very accurate.  Ings
has a flicked header saved comfortably by Ryan and an increasingly rare
Brighton break ends with Gross smashing miles over the bar from the edge of the
box.

Redmond comes on for Walcott for the last 20 minutes and his first contribution
is to seize on a wonderful bit of close control ball-juggling by Ings and smash
it over the bar from 6 yards. If I had produced a bit of skill like Ings had
just produced to juggle it over a defender, I would’ve been fucking furious if
someone to come in and smashed it over the bar like that. It was a bit like
watching Peter Kay on that Sunday League themed commercial all those years ago.

There are 10 minutes ago and the ball is with Vestergaard in the centre of the
pitch and it produces a lovely left-footed ping over the top of March and onto
the chest of KWP who chests it forward and March barges him in the back. The
referee gives a free kick on the corner of the penalty area and the initial
contact was definitely outside of the box but over to VAR we go. There is an
element of doubt because KWP has hit the deck in the penalty area but surely
not. One minute goes by, two minutes goes by and on the screen we are going
backwards and forwards in slow motion and full speed but as time goes on I’m
beginning to get the feeling that we might actually get a penalty out of this.
David Coote, the referee, is synonymous with having a nightmare regarding VAR
but this is nothing to do with him, this is some other ref in Stockley Park and
fuck me… penalty. The Brighton players are going mental and who can blame them
and then they obviously show it on the screen in the stadium and you can see
the Brighton players looking at it and saying that it was outside the box. Penalty
it is though and up steps Danny Ings to smash it into the inside side netting,
sending Ryan the wrong way. Get in!!! 
Who gives a shit if it was harsh – not I.

With 10 minutes to go, you know there are going to be a couple of moments and
the biggest one is when the otherwise excellent Romeu gets burgled in midfield
and Gross sets up Maupay but he spins and passes it wide of the far post. There
is a flicked header by Trossard which goes straight to the goalkeeper, but
Saints are defending really well in the main, helped by the fact the Brighton
are just hopefully going forward and getting increasingly more desperate. The final action of
the game is a freekick launched into the Saints penalty area and fittingly,
it’s Vestergaard who gets up to smash it away with that big beautiful forehead
of his.

What do they say about teams who don’t play well and win? What did they say
about it’s better to be a lucky team that a good team? Who cares what they say
and who cares about Sky shitting on about VAR for fucking ages after the final whistle?
It’s in the book, Brighton 1 Southampton 2 and the mighty Saints move up to 5th
place in the league. You fucking love to see it.

In truth it was a game where all three goals were set pieces and there wasn’t a
lot of great forward play. What there was was from us in the second half when
Danny Ings was on the pitch. I don’t really remember either goalkeeper making a
save of note in the entire game. Brighton’s goals down to a brain fart by JWP,
wandering round the penalty area with his arm in the air like he was asking to go
to the toilet. Like I said, he was appealing for a handball by Welbeck, which
is why his hand was in the air when the ball hit it. It’s not deliberate but I
have absolutely no problem with that being given as a penalty. Our first goal
was just a good delivery as usual from JWP and an absolutely wonderful header
by Vestergaard. I thought it will be more difficult to top that header he scored
against Aston Villa but this is better as he gets up and absolutely powers it
back across and into the far corner, giving the goalkeeper absolutely no
chance. And then there was the penalty that won it.

We had already established that David Coote is a fucking useless referee but
having given the freekick outside the box, I find it incredible that VAR can
decide that there was definitely a foul inside the box. I would be absolutely
spitting feathers if that was given against us. Obviously, we will take it and
KWP must have springs in his heels to reach the penalty area from where the
initial contact was. I mean, it was a completely brain-dead challenge by Solly
March who had been caught out but I guess you have to put it down to win
some/lose some and we will doubtless get a shocker given against us at some
point later on in the season. From memory, Brighton had one against them a few
weeks ago up at Spurs so I am not surprised they are not feeling terribly good
about it.

Sky’s interviewer after the game managed to ask Danny Ings about it twice, then
he asked Graham Potter about and got a very classy answer as Potter instead
wanted to focus on the fact that Brighton hadn’t played particularly well in
the second half and then they asked Ralph about it he just said it was a
definite penalty, which made me laugh. Sky and their pundits all go on about
not liking VAR but they fucking love it because they give it so much oxygen.  Before they had VAR, all they did was pillory
the referees when they made mistakes and demand that we bought in VAR.  Even Charlie Austin wanted it and he’s a
legend.

As for the overall performance – well it wasn’t great. The first half in
particular was absolutely piss poor until we equalised.  It was really only Vestergaard and KWP who
looked anyway decent in the first half but in the second half, Ings, JWP and
Romeu also came to the party. Vestergaard was brilliant throughout, having a
superb game defensively, scoring the first goal and setting up the second goal
with a superb diagonal ball to KWP.

On the downside, the Adams and Walcott pairing up front didn’t do particularly well in the first
half, so the return of Danny Ings has not come a moment too soon. As mentioned
before, Djenepo didn’t have a great day and Stuart Armstrong had flashes but in
general, carried on his recent downturn in form.

Onwards. It was important after the Man United game to get another win because
if we had only drawn this game it would’ve been three games without a win and suddenly,
you’re starting to worry about where the next win is coming from. Next up is
the return of fans to St Mary’s. As I write, it doesn’t seem that I have been
successful in the ballot, so I’ll be watching on the TV again. We are of course
at home against a team in Sheffield United, who have only won one point this
season. It is prime Southampton fuck up territory. Let’s see how we get on.