Ori Remembers to Duck

Saints respond reasonably well with Che Adams picking out Tino on the right-hand
side with loads of space to run into and he advances and drills in a cross shot
with bounces off the far post, off the back of the goalkeeper and bounces clear
from Adams. Fucking lucky bastards. Where was that luck when we were a shambles
at the back in the opening couple of minutes?

Salisu is playing like a man who has not played for 2 years, let alone 2
matches and is generally having a shocker, which extends to another mistake when
he misses a header and gets outmuscled by the tiny Maupay.  The ball eventually finds its way to Danny
Welbeck on the left, who forces Fraser into a standard save at the near post.

Salisu is not being helped by partner Bednarek and they try and pass it to
eachother until Bednarek wafts if out of play and whilst they are arguing about
who was the more shite, everyone switches off again from the throw and Trossard
is allowed to run towards goal and win a corner. The corner is met by Lewis
Dunk and Maupay flicks into the net but he is a good 5 yards offside. We are
causing all our own problems again and Brighton are really not having to work
very hard for their shooting opportunities.

There is a worrying development soon
after as Tino goes to close down Mwepu and collapses in a heap. Like they did
when their centre forward tried to break Yan Valery’s leg a couple of years
ago, the Brighton fans booed the fact that the referee stopped the game but
everyone with half a brain cell could see this was a serious one. There is
about a five-minute break whilst Tino is loaded onto a stretcher and taken
away. Grim. Get well soon Tino.

Perraud is on with KWP switching but we are still no better and we play
ourselves into the shit as Romeu dawdles, loses the ball and Trossard gets it
across to Welbeck and like with the opening goal, there is a big scramble but
this time we get lucky has Forster blocks the shot and we scramble it clear.    Even when we attack we look clueless and JWP
puts a cross into the Brighton penalty area which gets cleared out as far as
Perraud who takes far too long to realise what’s going on and now Brighton are
on the break with and Mwepu and Welbeck on the right hand side. Welbeck finds
Trossard who returns a hopeful pass towards Welbeck but Salisu and Romeu don’t
appear to be talking to each other, meaning Salisu diving in and clipping it
superbly into his own net via the post. Great finish. For fuck‘s sake…

2-0 down we’ve been fucking dreadful, but an aimless punt forward brings hope
as Tella puts Cuccurella under pressure and he loses the ball, eventually
trashing the Saints winger on the edge of the penalty area and we all know what
this means. It’s very central but up steps JWP. It’s amusing because the
Brighton fans behind the goal are trying to put him off like you would normally
try and put off a penalty taker. This this time he goes around the wall to the
keepers side but Sanchez has tried to anticipate it and taken that one step
that means he has absolutely killed himself in the ball nestles in the bottom
corner via post. Quite brilliant.

In at half-time just the one behind. To be honest, we have been absolute
fucking rubbish so far with no cohesion in attack and we look absolutely
shambolic in defence. If we don’t sort the defence out then we got absolutely
no chance of not conceding a goal in the second half, so that’s the first
priority, but having got a goal back, we at least have a chance.

No changes at half-time but we are immediately different team. We have stepped
up and we are pushing onto the Brighton players and we are finding that they
are not in fact very good under pressure.   Even when not under pressure, Webster gives
the ball away to Romeu who finds Tella out on the left hand side. He takes on
Veltman before finding Romeu on the edge of the box who becomes possessed by
the spirit of Iniesta and Xavi and produces a backheel and JWP absolutely laces
it into the bottom corner of the net giving Sanchez absolutely no chance at
all. Absolute scenes in the away end – red smoke and everything. What a fucking
goal.

Who wants it more?  Saints are the better
side now of course and we create another chance through persistence as Salisu nods
a clearance back into the box and it drops down for the talismanic Shane Long
to attempt to curl one in to the far top corner but Sanchez pulls off one for
the cameras.  I feel that there would
have been a pitch invasion if that had gone in.

Tella, who has been decent then falls foul of the usual and has to go off with
cramp and is replaced by Stuart Armstrong. 
Not long after, Shane is poured off the pitch and on comes Broja.

There’s a heart in mouth moment as Trossard gets always on the left-hand side
and finds substitute Gross in the centre forward position, surrounded by 20
yards of space and no central defenders.  We seem to be assuming that he’s offside but
he takes the touch, orders a pint of Guinness, lets it settle, wonders where
the defenders are, lines up a shot and smashes it into the bottom corner.  It is offside isn’t it? …. linesman‘s flag has
gone up straight away. However, it is slightly disconcerting that the VAR check
seems to be taken quite a while but no bother, disallowed and the Brighton fans
that have made their first noise of the second half can shut up again.

As we get towards the 90, both teams seem happy with a draw.  Having been 2-0 down you have to be happy with a point at the
end of the day but boy, did we might hard work of it.  The first 40 minutes were shockingly bad with
no idea of how to defend and even less idea of how to attack. In amongst all
that we had the sight of Tino Livramento being stretchered off which as I
write, is looking like an ACL and 9 months out.  Get well soon Tino.


Our initial reaction to the Burnley defeat was to concede a
goal in a minute from Brighton’s first attack as some namby-pamby defending
allowed the cross to come in and the Forster and Salisu shambles resulted in a
tap in for Welbeck, another striker who ended his drought against Saints.  After Tino had hit the post and got injured,
we conceded an equally shambolic second as we even managed to save Brighton
having to do what they always struggle with – putting the ball in the net themselves.
 If we’d gone in 2-0 down at half-time
then I very much doubt there was any way really to get back into it but the
free kick from the man himself JWP, changed the narrative for the second half
and Brighton were always going to get nervous with their shite home record.


The second half was completely different as we seem to press
higher at the pitch and gave Brighton no time at all and forced them into
mistakes.  This is how we’re supposed to
play isn’t it? The equaliser was down to a patient build up but it had purpose and
was well set up by Romeu and excellently finished by JWP but Brighton fans will
be fuming that he was left completely unmarked on the edge of the box. I feel
that there was an opportunity for Saints to really push on and win this game
but it wasn’t to be.  We didn’t quite
do enough in the last 25 minutes and neither did Brighton.


Che Adams was brilliant today. I don’t think he gave the ball
away at all and his link up play was superb, especially in the second half.  The only problem was of course that as he was
doing all the donkey work, he wasn’t a goal threat in that I don’t think he
actually had a shot.  You need the
other striker to be the goal threat but our other striker was Shane Long so it
really wasn’t going to happen. Shane had a couple of nice touches in the second
half but in the first half was completely non-existent and there is absolutely
no way that he should’ve been out there. There was always the very slim chance
that Shane would’ve been brilliant today and prove that my assertion that he
should never be playing completely wrong. However, I was proved right and Adam
Armstrong should’ve played.



Nathan Tella contributed well down the left flank mainly,
using his pace to good affect but his lack of regular gametime was evident when
he went down with cramp and had to come off.   He did play a major part in both goals though
so I’d like to see him stay in the team for a while.  Nathan Redmond was Nathan Redmond – no more
no less. Slowing down many moves and playing the safe pass and I don’t think I
saw him take anyone on all game. He put  over a couple of decent crosses when there was
no other option but he is what he is and like with Shane, I don’t think we
should really be surprised or expect any different anymore.



Salisu had a nightmare first half but in the second half he
seemed to snap back into action and was back to being a player we know that he
can be. His resurgence was mirrored by the whole team.  Finally, what can you say about JWP.  Another different type of free-kick today to
add to the one at Wolves which means that keepers will have even less idea what
he’s going to do.  There’s going to be a
team soon who either don’t put a wall in place or put defenders on both posts.  The strike for the second goal was superb as
well – absolutely buried it.

The fact that we, as a team, played well in the second half and came back into
the game gives us hope that the next four games won’t be a complete waste of
time but at the end of the day, as a team we put in a 45 minute performance and
you are not going to get away with that too often. We need 90 minutes next week
against Crystal Palace or else we will be leaving St.Mary’s with nothing. Today
though we can finally celebrate reaching 40 points and be happy that we
finished the game in a way that we need to start the next game. Bring it on.