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 complacent start the second half started with Bednarek giving the ball away
needlessly with a crap pass on half-way and from that Huddersfield one a couple
of corners and we basically didn’t get the ball out of a penalty area for about
five minutes. The sloppiness set the tone and that was the all the
encouragement that Huddersfield needed and it gave them belief that they could
get something out of a game that they shouldn’t have got a sniff at getting
anything out of.

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 3^rd 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.