This evening‘s game against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road has taken on new significance with Saints decision to part company with Will Still on Sunday evening.

It’s funny really. He was always going to get sacked once “Sport Republic go out of our club”, rang round St Mary’s on Saturday, because Sport Republic were always going to do something as a result of being the brunt of all the criticism. If they thought for one second that the criticism aimed in their direction was going to calm down with the manager departing, then they are sadly mistaken because if anything, it’s thrown their escapades over the last three years into greater spotlight.

Their football related decisions have course been questionable at best and they’ve had to make another one regarding who was going to manage the team for the next two games until the international window. Their choice is Tonda Eckert, a 32-year-old manager from abroad, who has never been a player at any decent level. That sounds familiar doesn’t it. Anyway, it’s only temporary I’m telling myself and I’m also telling myself that even if there’s some sort of miracle and we win the next two games, then he won’t be appointed. And another thing, he bears more than a passing resemblance to Ruben Selles, which is not a good thing for my PTSD. Apparently, Spors holds Eckert in high regard and doesn’t rule him out of the permanent job, which is almost word for word what was said when Selles took over temporarily when we sacked Nathan Jones.

There has been a lot spoken of course about who will be the next permanent manager and by that I mean, there has been a lot of bollocks spoken…. well, you hope it’s bollocks anyway.

Russell Martin seems to have many friends in the media who are talking him up as a possible replacement because of course, he got us promoted last time. For that particular ship to turn round and dock in Southampton again, I feel it is far too soon because he would be rejoining the people who sacked him and his reputation was somewhat tarnished by the end, not to mention what that would do for the fanbase bearing in mind that a lot of people blame him for a lot of what goes wrong on the pitch even now, with our tendency to go sideways and backwards and not actually go anywhere. Whether that’s fair or not, by giving him the job you would be giving it to a man who was responsible for the first 18 games of our 4 wins from 51 streak or whatever it is that we are on. All in all, I don’t see it myself and I don;t think it would be a good idea for anyone, including Russell. His girlfriend supports us though so you never know.

Every manager that’s listed as a possibility sees me shaking my head about something so I come to the conclusion that I’m not gonna be 100% happy with whoever we appoint. I’ve seen it said that we don;t want a manager who has recently been sacked but unless you take a manager from another club, virtually every manager your point is going to have recently been sacked by someone relatively recently

So, the list of potential managers fall into different categories for me.

There are some out there who have slightly questionable managerial records, like Steven Gerrard and Patrick Vieira but they are the big characters with massive standing in the game, that I think we need. Like it or not, the new manager is going to have to get more out of our existing players, so maybe a big name is what they need.

There are some out there who are not working who you know if you think about it logically, would have no interest in coming to Southampton, like Ralph Hasenhüttl or Gareth Southgate.

There are some on the list who we have absolutely zero chance of getting because why would they leave their current job top join this basket case, like Lee Carsley, Frank Lampard or Mark Robins

And then you have all the unheard of just-out-of-school textbook coaches who you have never heard of, who Sport Republic are likely to go for because they think they’re clever, even after years of evidence to the contrary. I guess all will become clear soon enough but in the meantime, I sincerely hope that Tonda Eckert masterminds two wins from the next two games.

With Sport Republic and managers being in the spotlight, the players are largely flying under the radar, despite being equally to blame for the current shit show, but at least there was some good news on the playing side with the signing of Oriol Romeu as a free agent. Though he’s now 34, the news of his signing was the first time I’ve smiled in a non-black humour way about Southampton Football Club for quite awhile. It’s almost like we need the man, the leader, more than we need the player but right now, we do need the player because Shea Charles is injured and we need other options in the centre of midfield. I hope the Oriol still has enough in the tank to play consecutive games and we’re not in a situation like we were with Adam Lallana last season where he was really doing a lap of honour and contributing fuck all to the playing cause. I’m sure that once he gets into the dressing room, Ori is going to be absolutely horrified by the standards and I think there will be some home truths spoken to a number of players who will be thrown kicking and screaming out of their ivory towers hopefully, These feckless bastards will be scared to death of him.

He is not available today and Tonda has basically said that we have the same squad that we had against Preston at the weekend. Tonda has been forced to play the same three at the back formation that the first team were using as manager of the under 21s, so it will be interesting to see if he’s formed the opinion that it’s the absolute bag of shit that it certainly is, with the players we’ve got available. In his last game for the 21s, Tonda‘s team were saved from defeat by a Gavin Bazunu header in the last minute, which the keeper saved and was then bundled into the net. If that’s enough to get Gavin back in the team with his natural aversion to saving shots, then I will not see that as a good start.

With all the focus being on us today, we have to remember the opposition and QPR have been a mixed bag so far, looking for all the world like a team that will be in mid table all season. There are a few notable players like Steve Cook, who couldn’t run five years ago when he left Bournemouth. Isaac Hayden was a decent Premier League performer for Newcastle before all the money rolled in and on the wing, they have Ilias Chair, who gave James Bree absolute nightmares two years ago when we played them here and in the end he pulled his hamstring trying to catch him. Up front they have Richard Kone who has managed four goals this season having joined from Wycombe in League one, where he was absolutely prolific last season. Another striker who would probably make our team better.

Tonda‘s first team sheet had Gavin Bazunu as the first name on it, which was a bit of a major surprise considering that Macca has not done a lot wrong since he came into the team. Jack Stephens was restored in place of Ronnie Edwards, which is not altogether surprising but disappointing for Edwards going back to QPR. Tom Fellows has given another run at wing back and Jay Robinson is preferred to other options like Finn Azaz, further up the field.

QPR immediately show a desire to play suicide ball from the back and Adam Armstrong is buzzing around like all forwards do when they’re playing against teams who want to do this when they’re not very good. Jack Stephens intercepts a wayward pass around half-way and does what everyone should do and finds Scienza, who combines with Robinson to send Armstrong away and an early effort flashes off a defender and goes for a corner. Any chance to put pressure on ends, as Leo‘s corner is met by Flynn Downes 50p head and straight into the crowd

Scienza finds Fellows over on the right with a rare chance to run a fullback and the ball bounces off the QPR player and back to Fellows, who chips it back into the middle to where Robinson piles in and the ball breaks to Manning at the back post who must score but somehow, he is the only thing that ends up in the net and the defender comes away with the ball. I’m really not sure how he hasn’t scored there. There are half arsed appeals for a penalty but you’re not getting a penalty for that.

With Baz in goal, we know we’re not going to see any corners punched away and QPR’s first corner of the game is swinging to the 6 yard line and there’s a bit of carnage before it’s knocked back to the edge of the box and a shot comes in from Madsen through bodies, and it’s kicked away by Downes in front of Baz who probably had it covered.

More pressure when a free kick given away by Armstrong about 40 yards out is swung into the box and brakes to Burrell on the right who has the whole goal to shoot at but luckily he takes an absolutely shit touch and eventually runs out of room and crosses the ball to no one.

QPR are in the ascendancy now and a bit of a pinball in our box, with some committed defending it has to be said, ends with a shot coming in from 30 yards which is always rising comfortably over the bar. Why are we talking about this? Because nothing else really happened and it’s half time and a pretty non-descript half which won’t live long in the memory, containing as it did, zero shots on target from either side.

The second half is five minutes old as THB clears down the right hand side and finds Robinson who tries to control it as it comes over his shoulder and it runs to a defender, but a bad touch allows Robinson to get a foot in and knock it to Armstrong. Armstrong returns it to him on the edge of the penalty area and Jay works himself a bit of room before drilling it goalwards and it flicks off a defender and flies in the top corner of the net. Get the fuck in there.

Now for the traditional five minutes where we go to shit but before that, good hassling from Armstrong again sees the ball break to Robinson in midfield and fuelled by the confidence of scoring, he sets off towards the edge of the box, but this time unfortunately shanks it wide.

Now it’s time to allow QPR to get into the game and Burrell takes on Jack Stephens who looks like he’s running in treacle and the low shot at the near post is comfortably pouched by Baz, at least as comfortably as he ever pouches or anything. 65 minutes and somewhat surprisingly, off comes Armstrong to be replaced by Damion Downs and Jay Robinson has began to cramp up so often he goes to allow Azaz to come on.

Azaz first contribution is to give the ball to Scienza, ten yards inside aour own half and he turns and off he goes, chased by QPR defenders but no one closes him down until he gets towards the end of the penalty area and with no back lift and without breaking stride, pings and absolutely brilliant effort into the far bottom corner of the net giving the keeper, no chance at all. This man is a genius.

Unfortunately, as the game restarts, Scienza clatters into someone and has to be replaced and Eckert takes the opportunity to take Tom Fellows off as well. It’s like for like at right back with Roerslev coming on and it’s Joe Aribo who comes on for the main man so we now have a front line of Aribo, Downs. and Azaz, three quarters of a really crap 100 metre relay team.

Unsurprisingly, QPR through the sink at and a harmless looking ball gets chipped over the defence and Baz comes for it like a wet lettuce and Burrell gets a foot to it in front of him and after Baz has sailed on past without the ball, knocks it into an empty net. For fuck‘s sake.

QPR sub Dembele on the wing is looking like a handful. Manning is on that side of the pitch but may as well not be as the sub fires a low cross right across the 6 yard line and Burrell goes flying in and clatters into the far post, not taking the ball with him.

We are restricted now to breaks and fuck ups presented to us by QPR and Morrison gives the ball straight to Azaz on the left, who goes through and the creator with all the numbers from his time at Middlesbrough, has a simple task to roll the ball across to Damion Downs but totally over hits it and the chance goes by.

Dembele is still causing us problems and he pisses past Azaz easily and gets to the line but luckily he makes a shit decision and tries to shoot and it goes wide of the far post. Ilyas Chair is coming more into the game now he has moved onto the left-hand side and he borrows infield before curling a kind of non-descript effort towards the goal but it’s only non-descript until Baz goes down in instalments and spills it out and combination of Stephens and Manning bail him out.

Six minutes of stoppage time to go and more crosses coming into the box and a flicked header which Bass gets up and tipped over the bath somewhat awkwardly to concede a corner which we survive. It’s now just crosses raining into the box, usually headed away by either THB or Woody but when they can;t get to it, Baz does not look comfortable under a high ball but gets lucky as he mistimes another catch and somehow comes up with it, and we survive again. 96 minutes are up and the ball is with the keeper and you know what referees are looking for this season and if you hang onto the ball too long, they’re gonna blow the whistle after eight seconds and give a corner against you it sure as shit, that’s what happens and so we have another one to survive as the clock ticks 97 which lucky, for Baz’s sake, we manage to do.

We’ve only gone and won a fucking game. Did we deserve it? Maybe. Was it a little bit fortunate? Possibly. Do we give a fuck? The answer of that last question is definitely no because we needed to get over the line in a game and we did. At times it felt like a QPR equaliser at the end from another fuck up was inevitable but hold on we did and three points come back down the M3, thank you very much.

Things did undoubtedly go for us a little bit today. Jay Robinson‘s goal owed quite a bit to fortune but then we’ve had those go against us this season. Middlesbrough at home was almost identical and that it takes a mad deflection and ends up flying in the top corner of the net. There is no luck about the second goal whatsoever, which was absolute quality from Leo Scienza, picking up the ball in his own half and just running directly past people before with very little backlift, wrapping the ball into the far corner of the net. Absolutely brilliant goal.

At 2-0 we were absolutely never going to calmly see the rest of the game and it came to pass that Tonda Eckert’s most contentious selection, Gavin Bazunu, was at the centre of it all. He barely touched the ball until we were 2-0 up before conceding an absolute dreadful goal, making a colossal fuck up in coming for a ball with no conviction, which allowed Burrell to pull one back. Everything looked so awkward – the tip over the bar, the spilled shot straight at him, the catch in traffic that he was fortunate to get away with as he was on the way down when he should have been at his highest point and then of course, the ridiculous conceding of a corner in the 96th minute for holding onto the ball for too long. He must be the only goalkeeper ever to be recalled as the result of a good header in an under 21s game.

We got away with it thanks to particularly committed defending from Nathan Wood and THB because they also had to make up for the struggling Jack Stephens who was severely blowing out of his arse at the end of the game. He did okay though overall. At full-back, Tom Fellows struggled defensively but thankfully wasn’t tested too much and I think it worked out well that Ilias Chair was playing centrally and not out on the left like he normally does. It needs to come a point when this belief that Fellows is a wingback rather than a winger, gets put in the bin.

Makeshift though Fellows defending was, it was still better than on the other wing where Ryan Manning on the left was doing Ryan Manning things all game, mainly giving away pointless free kicks and not stopping any crosses coming into the box. He should have of course, scored in the first half as well, possibly looking for a penalty rather than making sure he scored at the back post but I think it was down to wanting to take it with his left foot. If he’s taken it with his right or headed it, he scores but letting the ball run across his body to his left, gave the defender a chance to engage and the chance went.

In midfield, Flynn Downes and Caspar Jander were overworked but managed to keep things solid enough though there wasn’t a lot of go-forward from either of them. Jander in particular is the one who was bought into the team to play on the half turn and pass the ball forward, but I’m beginning to think it’s just a limitation of having just two players in midfield that makes doing this very difficult.

Adam Armstrong actually had a fairly decent game despite getting hooked on 65 minutes. I certainly felt he could’ve been left on for another 10 or 15 minutes, especially given the option that we had when replacing him. There was a little bit more hold up play from Arma today, knocking the ball off to Robinson or Scienza who both had good moments mixed up with the occasional bit of wastefulness. Both scored though and that’s all they need to take away from this game. Robinson‘s goal was reward for having a go and Scienza’s goal was that of an absolutely class player.

Damion Downs after he had got through his opening 15 minutes without touching the ball, did a little bit more than he has done in previous appearances which is really not saying much of course and Finn Azaz, another substitute, should’ve given him his first goal on a plate but absolutely butchered a break from the left left-hand side when all he had to do was roll it across . There is no guarantee that Downs would not have fallen over or missed it or something but he should’ve at least had the opportunity.

QPR will come away from that thinking they are unfortunate but to be honest they didn’t do enough to warrant coming away with a point. Apart from scoring from our massive fuck up, they never really threatened too much, even when Baz was giving them every opportunity to equalize.

Onward we go to Saturday and Sheffield Wednesday and hopefully the little bit of fortune that we had today will not be needed against the League‘s bottom side. They are still playing with some spirit however, so we cannot take this game for granted and I really hope that Tonda maintains his 100% record and then goes back to managing the under 21s. Tonda had a good day today with the three points and managing to get a more committed performance out of the same players who didn’t put it in for the manager who they got sacked last week. Until Saturday, I’m going for a lie down to get over the PTSD of seeing a Ruben Selles lookalike on the touch line.