Sunday, February 7

The ten-man Saints go marching in

Southampton 1 West Ham United 0

Couldn't find any local pubs showing the game because of the rugby, so ended up listening on the radio. West Ham paid for a slow start, with Adrian making a fine early save from Cedric, After nine minutes Yoshida pokes home a cross from close range after Enner Valencia inadvertently knocks the ball into his path. Fraser Forster has to make a great save from Winston Reid's header but that's our best chance. 

West Ham have a lot of possession and when Wanyama is red-carded for lunging at Payet it seems we'll surely equalise. Not sure about starting with both Moses and Antonio together, though Slaven takes both off for two strikers in Emenike and Carroll. Emenike has a header wide of the post with his first touch, but we don't really threaten. The Saints twice go close on the break through Long and Austin. A late Owen Farrell-style free kick from Valencia is dubbed "the worst free kick of all time" in Matt's text from the boozer. A disappointing result against ten men, though Southampton have now kept five clean sheets in a row since the return of Forster. We must do better at struggling Norwich.

2 comments:

mj said...

Why do we start a lot of games at half speed? We need a quick tempo from the first minute not the 51st!

Pete May said...

Yep, poor in first half against Villa too...