Swindon punish squandered chances

Swindon 1, Saints 0
Which party was at fault is unclear, but certainly Nigel Adkins was put in a difficult position by one or other or both of his present and previous employers. At least the football world seems united in its view that the man conducted himself very well in the circumstances. That extends to his last TV interview as Scunthorpe boss, when he said that it was certain that the situation pertaining at the time had to be sorted out for the sake of both clubs.

We can’t comment on the Iron’s home defeat, but we had another less than stellar performance from Southampton’s all-stars, this time against Swindon. Saints once again began brightly with Martin clattering an early header against the bar, and they can probably point to several moments when they didn’t enjoy what fortune was going around. However, Swindon were one of the few teams below us in the table (they weren’t by 5 p.m.) and in Vincent Pericard they had the best player on the pitch: that alone speaks volumes.

Southampton’s best moment came early in the second half when a loose ball in the box wouldn’t fall for a forward and the move ended with a cross-cum-shot from Harding that came back off the post. Crucially though, Chamberlain conceded a soft free kick and Morrison headed against the bar, having fouled Fonte in the process, and although Austin scuffed his shot, it ended up in the net off Davis. Hammond picked up a booking for a dangerous challenge that wasn’t too different from the one that caused Barnard’s dismissal in the JPT, but Swindon’s Austin ended up being stretchered off after an accidental collision with Davis that might easily have produced a second goal. Nothing as exciting looked likely at the other end, in front of the Saints fans seated (OK, mostly stood) in something now called the Adkins Family Stand – sounds much grander than the Stratton Bank, but will they be naming a stand after Nigel at Scunthorpe?

LSSC Man of the Match: Dan Harding, but the players are trying our patience. I’m finding it difficult to resist calls for no award to be given while performances remain so uniformly poor.

· 01 Davis
· 03 Harding
· 06 Fonte
· 12 Butterfield
· 17 Martin
· 04 Schneiderlin
· 10 Puncheon (Guly 75)
· 14 Hammond
· 26 Chamberlain (Mills 81)
· 07 Lambert
· 22 Connolly