Printer-friendly pageTuesday, August 28, 2007
As usual there was good news and bad news at St. Mary's. Visitors Stoke did without Higginbotham who was the subject of transfer interest, and they also had Pericard in gaol!
So far so good, especially as Saints now had Powell available - but then again Kenwyne Jones was on unilateral strike. Jones's side of the story has not been heard, but such actions are difficult for the fans to take; we don't want to obstruct a player's career, but there are better ways of going about things, and he would have done well to observe the dignity of the younger yet more grown up Gareth Bale.
Although such setbacks can do much to get the remaining players to work together, it looked like normal service as Powell needed lengthy treatment (who could have foreseen that?) before Stoke took the lead with a classic route 1 goal: from goalkeeper Simonsen to Sidibi and on to Fuller who and shot into an unguarded corner.
Fuller didn't need even Sidibi's assistance when he appeared to gallop clear and almost set up a second goal; I say 'appeared,' as it was a case of outpacing Wright, the only defender remaining at a corner. In between Saints had equalised with a rather good goal of their own when Safri set up Surman for an excellent long distance shot.
Saints were indebted to a string of saves from Davis at the start of the second half, but they were all from set pieces and the home side were having the better of open play. Then on 69 minutes Saints took, and retained, the lead!
Surman gets credit for the assist, but the goal was a header from Rasiak who had earlier seen a shot tipped onto the post. A few minutes later, Southampton profited from a direct approach when Shawcross dealt poorly with a cross and Viafara lashed home the loose ball.
A win is rarely that simple for our team, and eventually Stoke converted a set piece with a long distance header from Parkin that probably should have been stopped. Unusually, holding on to the single goal lead was easy enough until the very last minute of injury time.
The game would have been closed down anyway as Dyer raced away towards the corner, but play was stopped due to a head injury to a Stoke player. Pulis, the manager's son, contested the drop ball, which took Saints by surprise, but not Fuller who nearly scored from distance as the ball broke to him.
As Fuller was not the injured player, and had not been involved in the drop ball, the crowd's reaction to him was based more on history than events on the day, but it could have been a controversial end to an afternoon that had plenty enough to excite.
LSSC Man of the Match: Andrew Surman - involved in all three goals, but effective throughout. Good job the transfer window ends soon.
Saints: Davis, Wright, Thomas, Powell, Skacel (Ostlund 46), Dyer, Viafara, Safri, Surman, Rasiak, Wright-Phillips (Saganowski 85).
Subs Not Used: Bialkowski, Hammill, McGoldrick.
Booked: Safri, Viafara.
Goals: Surman 36, Rasiak 71, Viafara 75.
Stoke: Simonsen, Wilkinson, Shawcross, Craddock, Hill, Lawrence (Pulis 79), Delap, Matteo (Eustace 79), Cresswell, Sidibe (Parkin 73), Fuller.
Subs Not Used: Hoult, Dickinson.
Booked: Fuller, Hill, Sidibe, Parkin.
Goals: Fuller 10, Parkin 82.
Att: 20,300.
