Printer-friendly pageThursday, October 19, 2006
Skacel was injured for the visit to table-topping Cardiff and, not for the first time, a disruption was the signal for widespread changes: in came Bale, Licka, Surman and Jones.
Davis caused a few worries as he fumbled a shot, but the keeper was alert in coming off his line to rescue Saints in general and, on one occasion, Lundekvam in particular. However, a Cardiff lead at the interval would not have been deserved as Saints exercised a lot of control without quite threatening an end product.
Cardiff enjoyed the bulk of possession after the break, but we mistakenly sensed that they were running out of steam when Lundekvam forced a desperate save from Alexander and the ball could only be scrambled away from the resulting corner. Then only moments later, an exchange of passes on the edge of the box led to Thompson threading a shot through a mass of players and the home crowd were singing "that's why we're top of the league."
Of course it maybe that they like Verdi's tunes, or it could be a recognition that the eventual champions will be a team who can eke out a win when they don't really deserve it. They wouldn't have had it either, had Rasiak finished better in injury time, but Saints have three straight defeats now.
Man of the Match: John Viafara. However, we'd better get used to playing without him after yet another booking.
