Notts County 2, Saints 0

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

It seems a lifetime ago that Saints secured a second place finish in the top division, but some of us were there. Where exactly? At Meadow Lane, home to Notts County, of course. That may say something about the strength of the old 1st Division in 1984, but a great achievement nevertheless.

A repeat away victory in this year's Carling Cup was always going to be difficult after Bale missed a tackle and only Edwards at the far post could get on the end of Mendes' low cross. However, we didn't expect Saints to make such hard work of things; just Idiakez (cup tied), Jones and Lundekvam were missing from Saturday's line up and only Sarmiento had not featured in the League campaign.

When Makin's injury allowed Parkinson to skip past him and set up Lee for County's second just before the break, it was no more than either side deserved. This was Jason 'Pineapple head' Lee whose play caused problems all night and led to a half time substitution for Pele.

The rest of our starting line up were just as bad but Nathan Dyer came on to liven things up after the break. Not nearly enough for extra time to jeopardise an inspection of the delights of the pubs of south Nottingham, fortunately, while the game clearly meant a lot more to County's fans who treated us to an old-style joyous pitch invasion at the end. But at least we had made the effort to turn up, and from an attitudinal point of view, that's more than you can say for the team.

Man of the Match: Nathan Dyer. As he only played half the game, that means he had to be twice as good as his comrades. 'Nuff said.

Southampton boss George Burley believed his side made it too easy for the opposition.

"All credit to Notts County, they started much better than us. We did not compete in the first half," he said.

"We gave them too much space and conceded two poor goals and at 2-0 it was always going to be difficult.

"We got we deserved. If you go away from home to a lower-league side in the Carling Cup, the first thing you have to do is compete because you don't get time on the ball."

ow.