Saints blitzed

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

The most pessimistic of our followers would have been hoping for better than the bottom half of the table at the turn of the year, so some exasperation with the manager is only to be expected.

However, team selection is the most obvious area for fans to take issue with, and it seems that very often we can tell something is wrong even before a ball has been kicked.

Watford have a formidable away record of 8 wins even before they trounced Saints, so maybe that led to a conservative team selection that left out Hammill and Rasiak and even offered Licka a chance on the bench despite Lallana's encouraging display at Barnsley.

But let's go back to the report on the Preston match: "Saints now rarely look like scoring and can't even say they are unlucky in front of goal."

That's especially true at St. Mary's and the visitors had little trouble with the home attack, apart from a single header from Wright-Phillips that fall somewhere between the unguarded far post and the onrushing John. Then they moved up a gear as the first half moved into injury time when Smith easily went past Wright and his cross was swept in by Francis - a simple goal but where in the Saints side did we have anyone who could inject that sort of pace to open up a game?

It was all over shortly after an hour as King smashed in a free kick from the edge of the box and then Henderson managed to find plenty of room to turn and shoot the third despite the penalty area apparently being crowded with defenders.

Saints did improve in the final third of the game, and Wright-Phillips managed to hit the post - but all that was as much to do with Watford sitting back on a comfortable lead as anything else.

LSSC Man of the Match: Yousuf Safri - our serial passer in midfield. A bit wasted though, when his colleagues give the ball away so easily.

George Burley's reaction

"When they got their first goal it was a bit of a killer blow coming just before half-time and it was difficult to recover from that.

"We got behind them on a number of occasions but unfortunately could not get the goals to get back in the game.

"When you concede three goals to a top club like Watford it is very hard to come back."

Southampton: Davis, Wright, Bennett, Davies, Thomas, Viafara, Surman (Hammill 88), Safri, Euell, Wright-Phillips, John (Rasiak 61).
Subs Not Used: Bialkowski, Skacel, Licka.

Watford: Lee, Stewart, DeMerit, Shittu, Doyley, McAnuff, Williamson (Mariappa 85), Francis, Smith (O'Toole 73), Darius Henderson, King.
Subs Not Used: Poom, Ellington, Ainsworth.

Goals: Francis 45, King 55, Darius Henderson 62.

Att: 23,008

Ref: Fred Graham (Essex).