Saints rue missed chances

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Saints managed to get one of their recently injured centre backs fit in time for the visit of Norwich when they lined up with three attacking players in Wright-Phillips, Rasiak and John and even without a goalkeeping substitute - we now know that to be due to an injury to Bialkowski.

There were plenty of opportunities for the forwards with Rasiak shooting against the foot of the post in each half and John firing a powerful shot just over. However, they don't size the goals just to deny Rasiak, and he really should have scored from both chances, while John was to prove less accurate from just 12 yards. Skacel also clipped the bar from a free kick and Rasiak missed another presentable late chance, but Saints attack again went home empty handed.

That was despite some controversial second half moments: Shackell certainly appeared to have tripped Rasiak in the box, and when Doherty handled to deny Thomas, Saints protested that he should have been sent off as well as having a penalty awarded against him. The fuss probably didn't help John, who was now entrusted with the spot kick duty, and he sent his shot high and wide, Idiakez style.

Although Norwich didn't have too much possession, of course they had their moments and again Saints were grateful for the good form Davis is in, although he was beaten by a header that hit the post in a bad two minutes at the end of the first half. The keeper had told the web site that the reduction in goals against is down to our eradicating individual defensive errors.

I think it's more that they had been going unpunished, and when Vignal plays he normally commits a few. This was true again, and Norwich profited when Evans shot them ahead in first half injury time. Vignal subsequently went off with what has proved to be a broken arm, so loanee O'Halloran may now get a run in the side.

LSSC Man of the Match: Rudi Skacel, mainly because the Saintsfc web site report reminds us of his good moments.

 Southampton caretaker manager Jason Dodd:
"You never like to see a player sent off.

"But when you break the rules by handling a ball in the area and stop someone scoring a goal then surely that is a sending-off offence.

"I felt the referee was weak and should have sent Gary Doherty off for the offence."

 Norwich manager Glen Roeder:
"The players shouldn't begrudge getting all three points when we were second best.

"We created chances in the first half but Southampton would probably feel they should have won the game because of they amount of chances they missed.

"We played very well in patches and the finish of the goal was top quality."

Southampton: Davis, Wright, Thomas, Davies, Vignal (O'Halloran 65), Wright-Phillips (Hammill 65), Euell, Surman (Idiakez 83), Skacel, John, Rasiak.
Subs Not Used: Saganowski, James.

Booked: Davies, Euell.

Norwich: Marshall, Otsemobor, Shackell, Doherty, Camara (Huckerby 73), Croft, Fotheringham (Pattison 23), Russell, Bertrand, Dublin, Evans (Cureton 63).
Subs Not Used: Gilks, Spillane.

Booked: Doherty, Cureton.

Goals: Evans 45.

Att: 18,004

Ref: Andy Penn (W Midlands).