Printer-friendly pageWednesday, March 12, 2008
There shouldn't be home games against teams lower in the league (not that there are many) approached with such pessimism as the Leicester fixture, but the signs weren't good. Apart from being win-less in evening matches all season, Saints had a goalkeeper with little more than 2 hours first team experience and were without their centre half - against a side including Steve Howard, and most of our defence were physically afraid of him in last year's play offs.
A win, however, could be priceless, defeat unthinkable - so the players duly went out and delivered. It certainly wasn't pretty, with the only goal coming from the ugliest tactic in the beautiful game: a long throw. Leicester failed to clear properly and when Licka lobbed the ball back into the danger zone, McAuley only succeeded in heading it into the path of John who volleyed home. The sort of goal we so often concede set up a nervy last few minutes with the visitors immediately awarded a free kick on the edge of the box - Oakley shot into the wall.
Missed tackles by Vignal, poor positional play by both Vignal and Ostlund, and panic taking over from common sense didn't help, but Leicester aren't in their position without reason and they didn't force Poke into any meaningful action. They certainly should have in the last minute of normal time, but Fryatt shot wide of an open goal.
Earlier Howard had hit the bar for the visitors, but a mystery flag from the assistant would probably have ruled the effort out anyway.
Southampton's forwards were John and McGoldrick, plus Saganowski and Hammill off the bench, so no place for the disgraced Wright-Phillips - I mean, what are things coming to when players are allowed to visit a Portsmouth nightclub? However, Saints were aware of the whole sorry story prior to the match at Blackpool, when BWP made an appearance. Strange.
LSSC Man of the Match: Stern John - for a vital goal. We ought to mention that Thomas and Viafara coped well with Mr. Howard.
Nigel Pearson: "I haven't got a clue how many points it will take to keep us up.
"What we thought might be the target two weeks ago is now completely different as teams around us are picking up points.
"You have to have the ability to win ugly games. We played some nice football against Ipswich but failed to win the game but here we kept a clean sheet with a youngster in goal and a centre-back, in Jhon Viafara, who doesn't normally play there."
Southampton: Poke, Ostlund, Thomas, Viafara, Vignal, Licka, Safri, Euell, Surman (Hammill 58), McGoldrick (Saganowski 58), John (Gillett 90).
Subs Not Used: Pernecky, Baseya.
Booked: Ostlund, Vignal.
Goals: John 76.
Leicester: Henderson, Stearman, McAuley, N'Gotty, Mattock, Etuhu, Oakley, Hendrie, Hume (Hayles 72), Howard, Campbell (Fryatt 61).
Subs Not Used: Kisnorbo, King, James Chambers.
Booked: Howard, McAuley, Mattock.
Att: 17,741
Ref: Danny McDermid (Middlesex).
