Dour stuff at Adams Park

Wycombe 0, Saints 0
Recent rains and a home game for the Wasps Rugby Union team had left Wycombe’s Adams Park pitch in such a mess that it looked as though a ploughing match had taken place there as well.

Experience at Brentford suggests that a pedigree Southampton team don’t do well under such circumstances, and we now have more evidence to support that view.

In the opening minute Davis came out of his area to attempt to head clear – something he usually does well, but this time the ball went back to Pittman who rather wasted his opportunity, but still caused the keeper further embarrassment with a slippery ball.

Davis caused more worries when he spoiled a very good save from a corner by failing to clear the loose ball, and again when he fumbled another long distance shot, while out on the pitch his comrades struggled to come to terms with the conditions. Antonio had replaced the injured Schneiderlin with Puncheon moving to the middle, but this ploy was clearly not working and Antonio was soon replaced by Wotton: so no more long throws – hooray.

Saints managed to improve after the break but Pittman came the closest to a goal with a shot that Davis turned onto the post, and at the other end Puncheon’s crosses created scoreable opportunities for Lallana (good contact, but a yard wide) and Lambert (on target but tamely into Heaton’s arms). Barnard again failed to impress and the introduction of N’Diaye added some late impetus to the visiting attack before a desperate added time substitution sent on Thomas to lead the line. All in all though, a miserable night in terms of both weather and entertainment.

LSSC Man of the Match: Paul Wotton, as voted by those who managed to make the early train from a very distant football ground. An honorary mention too for Fonte and Jaidi who showed they can be as good as anyone at kicking the ball out of the ground. That’s certainly not meant as a criticism: our more functional players had to do what was needed to preserve a point as their more creative colleagues were unlikely to give us a chance to get all three.

Alan Pardew: “We probably caught them at a bad time… we just couldn’t find any magic”

“It’s two points gone away from us and we can’t really afford (to drop) many more.

“We had key players not quite firing, which affected us. That little bit of quality we needed, we just couldn’t find.

“We’re running out of games. There’s not much room for slip-ups now. The pressure’s on us and we’ve brought that on ourselves.”