Saints’ score draw

Burnley 1 Saints 1

The Indian Summer affecting Southern England at the end of September seems to have by-passed the part of Oop North that is Burnley, but the beer was cheap and plentiful (and high quality, as usual in our carefully selected venues), so that was alright.

The match was another matter, at least the first part of it. Southampton’s play this season has been admirably fluent, and there were signs that they could continue in that vein at Turf Moor. Getting hold of the ball to be able to play with it was more of a problem, and after an even but largely uneventful first half, Nigel introduced Chaplow for Do Prado.

This had some initial effect, but Burnley had ambitions of their own, and for the first time this season it was no surprise when Saints went behind – no surprise either that the scorer should be our old nemesis Charlie Austin, but Fonte seemed to have forgotten about the poacher’s instinct when he reacted slowly to a cross.

The goal improved the game no end and Lambert must have thought he’d done everything right when he headed Richardson’s cross downwards towards goal; unfortunately what goes down often goes up as well, and the ball bounced back to hit the bar.

An odd move then saw Schneiderlin come on for Hammond, and the two players’ respective goalscoring records hardly suggested that this was the way to rescue the game. It certainly needed salvation after a cross hit Lallana rather than the other way round, but the ball drifted wide.

Then cometh the hour (80 minutes) and the man (Morgan Schneiderlin) as Clarets old boy Fox sent in a cross that was finished by the Frenchman for only his second Saints goal. Had it come earlier, or especially had it been the opener, Saints could have gone on to claim maximum points – but Burnley’s defensive approach to the last third of the match would have been different as well.

LSSC Man of the Match: Jos Hooiveld, who is beginning to rival Cork in the MotM stakes.