Saints 2-0 Bristol City
Gaston Ramirez fires Saints in front with a fierce volley
Capital One Cup time again, but £18 to see a Saints XI take on Bristol City seemed a bit excessive. Still, eight and a half thousand of us decided it was worth it – wrongly as things turned out.
Sr. Pochettino kept his part of the bargain by making the full set of eleven changes to his Premier League starting line-up and then leaving control of the team up to assistant Jesús Pérez.
The habitual benchers and worse had an excellent opportunity to shine against the Robins’ notoriously leaky defence, and an early enough breakthrough should have set them on their way: Ward-Prowse saw a presentable shooting opportunity blocked but had the presence of mind to head the rebound into the path of Ramirez who volleyed it past a startled ‘keeper.
However, a second goal that could have given us an early taste of youngsters Rowe, Reed, Targett or McCarthy off the bench wouldn’t come, the nearest being a couple of headers from corners either side of the interval.
Eventually Jesús introduced Reed and Rowe, having run out of patience with Lee and Do Prado and – these two possibly disappearing down the tunnel for the last time, but maybe consoling themselves with the thought that they won’t have to wear that dreadful red kit again.
City, meanwhile, showed every indication that they could get back on level terms, but a save from Davis and a succession of failures to connect with low crosses meant that Southampton’s second gave a cushion to ensure no extra time: a Hooiveld header from a corner in the closing stages, Jos having earlier been involved in an unseemly altercation with Kelvin.
LSSC Man of the Match: Calum Chambers, who is one of the few who will have benefitted from being involved in this game. The worrying thing for our players is that this was far from City’s first choice team either.
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