London Saints

Liverpool Away Drew 0 – 0

A sunny spring lunchtime on Merseyside was spoiled for over 50,000 people by having to watch Southampton going through their paces. The few visiting fans, though, were happy enough at half time, with their team denying Liverpool all but a few ineffective pot shots at Forster. There was a hint of a bit more adventure straight after the break, but it was a false dawn as the home side soon upped their game, with Saints maybe defending a bit deeper than was healthy. Nil-nil it remained, and only the introduction of Lallana threatened anything from the Reds that looked likely to trouble a disciplined rear-guard. The situation was put under severe threat after 63 minutes when a little flick of the elbow by Stephens was punished a by a penalty for handball. The team concede quite a few spot kicks, so maybe they’ve worked on how to make things more difficult for the taker: Bertrand and, in particular, Forster exchanged views with their England colleague Milner and Ward-Prowse was booked for delaying tactics while Tadić seemed to be paying some unnecessary attention to the spot itself. It’s unlikely that any of this made much difference as Milner shot low and powerfully, but Forster guessed right and flung his considerable length at the ball and managed to push it away. As well as preserving the draw, the save gave both team and fans additional belief that a point was a possibility and not even the introduction of our old scourge Sturridge changed that: Liverpool now miss Mané as much as Saints do and maybe they could do better with fewer histrionics and more tactical thinking from their coach. Our own man in charge thought Mignolet might have been dismissed late on for a handball outside the box to stop Tadić, but a caution and a free kick would have been more appropriate punishment. We got neither and had to rely on Forster again in added time before the loyal few could go home happy. They were singing “four games and you still can’t score” to remind Scousers and tourists of their failure to find the net against Saints this season, but of course we only have a tame header by Austin in terms of shots at goal to show for the two league games!

LSSC Man of the Match: James Ward-Prowse for a very industrious shift.

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