EFL Cup 2nd Round Newport Away Won 0 – 8
Only Stephens and Ward-Prowse (who always plays, of course) survived from the Premier League starting line-up to begin in our first visit to Newport since 1968 – when this part of South Wales was still in England, legally at least; Newport, with manager Michael Flynn Covid positive, fielded a youthful XI – big mistake on their part, but cricket fans will be intrigued to note that one of their young subs is called Jordan Greenidge. What was to become a deluge of goals began after nine minutes when Redmond’s well struck shot was turned onto the bar by reserve keeper Townsend and Broja, on debut, dealt calmly with the rebound. Then a fast, sweeping break out of defence was finished by Tella and it was clearly something the hosts didn’t see very often in League Two – but, to be honest, we don’t see it very often from Southampton either. The tie was already decided and with more accurate finishing, Saints would have been completely out of sight well before the break, but they did get a third just before half time when Walker-Peters exploited Townsend’s weakness around his near post that was eventually to become an embarrassment. The second period was three minutes old when Broja rattled the near post and Elyounoussi scored from close range and then Elyounoussi, the forgotten man of Southampton football, hit straight inside that same near post. It was a disintegrating defence that let Townsend down when Broja, looking like a latter day Graziano Pellè, notched number six and there were still 21 minutes remaining when Redmond lashed in a seventh. Subs Long and Walcott have been around long enough to know when enough is enough, but in added time Elyounoussi couldn’t resist trying out Townsend’s near post one last time, with the inevitable result allowing him to return home with the match ball.
LSSC Man of the Match: Mohamed Elyounoussi. Every one of our players was so much better than their counterpart, but it would be wrong to overlook Elyounoussi’s triple that was accompanied by two assists.
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