Brighton Home Drew 1 – 1
We’ve tried most approaches up front, but the most obvious is Broja and Adams (two current international forwards) and they got the call against Brighton; also in the starting XI was Lyanco, with Bednarek nursing an injury. Both Southampton strikers were in early action but Sanchez denied Broja with his feet and then beat away Adams’ follow up. Broja clearly felt he had the beating of Duffy and he converted a 29th minute opportunity in style, dumping the defender on his backside before slotting the ball home. Duffy also recognised that he was second best in this contest and was forced into a series of fouls on the Anglo-Albanian that drew no more than a stroke of half time caution from referee Taylor by way of serious punishment – contrast that with the tamest of yellow cards shown to Salisu in the second half. As ever Saints were good value for their lead, and, as ever, they carried their dominance through to half time – at which point we’re usually faced with a change of formation from our opponents that somehow we just can’t cope with. This game was different, maybe because Albion’s resources are currently depleted by injuries, Manager Potter did go to his bench on 55 and 63 minutes with attacking substitutions that served mainly to give the home defence more to think about, rather than change the balance of play, and he made a last change on 78 mins. Broja was finally forced off shortly after following another heavy challenge and he had come nearest to giving us that elusive two goal cushion but somehow screwed a shot wide when he looked sure to score. No matter, McCarthy was having his best game in weeks, despite being unable to take goal kicks due to a damaged ham string, and then Brighton were reduced to ten men when Trossard managed to break his arm in falling, the lengthy delay causing ten minutes added time. Surely Saints could see this one out against ten not terribly good players? Not so as Ward-Prowse had his finger on the self destruct button, firstly giving the ball away cheaply forcing Romeu into a desperate challenge that brought him a caution and left his team facing a dangerous free kick, At this point, injured McCarthy seemed to panic about being able to deal with a shot over the wall so Ward-Prowse went back on the line to cover, and although Moder’s effort was blocked, his follow-up fell to Maupay who was being played onside by Ward-Prowse; the rest is history. You couldn’t make it up.
LSSC Man of the Match:Armando Broja, clearly our best player.
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