Cardiff Home Won 2 – 0
Saints began against Cardiff with the same eleven that finished the first half against Bristol City, in other words Adams in for the now injured Sulemana from the midweek starting line-up. As is often the way, Southampton found early possession easy and, as is their wont, were passing the ball around the edge of the visitors’ box when Adam Armstrong tried a curling shot towards the top corner; he often does that, too, and on this occasion the ball sailed past Rúunarsson. That was on eleven minutes and not long after the lead was doubled: as at Huddersfield, it was an all Armstrong goal, and here a cross by Stuart of that ilk took a convenient deflection off McGuinness to fall for Adam Armstrong to head an easy second. Although City weren’t posing much of a threat, there was still a lot of football to be played and who knows what would have happened had they got one back? They didn’t do so in the 37th minute as Bazunu came out of his area to head clear from Méïté and Grant’s follow-up from distance was going wide before it was dealt with by Harwood-Bellis anyway. Things have a habit of going wrong after the interval, but Cardiff weren’t able to raise their game while Saints continued on the front foot, passing forwards more than usual, and sideways less so. Adams had the ball in the net from Adam Armstrong’s pass but was clearly offside and Adams probably should have scored legitimately from a cross by substitute Fraser, who himself just failed to get on the end of another Armstrong (A) cross and also saw a shot blocked when well placed. Aribo was probably the best of Manager Martin’s subs and came nearest to adding to the goal tally with a shot that clipped the post, although Rúunarsson probably had it covered. With the mist rolling in from somewhere behind the Chapel Stand the only thing standing in the way of a comfortable win, Saints had the chance of giving Tyler Dibling a league debut, but it looks like he’ll have to wait for the return of cup football before making his second first team appearance.
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates to choose from:
3. Ryan Manning with easily his best performance for the club.
9. Adam Armstrong who had the chance of a first half hat trick but failed with a header before always causing problems in the second period.
24. Shea Charles: either him or Downes from a midfield that gave their opponents barely a sniff.
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