Nottingham Forrest Home Lost 0 – 1
Saints were unchanged for the visit of Nottingham Forest although there were a couple of unfamiliar names amongst the subs where Alcaraz was a notable absentee. It was a return to stripes for the home team as well as the Premier League at St. Mary’s – well almost, as those responsible forgot about the back of the shirt. Forest were kitted out as if they were Manchester City and at times in the first half they seemed to be performing like City, which was worrying as we know they’re not that good, so how bad were Southampton for letting them play like that? Happily the visitors’ finishing was not up to the Haaland standard and those Saints seen to be warming up early were not yet needed. I assume our management did something to adjust things during the break, although quite what was not so clear. A dull old goal-less draw would have been welcome as this was never a game that was going to escape the MotD graveyard slot. Certainly the ‘Southampton nil’ element had looked highly likely from the outset but again the team had it in them to commit fatal errors, albeit not as blatant as the howler in match #1: Aribo ought to have done better with a difficult clearance after a corner, Downes shouldn’t have been the one marking Gibbs-White from the resulting cross and Sugawara should have trusted his left foot to send the ball over the stand via his left foot rather than gift it straight back to scorer Gibbs-White off his right. Edozie and Archer were chosen to try to rescue the game in the remaining 20 minutes or so and we also saw debuts for Taylor and Fernandes, abetted by Dibling running up several blind alleys, but none of them could do anything to change an expected goal stat of 0.2 – no idea what the figure means, but it certainly is a very low number.
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates to choose from:
2. Kyle Walker-Peters. Had our only official shot on target despite continuing to operate in his second choice left back position for most of the game.
4. Flynn Downes. Not his best game or his best defensive header when it mattered, but an obvious choice for one of our best three players on a bad day, nevertheless.
35. Jan Bednarek. For not doing too much wrong.
Become a Member
Become a member of London Saints from as little as £5.