Newcastle Home Lost 1 – 3
McCarthy replaced Ramsdale to face Newcastle and no sooner has Sulemana begun to prove his worth than he’s out too – replaced by Armstrong, but it could have been anyone really. But here’s a thing: Saints took a tenth minute lead when Bednarek headed in Bree’s cross! Quite what Bednarek was doing up there from open play was unclear (forensic examination shows he stayed upfield after a corner) but maybe it was better than trying to mark Isak at the other end. Aribo found that task difficult as well, launching into a clumsy challenge on the forward following a free kick; ‘clumsy’ was all it looked from most angles, but VAR found a different one that showed a foul, and to be honest, it also soared over the low bar that VAR has raised under the ‘clear and obvious’ heading. Isak dispatched the penalty with ease and two minutes later he’d changed the scoreline again, striding through the home defence like a knife through butter. I think the problem is that Aribo, Ugochukwu and Downes (who sat this one out on the bench) are fine enough players but none have the pace over ten yards to stop Premier League midfielders getting space to set up attacks on an admittedly fragile defence. I suspect that few of us expected Saints to get back into the game but when Dúbravka missed a cross and Harwood-Bellis connected well with an ambitious bicycle kick, surely we were back to parity? ‘No’ as it turned out as the keeper recovered to make a spectacular save. Within five minutes the Newcastle butter knife was out again, this time Tonali breaking through to score unchallenged and the game was properly over as a contest… or so everybody thought. On 84 minutes McCarthy provided an assist with a long kick that sent Fernandes clear to put the ball in the net, and the ‘goal’ was given on the pitch to set up an interesting finish – only for VAR to intervene again and, after a long delay, rule it out. What seems to have happened is that the red/green line showed up red but then there was a further investigation over the question of Schär touched the ball, and whether he was playing at it, even if he did – and they ruled that there was ‘no clear evidence’ that he did both, if any. By the end Saints had Sugawara, Archer, Smallbone, Fraser and Lallana on the pitch: for those old enough to remember the lyrics of the Bernard Cribbins novelty hit Right Said Fred, “it did no good – well I never thought it would.”
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates for you to choose from:
1. Alex McCarthy. Didn’t do anything wrong, even made a save from Isak and might have had an assist as well.
2. Kyle Walker-Peters. Our play almost anywhere man, so what will they do if (when?) he leaves.
14. James Bree, for an assist. OK, Bednarek actually had a goal, but he struggled at the end where he’s supposed to be.
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