Tottenham Hotspur Away Lost 3 – 1
Downes was suspended at Tottenham but also out were Onuachu and Stephens: the former not fully fit, but it was an odd time to disrupt the back-line, coming after an encouraging performance. As we now know, this was Ivan Jurić’s last selection, although there is a school of thought that Simon Rusk picks the team anyway – he’ll now be getting full credit (or otherwise?). Saints were finding it impossible to get out of their own half until, quite a bit into the game, they ventured upfield and Sulemana went close. Such is football: Spurs responded with a move down their left and Johnson swept in the resulting cross. The ball was in the Southampton net for a second time when Romero headed a free kick back for Bergvall to guide it home; not a goal, though, thanks to a marginal offside decision against Romero that took an age to determine – heaven knows how long we’d have waited had the system not been ‘semi-automated.’ It didn’t take long for the decision to be immaterial as the match was effectively decided by Johnson‘s second, this one notable for the shambolic defending that characterises our team. Two Spurs goals were not an adequate reflection of how the half had gone so there were worries about what would ensue after the break, however either Spurs held off or Saints improved. Probably a mixture of both, so why didn’t we work things out better from the start? Those who stayed until the end even had a Southampton goal to cheer, scored by Fernandes following some pretty poor Spurs marking at the far post, it must be said. That would have been a good time to leave as the two goal margin in Tottenham’s favour ended up being restored with the last kick of the match. This was a penalty converted by Tel after substitute Welington had fouled Johnson clumsily and unnecessarily. So that’s it for the Premier League (not that there had been any doubt since September, really) and Mr. Jurić too (not that there had been any doubt that he wouldn’t see in the Championship) and time to look to the future – heck, we even had Ross Stewart on the pitch for the last half hour.
I don’t think I can find more than two LSSC Man of the Match candidates for you to choose from:
2. Kyle Walker-Peters. Again ‘Yes, it’s always him, but he is the best player.’
30. Aaron Ramsdale. A number of first half saves to prevent it getting embarrassing.
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