Northampton Away Carabao Cup Round 1 Won 0 – 1
We know what to expect from any sort of cup tie these days: squad rotation has a higher priority than doing your best to win a game. No-one expected Will Still to be any exception to this approach and sure enough we had eight changes in the starting line-up to face Northampton: two new centre backs to keep Edwards company in front of a new goalkeeper; a return for Fernandes, now cup-tied if he moves on; three new forwards (although you can count their total Southampton goals (all Archer’s) on the fingers of one hand); Manning replacing Welington may have as much to do with his cameo last time out as rotation. A low seating position and a view through the near goal net made it difficult to interpret distant action, but the internet stream confirms Downs’ clumsy effort that failed to give his side the lead. We could see the home team’s best first half opportunities, though, including McGeehan’s shot well saved by McCarthy, Harwood-Bellis clearing off the line after the keeper had dropped a corner and List going narrowly wide. To be fair, they were isolated incidents and neither side really deserved a goal before the break; we didn’t have to wait long for one afterwards as Archer neatly set up Fernandes whose cut inside, dummy and excellent finish were even neater. Sugawara struck the post with a long shot soon afterwards so there were hopes that Saints would go on to complete the job against League 1 opposition with ease, but of course we should have known better! Not that Northampton posed much of a threat but they adopted a more direct approach towards the end and a series of crosses kept our defenders on their toes before Forbes should have done better with a header from a corner.
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates to choose from:
3. Ryan Manning, but not the crucial performance from the previous game.
4. Taylor Harwood-Bellis. Will made him captain on his return from injury which suggests he may be the first choice among our many centre backs. (Actually Charlie Taylor saw out the game in his place)
18. Matty Fernandes with the game’s only moment of true class.
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