Birmingham Home Won 3 – 1 Midlands Part 1
Downes and Scienza were both available to face Birmingham, otherwise Herr Eckert, now Manager Eckert, stayed true to form and made no alterations to his team. His faith was rewarded with a ninth minute goal scored by the admirably two-footed Azaz who side-stepped his marker before firing in with his left. Azaz was instrumental in the second goal by exchanging passes with Armstrong who scored with a shot that bounced awkwardly in front of Beadle’s dive. It was no more than the team deserved as Fellows had previously hit the bar – really he should have scored after Scienza pulled the ball back to him – Scienza had also featured in the build-up to the first goal. Somehow, though, Saints played out the remaining twenty minutes of the half on the back foot. Things were looking more assured at the start of the second period, but then Gray scored with an impressive shot and it wasn’t just the habitually pessimistic who began to think that we needed a third to win the game. Step forward Messrs. Scienza and Armstrong to provide: Léo with a shot that Beadle saved, only for the loose ball to fall nicely for Adam. Scienza then set up Armstrong who was foiled by a much better save by Beadle. That was about it for those two as substitutes began to take over, no doubt with Tuesday’s fixture taken into account. A fourth Southampton goal always looked likely, but the Blues came closest to changing the scoreline and Bazuna had to make sharp saves, but even he was beaten by Robinson’s header before Furuhashi couldn’t control the rebound properly in front of a gaping goal. Saints ended with a very defensive formation that included Romeu but they should have increased their lead late on as Archer seemed to panic in a one-to-one situation.
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates to choose from:
6. Taylor Harwood-Bellis, who ended up having to do more defending than we thought would be necessary.
9. Adam Armstrong, scorer of two goals.
13. Léo Scienza. At least one, arguably two, assists, and could have been four in all, but for colleagues’ misses.
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