Birmingham Away Drew 1 – 1
We expected some kind of ‘rotation’ as the holiday programme moved on to the return game with Birmingham, with Stephens the most likely to drop out; instead it was Scienza who missed a start, replaced by Robinson for the first 58 minutes. There was a promising opening for Robinson in an early move that ended with Beadle saving with his feet from Azaz. After that, it was a pretty dull first half, although Furuhashi would have given the Blues the lead had his lob over Bazunu been a better finish and Seung-Ho clipped the bar with a free kick. Parity at the break was the best we could have hoped for given the way the team had played, even if the home side weren’t much better. We did have excitement after the interval with Harwood-Bellis coming close to repeating his Oxford goal from a Manning (again) free kick. Alas, Saints were to fall behind almost immediately, and once more a goal that you felt could have been prevented somehow by a number of people: Fellows assumed that a deep free kick was going out, which it wasn’t, and when the ball came back in, no-one could get in a decisive clearance before Neumann sent in a looping header that Bazunu attempted to save spectacularly instead of keeping his head and catching calmly. Stansfield almost gave his side what would surely have been a winning lead, but his shot hit the post before both managers turned their attentions to substitutions. Scienza on the bench could be seen as an attempt for our changes to have a positive effect for once, and, although Robinson had had a good first half, the Brazilian did present new challenges for the home defence. It has to be said that other introductions, including forgotten men Jelert and Matsuki, plus Bragg and Archer, paid off as well. That was fully demonstrated in a 71st minute equaliser via Archer‘s deft touch on Jelert’s cross after the full back had been released by Bragg. The goal didn’t go down well with the home coaching staff as, earlier in the move, Iwata failed to get to the ball because the referee was in the way; there’s nothing in the laws to suggest anything other than ‘play on’ under those circumstances, but that didn’t prevent manager Davies talking himself into a caution. Worse was to come for the under pressure boss, again all of his own making, as he now received a red card for some nonsense that wasn’t clear from the back of the stand. Suddenly it was Saints more likely to win the game, but an unnecessary foul by Matsuki caused unnecessary nerves in the last minute of added time.
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates to choose from:
38. Elias Jelert. Even before his injury, Roerslev, Welington and Fellows seemed ahead of him in the pecking order, but he always looked decent to me. Only 37 minutes pitch time for him, though.
46. Jay Robinson, pick of the first half players. On the pitch for 58 minutes.
48. Cameron Bragg. Just 27 minutes but more effective than Jander who is off his game at the moment.
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