Birmingham Away Drew 1 – 1
It’s almost a case of another day, another game at this stage in the EFL schedules as the second of three successive midweek outings took us to Birmingham where Fellows was preferred to Matsuki – may be down as much to game-time management as a celebration of Tom’s first club goal. The Blues began brightly, forcing their opponents onto the back foot, but Saints hit back in a frantic opening, indeed entire half, with neither side able to establish superiority. The game cried out for a moment of class, but as that wasn’t going to happen, then perhaps individual errors would make the difference? Schlotterberg did his best, slipping to allow Stansfield a run on goal that ended with a shot against the post, and then Fellows gave the ball away only for Stansfield to head the resulting cross wide of the goal this time. I seem to be alone in spotting shortcomings in Schlotterberg‘s play on debut and he made three potentially fatal errors in this game, but he did give us the lead with a powerful header from a Scienza corner that the referee allowed to be taken beyond the end of allotted first half added time. Bragg and, particularly, Downes were putting in terrific shifts in midfield and Wood was clearing most moments of danger so a 55th minute equaliser was something of a surprise: Downes forced the impressive Roberts inside for a cross that found Priske lurking between Wood and Schlotterberg and he scored with a well guided header. Ward-Prowse and Matsuki came on to try to deliver that much needed class, and almost succeeded. Most attention fell on Ward-Prowse whose deflected shot was fumbled into the path of Larin who couldn’t find the net, and JW-P free kick was headed on by Wood for Matsuki to fire home before a flag halted celebrations – both players, and certainly Matsuki, were probably offside. Another Ward-Prowse free kick, this time much closer to goal, raised hopes again but Beadle saved in a game that neither side deserved to lose, but also neither deserved to win.
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates to choose from:
4. Flynn Downes, with an imposing performance.
7. Léo Scienza, the best of our attackers when Larin for once was off target and Azaz was hustled out of his stride.
15. Nathan Wood-Gordon, imposing when he had to be.
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