Carabao Cup Round 4 Home Stoke Won 3 – 2
Manager Martin said he really wanted to win in the Carabao Cup so picked a strong side that included his first choice goalkeeper, centre backs, playmaker and striker. All very welcome, but where does it leave you if they don’t deliver against a Stoke side with eight changes to their league starters? Still, it’s better to be positive. Not that there was much to excite anyone in the opening exchanges, just a speculative shot from the visitors that went high and wide. Then Harwood-Bellis went upfield for a corner and rose above a rookie defence to give his side a 19th minute lead. When Sugawara picked Dixon’s pocket and was brought down by a panicky challenge, Saints were two up thanks to Armstrong‘s penalty. Fraser had been ineffective and his defensive contribution didn’t seem much needed against a team getting as many as they could behind the ball so he was immediately replaced by Cornet. It tuned out Cornet was equally ineffective, but that didn’t seem important until somehow the Potters scored on the brink of half time. The ‘somehow’ was in fact some sloppy defending that gave away first the ball and then a free kick which was taken deeply and bounced off first Rose and then Sugawara to Phillips who scored. Surely still no problem in winning this game? There was when Ugochukwu lost possession badly leading to a break finished by someone called Tom Cannon. Rock on Stoke, and certainly they would have been dancing had Sugawara not got back to clear off the line from Manhoef, absolutely in the nick of time. This was after a series of Southampton substitutions that left us without Bednarek but with no less than four wide attackers instead. Ugochukwu was drafted in to defence and didn’t do so badly against this class of opposition, but where was a winner going to come from with time running out? James Bree, of course, the player who had scored a memorable goal back in the second round and who was now being encouraged to shoot at every opportunity. When an opportunity came in the 88th minute, Bonham couldn’t keep the over 20 yard effort out and Saints converted their 77% possession into a passage to the quarter finals.
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates to choose from:
6. Taylor Harwood-Bellis, setting us on the way.
14. James Bree with the winning goal.
35. Jan Bednarek. It began to look pretty horrible at the back when he went off.
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