Crystal Palace Away Lost 2 – 1
Sugawara is clearly a fine footballer but as a Premier League defender he’s always an accident waiting to happen and Ivan Jurić is the latest to realise this, recalling Bree to face Crystal Palace, along with Aribo and Dibling for Downes (injured) and Ugochikwu (not sure what he did wrong). Against many expectations, not only did Saints score a rare goal, but indeed they took the lead – Walker-Peters got away from Muñoz and crossed low for Armstrong who was surely shooting with what turned out to be a pass for Dibling‘s goal: AA got the credit for an assist and KW-P nothing in the record books which seems wrong, somehow! That was, of course, the highpoint as Palace came back strongly, but at least we stayed in front for 16 minutes, and many will say that should have been longer. The equaliser came via Chalobah‘s header from a corner but Ramsdale led immediate protests and it is a wonder how VAR was happy enough with Mateta’s arms-out challenge although he wasn’t to get to the ball until it was over the line – Hughes, with the corner, got the assist credit but Mateta’s involvement was the crucial element. Presumably Ramsdale didn’t get the benefit of some considerable doubt for not being strong enough but he went on to save well from Sarr and Lerma and somehow Walker-Peters managed to clear from Muñoz to keep the game even at the break. Ugochukwu was to get his outing on a dank and chilly afternoon but soon after he came on, Palace went ahead through a well struck shot by Eze although you kind of felt the defending should have been better. Soon after what proved to be the winner, Fernandes forced a good save from Henderson after a mazy run; that was the extent of any real threat of a comeback, though, in another disappointing response to adversity and we ended up with a replacement forward line of Sulemana and Archer. Whilst also defending his goalkeeper over the first one, Ivan said that both goals conceded were ‘stupid.’ He comes with a reputation of being a defensive coach but not a very attacking one so it will be interesting to see how this works out as we certainly need more resilience but also need to create more going forward.
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates to choose from:
2. Kyle Walker-Peters. A good case to be made for him being our best attacker as well as defender.
15. Nathan Wood-Gordon (well, that’s what the BBC call him). He’s becoming a first choice centre back, although I guess there’s some sort of collective responsibility for stupid goals.
30. Aaron Ramsdale, a definite contender if you believe the first Palace goal should not have stood.
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