West Bromwich Albion Away Drew 1 – 1
Those rested at Fulham were promoted to start at West Brom, while Matsuki, rather surprisingly, replaced former Baggie Fellows. The league table doesn’t often lie at this stage of the season, and Saints looked good for a goal against their struggling opponents in the first half hour – Stewart came closest with a powerful header from Scienza’s cross but it was straight at O’Leary. After that, things got a bit sloppy and Albion sensed a chance, with a deflected cross that somehow eluded everyone giving them more cause for hope. It didn’t help that we lost Scienza in this period with what could be a nasty injury, and then Charles, who didn’t have a good night, conceded a corner on the stroke of 45 minutes: Dike forced a good save with a header and then managed to get something on the rebound and send the loose ball back into the mix where Molumby forced it in. Larin replaced Stewart at the break, which was worrying as it clearly wasn’t a tactical change, while the dynamic of the game had now shifted in the home side’s favour. Dike caused Peretz to make a fumbling but ultimately successful save before he was part of a triple WBA substitution as time began to run out. Were they going more defensive, or were Saints profiting from our own changes that had included Edozie for Matsuki? Both theories may be true, but it still remained hard to see where a Southampton goal could come from as the game moved into added time. Then Edozie, on the left, cut inside to deliver a right foot cross that Larin headed back across goal to just about beat the wrong-footed O’Leary and just about find the net via both crossbar and post. Albion seemed shattered and the only question in the remaining five-or-so minutes was whether Saints could score again, but we could only ride our luck so far.
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates to choose from:
4. Flynn Downes, given only 65 minutes pitch time as we continue to worry about his picking up another caution before the deadline – it would be easier to tell him to behave himself.
9. Cyle Larin. His lack of pace was again showing but a very good goal was the best thing we managed all evening.
41. Daniel Peretz. Did his best to stop the goal and was just about competent enough to keep sometimes rampant opponents at bay.
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