We’ve only gone and beaten an ex premier league side, who are pushing for automatic promotion and at their stadium too. I was not expecting this and I do not think anybody else was. This was by far our best performance of the season, especially in the first half, and we did not show any fatigue or sloppiness; we are beginning to look like a team who wants to play football. Unfortunately, I did not go to this match, however, I did watch it on Ifollow at home.
Rosenior made three changes to the starting line-up that won at The John Smith’s stadium on Saturday: Omur, Jean Seri and Lewie Coyle came in for Tyler Morton, Billy Sharp and Ozan Tufan. That meant we lined up as follows, in a 4-2-3-1 formation: Ryan Allsop, betwixt the sticks; Alfie Jones, Jacob Greaves, Ryan Giles and Lewie Coyle holding the fort; Jean Seri and Regan Slater just below; Anass Zaroury and Jaden Philogene on the wings; Fabio Carvalho up-front and Omur just behind him. It’s great to see Seri back, although it was risky, and Omur deserved to start after his quality performances recently.
From the off, we looked like the side pushing for automatic promotion and the Saints were the antithesis of that. We were holding the ball nicely, pressing high and being incredibly brave. This was always going to be a game of possession, but we allowed them to have it and used our attacking threat to press and force them into passes they didn’t want to make. Alas, it was the home side who had the first opportunity of the game; in the 8th minute, Allsop played the ball to Seri, who loses the ball to an onrushing Rothwell and he runs into the box, but his shot takes a vital deflection off Allsop’s foot and grazes the post.
Fortunately, that was the only real chance they had and we responded brilliantly by getting off the mark and drawing first blood; in the 11th minute, Allsop spots Giles on the left flank with space, where he drives, passes to Carrvalho, who rolls it to Philogene making a run, but his effort was saved, however, only to a pouncing Zaroury who slots it home.
We continued in this manner and were really annoying Southampton, who could not form any attack or get the ball to one of their players. It seemed they were not used to playing this style of football and, thus, paid the price for an error. In the 36th minute, Bezunu, their keeper, plays the ball from the back, but, a lurking Philogene and Carvalho were quick to press, won the ball, Philogene passes it to Carvalho in the box, who smashes it in. Brilliant; I thought Southampton would be doing this to us, not the other way around.
To be honest, we could have come out of the half with a bigger lead, after Philogene ran into the box, but struck straight at the keeper, Zaroury attempted to chip the keeper and Omur struck wide after he found himself with a free opportunity in the box, but did not manage to convert it into a goal. We had 11 shots to their 3, with 4 on target and an expected goal rate (although I am critical of this stat) of 1.32 to their 0.53. Whereby, we had less possession, 49%. The only negative of this half was that Seri looked a bit rusty, but that was to be expected.
Southampton made three changes at the start of the second half and this proved to be a good choice from their manager; they came out of their shell more and played us at our own game. However, this does not take away our amazing performance as we still stuck to our game plan and our defence was robust. We just did not create as many dangerous opportunities.
The home side had the first dangerous chances of the half after Manning struck wide in the 58th minute and in the 60th minute their player broke away from Coyle, drove down the pitch and passed it to Adams, who, on the turn, struck wide from a difficult angle. They also had three attempts in the box in the 66th minute after it was like pinball in the box, before the ball was finally scooped towards goal, but landed on the roof of the net.
The game started to fade out after this attempt and tiredness was kicking in, especially with the Tigers. We made some defensive changes and decided to park the bus. Inevitably, Southampton started knocking on the door and played their best football of the match. Eventually, they got their goal; in the 88th minute, Aribo received the ball in the box and he dummied our players, who threw themselves in front of him, kept his composure and slotted it into the back of the net. This was a mere consolation and, thankfully, we were able to hold out the game and win the three points.
This was our game in hand and anything other than a point would not have been good enough as West Bromwich also won their game in hand and we have two other teams on level points with a couple teams just behind us. Now, if we win against The Baggies next Saturday, we could potentially go fifth, depending on other results as well.
Every aspect of our game was incredible and even the commentators said that we have been the best side to come to their stadium. This win means we have won three on the bounce and they have all been away from home. Let’s hope we can keep the same form when we face fifth placed West Bromwich on Saturday as this great performance must be backed up with many more.