(Hopefully) Staying up with Harry & Jim!
I was lucky enough to be able to use a friend’s season ticket on Saturday (thanks Richard!) and be at St. Mary’s Stadium in Southampton as The Saints narrowly beat fellow-strugglers Norwich 4-3 in what was truly a game of two halves.
Saints fell behind after only 3 minutes - sloppy defending. Then Matty Oakley equalised - quality goal. Crouchy then scored with his feet (!) to put us 2-1 up before more sloppy defending led to a Higgy own-goal. Graeme Le Saux put us 3-2 in front until, with the last kick of the half, Norwich scored a breakaway goal to make it 3-3.
“Blimey,” I thought, “we’ll have to beat them 5-4!” My prediction wasn’t far off. The second half, however, was stop-start - nothing like the first at all - the ref seemed to want to blow up for everything. Harry had strengthened the defence at half-time, bringing on Telfer and Lundekvam for Delap and Jakobsen. It worked: we didn’t concede any more goals!
Henri Camara came on with 16 minutes left, and the first thing he did was cross the ball from the left…over everyone’s heads into touch on the far side. This left me doubting that he was the best choice to come on, but he came up with the goods with three minutes of normal time left, slotting past Robert Green from inside the 18-yard box.
Green was up there attacking for Norwich right at the end, but all he could do was hoof the ball into the Northam end. It was an emotionally draining match, but Saints came through it! If we can get three more points at Crystal Palace on Saturday, then our survival chances are still alive.