It Could Be Worse

Just a quick note (mainly for Google) to point out that I’ve created an iCal calendar of Southampton’s fixtures for the 2005/06 season.

• Subscribe – Apple iCal
• Download – Mozilla Sunbird/KDE/Evolution
• View the calendar at iCal Exchange

I’m late to the party, if that’s not an unfortunate choice of words under the circumstances, but Southampton (contrary to my previous optimism) were relegated to the Coca Cola Championship (”fizzy pop league”) last Sunday, losing 2-1 to Man. Utd.

I’m over my initial doom and gloom; Harry seems to be indicating that he’ll stay, and most of the better players probably will too. A long-overdue clearance of the dead wood is also in the works.

In an odd-numbered year with no summer football tournament to distract me, I’m champing at the bit for the new season to start – unfortunately it’s about 3 months away!

Anyone for tennis (or cricket)?

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.

…and one collection of eleven footballers who just happen to be wearing the same (red and white) kit. Portsmouth destroyed – not just beat – Southampton yesterday. We are now bottom of the table, with the only good news being that we still have to play two fellow strugglers: Norwich and Crystal Palace.

Saints also recently threw away a 2-0 lead against Aston Villa to lose 3-2; that alone makes us worthy of relegation in my book. It somehow feels wrong – Saints have been top flight for 27 years – but I am now resigned to playing against Preston North End next season, and our local derby being against Reading, not Portsmouth. That is, of course, if Reading continue their spectactular underachievement and fail to get into the playoffs/win the playoffs/get promoted again.

An heroic performance yesterday from Harry’s boys led to a 3-1 win at Middlesbrough, Southampton’s first away win of the season. Two goals from Peter Crouch (and two references to him as "the lanky striker" in the BBC News report) and one from Andreas Jakobsson were too much for the Smoggies. After leading 2-0 against them at home and then drawing 2-2, this was a moral, if not actual, double against the Teeside team.

With West Brom recording an improbable 4-1 away win at Charlton, this was a must-win game for the Saints. Thankfully, Crystal Palace (to Chelsea) and Norwich (to Bolton) both lost, meaning that we’re out of the relegation zone (for now).

We’re only three points behind Fulham (though they have a game in hand), four behind Portsmouth and five behind Blackburn, so all the talk of the relegated teams being three from Saints, Palace, West Brom and Norwich now seems a little premature.

Best quote of the weekend (from Radio Five Live’s 606): “If Harry [Redknapp] had been captain of the Titanic, the iceberg would have sunk”.

Saints were outclassed on live TV on Saturday afternoon. It was painful to watch. I guessed that we would either run Man. Utd. close or we would get slaughtered. In the end, we were lucky it wasn’t five- or six-nil. Most of our better players were either cup-tied, injured or suspended (David Prutton – you muppet!).

Only Premiership survival to play for now, though it must be said that our passage to the sixth round wasn’t exactly tough (Northampton, Brentford), and we did have a big slice of luck (Portsmouth).

I guess our name won’t be on the cup this year, then.

Sorry – I haven’t posted since Friday, and that was only to tell you the blog had moved house.

In short:

• Bill Gates, KBE. Killing British Enterprise, presumably.
• Southampton earned a well-fought point against Arsenal, though David Prutton has been given a ten-match ban for pushing the ref. Eek!
• Saints also beat Brentford in the FA Cup 5th-round replay, setting up a quarter-final against Man. Utd.

That’s about it, really. See you again soon!

Southampton play West Brom tonight. Southampton are 19th in the Premiership; West Brom are 20th, with two fewer points. If we lose, we go bottom. If we win, we’ll go above Crystal Palace, who are currently safe in 17th place, on goal-difference.

To say this is the biggest match of the season is an understatement. FA Cup Quarter-final¹ against Man. Utd? A trifle, in comparison.

To think I gloated at my brother last year as his team – Leeds Utd. – were relegated…

Update:
It finished 0-0, despite Saints having at least three good chances. Bring on Arsenal!

[1] If we beat Brentford in the 5th-round replay.

Marcus Bent. What can I say? Comedy name, son, but your last-minute equaliser for Everton against the clearly-superior-on-the-day Saints has robbed us of two desperately-needed points.

The run-in to the end of the season isn’t great:

• 22 February: West Brom (A)
• 26 February: Arsenal (H)
• 05 March: Tottenham (H)
• 19 March: Middlesbrough (A)
• 02 April: Chelsea (H)
• 09 April Blackburn (A)
• 16 April: Aston Villa (H)
• 19 April: Bolton (A)
• 24 April: Portsmouth (A)
• 30 April: Norwich (H)
• 07 May: Crystal Palace (A)
• 14 May: Man Utd (H)

You can write off the away games, probably, unless our form away from fortress St. Mary’s improves dramatically: we’ve had no away wins all season.

In the spirit of always looking on the bright side of life, though, I would offer these crumbs of comfort:

• We seem to raise our game against better teams. We played Everton off the park on Saturday, and destroyed LIverpool two weeks ago.
• We have still got to play West Brom, Norwich and Crystal Palace: two three six-pointers.
• Paul Smith is clearly a competent replacement for the injured Antti Niemi.
• Erm, that’s it.

Keep your fingers crossed, Saints Fans, it’s gonna be one heck of a ride. Man Utd at home on the last day of the season? Somebody pass me the calming pills, please…

The romance of the FA Cup returned this weekend, as Yeovil, Oldham and Sheffield United (amongst others) defeated higher-division opponents. Yeading couldn’t do the same against Newcastle (and, thankfully, neither could Northampton beat Southampton – phew!), but acquitted themselves reasonably well against the Geordie Millionaires.

I watched the Yeading game and, while they did brilliantly to only lose 2-0, I felt that they tried to be too ambitious too often: trying to play the ball out of defence; attempting to pass through (literally) opposing players; playing backwards into danger; giving the ball away etc etc. Still – the players were nearly dead on their feet by the end, so all credit to them. Let’s hope they can go on and turn their nine-point advantage at the top of the Ryman Premier League into promotion, come May.

All we need now is a sympathetic 4th-round draw. We’ll know at 1.30pm…

Update

Oh. Sweet. Lord. It’s Portsmouth