Just as Saints looked to be into the next round, they conceded a sloppy late goal.

For long periods of this game Saints looked comfortable and although it was true that the home side enjoyed more possession and shot etc, for the most part even with a bit of a hot potch of a side, Saints looked comfortable and once Rickie Lambert had signalled his return with a good headed goal from a decent Dan Harding cross the result never looked in doubt till that late goal.

As expected there were quite a few changes, but in the main Nigel Adkins went for keeping his shape at the back and building from there as I hoped that he would do in the preview, the biggest surprise though was the return of Lee Barnard, who worked hard but obviously tired in the second half after so long with so little action.

Jason Puncheon looked eager to please and showed enough runs and touches to suggest that he should start on Tuesday against Cardiff, the emergence of Tadanari Lee was much anticipated, in truth he did little, but unlike the debutant on Monday, Falque, at least he looked like he knew what he was doing and held his position well, suggesting that although its a bit early to pass judgement on 27 minutes of football, that he could be an asset.

In short Saints looked like they were a side again and Nigel Adkins has a few big decisions to make for what is now a big big game against Cardiff, but in truth Im a lot more confident that we will put on a good display against the elsh side than I was a few days ago.

Plus points in the game were Bart came through another test and in the main held firm although there were some who felt he should have done a bit better on the goal, it could be though that he was a bit wrong footed and hence couldnt change direction, Danny ox in an unfamiliar central role also looked reasonable in the circumstances, but his main contribution was his organising and he stepped up to the plate well in this respect, Dan Harding did a fair job in deputising for him at left back and even added his first assist of the season with a decent cross for Lambert's goal, if he did this on a regular basis then I would not be so critical of him.

For some teams a replay might be a burden, but with our plethora of fringe players i would say its actually a good thing as it gives them a chance to not only show what they can do but keep them match fit, to put this line up in perspective I would expect only about 5 of this team to play in the same positions on Tuesday night.

Photo: Action Images

iwtwms added 16:57 - Jan 29 Why do you compare Fox & Harding with their number of assists? This is not their primary job. In assessing full backs the following is taken into account; Tackles won, clean sheets, and percentage pass completion. Now I haven't researched what the result of this is and maybe Fox comes out on top but you are barking up the wrong tree.
0

SaintNick added 17:02 - Jan 29 I only compare assists for Fox & Harding in the fact that so many tell me that Harding is great at going forward and that isnt backed up by the number of crosses he gets in that create goals I think most Saints fans say that Fox is a better tackler and passer than Harding but Harding is better going forward, yes he looks better because he is blonde and faster than Fox, but the stats dfont back that up Im not a full time football writer with time and the access to all the stats I only tell it as i see it and then try to justify my opinions

0

latviandream added 17:33 - Jan 29 Hate to say it, but I've always thought that there's not much between them although they have totally different strengths. Fox's is pushing forward with creative runs, passing and crossing, but on the down side he defends way too narrow at LB and occasionally gets caught out positionally in defence. Harding on the other hand is less likely to get caught out of position because he doesn't have the same level of creativity going forward. Just my opinion. Looking forward... If Lallana is still out on Tuesday, and the CB situation is sorted (Collins or Fonte returning to partner Martin), I'd have Fox playing LM in front of Harding at LB. As we've seen a few times before though there's many permutations out there. Lat

0

Stephen added 17:57 - Jan 29 Lies, damn lies and statistics. Percentage pass complete doesn't tell you in which half the pass was made. Harding has one strength which won't show up in these statistics. He goes on great attacking runs which drag defenders and opens up space. Of course the downside is he leaves the back door open. Opening our eyes we can see that Harding is far more offensive than Fox and Fox is far more defensive than Harding. Simple. So may take is Harding is best sometimes and Fox others. That explains why Adkins keeps swapping them. In Adkins we trust.

0

Saintpaul120 added 19:31 - Jan 29 Absolutely agree with Stepohen re Harding & Fox. This "blonde hair gets him noticed" argument is less strong Nick when you leave out your usual adjectives of "white sweat bands gets him noticed more". Pah! I keep saying the same thing over & over. Both have different attributes. Harding saw us up over 2 seasons and use to link well with Adam Lallana. I do agree, however, that sometimes he can have 'mares' of games - but then so can Fox so it's all subjective really-:)

0

1962saint added 20:27 - Jan 29 I thought Punch had an excellent game - amazing considering he's hardly played all season. His punishment and ticking off has obviously worked. It could prove to be as good as a new signing. The actual new signing Tadanari Lee also looked promising. He didn't have long on the pitch and didn't get any opportunities to make any meaningful contribution to the game but his movement off the ball running into spaces was top class. When the other players get used to his moves I think he will be a tremendous asset to the side.

0

saintBob added 12:18 - Jan 30 A bit of a mish mash team at Millwall so I think a draw was ok despite conceding late on and we were under quite a bit of pressure. Seems to me that we could have good competition for places in our squad now with new acqisitions and players coming back from injury/suspension. Hope we see a different side (mentally) against Cardiff than we did against Leicester. COYR.
0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Southampton Polls