Southampton put in a well drilled, if at times error strewn performance at Goodison Park, but they came through in the penalty shootout after finding six players who can take a decent penalty.

Both teams made changes with Sean Dyche once again making excuses as to why his side was down to the bare bones, whereas Russell Martin even though he made 10 changes to the starting line up, could still put out a starting XI full of experience, with only the one survivor of the starting line up Lesley Ugochukwu relatively inexperienced at this level.

Saints of course played their possession football game and had the lions share of the ball, but it was the hosts who were more direct in the early stages and they reaped the rewards when Alex McCarthy came and flapped at a cross and with 3 Everton players marked by just 1 Saints defender at the far post, it was Abdoulaye Doucoure who had a free header from close range to open the scoring after 20 minutes.

But Southampton would only be behind for 12 minutes, Charlie Taylor putting in a superb cross for Taylor Harwood Bellis to head home.

This was just about Saints real effort of the half so far and they started to get back into the game, keeping the ball and attempting to pass their way up the pitch, however it was not perfect and too many times they would give the ball away and also find themselves stretched on the break.

But they got into half time on level terms and you felt they had withstood Everton's early bluster and could start to impose themselves in the second half.

These was a change at the break, Adam Lallana had looked decent in the first half, but Russell Martin clearly didn't want to over play him in this one and he was replaced by Mateus Fernandes.

Now Saints had more control and after keeping it tight for the first 15 minutes, Martin made 3 changes to try and win the came, on came Downes, Dibling & Brereton for Ugochukwu, Fraser & Cornet and Saints were now in control, although the visitors were still dangerous on the break. Alex McCarthy having to make one superb save to keep the scores level.

Flynn Downes gave us a bit more control in the centre of the park and it also freed up Tyler Dibling to further show Southampton supporters that he is the latest in the line of potential England players to have come off the conveyor belt.

Dibling showed that he can not only work with the ball, but also without it, when Everton had the ball he worked hard to win it back and when he got the ball he showed how he could take players on and create chances for himself and others, one sublime piece of skill seeing him dance through the Everton defence and only narrowly miss the target.

But as Everton fans grew more disgruntled with their team and manager, with 10 minutes to go you could see which manager felt his team was on the back foot, the boos rang out as Sean Dyche removed an attacking option in Doucoure and replaced him with a defender, whereas Russell Martin brought on Ross Stewart.

But we could not find a winner, however more importantly nor could Everton and we didn't look like conceding in the last 10 minutes .

So to penalties and I don't think many Southampton supporters would have been confident after the effort on Saturday against United.

But we showed that we have players who can take penalties, Brereton Diaz, Dibling, Stewart, Downes, Taylor & Harwood Bellis all despatching their spot kicks with aplomb and then Alex McCarthy atoned for his earlier error by keeping out the 12th kick of the evening to send Saints into the next round, ironically the keeper had gone the wrong way for the previous 5 efforts.

So a good evenings work for Southampton and a psychological blow in the Premier League relegation battle, by showing that his squad has depth, whilst his counterpart Sean Dyche was left moaning that he only had 12 fit players.

This should give us confidence going into the game against Ipswich, several players showed that they are up and ready for the fight, they won't all be able to play, but that shows depth, the youthful Mateus Fernandes can be interchanged by Adam Lallana.

Charlie Taylor showed that he is Premier League proven quality and will surely be in line for a start against Ipswich, Tyler Dibling is fast laying claim to being a nailed on starter, even James Bree got in on the act.

No one is under any illusions of the task ahead of us and that this result will now kick start a 22 game unbeaten run that will take us up to 3rd in the table, but it gives us hope for the first step forward in the League against Ipswich on Saturday.

Russell Martin can have no excuses, as I mentioned earlier in the week, the Jack Stephens issue has been taken out of his hands, he now has to show that he can pick a side on merit, if he does that then we can beat Ipswich and start to win the fight for Premier League safety.

Photo: Action Images

Jellybaby added 10:02 - Sep 18 Dibbling and Downes were not penalty takers, Aribo and Bree were. All were so much better than Archer!
6

A1079 added 10:12 - Sep 18 A win is a win even though it was through the lottery of a penalty shoot out - though they were all good penalties - so providing we use the right players when we do get a penalty we may have a chance. It was a poor game overall with 2 poor relegation looking sides. Generally our focus is on how error strewn our defence is, but really the big question is, the continued failing of our frontline to score goals no matter who we put there. The return on goals scored is dreadful and is equally costing us games and points as much as our errors at the back in the league (I realise that this was a cup game but our 1 goal in play came from a defender again). Why are we so poor up front? Is it quality?, is it confidence? is it lack of feed from midfield? is it tactics and positioning? Teams that don't score don't stay up generally.

7

saintmark1976 added 10:25 - Sep 18 I won’t comment about the match except to say that a wins a win but we made hard work of it. A couple of related points:- 1. Everton had a gate of over 33000 for a second rate cup game. Say’s a lot about their support. 2. If anyone thinks that opinions on this site get a little edgy have a look at Toffee Web. Some of the comments and opinions about their season so far and manager are interesting to say the least.

2

davidargyll added 10:29 - Sep 18 If you’d just landed from Mars and you watched this football match, I would imagine your friendly Martian would be pretty hard pressed not to be able to decide where these two teams currently are in the Premier League: because “mainly dross” would be the description he would undoubtedly come up with. That said, I think it maybe showed WE ARE NO WORSE THAN EVERTON, which I suppose is something. And of course it may instil a bit of confidence in the squad for Saturday. But I did count at least half a dozen times when we were pressed by Everton and lost the ball trying to do tippy tappy. And yet there was definitely more cases of hoofing the ball out instead. So maybe that is sign of improvement, even if better teams would take more decisive advantage, as has been shown so far this season. Yes I know damning with faint praise but I still maintain getting out of the bottom three under this manager is going to take one helluva lot more than we showed last night, especially as we were hardly playing our reserves.

-1

JoeEgg added 11:12 - Sep 18 Hardly worth saying too much - save the ammunition for the Ipswich match. It was a poor scrappy game played between two reserve teams. Maybe Harwood Bellis was a plus and would surely do a better job than Jack as both a defender and Captain. "Generally our focus is on how error strewn our defence is, but really the big question is, the continued failing of our frontline to score goals no matter who we put there." A1079 The perfect conclusion from A1079 and most worrying aspect of ALL our games. so far. Adam Armstrong again drops out of the reckoning and Brereton Diaz, isn't far behind. How short-sighted of the Board not to make a proven goal scorer or two the main priority during the scramble to find Premier quality players. It places a huge weight on the young shoulders of Dibbling and could yet prove the mistake that leads to Martin's own replacement at St Marys.

0

SaintPaulVW added 12:00 - Sep 18 Awful match. A win though and good performances from several players so I can't complain.
2

Block8 added 12:02 - Sep 18 We won but what a poor game that was. I would hate to be a striker in this team, very rarely getting a pass in behind or a decent cross into the box. when chances do come our build up play has been so slow the box and around it is full of defenders, so you're having to work hard for very little return. How different it is for opposition strikers, where we move up the field (very slowly) as a unit, there is soo much space behind us and through us it's a dream for a striker! The fact they missed at least two pretty easy chances should be very worrying.

4

allsaint54 added 12:26 - Sep 18 Congratulations to RM for another fantastic win - 74% possession. It doesn't seem to matter that we created next to naff all & scored just 1 goal from a set piece, its possession that counts. What a bore fest of a game, any neutral supporter would have switched off after 30 mins. How long will it be before he curtails Dibbers attacking flair. Can't see why anyone bothers to make an attacking run when the pass will just go back or sideways. Please sack RM now & put us out of our misery. But hey a wins a win.

-2

WestSussexSaint added 12:35 - Sep 18 Not much to add to what has already been said . Poor match. However I want to give a shout to James Bree. A bit of a forgotten man at Saints but several times last night he bailed out his team mates when we lost possession either by being in the right place at the right time or busting a gut to get back.
8

NicNacs added 12:43 - Sep 18 A lot of the errors seemed to be from not even looking or being aware of who is around them. I noticed quite a few just release the ball without looking, like in a training session. Possession football is only worthwhile if you utilise the break and attack quickly, time and time again the slow build up gives the opposition time to regroup, rendering all the possession pointless. This makes us error prone at the back and toothless going forward.

2

Farlow added 14:12 - Sep 18 I agree with West Sussex i lke the look of James Bree he might not get forward as much as the Japanese lad but he gives the defence a bit of stability.Every penalty that was taken made the decision to give Archer a gho Saturday even more crackers.
1

Bawdrip added 14:14 - Sep 18 It was a long round trip from Somerset but a nice afternoon by the Mersey and The Albert Dicks before the game. Not a great match but good to win and I felt we deserved the win despite Everton missing two one on ones. Eleven super penalties with just the one that was missed. Our bench was much stronger than Everton's and it showed towards the end. Some good performances but little up front. I think the midfield isn't creating enough. Armstrong wasn't great but had very little service. Some very unhappy Everton supporters last night.

2

Bawdrip added 14:16 - Sep 18 Albert Docks not Dicks in case you wondered how I spent my afternoon!
3

Bowlercow added 15:19 - Sep 18 Not much of a watch but a win is a win It wasn't so much being robbed of the ball by Everton pressing but more badly placed passes. AIt needs to be a bit quicker and a bit more direct h Ipswich did us twice last season so on Saturday we will see if any lessons have been learnt
1

DoctorSleep added 16:55 - Sep 18 All I'm going to say is Ross Steward scored - don't care it was in a penalty shootout - he scored a goal.
4

landsdownsaint added 06:58 - Sep 19 Lallana was quality & Iv see big things for Fernandez ‘s career & I also think BBD has goals in him … over to you Russell oz your the problem atm but I also see a good manager . I really think we could stay up with ease
-2

Blogs 32 bloggers

Southampton Polls