It was a different and far more positive performance by Ivan Juric's Saints side than under his predecessor, but despite the more attacking style employed the result was the same as most of those achieved before.

Iven Juric took his place in the Southampton dug out for the first time and his first line up saw little real change, in came Lesley Ugochukwu to add power and steel to the centre of the midfield and up front Tall Paul Onuachu also got a start.

On the bench there was no place for Jack Stephens, nor Ben Brereton Diaz.

From the kick off it was clear that the team may not have changed much, but the style certainly had and throughout the match you could see the players were certainly more comfortable that they had been with Russell Martin's possession football style.

When the ball needed clearing it was cleared and when Saints were not in possession they pressed and the good news was that we can defend and we can create chances, sadly on this occasion though, we could not convert them.

The best chances fell to Tall Paul who had a succession of headers, but on each of them he failed to get any real power or direction, although one needed a great save to keep the scores level.

It was a very even contest, the Hammers were there to do a job and they didn't lay down and die, but when they hammered on our door we were up to the task, we worked hard to keep it tight and we worked hard to block shots when West Ham did get a chance, although in the first half it took the bar to keep things level.

A moment of controversy came when Guido Rodriguez was shown a red card following a challenge on Kyle Walker-Peters, but that was rescinded after the referee looked at the monitor, in fairness it was the right decision.

The one goal of the game came in the 59th minute when Jared Bowen got a real poachers goal poking home from close range.

So a disappointing result for Southampton, but a positive performance, Ivan Juric promised death metal football and we got a spirited performance where we moved the ball round quickly and were not afraid to play the ball forward quickly, Saints fans could go home disappointed by the result but not the performance.

There were some outstanding performances from those who either looked disillusioned under Russell Martin or who never really got a chance.

Kyle Walker-Peters looked a different player from the one we saw in the previous games this season, he marauded forward and was at the heart of most of the chances we created.

In the centre of the midfield Big Les Ugochukwu, showed why Chelsea rate him so highly, he was big, strong and refused to be bullied, most teams in this league have big powerhouses in the centre of the midfield, Big Les looked the part and hopefully we will keep him for the rest of the season.

Up front Tall Paul had his best game for the club, he battled hard and had the bulk of our attempts on goal, it was his best performance in a Saints shirt and just about the firt that he has played in a team that suited his style, under Russell Martin there was no point in playing him, he would rarely see the ball, but now under Ivan Juric he could resurrect his career at St Mary's, if there was one criticism it is that his headers lacked direction and a little power, they were too close to the keeper, but that is to be expected, he probably hasn't had a chance to head the ball for Saints since ironically our last game against West Ham almost 2 years ago, when he almost equalised with a late header.

Perhaps aside from the end result the only down side for Saints supporters was the use of substitutions, we had 3 changes where we brought on 2 players in each, the first on 61 minutes was a little strange given we had just gone 1-0 down, yes fresh legs were needed, but Yuri Sugawara is an attacking option and James Bree more defensive, that was a little strange.

Likewise in the second tranche of changes, Tyler Dibling for Mateus Fernandes was understandable, Fernandes has run his heart out, but Kamaldeen Sulemana for Adam Armstrong was another strange one, Sulemana has done little for this club in two years, yet he gets another chance, perhaps the guile and experience of Frazer Richardson would have been better.

The last change on 87 minutes were both attacking, Ryan Manning again fresh legs on the left for KWP and Adam Lallana an attacking option on for the outstanding, but defensive Big Les.

I would say that Ivan Juric was having to rely on those coaches on his bench who were here under Russell Martin to advise him, both in the starting line up and also with the changes, with so little time to work with the squad he has probably not had time to work out who best suits what he wants to do.

But truth is this was not a good day for Saints elsewhere, with Wolves beating Manchester United and Palace & Everton both getting draws, safety slipped further out of sight for us, we are 9 points off Wolves who have a goal difference 15 better than ours so effectively 10, failure to beat Crystal Palace on Sunday could be the day that an uphill task becomes impossible.

The truth is that we should have replaced Russell Martin far sooner, perhaps after the defeat to Leicester, the 3rd defeat in a row after the debacle at Bournemouth, of course Ivan Juric was still in a job at that point, but he departed from Roma on 10th November the day after another debacle at Wolves, if Juric was always on our radar and we considered him our man, then we should have acted decisively then, that would have given him an extra 5 Premier League fixtures to turn things round, we got just 1 point from 5 games, if we had made that 4, then Juric would have a decent chance to keep us up.

All Photos Via Reuters

JoeEgg added 11:04 - Dec 27 Well I have to say that the result only confirms that we will be back in the Championship next season. Not just the result, but no matter how hard the players work we simply do not have the quality to overcome even the worst defences in the Premier League. Onuachu may have had his best game but he needs to score goals - there was Danny Ings sitting there on the West Ham bench unable to contribute anything. Are you telling me that Onuacho has forgotten how to head the ball? Maybe it was the shock of seeing so many crosses - he has to do better. It was a mistake to play Armstrong who I think has been finished at this level for some time. Why keep Dibling and Archer off the pitch in favour of Armstrong? Strange. I'm sorry but if we cant beat a poor West Ham side there is little hope. Yes it was a much better watch - well how could it be worse than watching a Russell Martin side? We have made the big change far too late for this season and ironically, my best player against West Ham, Kyle Walker Peters probably wont be with us next season further reducing our squad effectiveness. Good luck to you Ivan, you are certainly going to need it and will really earn your keep if you can turn things around with our present squad!

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BarnetSaint added 11:56 - Dec 27 A good way to gauge the performance of our players is to read what the opposition fans say. I read their kumb fans forum and the overwhelming majority were grateful that Paul O was so wasteful with his chances and a better forward would have punished them. Hopefully if he can get one, others will follow but with such poor attacking options we’re pinning our hopes on him. RM/SR failed to bring in a decent forward before the season started. We knew AA, for all his hard work isn’t prem quality

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BarnetSaint added 11:56 - Dec 27 A good way to gauge the performance of our players is to read what the opposition fans say. I read their kumb fans forum and the overwhelming majority were grateful that Paul O was so wasteful with his chances and a better forward would have punished them. Hopefully if he can get one, others will follow but with such poor attacking options we’re pinning our hopes on him. RM/SR failed to bring in a decent forward before the season started. We knew AA, for all his hard work isn’t prem quality

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saintmark1976 added 12:01 - Dec 27 Nick, have you been at the cooking sherry over Christmas, “ the guile and experience of Frazer Richardson would nave been better” ? With the best will in the world he’s now 42 years old and even a cameo appearance as a substitute would probably have been beyond him.
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ItchenNorth added 12:14 - Dec 27 Decent first half but when you waste so many good chances you know what will happen! The second half was poor and we ran out of ideas. Our substitutions were not great either. How Kamaldeen Sulamana gets on the pitch (at all!) ahead of Archer is just baffling. Archer should start anyway in place of Armstrong let alone sit on the bench for the entire game. He's our best finisher. Overall though the high press high tempo style is more exciting to watch so we'll no doubt see some more points on the board soon but it's all too late unless there's a miracle!

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landsdownsaint added 12:15 - Dec 27 We got a good manager here . Loads of attacking made it exciting to watch, all I kept thinking was how much RM has F””I’d us over. Regards Tall Paul His first touch was pretty good , strong &had vision around him , we need him out there but not with Armstrong who’s not at this level neither is Downes unfortunately .
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IanRC added 12:26 - Dec 27 Well half the crucial awful decisions that Sports Republic made at the beginning of the season have been reversed with the removal of our previously inept manager. They now need to sort out the other one and recruit a decent forward who can really put away some goals, possibly the Corinthians striker. If this happens I still think we can stay up. Interesting to see THB playing so far forward during the game. I agree it would have been better to have started Archer rather than Armstrong although I do wonder whether he is being rested for Sunday. Thought the officials were again poor yes the red card should have been reversed but numerous niggly challenges were allowed to be made by West Ham without punishment. Think the guys who are continually slagging off Sulemana are watching a different game to me. In all the last few games when he's been allowed the odd 10 minutes he's put in a decent cross which with better strikers would have resulted in a goal. The only concern I have is that under RMs approach he was encouraged to turn backwards instead of trying to beat his man more often.

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AmericanSaint added 12:56 - Dec 27 That was far more entertaining to watch that most of the games this season. We all have to be real that we only have a 3% chance of staying up, so we need to work things out on how we will move forward. Having only 2 days to train the players, you can't expect the gaffer to change the way we play completely. Several times we slowed the attack down due to the old way of thinking. Of the headers Tall Paul had, only 2 allowed him to get power or accuracy and one was saved by Fabianski. Mattues had the best header opportunity and he sent it right to Fab's feet. Anyone who doesnt rate Tall Paul did not watch the same game. He is a classic tall forward and was able to collect the long balls forward and then distribute. WH back 4 could not deal with him when Ramsdale sent it long. I agree that some of the subs were weird. Suguwara had worked hard and Manning should have come on, not Bree. KWP should have gone to right back then. I agree that Archer should have come on at some point. Unfortunately, I dont think Aribo had a good game and it probably should have been someone else to come on for him. Lallana doesnt have the speed anymore to keep up with the pace needed when we are chasing a goal. He needs to be used when we need to control the ball and slow the game down. Ok, so we have things to improve on, but it looks a lot better and it definitely more enjoyable to watch. On to the next, COYR.

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templarinexile added 15:26 - Dec 27 Yes, an encouraging performance - in another normal season, the result would be seen as "one of those days" - where you create loads of chances, fail to convert any, but concede a scrappy goal. This season is different of course and that goal was one more nail in the coffin. But what was most encouraging - having a manger who immediately recognised that sees that we needed a tougher, bigger more combative spine with the ability and strength to hold the ball up. The contributions from Les and Paul made all the difference and for the first time in ages we actually looked like we might find the net, though sadly not this time. We may yet upset a few teams this season and definitely pick up a few more points and perhaps set ourselves for a quick return with a squad and coach able to cut it in the PL.

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SanMarco added 16:13 - Dec 27 Tall Paul did everything right apart from score a couple of those headers, one of which was a sitter. It is almost certainly too late for us - we matched a (pretty average) mid-table side and if we had played like this from the start of the season we would still have been in with a chance. RM was sacked far too late and the other major SR blunder - lack of a decent goal scorer - is now banging those final nails into the coffin. PS We are caught in one particular paradox/dilemma - the better we do from now until the end of the season the more the new manager will have his pick of Prem vacancies in the summer. If we do badly then they, and we, won't want him anyway. Yes he would stay if the miracle happens - but such things don't happen to the likes of us do they??

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Colburn added 16:44 - Dec 27 Who scored our last goal? Archer, a superb strike against Liverpool. He’s our best finisher and a grade above Armstrong who just has no end product and his movement is second to Archer as well. So another manager who doesn’t seem to know that in order to win, you need your most potent threats on the pitch. We still had all 3 centre backs on when we’re losing at home in a must not lose game.. Absolutely staggering. I thought Juric had been watching us and knew the players? Yes we were a lot better defensively but we can’t afford to carry passengers like Armstrong and Aribo, and I know the fans love him cos we have a couple of songs for him but he’s way off the pace and lacks aggression when he starts games. Another who fights for 10 minutes when he’s a sub coming on. We need to bring Shea Charles back, he’s a class above some of the others.. Dibling looks like things have got to him, different player all of a sudden over the last month, too much pressure on a young lad

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bryanK added 19:36 - Dec 27 Let us be encouraged by this performance. Regardless of the missed chances it was great to actually see scoring chances rather than the one shot on target in 90 minutes we endured under Russell Martin. I also like the Manager not accepting fools gladly. Sugawara gave away an unnecessary corner with an unacceptable poor touch which led to the goal and within 2 minutes he was subbed. See the Manager reaction towards Sugawara he just threw his hands in the air and was clearly unhappy. I think the task is impossible but if he can restore some semblance of pride and respect into this dreadful season that would be something. Onwards and maybe upwards.

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