Saints battled hard but went down to defeat, although all the talking points in this game will sadly once again be about VAR, but this is only half time as the old cliche says, so we are not out of it yet.

No one can argue with the spirit that Saints showed in this game against a Newcastle side who are well drilled and at the top of their game, but ultimately it was refereeing & VAR or lack of it that decided this tie.

Perhaps the first talking point came when Newcastle had the ball in the back of the net in the first half, VAR looked at it and decided that the ball had hit the players arm, TV replays showed that to be the right decision.

Then on the stroke of half time came a moment of controversy, Djenepo chased a ball down the left wing and Nick Pope in the visitors goal came flying out of his area, it cannot be denied he headed the ball, but his challenge was dangerous and reckless and flattened Djenepo, no one in the ground would have denied this was a foul, if it had been anywhere else on the pitch it would have been given, but referee Stuart Attwell, perhaps mindful of the fact he might have a difficult decision to make if he gave a foul, gave a throw in.

Attwell had no problem giving free kicks for far less challenges throughout the match, yet he bottled this one.

The second half saw Newcastle looking the most dangerous and that proved the case on 73 minutes, when Duje Caleta- Car was outpaced down our left and Joelinton provided the finish to a great pull back across goal.

Would this finish Saints ? the answer was no, minutes later Adam Armstrong appeared to have scored and Saints Mary's erupted, but hang on another lengthy wait and the goal was disallowed.

I have watched this on TV several times and i am still not sure if Armstrong did handle, so the question is was this a clear and obvious error by the referee ? Perhaps I am biased but I would say that it wasn't clear in any way shape or form.

This rallied Saints a little though and they piled forward, Newcastle had to rely on Pope to make two outstanding saves to keep his side going in to the 2nd leg with a slender lead.

From a Saints viewpoint, it was slightly disappointing that Nathan Jones appeared to have not put out his full side, especially the absence of Romeo Lavia in the centre of the park, I think the thinking was to use him in the second half, but that was a risk.

It was good to see some of those who are not automatic first choices stepping up to the plate, Adam Armstrong was superb after replacing Djenepo, Ibrahima Diallo had a great game, although sadly his last two passes before coming off were appallingly into touch, prompting the man three rows behind me to scream "Get him off Jones" on the first of them, indeed this seemed to be his standard method of supporting the side throughout the game.

Late on Saints were in danger of getting caught on the break as they searched for an equaliser and that meant Caleta-Car having to take one for the team and get a second booking, down to 10 men was always going to be tricky, did we continue to push for an equaliser and risk getting caught on the break and leaving an uphill task in the second leg, or did we keep it tight and make sure the game was still in our sights for the trip to St James Park.

In injury team we seemed to opt for the latter, which in my view was the correct decision, although many in the crowd behind me seemed to think that this was wrong.

The return of Jan Bednarek was handy and he came on after Caleta- Car had departed, the Pole will be needed for the game against Blackpool on Saturday.

It will be an uphill battle for Saints at Newcastle next Tuesday, but the game is far from over, bizarely I think that we might actually stand a better chance chasing a 1-0 deficit than defending say a 2-0 lead.

Newcastle will now be wary of getting caught out, whereas if they had to chase the game they would be up for it from the start, of course you would always want to be in the lead, but football does have a phycological side to it.

In the main Saints fans can be proud of their team, Newcastle are one of the best teams in the country at the moment in terms of how they are playing, they do not get beat very often, they had already won here 4-1 in the League, we gave it our all and just didn't get the breaks.

If we put in the same effort in the 2nd leg, then we might perhaps shock a few people, the game is only at half time, we have a better record away from home than at St Mary's, stranger things have happened.

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 10:55 - Jan 25 Good report - although it perhaps underplays the gulf in class between a Saudi team strengthened by sovereign billions and a Saints side with far less resources and a, perhaps not-fit-for-purpose transfer strategy. Sadly the key moment was Adams through on goal - did anyone think he was going to score? I thought not - that in a nutshell is our enormous problem. Put that in and we have a 25 minute Saudi onslaught to survive for a 1-0 win - miss it and we lose. Virtually everything the Saudis did came down our left so the decision to play a non-specialist fullback with little cover in front of him was interesting. Lavia should have played from the start. Other than that we battled well and there were some hopeful performances - even Diallo apart from the usual dodgy pass or three. I thought both handballs were correct. I think they are checking on the 'fact' of hitting the hand so 'clear and obvious' not an issue. Pope should have been booked but would you normally see a red for that? If he'd missed the ball certainly but unfortunately he didn't. We have nothing to lose up there next week and if there is any justice that little gobshite who waved after the sending off should be retrospectively banned...

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SaintPaulVW added 10:57 - Jan 25 I thought we did well, the ref less so. Lost control of the game by repeatedly failing to penalise Newcastle for obvious fouls. Saints players responded poorly to this which is understandable but they need to not react. Disappointed that Caletta Car - who should be experienced enough literally saw red. Need some on field leaders for when times are tough. The 2 hand balls were fair enough. I think the ref should review the replay before changing his decision though. Positives we looked good for most of the game. Good shape, faced up to a really good team Alcarez all ready looks a star in the making, Diallo seems to have been fed red meat and Salisu was back to his imperious best. Really really need a big experienced target man tho. Mara trying to win aerial duels against Schar and Burn was only going to end one way. Particularly as the ref wasn't penalising the holding and shoving that Newcastle were getting away wit Also needed a bit of guile from midfield to thread something through a really high Newcastle line. Jones likes a bunker mentality and with only one goal in it and the poor ref last night, I hope he can get them fired up to go and get something at St James's. COYR

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IanRC added 11:01 - Jan 25 Thought Salisu had a tremendous game actually. Another game where the officials have conspired to ensure we get nothing. A disgrace.
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wibbersda added 11:04 - Jan 25 If you don't get any passes into wingers and forwards, what chance do you have? Saints looked like they have gone back to the NJ School Playground tactics, and add to that, NU Housery we were lucky it was only 1-0.
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Monksway added 11:15 - Jan 25 Agree with most of the posts.Saints were aggressive, committed and hard working throughout the team but the Saudi Toon were sharper, slicker and technically better as befits their league position. They were also very competitive and right up for the fight meaning that Saints were often second to the ball with the inevitable fouls and cards. The ref was awful.
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JoeEgg added 11:18 - Jan 25 "The return of Jan Bednarek was handy and he came on after Caleta- Car had departed, the Pole will be needed for the game against Blackpool on Saturday" I think that you will find Nick that Bednarek is cup-tied!
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JoeEgg added 11:43 - Jan 25 Well the best team won and what a great job Eddie Howe is doing at Newcastle - allbeit with a little help from some Saudi friends! They are well organised and already a formidable team - which inevitably led to our guys being a yard too slow and having to take their yellow cards. However I find myself saying again - what if Che Adams had taken his glorious opportunity? Admittedly Linton also missed a sitter but Adams is not a 'natural goalscorer'. No one can fault his energy and enthusiasm - but with time running out I just hope that this is not going to be another case of missing out on the strikers that we so badly need.

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highfield49 added 12:17 - Jan 25 I was going to say fair play to Newcastle but know in my heart it's not fair play at all. Yes, they were the better organised and more physical team, but bought off the shelf rather than developed by the club. Nothing unique there of course but they will win trophies, sooner rather than later, because they will attract players away from the likes of Brighton who are now in danger of being pillaged by the big spenders just as we have been in the past. It's clearly going to be difficult to get a win in the second leg and impossible if we don´t score goals, but that's stating the obvious. The fact is without a goal scorer we are going to keep losing games that we could have won although Adam Armstrong really deserves a slice of good fortune to go with the effort he puts in every match. Adams and Mara also work hard without finding the net with anything remotely like consistency and sadly there isn't a player on the books who is any better. I have no clue who the player is but from somewhere in the next few days we have to sign a free agent, loan or potentially pricey forward who is a natural finisher. Which brings to mind that Ings is apparently injured and not available for West Ham at present so we could have dodged a bullet from that direction! As for the game last evening it's pretty much been covered by yourself and other contributors Nick. However, as SanMarco has posted, the disgusting gobshite waving Caleta-Car off the pitch is a disgrace to the game and should be subject to post match scrutiny.

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WestSussexSaint added 12:51 - Jan 25 Having reflected I think there were a lot of positives from last night. Firstly the overall performance was definitely a step or two up from what we have seen lately in the PL and closer to the Man City win. Every player put a shift in. Alacaraz looks the real deal and was everywhere last night both in defensive duties and driving forwards. I also agree with other posters that Diallo was improved last night but only in the role of disrupter. His play with the ball is still atrocious and more often than not his passes put the team under pressure when he had done the hard work in winning the ball back. I see the midfield 3 of JWP, Alacraz and Lavia being pretty decent. No argument with the red for DCC or indeed the two “goals”. If you deny one then you have to deny the other. The two game changing incidents for me were Pope’s assume on Djenepo and Che’s miss. With all due respect to Che he like a lot of the squad are playing with brittle confidence at present and it was an opportunity where he had almost too much time to think. Yes it was a good save by Pope (as was the one a few mins later) but a confident striker will hit the back of the net with that chance. There is the argument that Pipe shouldn’t have even been on the pitch to make those saves given his dangerous play in the first half. It was poor fro. Poor but worse from the ref to not even give a foul. The final positive is that even when we were down to 10 in the last few mins we did manage the game out which gives us a slim chance next week. How many times have we seen recently where we concede a goal when on top and then that quickly turns into 2 or 3. Play like that every week and we have a chance but it’s clear we do need to sign a goal scorer so hopefully SR have something in the works.

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Kenm added 12:58 - Jan 25 I looked at Armstrong's goal and to me it looks like it came of the Newcastle's players thigh ?, Saints have been calling out for a striker for over a year ?, so why has the Saints useless board done ZERO about it ?. That's why we are propping up the league !. Saints now have a mountain to climb ?, Both in the league and any CUP success. Saints played well against Newcastle but Saints passing was SHOCKINGLY BAD ?, trying to put the ball past a wall of Newcastle players was like trying to put the ball through the eye of a needle

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halftimeorange added 13:25 - Jan 25 I agree with most of what's been written, particularly West Sussex's point of of a midfield three of JWP, Lavia and Alcaraz (based on last night's showing) being first choice. Equally, Perraud and KWP as the full-backs. Mara showed some nice touches but, Orsic was off the pace. As for the rest well, they aren't consistently as good as the opposition they have to face, Saints have been somewhat left behind due to relative lack of investment and recruitment errors. This is unlikely to be put right by May and I hope that the undoubtedly talented youngsters we have got can be moulded into a promotion chasing force in 2023-24 unless, of course, we sell them. As for the Pope challenge on Djenepo, it's a wonder he got up at all after that. Had it been the other way round Djenepo would've been dismissed, such is the inconsistency and poor level of officiating in the EPL.

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pintsizedsaint added 13:53 - Jan 25 Not much more to add on what’s reported here, just to say: - Another incremental positive performance against a team at the top of their game and have not conceded for 10 games; - Both handball decisions were correct - Pope should have at least got a yellow card - Diallo isn’t a starter. He had some periods of good play, solely about disrupting play. But Sorry, but he too often fluffs the simple pass and gifts the oppo splendid counters. He also lacks confidence/skill to pick a decent forward pass. - Too often we stopped and looked around in the attack, allowing Newcastle to regroup - Armstrong is really good but cannot buy luck at the moment - Alcaraz looked really good. Orsic looked like he’d need a bit of time, but was against a top notch defence. Lots of positives nonetheless. Based on fact we played one of the in form teams, we held our own. Keep this up and we will move clear of the bottom

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ItchenNorth added 14:23 - Jan 25 Despite the result (which is only half time in the cup tie), I really enjoyed the game. There was lots of incident, high passion and tempers flaring. Both teams had great chances to score. The atmosphere in the Itchen North was fantastic. Alcaraz looks like a real player and must start now for me. He can make things happen, gets stuck in and is box to box. Diallo was excellent last night. But, it's the same old story up front. I was surprised Mara was taken off. He looks far more capable than any of the other strikers. Adams miss was key, again (just like vs Forest). You just have to take those chances at this level.

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AmericanSaint added 14:37 - Jan 25 Agree with all that there are some positives from the game. Both disallowed goals were handballs per the letter of the law, so it is what it is. Interesting that Shay Given said that AA should have stood and that the hand ball rules need to be changed. My biggest problem was the ref. He botched the Guimeres elbow on Mara (should have been YC) and more importantly the POPE incident. That should have been a YC and free kick for a dangerous foul. It's that simple. Again, are there any consequences for the refs when they have really bad games like this one? Finally I hear we are going after another winger and midfielder. WHY? Our board/front office are either stupid, inept or both if they dont sign a proven striker. They will be the reason we are relegated. Someone get their head out of their butt and sign a proven PL goal scorer (like Chris Woods - oh wait we missed that boat).

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Farlow added 15:09 - Jan 25 Iagree with Half time orange about Mara the boy has a touch of class and should be persevered with.Alcaraz looks the real deal.Really annoyed Popes shocking assault on Djneppo went unpunished,especially as was in the ideal position for Ward Prowse.
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davidargyll added 16:05 - Jan 25 All these positives! For Christ's sake WE LOST!!! The simple fact is that, yes it was a good game and we seemed to be doing some good things. But for all our huffing and puffing, we are incapable of scoring. You can call it what you like, bad luck, lousy refereeing, Newcastle fouling etc. but the fact remains that we cannot put the ball in the back of the net! And where does that put the squads confidence the morning after? Hardly on an upward trajectory I would suggest. OK, so all that is statement of the bleedin’ obvious. What does it tell us about the next few week? Because I can just about see our form over the next few games maybe being on a par with last night but it’s got to improve a whole lot more for us to survive. We’ve got 18 games to go in the PL and we need another 20-23 points = 7 wins or maybe more realistically 4 wins and 10 draws. And how likely is that based on last night’s performance? Odds against I would say. Why? Well Orcic annd Aicaraz were oK last night but clearly they’ll need at least another couple of games before they’re up to speed. So right now they’re not the silver bullet. And any more new arrivals, including a striker, will take several weeks to bed in. And time is the one thing we don’t have. Ankersen and Semmens in the Radio Solent interview said they have still got targets to go for in this window - though I suspect time is running out with under a week to go - but also tellingly that Saints is the inevitable “long term project”and they “do have a plan if we get relegated”. And “we understand all the criticism; judge us at the end of May.” So if the board is now giving signals that we are likely doomed, what hope is there…?

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zonehead added 16:06 - Jan 25 If no proven striker is signed and if we do, it’s a striker with potential, then the board must be accepting relegation and planning for next season, we have the manager and “potential “ so this must be the case.
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bartley41 added 17:00 - Jan 25 We all know that we need a Striker and have done for a long long time. Why has this not yet happened? We all thought that on January things might change, now just 6 days left in the January window. I am rather reminded that years ago, Len Shackleton, an England player wrote a book in which he commented on the knowledge of Football Directors running a Football Club. The page was BLANK!

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DellBoyWally added 17:40 - Jan 25 Not much to add specifically about the game. But.....! Ings was injured by a late tackle, not a recurring medical problem. KWP was the biggest waster last night. Why when clear down the wing does he wait for the defence to cover then try and beat 2 men? And why, when AA busted a gut 3 or 4 times getting beyond him and into space, did he ignore him and again try (and again fail) to beat 2 men? And his only cross last night was behind JWP!! Aston Villa are going to get fined for not controlling their players in regard to our "goal". Will the same happen to Saudi United after last night's 4 or 5 times harassing and haranguing the referee? Why do I doubt it? Dangerous tackle (Pope) = Yellow Card Dangerous play (elbow in face) = Yellow Card Ungentlemanly conduct (waving DCC off) = Yellow Card Jumping into fans (Isak goal celebration) = Yellow Card Or not!!

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AmericanSaint added 17:48 - Jan 25 DellBoy - all your YC examples are spot on, yet non given. Just shows how the ref lost the plot and didnt want to upset any NU players. A real travesty all around.
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saintmark1976 added 17:48 - Jan 25 I’m ever more convinced that staying in the Premiership does not and never has formed part of Sports Republic’s business plan, hence they have no intention of purchasing a proven goal scorer. In the cost of purchasing terms for a Premiership outfit they purchased S F C from GAO at a very low figure. It’s my opinion that they are quite happy to be relegated then pick up parachute payments at the same time as having a fire sale of players such as J W P, K W P and Lavia. Yes, we will be in the Championship but the owners will be debt free with a wage bill drastically reduced going forward.

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davidargyll added 18:11 - Jan 25 PS. I should have added re the Ankersen interview that his argument for taking on Nathan Jones was that he was the most successful manager “in the 6th biggest league in the world”. Need one say more…?!
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wrathoftazz added 18:40 - Jan 25 Yay we are going to be relegated BUT it's OK because we keep improving (by fractions) each week.
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Block8 added 22:35 - Jan 25 Lets just go up there and win it!!!!!!! COYR
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slimcarto added 23:15 - Jan 25 Just to keep things in perspective it has been revealed that Cedric is on £100k a week at Arsenal and doesn’t command a place in the starting line-up! This is the difficulty when trying to recruit players, Saints just have never had that sort of money, hence the attempt to build with young talented players. Answers on the back of a postage stamp please.
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