Forgive me for veering from the usual format for the match verdict, but some days are definitely out of the ordinary. Today was one of them, leaving me still shaking my head as to how I am not celebrating a 5-1 drubbing of Ipswich.
Let's review some of the incredible facts in this most unlikely of losses:
- Saints hit the left post, the right post and the crossbar
- We had two goals disallowed and a goal not registered. The dozy (or cowardly) linesman failed to spot that the ball had crossed the line. I was perfectly in line with the goal-line. It did. A fact confirmed by the two neutrals I attended the game with.
- We conceded the softest of penalties and even then the keeper went the right way, but couldn't keep it out.
- We conceded the softest of goals dozing off at the back to allow a free header which the keeper should have come for.
- Kenwyne Jones completely clear with Skacel to his left. He didn't pass and didn't really shoot
- Bradley Wright-Phillips had a free header inside the six yard box completely unmarked and somehow missed the target
- We notched up a massive 17 goal attempts, many of them excellent chances
All this and Ipswich played some lovely passing football in the second half, but hardly threatened as Saints lost our way again in midfield. Preston was a bad day at the office. Today was a combination of half a season's bad luck in a single game.
Make no mistake Saints should have had this game wrapped up in the first 20 minutes, but yet again failed to kill off the opposition. Despite chance after chance you felt the inevitable would happen and so it did as Alan 'sack of spuds' fell over from a straighforward shoulder charge.
With the away fans shaking their heads at how we had again surrendered a dominant position, Saints went to sleep once again at a set piece with Ipswich taking advantage.
Sides heading for promotion managed to scrape wins when playing badly. We seem unable to scrape them when playing well - not a good sign with Saints facing a difficult away game at Palace on Tuesday.
It is a worry that last season's patterns seem to be repeating themselves with cheap equalisers and endless draws snaped out of the jaws of victory. Saints simply have to be more ruthless. Reading would have had this game won in 20 minutes. Wasteful Saints did not and there is the key to our problems.
Man of the match: An assured display from Pele who is growing in confidence and stature. Stood up well to the physical challenge from Alan 'sack of spuds' Lee and scored a perfectly good goal which the non-Russian linesman failed to spot.
Thorn in the side: I don't normally complain about the match officials, but today was one of those days when nothing went for us with referee giving the dodgiest of penalties and linesman failing to spot a clear goal. The ref even broke up one of our moves with a neat interception.
Cameo of the day: Alan 'sack of spuds' Lee's comedy dive for the penalty. It's embarrassing to watch such a big man go down so easily, but fair play to him the ref was convinced.