Today's opponents were Fulham who have a dismal record against the Saints away and who are languishing in the lower parts of the league after some poor recent form. It would take a particularly insipid Saints performance and a few comical errors to throw away this one. Which is precisely what happened.
Saints welcomed back Jason Dodd to the back line, allowing Telfer to move back to the right of midfield and Pahars to go up front along side Ormerod. On the left, however, was poor Anders Svensson who is simply dire in that role. While I understand Strachan's need to play him, forcing him into a role he is very uncomfortable with is not the solution. All of Fulham's attacking progress came down that flank, where Svensson was nowhere to be seen having been drawn into the centre. If Strachan is so doubting in Fabrice Fernandes' ability he should simply not have bought him. His inclusion today would have balanced the side and not led to the comedy of errors that transpired.
Saints started brightly enough, getting forward into the Fulham defence. They were fairly narrow, not having any real wide players which did blunt their progress to some extend.
However shortly after Saints had won their first corner disaster struck at the opposite end. A ball played over the top allowed Marlet a shot. An effort which should have been very comfortable for Paul Jones instead found the back of the net as the Welsh number one dived over the ball completely misjudging the save.
Now as much as I admire Jones' shot stopping ability there have been simply too many bizarre goals conceded by him. His judgement at crosses and corners have been poor since his arrival and yet after all this time no effort seems to have gone into preventing these errors in training. Some competition for his jersey would be very healthy and cannot be currently provided by the likes of Moss or Bevan.
Jones immediately showed the positive attributes of his game getting his foot to a Hayles effort. Hayles caused England left back Wayne Bridge no end of trouble, not helped by the fact that Bridge was totally unprotected on the left flank.
Having not looked at all likely to score, Fulham now were on top. The lack of James Beattie's physical presence and Chris Marsden's tenacity added to Southampton's problems. The game quickly descended into a mass of terrible passing, poor judgement and positional sense and a lack of vision; from both sides.
Saints had an effort from Pahars on twenty minutes as the Latvian put the ball into the side netting from a truly awful Melville backpass.
One of Saints bright spots was the solidity down the right flank. Whether this was due to the usually strong Dodd/ Telfer partnership or that it was just easier for Fulham to face a single player down the left can only be guessed. Regardless, it was good work form Dodd on the right to get it to Rory Delap. The republic of Ireland International brought the ball down deftly with one foot before unleashing a rattling shot past Van Der Saar with the other.
That was as good as the first half got. Although Saints briefly tried to push for a second chances fell to Legwinski, Malbranque at the other end. Barry Hayles had a particularly golden opportunity to put his side ahead after getting the ball from Williams, who as last defender was trying to dribble the ball upfield. Although Hayles was one on one with the 'keeper, he took it too wide and Saints managed to get back in time to clear.
Gordon Strachan was livid on the touchline as he tried to get his side to gel in an error packed remainder to the first half. An Oakley shot, some more defensive mishaps and Jones' flaps were the only things of note until the interval.
This report could just as well stop here. The second half was entirely forgettable. Saints returned out with the same formation. Whatever Strachan had told them during he break didn't seem to produce anything resembling attacking football and Fulham seemed only too happy by this. The London side side were more than content to play similarly tentative football. Saints were waiting for opportunities to break against a Fulham side which was never going to get forward in any real numbers. Not even the introduction of Tessem and Davies on the 73rd minute seemed to make any difference in a very dull second period. Neither keeper had anything to do which must have suited Paul Jones who looked far from confident, much like his defence.
My saints man of the match would have probably been Jason Dodd who had an excellent comeback match. I felt for Wayne Bridge being stuck on the left hand side with no support from the midfield. Saint continue to crawl to safety.
Southampton drew in the match against Fulham. Review the information and discuss it on the messageboard.