Saints got found out big time at Newcastle who did their homework and hit us hard when they had the chance.
In my preview articles for this game I made several points which sadly came true, I warned of the complacency that seems to have set in amongst the supporters who seem to feel that a team hovering around the bottom of the league all season had suddenly become a team of world beaters purely because of the change of manager, this proved not to be the case as Newcastle ripped us apart at key moments with the same old players being found at fault and once again more soft goals being conceded.
Saints once again took the lead and once again gave away points this defeat being the 27th point we have dropped from a winning position, Saints started well and again played a pressing game that pushed the home side back in the early stages with a deserved lead from a very well worked goal for Morgan Schneiderlin, but it soon became apparent that Newcastle were quite content to be pushed back as they had the speed to go on the break, as I feared its all well and good playing a high tempo game, but Saints squad cant go from being one of the slowest sides in the division fittness wise to suddenly being the fittest.
But it wasnt just about speed and physical fitness, its about fast thinking and unfortunately that was our undoing as much as anything, for the first goal the usually reliable Jack Cork was left for dead, not only that but as he chased Gouffran down he seemed reluctant to try and block off the cross seemingly fearing that the man might turn inside for the shot, the end result though was that Gouffran had acres of room and time to pick out a low hard shot that took a cruel deflection off of Boruc and Sissoko took advantage of a Saints defence that wasnt alert to all dangers by tapping in from close range with no one near him.
The second just before the break was even more sloppy, the home keeper took a quick free kick in the style that the Wimbledon of the 80's would have been proud of, Saints were caught napping at the back, Luke Shaw had several options, he tried to outleap his man when really he could have just held him up, but Shaw shouldnt have been in that position anyway, his central defenders should have been taking charge of the situation, attacking the ball themselves and leaving the left back to cover the overlapping Cisse who produced a wondrous thumper of a shot to put the Toon ahead.
Early in the second half it looked like Saints might get something after all when Rickie Lambert scored his 100th goal for the club but it proved false hope, on 67 minutes Danny Fox was adjudged to have handled, it looked harsh, but replays showed that Fox had left a trailing arm outstretched and as was discussed on Match of the day on Saturday night, players were told at the start of the season that arms outstretched if they block a ball have gained an advantage so it will be a penalty so from that view the ref got it spot on.
The fourth and final goal that killed the game off was equally appalling from a defensive point of view and to be blunt Fox was not the only culprit in this one, once again three Saints players stood and watched Santon's cross go past them including Jos Hooiveld who got in the way of Danny Fox's attempted clearance, it wasnt the best of clearances that has to be said, but in fairness being so close to his goal he didnt have many options where to kick it and Hooiveld blundering into his path only made his options narrower, as i said earlier its about mental awareness, and too many times throughout the game at the back we had two or three players too close together and not thinking fast, this was one of them, but a look at the other two goals from open play show similar situations, players with no opposition player near them and ball watching.
I dont think this spells all doom and gloom for Saints, but what is worrying is that unlike Newcastle who have spent big in the transfer window, we bought only one man in, who strangely wasnt even considered good enough for a place on the bench yesterday after Jose Fonte returned.
Our problems are the same as they have been all season, they havent changed just because we changed managers, we still lack in key areas and this is going to be a problem to us in the coming months, Alan Pardew did his homework yesterday and hit us where he knew we were vunerable, two goals came from long balls pumped forward that we didnt deal with and two others came from quick breaks where they got wide and ran at us on the right and we failed to prevent the cross's, the same old problems that have been happening all season.
You will have heard several phrases from me over the 13 years this site has been running, the first is "do the same things and you get the same results" that was true yesterday at the back, and the second is that " Good players dont become bad ones overnight" this one didnt apply yesterday, but the reverse did, "Bad players dont become good ones overnight" and sadly for us this is also the case as yet more soft goals were conceded in exactly the same manner that they have been since the start of the season due to players not up to the job in key positions.
I hope our transfer window doesnt come back to haunt us, two good aquisitions might have made the difference, instead we are still weak in key areas, the game against QPR is now a must win game to show that we can win and win well and give ourselves confidence, just about the only good thing to come from our trip to the North East yeasterday was the fact that be beating us and leapfrogging us in the table we have now beaten two sides this season who are above us in the league instead of just one, this fact should send alarm bells ringing at St Mary's, football is a fragile games, Mauriccio Pochettino's start at Saints now doesnt look too good with five points from five games being exactly the same average per game we had achieved in our first 22 games of the season, in his last five games for the club Nigel Adkins got seven points with four of those games being away from home, we need to put this defeat behind us and fast.