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Southampton V Leicester City Fa Cup Semi Final Verdict

A disappointing day, a dour game with both sides failing to produce their best form and the game being settled by the only shot on target in the entire match, but I enjoyed it for several reasons and although some will say otherwise it is better to have reached this stage and lost than not reach it at all.

This verdict won't feature much about the game for several reasons, the first is there aren't many incidents of note in it and the second I watched it in a pub garden where 100 or so Saints supporters roared on their team with gusto, it was perhaps not as good as being in the stadium itself, but it was a close second.

The game itself was a damp squid, Saints certainly played with a spirit that was lacking last Monday at the Hawthorns, but in short both sides cancelled each other out and failed to be able to get their strikers into the game.

From a Saints perspective the back four played as it did earlier in the season and protected Fraser Forster in goal and at the other end Leicester's defence did the same.

From this viewpoint we cannot complain about the team or the tactics, they gave their all and Ralph Hasenhuttl wasted no time in trying to change things in the second half when we went a goal behind and indeed in the final stages, but Leicester are a good well organised team and sometimes that is the way it goes.

In the case of this game as I said both sides cancelled each other out, the possession was slightly in Saints favour at 51%, the attempts slightly in Leicester's 10 against our 6, but in the end the only stat that counted was the shots on target and in the entire game there was only one and that was the goal.

Games like this are won by luck and Leicester had it, the initial shot was going six yards wide when it hit Jannik Vestergaard and rebounded to Iheanacho who suddenly found himself 8 yards out with a wide open goal gaping and he obliged.

No one can be blamed for this that is the FA Cup and what it is renowned for , freak goals that change games and indeed seasons.

Perhaps some will disagree with my view and claim it was a dull game and Saints failed to get a shot on target, I can't argue with that, but Saints didn't achieve that stat by sitting back and being overwhelmed, they played their part and attacked the Foxes, but sadly on the day it was Leicester who got the luck.

Perhaps my viewpoint is a little tainted, those sat on their sofa's could sit back and analyse the game, I was in a pub garden surrounded by a dozen or so mates and loads of other Saints fans, all socially distanced of course .

We had one TV screen to watch in on and to be blunt for many it was the first time in 13 months they were experiencing what football is all about, we might have been 80 miles from Wembley, but we supported the team as if we were in the ground, there was singing, shouting and leaping from seats at key moments, almost as good as being at a game itself, with the added advantage that unlike at a normal game where you can't have a beer in your seat, we had waitress service so didn't need to leave it to buy and drink one.

So my day is slightly rose tinted, I wasn't watching the game with the idleness we have become used to as armchair fans for the last year, I was enjoying a game of football in the manner in which up until March of last year we all took for granted.

So although I'm disappointed at the result and I'm sure the team is as well, I enjoyed the game and the chance to watch Saints in an FA Cup semi final, the pattern of the game was set, we tried to change it but couldn't, but we were up against a team currently sitting 3rd in the Premier League, one of the most consistent teams in the division in the last couple of years, we played them at their own game and although we lost we can walk away with our heads held high, we matched them in every department bar one and that was strokes of good luck.

Brendan Rodgers is claiming that this win is the sign that Leicester are ready to kick on and show they can challenge for trophies on a regular basis, we are behind them in that respect, but we did show that we can reach the semi finals of the most famous cup competition in the World and compete, we are still a work in progress, but Sunday at Wembley showed that we have some solid foundations to build on.

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