Once again it was a similar story of underperformance from certain players.
Before i start this "verdict" I would like to say a few things about how I set out to write it, this is not the official club website, on there you will rarely see any critisism of players or managerment whatever the result, its not a newspaper report either where the reporter will often just give an overview of the game or focus on one incident, I set out to look at it constructively, to highlight areas which i feel are weak or for that matter strong and also to look at it from the point of view as a supporter.
Of course the beauty of this game is that everyone has differing views, the idea is not to stir up readers into ranting about my opinion when I differ from theirs, but to perhaps open their eyes and minds to what I consider the problems and stimulate themselves to look at those views themselves, thats not to say that i am right nor to say that I will change someones opinion, but that is football.
The first thing to say about the win at Notts County is that an old football cliche is that the sign of a good team is that they win when playing badly, that could just about sum up the victory at Meadow Lane.
To be blunt we once again selected the wrong team, giving yet another chance for certain players to show that they can impress, a chance that they didnt take, strangely Nigel Adkins did do what i had suggested and put in Frazer Richardson, harsh on Danny butterfield as in truth there were probably six players on that pitch who he has been in better form than this season, stranger was the decision to restore Dean Hammond and drop Richard Chaplow.
In the first half Saints were poor, they gave away a soft goal from a free header and this was as poor a goal as they have conceded all season, for the record I atttach no blame to Kelvin Davis who had no chance with the header and could have reasonably have expected the man to have been picked up.
To be blunt Saints were poor and easily pinned back at times by a robust County side who werent afraid to put a cross into the box, Saints only real high point came when Lambert hit the post from a free kick.
The second half went pretty much the same way as the first, Saints had a little more possession but wasted it time and time again and it was the same culprits as in every other game the only question was when changes would be made, in fact Saints could easily have been two down, another free header was headed over the bar and Kelvin almost gifted a goal when he dwelled on a back pass, clearly looking to play it to a Saints player when he suddenly found he had no options he hesitated and allowed the County man to get a block, luckily the ball rebounded wide of the goal and not into the net (strangely their is no mention of this in the report on the official site)
With just over 20 minutes left came the moment that changed the game, with Chaplow & Chamberlain stripped and ready to come on, Lallana played a through ball to Barnard putting him through on goal and when he was brought down it was an easy decision for a penalty an easy decision to send the man off and SRL once again dispatched the penalty.
The manager still made the changes despite the goal which is a good sign as it showed he was aware of the deficiencies in the side, Puncheon was an obvious choice for Chamberlain and then it was a toss up between the central two for Chaplow.
The second was a well worked goal and a lovely cross from Lambert who although still not anywhere near his best was at last showing signs of contributing more than free kicks and penalties, Barnard did what he does best and put it in from close range.
But the game didnt go all Saints way, County continued to chase Saints down, buoyed by the earlier Davis incident and some fresh legs, but Saints passed it well and made sure that the home side never got back into it roared on by good support from Saints fans who made up nearly a quarter of the crowd. Lallanas goal was well worked and well deserved.
In summary Saints didnt play well, the problems that have been there for all of the season were still there, individuals not performing, lack of concentration to name but two, but Saints have now started to build a run they can build on, NA now has a home game to give some of these players perhaps their final chance to impress before giving someone else a chance and four wins out of five should not dress up the frailties at present, perhaps the most obvious being that defensively we only allowed them four shots on target of which one went in, thats too high a ratio especially as it was once again a lack of concentration that cost us the goal.
The confidence did start to return in the last 15 minutes after the 2nd goal and that is positive, a win against Dagenham (& Redbridge as well for that matter) could see Saints go into the top two, however thats improbable but it should certainly see us into a play off position and that is positive given that we have so far only really played well for 90 minutes once so far and that was against Bristol Rovers, the mental boost of getting in those play off positions should not be underestimated and it would set up Saints nicely for November which at the end of the month sees us face two of our rivals for an automatic promotion spot at home.