A good entertaining performance from Saints that should have seen all three points in the bag before a late goal cost us dearly for the second consecutive home game.

A late goal from the visitors once again cost us dearly as or inability to defend balls swung into the box cost us two goals and two points, meaning in the last two home games we have dropped three points from two last minute goals.

With 25 minutes to go it was going so well for Saints, after dominating the first half and going into the break one up from a superb Pierre Emile Hojbjerg goal the second half was a lot tougher and Brighton came out fighting although right up to our second on 65 minutes when Danny Ings was brought down and got up to score from the spot, it had been mainly bluster from the Seagulls that Saints could cope with and with a two goal cushion Saints shoud have won it.

But barely had the celebrations ended and Brighton were back in the game, this was the point were a good leader on the pitch would be urging his team on, but we gave a way a silly foul and let Brighton score from a free header in the six yard box, I am saying nothing about this other than last season people would be demanding Fraser Forster be hung drawn and quartered for half coming and then stopping.

Saints appeared to be weathering the storm after this, but i'm not sure our use of substitutions helped, James Ward Prowse for Elyounoussi made sense, but not Gabbiadini for Long.

Shane Long had run his socks off but he was still going strong, he was closing down the Brighton defence, holding the ball up and drawing fouls which in turn stopped the visitors getting up a full head of steam, but this is not Manolo Gabbiadini's game, suddenly Brighton could press forward from the back and Saints didn't have Long to relieve the pressure.

But Saints appeared to be nearly home when a minute into the four added disaster struck, again it was our failure to deal with crosses, at the end of last season Alex McCarthy was outstanding in coming off his line and dealing with balls into the box, last night he appeared to be lacking a little confidence, he should have dealt with the first goal and for the equaliser if he had done what he did last season then we would have seen the game through.

If he had come and caught a fairly simple cross from a corner into the six yard box it would have relieved pressure, yes he made a fine save from the header, but he really should have dealt with the cross. From the resulting corner Brighton won their penalty.

The goal from the spot wasn't the last action, Ryan Bertrand's free kick in literally the last seconds, drew a superb save from the Brighton keeper.

All in all there were many plus points to take from the game, Saints were attacking, they were entertaining, no one can claim it was the bore draws of the past two seasons, several players were outstanding, Pierre Emile Hojbjerg, Nathan Redmond and Shane Long all seemed to be at the heart of what we did, Hojbjerg semed to have everything, good defensively, strong going forward and a great goal.

Nathan Redmond ran at players with a confidence he has not shown in a long long time and Shane Long did what he does, the unsung heroes role where some look at the fact he hasn't scored rather than the work he does in winning challenges in the final third.

But it was undone by our failure to organise and defend, we allowed ourselves to go to deep, the Hoedt /Vestergaard partnership is in it's infancy but one of them needs to take command in the defence and hold a line, for the first goal we allowed ourselves to be pushed back too far, that in turn let McCarthy to be indecisive and Brighton were back in it.

As mentioned earrlier three points dropped in the final minute in the last two home games, with those points we would now be 9th with what would be a good start to the season, but we are still not completely rehabiliated and have paid a price and learned a few lessons and 13th on 5 is solid if unspectacular.

But we should not let the disappointment of last night cloud the issues, this is an entirely different side from a year ago, it has it's weaknesses but it also has a lot more plus points, there is light at the end of the tunnel and unlike last season it's not an oncoming train.

Photo: Action Images

BoondockSaint added 18:38 - Sep 18 This is EXACTLY like last year, and the year before, and the year before that! Under 3 different managers! Against average teams: -Have some good chances, but only score 1 maybe 2 goals. -Get the lead, decide that's enough work for the day, down tools, drop points late in the game. -Somehow Nick praises Redmond, Long, & JWP and blames the points dropped on the on the fans not cheering enough. -NIck claims we are right where we want to be in the standings and the board has a plan. And now we have next week to look forward to.....

9

Jesus_02 added 19:32 - Sep 18 Brighton where poor in midfield. Even before we got the pen the world could see that a sub in midfield was what we needed to seal the game. Im disappointed Hughes didn't make the obvious change. Its shocking that we rely on long for pace. There where certainly positives some confidence seems to have come back to a few players. I hope Hughes gets more confidence and takes a less reactive approach to subs

4

bstokesaint added 00:22 - Sep 19 I genuinely like Shane Long. He gives it his all every game and is a really likeable guy. However, more and more I am feeling embarrassed for him out there on the pitch. For the positions he gets into he really should be scoring more. You can’t keep arguing the pace thing. It’s like saying a keeper can kick the ball into the opponent’s penalty area, despite his woeful handling. Or a defender is dangerous at set pieces but has the pace and coordination of a carthorse. What we should really be witnessing is the board finding a player with pace and a hardworking ethic who can actually score too. I’m still hoping Shane will go on a bit of a goal scoring run. But deep down I know it ain’t going to happen!

1

skiptonsaint added 08:52 - Sep 19 I agree with Bathsait. There are some small signs of improvement but still no sign of a leader on the he pitch and it’s costing us 5 points from 5 could very easily be 5 points from 9 with the four games coming up. Teams know we struggle to hold onto leads and it’s given by them confidence to come at us and believe if they put a bit of pressure on at the end of games especially at st Mary’s we will fold. Gabbi is starting to of had too many chances to make an impact for me. I think we need to give Sam a go soon. Thank god we bought Ings but we are starting to become very reliant on him and at some point our luck with injuries both for us and for opposing teams losing their best players when they play us will change.

1

DorsetIan added 09:49 - Sep 19 Another massively disappointing result and their equaliser was a shocker but that was not a foul by JWP at the end. He was changing direction as the ball was flying over his and Duffy''s head, he put an arm up as he turned but didn't push Duffy, Duffy felt the arm and dived. 2-1 would have been fair, Brighton played well second half, and we would all be happy now with that. Yes, we've only got 5 points and have dropped points we shouldn't have dropped but we are scoring goals and our GD is currently 0. First half performance was excellent - looking like a proper team at last. Lots of positives.

-1

SaintBrock added 17:40 - Sep 19 Ings has been or will be a complete waste of money and it will be good to see Gabbiadini get a start for once against the Scousers. I'd play Armstrong instead of Elyonoussi, push Hoj forward and bring in Romeu and surely it's way past the time to give Yoshida a crack alongside the tall Dane.
-2

Blogs 31 bloggers

Derby County Polls