Saints came through at the Lamex Stadium against Stevenage in the Capital One Cup although the scoreline does not reflect the game.

Nigel Adkins rang the changes for this Capital One Cup tie with none of the starting XI featuring in the game against Wigan at the weekend bar Billy Sharp and Jamie Ward-Prowse who both came on as late subs. It was clear that the manager wanted to not only give some of his fringe players a chance, but a run out to some of the younger players at the club, strangely though there was no place even on the bench for Steve De Ridder, who if he isnt injured is now so far out from a first team place that he cant even get in what was effectively our reserve side.

 Once again we played the 4-5-1 formation, but it was clear from the start that we didnt really have the personel to do this, Tadanari Lee is no left winger and constantly found himself out of position when being asked to track back and Billy Sharp up front battled manfully but again what is required from a lone striker is not what his strengths are.

In the first half hour Saints were very disjointed and players were constantly caught not only out of position but often were second to the ball on too many occasions for comfort, although we went in at the break all square, the fact of the matter was we could easily have gone in two goals down, it was hard to put your finger on it as for long periods we looked comfortable on the ball, but we just lacked concentration at too many times, a free kick that rattled the bar and a corner where two Stevenage players found themselves unmarked at the far post and got in each others way when it was easier to score where just two examples of where we could easily hve fallen behind.

In the second half as Stevenage tired we started to get a better grip of the game and when Billy Sharp did some good work and slid a perfect cross for lee to open the scoring it looked a lot better for Saints.

The second goal had an element of controversy, but I have to say the referee did nothing wrong, firstly their man did pass it back to the keeper under pressure and the keeper could easily have kicked long, but picked it up, it was a nailed on free kick for handling a back pass, Saints then did what they would have done in another part of the pitch without complaint, they got the ball and took it quickly with Stevenage at sixes and sevens and Sharp took the goal well, yes Stevenage feel hard done by, but the fact is if they had dealt with the whole situation professionally then we would not have scored.

But shortly after the tie looked beyond doubt, whatever your feelings of Puncheon, this was a great goal, when he got it 30 yards out there looked little on, he flicked the ball up and volleyed it into the corner of the goal, the ball never rising above about 4ft from the ground, the keeper never moved and nor did the Saints fans for a second, it looked clean and it looked crisp and it looked wide, but it wasnt and as the net rippled the Saints fans behind the goal were astonished, if Le Tissier had scored this goal it would have been heralded for weeks after.

A couple of late subs for Saints to run the clock down and it all looked over, however there would be a couple of late goals to liven up the crowd in five minutes of injury time, firstly the hosts scored a consolation and they went looking for a second in the hope of Saints youngsters getting the jitters, but pushing forward they were caught out with Ben Reeves scoring from the edge of the box to restore the three goal cushion.

A harsh result on the home side, but it will have answered a few questions for Nigel Adkins.

1. We have no cover at Centre half, Dan Seaborne is a League 1 central defender at best and after that we are down to playing full backs in that position.

2. It is no use playing 4-5-1 or whatever you want to dress it up as unless we get in a couple of pacy wingers, we dont have them at the club at the moment, either in the squad that faced Wigan or that last night at the Lamex.  

3. The Premier League is a division where although you can get away with the odd youngster in the team especially if they are exceptional, we should not be relying on them, Luke Shaw is undoubtably a talent, but he is too raw even for this level in the Capital Cup at present, he needs to get experience and he needs to get it without the weight of expectation on his shoulders, the same can be said of several of our youngsters.        

Photo: Action Images

slynch added 10:19 - Aug 29 If the referee did nothing wrong then he would have adhered to the following, I'll let you and others be the judge of that. And it looks like Saints have bought someone fast for you The back-pass rule refers to two clauses within Law 12 of the Laws of the Game of association football.[1] These clauses prohibit the goalkeeper from handling the ball when a team-mate has intentionally "kicked" the ball to him, or handling the ball directly from a team-mate's throw-in.[2] The goalkeeper is still permitted to use his feet and other body parts to redirect the ball. The actual offence committed is the handling of the ball by the goalkeeper, not the ball being passed back. An indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team from the place where the offence occurred, i.e., where the goalkeeper handled the ball. In practice this offence is very rarely committed. The offence rests on three events occurring in the following sequence: - The ball is kicked (played with the foot, not the knee, thigh, or shin) by a teammate of the goalkeeper, - This action is deemed to be deliberate, rather than a deflection or miskick, and - The goalkeeper handles the ball directly (no intervening touch of play of the ball by anyone else). There are some very important exceptions to the back-pass rule. If a player passes the ball back to his goalkeeper using his head, chest or knee, the goalie can pick up the ball. The goalie can also pick up the ball if a teammate passes it to him by accident. For example, a defender might slice or scuff his clearance, accidentally kicking the ball towards the goalkeeper. In this case, the goalie can pick up the ball.

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Zambucco added 10:29 - Aug 29 Apparently Steve De Ridder hurt his foot in training. It seems we're not too worried about our defence, we're buying forwards and goal scorers left, right and centre. So our policy is to always score more goals than the opposition. Our new formation (should all rumoured signings happen) would be Goalkeeper Davis, Defence: Clyne, Nicolai Boilesen, Midfield: Ramirez, Lallana, Tadanari Lee, Matt Philips. ATTACK!! Jay Rod, Sharpe, Lambert, Makuya. Goals a plenty, exciting young players, what more could we ask? Anyway, a win is a win and good for confidence. Now where's Guly with my lift home?

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1teeminants added 10:34 - Aug 29 Yet again all very weird to me as The Echo gives Luke Shaw. 7 out of 10 and said he looked very composed all night,he impressed me a lot in the freindlies. Its like I said on the site how can peoples views differ so much ?
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SaintNick added 10:42 - Aug 29 I dont think Shaw played badly, he was just very raw and in the first half especiallygot caught out on a number of occasions, I probably saw a bit more of his positional play as first half we were to the left of the goal we were defending, so saw more of his work off the ball
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SingaporeSaint added 11:02 - Aug 29 As per the Shaw debate - Ars and Chels are wanting to sign him so he is clearly good albeit raw. Strange that we are trying to sign Boilesen who is a very young raw LB, unless we are looking to convert him to a CB. I'd rather Shaw than Fox. Looks like other than the result we dont take too much from last night. Is good to see Lee playing and scoring - If he isnt a L winger then I dont think he will play much. Onto players who may play on Sat - Lets mention Maduka - supposed to be fast but the clips I've seen he doesnt look overly fast - good gymnast though!. He has a decent record in a fairly poor standard of football. I know Zambia won the African cup but that is usually won by Egypt and there arent many Egyptians playing in the top leagues. He does seem to be able to go both ways. Is a bit of a left field signing for me and totaly out of the blue - but lets hope he is what we are looking for. Lots of speculation that Lambert may be on his way - I'd like him to stay as we dont have anyone who is a physical presence in the box. We either needed a big strong quick striker which we havent got, or get quick players around the big strong striker. We may have signed a quick player - I would like another and we may be able to score a few. Now where are the defenders?????

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tolfree added 11:03 - Aug 29 Great review. It's interesting the De Ridder didn't play - with all the hype about Lambert leaving maybe there's a more innocent replacement of De Ridder with Mayuka? I'm suprised to hear your comment on Luke Shaw being too under-developed for the cup given he scored a cracker by the sounds of things. Was this the only highlight of his performance? Thanks for giving such comprehensive reviews for those unable to be at the game. It's really appreciated

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SaintNick added 12:21 - Aug 29 A couple of points to singapore saint, yes arsenal and chelsea might be wanting to buy Shaw but that doesnt mean he is ready for the premiership, given that his entire competitve career cnsists of 13 minutes against Coventry in last seasons FA Cup and last nights game against a league 1 side, doesnt provide any evidence that he is a better bet than Fox at left back, im not picking on you, but just using it to highlight how some players reputation is bigger than their actual game time, Shaw will be a great player but having only just turned 17 he is not quite ready to be thrown into the deep end it could ruin his career, his main problem last night in fairness to him was that he had no cover in front of him, pretty much the same problem fox had both this and last season, both Fox and Shaw would be better if they had a proper wide man in front of them to cover

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bstokesaint added 12:55 - Aug 29 Given that we made 11 first team changes I think the result isn't too bad and it allows us to keep on dreaming of an outside chance of getting into a cup final. There's no reason a team can't have a go at both the league and cups if the squad has depth. This is probably the most contentious point at the moment. I know nothing of Mayuka other than what the OS states. I'm a bit surprised we've gone for another forward, so just going to have faith in Adkins and that when the transfer window slams shut and the dust has settled, we will have filled in the weak areas that were so evident last Saturday.

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OldRed added 13:08 - Aug 29 Luke Shaw seemed to caught out of position no more tha Daniel Fox.
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saintpedro added 13:18 - Aug 29 Never posted before, but got to this time! Nick, always find your comments and reports interesting and informative, but CANNOT BELIEVE you dont know the Rules (Laws) of football, that a pass back has to be DELIBERATE for a goalkeeper not to be able to handle it. Are there other Laws you are unaware of?? The referee's decision was crucial here as it changed the game in our favour. Re Steeeeve De Ridder Nigel said to Radio Solent after the match that he had been injured in Training this week. Other than this, keep up the good work Nick, you're always worth reading.

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ExiledSupporter added 15:06 - Aug 29 Like everyone else I think NA has done a wonderful job for us over the last two seasons and deserves every credit. But, like every other supporter of any club, I have some reservations about aspects of the manager's judgement and events recently have made this an increasing conviction...it may lead to disarray and then disaster this season. Firstly I have written a few times over the summer to sound doubts about the rationale of trying to squeeze players with particular talents into formations that require different skills than they possess. The current 4-5-1 (or is it 4-2-3-1?) is a case in point. Don't misunderstand me I think it is good to have practised with different formations to fall back on, but you have to have the players capable of that level of adaptability, and this isn't convincingly the case currently. This leads to my second concern, is NA a good judge of what is needed a) in terms of who the club buys and b) his selection? Buying Rodrigues seemed a good plan as a competitor/alternative/future prospect for the striker's role; playing him out of position where he appears to contribute only a fraction of his potential seems a waste of time and money. In terms of selection Puncheon sounds a better bet for this role on the right/left side of midfield. Perhaps Mayuka can play this role on the right hand side, but he doesn't have much top flight experience. Unfortunately NA's record with supposedly fast wingers is rather unimpressive - de Ridder, Forte, Antonio etc. Let's hope the young Zambian proves a revelation. In the same vein Guly is played up front sometimes, sometimes on the right without lately being very convincing in either position.He seems best with the ball at his feet running at the goal, not receiving the ball with his back to goal and laying it off for others, (would it be completely ridiculous to suggest that he might play in the hole behind the lonely striker instead of Lallana who could return to the left wing). Sharpe is our best player in the opposition's six yard box, but he looks destined to be relegated to the bench for most of every game given the preferred new formation. The same prospect seems to be Lee's immediate future (so his pace may not appear all that often either.)Where will Ramirez fit in, if he is coming in the next few days and what about Cork when he returns from injury? We clearly need a bigger squad of potential contenders than we have had in the past, but the balance of focus seems to be all wrong and there seems to be general agreement that we need at least one more CB, and a left back, with pace and to take Nick's point able to concentrate intelligently(another Clyne would be excellent on the left - let's give NA the credit for getting such a good player on the pitch for us) Have we finished recruiting goalkeepers? perhaps Gazzaninga will prove outstanding and challenge KD who again looked a bit suspect in his positioning in both premier league games, if not we look pretty scant in this vital area. There is an enormous amount to do before the deadline closes and I don't feel that the current focus has the right balance. Yes we need pace but not just in the forwards, these are worrying times which may condition the whole of the season adversely if we don't get it right over the next few days

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OldRed added 15:36 - Aug 29 Seems to be quite a few people panicking after only two games. Adkins is still learning but he ain't stupid. Just wait until Sunday and I think we'll give a good account of ourselves.
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SingaporeSaint added 15:36 - Aug 29 Exciled supporter - from one to another I am with you - not sure about the balance, the signings, the formation, the lack of defensive cover, the comments to the press.. It almost feels like a big experiment to me, and to some extent it is, we have a manager, support team, chairman, owners and players who have never been in the prem before - the only ones who've been there are the supporters! Lets hope it all works! Nick - with you on Shaw but he is labelled as one of the top prospects in English football and the only way he is going to learn is on the pitch. Sitting on the bench for 90 mins is no good for him nor us. What we know of Fox is that he has good delivery but very limited at the back and has already cost us a goal and point this season and arguably wasnt in a great position for the wigan first goal too. I'd prefer us to persevere with Shaw and if he clearly hasnt got it then bring in Fox - Fox is hardly the safe option! Also agree that a decent and comfortable winger outside will help and J Rod hasnt been comfortable there. Zambucco - I hear that Guly went boozing because you inferred his 't1ts' went saggy on this forum..

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bstokesaint added 19:19 - Aug 29 Only 2 games played and we're turning on the manager. Okay they're only opinions and this is what a forum is all about, but let's not downgrade any of NA's achievements in a short managerial career. Okay so he has to learn his Premiership trade, but he's an intelligent man and he's earned that right. Some players haven't performed as expected and that happens in footfall. Not everyone fits exactly and neatly into a team. We'd be better off making informed decisions when the window shuts and we see who we have signed.

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thingummy added 05:49 - Aug 30 no one is turing on NA - we have all been here before and we know how difficult it is to get out of a rubbish start, esp if dont know our best 11 but that was always going to be the tricky thing about getting to the premiership so fast. Let's enjoy the ride Taxi for guly
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