Saints At West Ham United The Verdict

Despite a great first half it was back to old ways for Saints in the second as again two goals were conceded in sloppy fashion to cost us the game.

As good as they were in the first half they were as poor in the second, but again Saints looked to be coping with the Hammers blustering until the final 20 minutes when lapses in concentration cost Saints dearly.

The first West Ham goal saw a sloppy header from Cuco Martina put Saints on the back foot with Antonio running at goal, the danger seemed to have been averted when the former Saints loanee fell over, but as Fonte went to clear it ricochet off the fallen Antonio and looped over Stekelenburg for a bizarre goal that was a combination of poor defending and pure bad luck.

Ironically Yoshida was already stripped and ready to come on, if Martina had headed the ball into touch as he really should have, that would have been his last action and Yoshida would have replaced him, Saints would have broken the game up and regrouped and perhaps not have conceded, it was still Martina's last tough of the game though.

The second goal was perhaps the same with Fonte getting his foot to a cross before Carroll, but the ball looped up for Antonio to head and his the bar, Carroll was the first to react and he had a free header which he didn't miss.

So once again it was the old case of sloppy defending and a lack of concentration, Saints should have had at least a point and probably more given their dominance in the first half, but we failed to get a second and put the game to bed and ended up paying dearly for it.

Had you said before Xmas that Saints would get a draw from both festive games and two points then most Saints fans would have been happy with that, the reality was three points including a great win over Arsenal, but it doesn't feel like that, due to the slackness of this game.

The New Year sees a good chance to get a couple of wins and put the traumas of the past month behind us, it should also be remembered that we went into this game with a long injury list, with several key players injured, that however s no excuse for the poor defending on both goals conceded.

But we are still in touch with the seven clubs ahead of us up to Palace in 5th, we need to perhaps bring in a new face or two in January and freshen things up, if we do then we can tighten up and change the lax attitude on the pitch that has cost us dearly.

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