A slow start for Saints under interim manager Simon Rusk, but they grew into the game and by the end, the team had restored some of the pride to both themselves and their fans as they made Liverpool fight right to the end.

It was a funny atmosphere at St Mary's on Wednesday evening, there were a lot of regular supporters missing from the crowd, which was clearly bolstered by the more casual Southampton fan as well as a few others.

But it did not dilute the atmosphere, the most empty seats in the stadium were in the supposed home end, the Northam stand, but that did not affect the vocal support from that end of the ground, as the game went on they grew louder and spurred the team on.

Indeed the atmosphere was far better than when there have been 5,000 more fans in the home seats than there were last night.

The line up saw very little change from Russell Martin's preferred line up of late, 3 central defenders with Bree & Manning as wing backs a solid 3-2-4-1 formation and there were no comebacks from any of the players ignored by Russell Martin over the past few months.

So in the team sheet Simon Rusk had not tried to be too clever, he kept things simple.

Liverpool put out a decent side albeit with a few youngsters in the line up and it was no surprise they dominated the opening stages, but it did look like things had changed on the pitch, although Saints still tried to keep the ball where possible, they were not playing to the degree they were under the previous manager.

But Saints being Saints, just as it looked like they were finding their feet in the game, they gave away a goal that perhaps could have been avoided, although it was a stroke of bad luck that gifted Nunez the chance, the initial through ball looked like it would go past Nunez and go back to McCarthy, but Jan Bednarek tried to block the ball and in doing so the ball looped up and lost enough pace to give Nunez a chance of getting it, Alex McCarthy perhaps wary of the goal he conceded in the League game hesitated and the Liverpool man was left one and one to slot it past him on 24 minutes.

The second goal was a piece of slick passing by the visitors and well finished by Harvey Elliot.

Now it looked like Saints could crumble, Liverpool looked like they had a second, but McCarthy made a great save low down to his left, the home fans were glad to get into half time only 2-0 down.

After the break Saints seemed to have a renewed confidence and although we got a bit of a break when a ball deflected into Cameron Archers path, he was still a long way out and cut inside to fire in a curling unstoppable shot into the far corner, now it was game on.

With the crowd rising led by the Northam End, Saints made a couple of changes and could have equalised with two attempts in 30 seconds, the first saw Yuri Sugawara pour forward and hos cross was met well by Cameron Archer from close ranhe only to see the Liverpool keeper pull off a wonder save, the ball went back out to the Japanese wing back who crossed deep and it saw Fernandez chest the ball down hit a low shot that was blocked by a last ditch tackle, now the visitors really knew they were on the rack.

But Saints didn't have it all their own way, Taylor Harwood Bellis had to clear off his own line and the rebound needed a timely block.

Then came the games controversial moment as the game entered it's last knockings, a long clearance from McCarthy caught the Liverpool defence asleep and Mateus Fernandes got in behind Jarell Quansah the last man, he was in on goal.

It looked a foul and the Saints fans screamed for a penalty, referee Simon Hooper bottled the decision, he waved play on, the replays showed that Quansah had an arm over both shoulder of Fernandes, he was clearly impeding him, although in truth it started just outside the box.

Hooper faced with making a decision that would mean Quansah would have to be red carded gave nothing, with no VAR that was the final decision on the matter, perhaps it would not have changed the result, a free kick on the edge of the box was no guarantee of a goal, but it would have been nice to get some luck.

At the end of the day the Southampton supporter applauded their team for their effort, it was a defeat but it did not feel like that, it felt like we had restored our pride and that although the hesitation in sacking Russell Martin might well have already cost us a fighting chance of relegation, that the shackles have been taken off and we can perhaps put in a fighting performance or two and not go down with a whimper.

So a night when pride has been restored, you feel that if we had played like this for the first 4 months of the season, yes we might well be in relegation trouble, but we might well also have been outside of the bottom 3.

Now we have three League game coming up that we can go into with, if not confidence but hope.

All Photos Via Reuters

dirk_doone added 10:32 - Dec 19 The Northam End is what we always needed at St Mary's: a proper home end, and it gets better with every game. McCarthy is what we never needed at St Mary's: a terrible goalkeeper. Will we ever get rid of him?
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Bowlercow added 11:11 - Dec 19 This really was a game of two halves In the first the players looked dejected and lost Tyler looked like he didn't want to be anywhere near the pitch The ironic cheers for a couple of long clearances where soon silenced when the ball came straight back at the defence Our possession stat was less than 25% and we were rubbish at best Had they had the likes of salah etc playing it would have been worse than the Spurs game In the second half we appeared to have a different mentality and we tried to play the possession game It was helped when they brought on a couple more youngsters that allowed us to dominate the play We generally looked like a team playing without a plan and without a leader With the side they put out I wonder if RM and his staff had still been here would be have won ? Who knows

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andoverpedro added 11:14 - Dec 19 well done to the saints fans who kept cheering and supporting the team through the match , shame the players didnt put in as much effort as the fans .
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JoeEgg added 11:55 - Dec 19 "So a night when pride has been restored," I wouldn't go that far! Perhaps things took a step in the right direction. We were playing a Liverpool side devoid of many of their star players and the first half we were very poor indeed.. Liverpool made more changes in the second half and at least we took advantage of this situation and put in a good fight. Nick is suggesting that we might just win the next three matches and at least the players selected should be free to play to their strengths. I for one just don't see the quality there and although things may see a temporary improvement, it is clear we are going to lose Dibling, and the Championship is the most appropriate place for our current squad of players.

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Colburn added 12:31 - Dec 19 Can’t believe how many fans have written us off already.. every season is different, we can still stay up! Last night was really poor first half with some fighting spirit in the second. Stitched again by a chest called Hooper, as I predicted to my mate at the start of the game. There was no way he would have sent off Quansah, if it was at the other end, he wouldn’t have hesitated in giving a red to us. Total and complete cheat. But that sums up English referees, they are biased and don’t want to upset the big clubs. I’ll say it again, Hooper is a cheat as he proved last night.

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Jellybaby added 12:32 - Dec 19 The first half was very poor and we lacked any identity. It appeared we went from one extreme to another. No possession didn't seem that much more preferable to possession in the wrong areas. Second half actually felt exciting over boring. It's going to need an astute coach to manage this Saints team and build on some of the positives already within the team and eradicate the negatives.

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Number_58 added 12:48 - Dec 19 No mention of Tall Paul's cameo? I know he's not very good, but just his sheer presence gets the crowd going. Also, re. the Northam, I normally stand in there and I think the atmosphere's generally ok, and we struggle to hear the away fans. Last night I sat right next to the Liverpool fans and had to listen to their full repertoire of songs (and it's quite long). They were very loud and tbh the Northam seemed relatively quiet. Perhaps I need a hearing test.

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DellBoyWally added 13:54 - Dec 19 Actually Paul Onuacho is very good. Hardly surprising he's rusty (Sorry!!) hardly having played this year. Saw a lot of him in Turkey last season and he is impressive - skilful with a power shot and an equally powerful header. He's scored regularly in 3 different leagues but those teams utilised him properly. There are those that say it'll be Route 1 football. Probably the same people that call for the ball cleared from our box then complain when it comes straight back! I don't recall Liverpool and England playing Route 1 football and Peter Crouch scored a hatful for both. Typical of people criticising without knowing the facts. Or football

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beynali73 added 14:10 - Dec 19 Agree with the above - impressive second half lost first half. It's so refreshing watching the team break quickly from our half rather than pass back and forth for 70 minutes. It may have been half of the Liverpool first team but they pressed at every opportunity in the first half under RM we would have been 5 down by HT. So happy to have got rid of RM - should have done it after the Norwich game last season at St Mary's :) COYRs

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AmericanSaint added 14:38 - Dec 19 So I think we can all agree that baby steps are needed to try and find the right way to play going forward as the team has been drilled into the RM way for almost 2 years and will not change overnight. As for Tall Paul, I think RM had no idea how to use him. A classic Tall CF and a fast winger/CF would work well as Paul could flick on the headers or hold the ball up and pass to the open space behind the defense for the shorter/quicker CF/winger to run into. This is some basic stuff but RM would not even entertain it. You have to play to your teams abilities and this is one area we never tried to develop. Well onto Fulham.

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RedandWight added 15:13 - Dec 19 Colburn, your post sums up everything I have been thinking about refereeing at Southampton games. Game after game there is a blatant refereeing 'mistake' in favour of the opposition team. I'm certainly not suggesting it but if one was cynical, one could almost believe that the referee was somehow benefiting financially from the mistakes he made which went in the oppositions favour.

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IanRC added 16:42 - Dec 19 As you say Colburn the officiating was again a disgrace surely the linesman saw something it was hard to miss in truth, unless you hadn't agenda. Sadly the FA, who appear to be just as corrupt as FIFA, are completely uninterested in sorting it out so the Premier League continues on its corrupt way. The second half performance gave some cause for hope and I agree we're not quite relegated as yet but a good manager appointment is needed. I was disappointed to not see the Sulemana and Sugawara start and I thought they had a great impact on the game when they came on albeit too late. Perhaps if the previous incumbent fool had used them and Onachu we might not be in the mess we are in.

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PezzaSaint added 18:19 - Dec 19 We looked a lot more threatening when crosses started to come in from Sugawara. I feel that Tall Paul can be a real handful and he’s something different to the normal striking options in the Premier League. It would be good to start him and see what happens. My concern is would we get enough players around him for knock downs and second balls?
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SanMarco added 20:01 - Dec 19 Yes Pezza nice to see some crosses. I think it actually surprised the opposition - something that RM was totally unable to do. Poor from the officials - to be fair the ref may not have seen it due to the angle but what about the fecken linesman?? Probably made no difference to the result but a definite red. Also it came from a long punt from the keeper!!!
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