Saints departed the FA Cup to League Two opposition in shocking fashion, this display was as bad as any that the two previous managers had presided over, so you have to ask what has changed.

Saints as expected dominated the game against a Grimsby side who have not exactly been setting the League Two table alight, but as at Leeds on Saturday and to be blunt in countless games this season before, what cost them the game was the shocking lapses in concentration in defending.

The team selection saw multiple changes in the starting line up from Ruben Selles first two games, only Romain Perraud and Romeo Lavia survived from the 11 that had been in Selles two line ups since taking over from Nathan Jones.

But you have to say that 6 of the side were new signings this season, alongside some experienced Premier League pros and it should have been a side capable of beating Grimsby.

However when looking at the bench you had to say that Selles had left himself little proven attacking options, of course Che Adams was injured, but there was no place for the two latest signings Onauchu & Sulemana nor Stuart Armstrong & Moi Elyounoussi.

This would come back to haunt us.

It was no surprise to see such a poor crowd, given that there were over 4,000 Grimsby fans in the crowd, the announced attendance of 17 thousand something meant that this was perhaps the lowest number of home supporters in the ground for a truly competitive game in many a year, perhaps ever.

Perhaps this wasn't truly Saints hour of need, but the reality was that the Saints support had voted with their feet and deserted their side.

That meant the first half mirrored the support, at one end you had 4,000 visiting supporters celebrating their cup final as the song goes and the other 3 sides were at best busy but quietish or as in the Chapel end virtually empty.

On the pitch that meant that you had a Grimsby team battling their socks off and a Saints team passing the ball around well but with no real intent.

On the one occasion when it looked like we had scored a well taken shot from Sekou Mara, VAR took about 4 minutes to decide it was offside, yes it was but anyone watching the TV would tell you, within the first viewing it was clearly off, so why did it take so long.

Saints paid the price shortly before half time, they had a lase in concentration and Grimsby broke down the right, in the build up the ball appeared to have hit the players arm, so under the rules this should have been disallowed, however VAR seemed to conveniently ignore this, the ball was crossed and it hit Lyanco's arm, was his arm in a un natural position ? no ! again VAR took 3-4 minutes before calling the ref over to take a look, in my book total ineptitude by the officials.

The second half started as badly as the first ended, the ball went back to Alex McCarthy from a through ball, no one complained about anything, but Caleta-Car appeared to have punched or perhaps even shot the Grimsby player who went down like a bag of ****.

Again VAR showed that Caleta Car had slightly slapped him on the back, any other area in the pitch it would not have been given, but again after a long VAR look it was, it was just embarrassing, if you are going to give free kicks or indeed penalties for this then the game is finished, I am in favour of VAR, but the way it is being used is scandalous.

Ruben Selles took a little time over subs, but they were a combination of obvious, JWP for Lavia was the right move, Lavia was having a good game, but he is essentially a holding midfielder , Edozie for Orsic was perhaps justified, Orsic hadn't really got into the game, but then again Edozie has yet to produce any end product and this would be the case again.

On 65 minutes Caleta-Car atoned for his error with a well taken goal after being left unmarked in the style of the Saints defence 2022/23 and you thought there would be only one result.

But truth is that we had no firepower left to bring on, Walcott & Aribo arrived and it did look like Walcott had equalised, but up popped VAR again for a decision that was measured in millimetres.

This was a time when we needed a goal scorer, yet we took off two who were potential scorers and brought on two who have barely played since before the World Cup break.

Everything we produced in the last half hour was driven by Ward Prowse & Walker Peters, who constantly played balls down the right wing, but rarely did we get a chance produced and this was the problem, some would moan at Adam Armstrong and Mara, but when were they given a chance to get an effort in, very rarely.

It could have been worse , Romain Perraud tried to be too clever when the last man and luckily we got away with it.

This was an appalling result which showed us a couple of things, firstly nothing has changed, we are still making schoolboy errors at the back and not producing good chances at the other end.

Secondly if Nathan Jones had picked this team to start the game he would have been booed on to the bench, let alone at the end.

The problem before the World Cup break was never the manager, but what Ralph Hasenhuttl had to work with, he didn't have a striker and he had plenty of injury issues. We sacked a good experienced manager who would have seen us through the storm.

I left the game feeling that the board had bowed to the fans in sacking Hassenhuttl and had been to quick to appoint Nathan Jones, no one can make any excuses for Jones he was out of his depth, but again we were too quick to replace him, the crowd were backing Selles both before, during and after the Chelsea game and the club announced that they were appointing him to the end of the season.

That may come back to bite us, they jumped in before testing the water properly.

Selles made the mistake in this game of picking a second string side and compounded that by leaving himself no get out of jail cards on the bench, no Tall Paul, no Sulemana and he too appears to have listened to the crowd in naming Dominic Ballard as a sub and bringing him on for the final 4 minutes.

It was a desperate gamble, Ballard did little, not entirely his fault, there was little being produced, Selles hoped for a fairytale home debut, with a late goal as in his only other appearance in the Carabao Cup at Cambridge, sadly it didn't happen.

Well done to Grimsby Town, yes our performance handed them the game, but they deserved their win by the sheer guts they showed and a determination not to lose.

Truth is now Selles has to vindicate his decision to rest so many by bringing back these players for the visit of Leicester on Saturday, that is all that matters now, the only good news of the night was Everton's defeat at Arsenal, not only does it mean we are still only 3 points behind them with a game in hand, but there are now only a 3 goal goal difference between us.

They travel to Nottingham Forest, defeat for them there and us beating Leicester could see us go above them.

This game is now done and dusted, we have to move forward and march on, on Saturday we need a full house roaring us on, if we get that it means one thing is in place to enable us to win and we will then find out if Ruben Selles is the man for the job and indeed if he has the players up for the task ahead.

Photo: Action Images

Block8 added 10:43 - Mar 2 The most frustrating thing about being sat in a sparse crowd & watching a 4-2-2-2 system that you know doesn't work, is that you can do nothing about it! Our approach play was more like a waltz than a football match, slow, slow quick, quick slow. We either went forward really slowly and then, getting to the edge of the box, went backwards again or just thumped the ball forward to two under six foot strikers? We play so slowly that when we get to the other end there is absolutely nowhere for the forwards to run except offside, two examples of that tonight/last night. I have an outrageous idea, maybe we could play with a back four that is a back four and maybe, just maybe use two of the thirty six wingers we have as wingers? Move the ball faster using the triangle pass and move system that is practiced in training and plonk the ball into the box for our strikers to have a go at? Radical I know but maybe worth a try!

8

wibbersda added 10:49 - Mar 2 We have no identity anymore. We had 22 shots over 500 passes and 75% poss, yet we have no composure on the ball. How is this even possible, other than massive confidence issues. All we keep hearing is "we are all working extremely hard". Well, clearly not hard enough! We appear to have a ragbag bunch of misfits, some with great skills, but I think we are at the stage where the manager needs to throw a few Fooks into them, rather than the soft centeredSouthampton approach. We also now see why Orsic, CCA, Lyanco are not in the first choice 11.

0

PatfromPoole added 11:02 - Mar 2 Until reading this, I had forgotten that Orsic was on the pitch last night.
4

wessexman added 11:04 - Mar 2 A lot of chicken's are now coming home to roost...big time. Ralp did wonders in keeping us up with one hand tied around his back but he simply ran out of rabbits to pull out of hat. Don't blame the fans for voicing their frustration at these dreadful runs we have gone on...this one fatal. Don't blame the fans for a transfer policy as misguided as it is arrogant. Don't blame the fans for an inept board. Many of us have seen this car crash coming a long way off and have been vilified for it. Many fans face acost of living crisis but the still turn up to support their team and are let down week in week out. My big fear is now our board trying to guide us out the championship at the first time of asking Judging by the utterly inept and criminal way they got us relegated...we must harbour more than severe doubts.

8

dirk_doone added 11:08 - Mar 2 Grimsby finished 6th in the National League last season. I saw Eastleigh draw 4-4 with them 9 months ago. We have many individual players who should be well above that level but we are severely lacking in the 2 most important positions: goalkeepers and strikers. The team is still a lot worse than the sum of its parts. Nobdody seems to know what our best team is as we chop and change it every week.

3

Ifonly added 11:09 - Mar 2 No, this game was not lost due to defensive lapses. We lost because we're incapable of scoring 2 goals against League 2 opposition at home. They basically gave us 1 goal but we never looked capable of scoring a goal from open play ...... just like every game in the past year. No, Ralph would not have sorted this out. He would have been doing much the same as Selles is doing. The rot set in under Ralph and it was not all about us needing a striker. The same things we saw under Ralph we saw last night. Sideways, slow passing, players with no options because no one is running in to space, action too slow because players are uncertain, eventually we chuck a cross in to the box and are surprised when our 5'6'' strikers don't win the headers. This is all exactly as started to happen under Ralph and he didn't seem to recognise the problems, let alone fix them. I only hope the club are planning for what happens in the summer. It's 90% likely we'll go down and we need a plan for that. Nothing I've seen about SR suggests they will be putting the right plans in place. Let's hope they sort themselves out or next season will be the same.

6

GasGiant added 11:15 - Mar 2 No it wasn't "what cost them" although both penalties were poor. What cost them was the same failure to create and carve out real goalscoring chances from midfield posession. It was easily within their grasp to score three goals against Grimsby and they managed just one, simply because they are incapable of creating space and time in the box to put the ball away. Doncaster managed it, so did Harrogate Swindon and Salford, and Southampton scored just one - I won't even bother with the list of all those teams than managed to score two. Ally McCoist unwittingly made exactly the same comment Graham Souness made three years ago "Southampton's problem is they are easy to defend against". It is worth a bet that Saints will score less goals from open play now than there are games left in the season. Pray for free kicks.

12

SaintPaulVW added 11:23 - Mar 2 If we can't score - which we didn't appear capable of until JWP came on then the best you are aiming for is a draw. That won't get you through cup rounds and it won't keep you up in the league. Our football intelligence, concentration and organisation in attack is pathetic. I would have thought rather than make wholesale changes last night keeping a core of defenders playing together would have been the best idea. No, change 4 of the back 5 players. In attack we have paid a lot of money for 2 new players - let's leave them on the bench. Mara needs a good shake - chances need to be converted. Arma has had enough chances and we should cash out on him. Best players for me last night Djenepo, KWP and JWP. I'll be sad to see them go when the inevitable now happens at the end of the season. COYR show some pride

8

JoeEgg added 11:37 - Mar 2 Well one thing you have to ask - can things get any worse? Well ask Brendan Rodgers that question - because we could well find ourselves losing to Leicester! I have repeatedly doubted our ability to score goals - true we made defensive howlers again, but we could have been 3 or 4 goals up by then when you consider the quality of the opposition. Okay we could beat Grimsby 7-2 and then complain about the two penalties we conceed! But we cant score 7 or even twice in the same game even if we played a team of young ladies. Our new signings look less likely to score goals for us than our back four, desperately trying to atone for the goals they have given away at the other end. We once had Danny Ings who was always going to be a threat in the penalty box - and we have never replaced him. There no longer is anyone to fear. I am not sure that Onuachu is what we need at the moment as he tries to adapt to the English Premier League with precious little service. My worry is that the Leicester players will know how to scrap for Premier League survival better than our youngsters and foreign imports. Its all very well to cry - get behind our lads on Saturday - but as with the super Grimsby fans the Leicester fans will see their very real chance of three points at St Marys. Yes the supporters can play a major role but I say again its up to the PLAYERS now ,with chances running out, to show that they deserve theirplace in the Premier League.

1

obelisk added 11:38 - Mar 2 "We sacked a good experienced manager who would have seen us through the storm.". Saints form under Ralph during 2022 had Saints 90th out of 92 clubs. This is rose-tinted wishful thinking.
-1

Monksway added 11:42 - Mar 2 This result wasn't unexpected. We join the list of bottom of the table teams losing to lower league opposition in the cup. The rot set in a year ago with endless defeats sapping confidence and the ability to play positively. Regardless of team, players or system the downhill slide leaves us expecting the worst and generally getting it. We can't score because our strikers don't expect to convert their chances. We don't create chances because we don't play the difficult incisive passes required. We make individual errors at the back because we lack collective confidence. Saints will go down this year, it's a question of how we change this mindset next and assuming we are better than the majority of the Championship sides won't cut it, I fear.

2

Oldbaloney added 11:46 - Mar 2 Ballard didn’t do a lot in 4 minutes - but did more than Mara who seems more concerned about his hair than putting the ball in the back of the net. The refs decisions were all correct - both Saints goals were offside and the Grimsby pens were justified. The reality is that Saints have too many players who are not good enough. Djenepo is capable of beating players but there is rarely any end product - Edozie seems to be in the same boat. Orsic might get a game at Eastleigh. Adam runs around like a headless chicken, Mara has learnt his finishing from Che, Lyanco and Perraud keep losing their heads. Passing the ball around the back 4 allows the opposition to re-set and why do we insist on making 2 passes when 1 is on sucking all momentum out of the attack? The reality is that there is no chance we will win 6 of our remaining matches and there will be a mass exodus at the end of the season - leaving only the dross that no-one else wants.

9

Number_58 added 12:05 - Mar 2 Why was bringing Ballard on a 'desperate gamble'? It was more of a desperate gamble keeping Armstrong and Mara on the pitch for so long after a dreadful first half. Ballard looked livelier in five minutes than the other two did all game. What has Nick got against the poor lad? Is he Nick's new Jack Stephens?
11

SanMarco added 12:10 - Mar 2 Good report from Nick, other than the Ralph comments. We saw that kind of performance a lot under Ralph. The mistake was in the choice of his replacement. Adam Armstrong and Mara only missed one sitter between them but surely no-one believes they are the answer to the post-Ings (lack of) goal-scoring sh1tstorm. Walcott? I didn't see the build up but my first thought was 'I bet he is offside' - because, let's face it, he always is. Lavia played a nice show-boating performance for his summer suitors and KWP battled gamely on the right wing but other than that we were totally abysmal. The most shocking thing for me was the inability to complete simple passes and even basic ball-control. Has the last 20 minutes of a 'major shock' ever been so comfortable for the 4th division team? We were hoping for a full-back to score or a JWP free-kick, PATHETIC. The performance wasn't down to the low attendance - it was down to a woeful player recruitment strategy. The manager has a right to expect that any 11 from his bloated squad should have the wherewithal to beat a lower table 4th division side. He needs to learn who NOT to pick for ANY game. Those who argue one side of the rubbish defence vs rubbish defence debate should now surely accept that it is both. Without the defence Grimsby don't score and with a proper attack we do. It's not one it's BOTH. Finally, not an excuse but a comment on VAR and the FA Cup. If that game had been played at Grimsby most of the decisions that went against us wouldn't have - and as always in the contingent game of football only the first one - the first penalty, not given by the on-field officials, would have been of any significance. If you can't have VAR in all games have them in none. As I say not an excuse and good luck to Grimsby for what I expect will be a slightly harder task in the next round.

8

jameshill added 12:12 - Mar 2 To go along side such mysteries as how did the universe begin and what killed the dinosaurs may I add: How did Adam Armstrong get 28 goals in a season? How did Sekou Mara get picked for France under 21? How did Mislav Orsic find himself playing in a world cup semi final?
15

bryanK added 12:41 - Mar 2 What a shambles, I really don’t enjoy going to St Mary’s anymore. Like everyone I want them to turn things around but cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel. I am like many a season ticket holder but after nearly 70 years of watching I am unable to generate any enthusiasm for going the football is so poor. See it before but not at such a constant level of dross.As for ME stating that we will be OK what has he contributed to the party?? Absolutely nothing!! The Grimsby result well we can’t expect anything from this extremely poor bunch of overpaid clowns

5

Ifonly added 12:43 - Mar 2 "Orsic might get a game at Eastleigh ..." Lots of criticism of the players from various people here - fair enough they played rubbish last night, but do you wonder why they're playing rubbish? Take Orsic, he came to us from Dinamo Zagreb where he scored 57 goals in 132 appearances. He was their record goal scorer in European competitions. He came to us shortly after scoring the winner in the 3rd place play off at the World Cup finals. Does that sound like a man who would struggle to get a game at Eastleigh? Do you wonder if maybe, if he is playing badly the fault might lie with the team and the way it is organised, rather than the player? I certainly do. I hope that Selles is a good enough manager to make use of Orsic in the few games he probably has left with us, but I'm not sure he is. Let's wait and see. Selles hasn't had enough time yet. It's the same with some of the other players. Just because they're struggling it doesn't mean they're shit players. They're probably better than the managers they've been playing for - but we might only be able to see that when they're playing for another club.

9

DF_20032017 added 13:18 - Mar 2 As everone says we can't score from open play. Until the last game under RH we at least created chances for strikers to miss - now we can't even do that. I thought about Beattie and Omerod, a great strike partnership. Omerod caused chaos, Beattie was lethal in front of goal. We had a similar situation with Ings and Adams/Long but having sold Ings we have left ourselves with a team full of Omerods, and one doesn't work without the other. Hopefully tall Paul can be the finisher his spell in Belgium suggests, but he won't get goals where he is in a 4-2-2-2 and asked to press and run with the ball, it makes no sense. Let's be pragmatic for the run in. Back 4 is probably KWP, ABK, MS, RP and then play midfielders who can score, create and sheild (RL, JWP and Alcaraz). The one thing we have is pacey wingers to run off tall Paul so play Sulemana and 1 other off him. If we can't score from open play then win set pieces to attack, Free kicks and corners. Get people running the channels and winning them. It is better than watching us pass it around infront of someone elses back 4 for 5 minutes before giving it away and then falling apart defensively! Another defeat at the weekend and the confidence is shot so get some balls in the box and test a shaky Leicester defence and a very dodgy keeper!

6

WestSussexSaint added 13:22 - Mar 2 As someone once said (and was derided for at the time) “You can’t win anything with kids”. Hansons words are ringing true now - we can’t even win football matches!
0

ItchenNorth added 13:36 - Mar 2 Spot on. On a positive note, if we do go down; the Championship doesn't have VAR. The question has to be, dies it make the game better. VAR is killing football as a spectator sport. It's not decisions going against you, as that'll happen with or without VAR. It's the not being able to celebrate goals anymore and then the time wasted making the final decisions. The entire thing just needs to be binned. Much like half of our squad!

6

Flamingbankers added 13:42 - Mar 2 Excrutiating to watch - we just couldn't play an accurate ball in the first half. There was little determination - Djenepo excepted - the the pace was far too slow and the quality just not there. But let's face it; how many of our team would you call Premier League class? Even those on the borderline are not consistent enough. A couple of reasonable players doesn't make for a Prem team. I think all the managers have had mediocre players to work with and that's not good enough in the Premiership. Managers are left to tinker around with players and formations but if they're all much of a likeness then you're doomed. A few late additions isn't going to change much either. The owners are responsible and have shown how inept they really are over the last year - seemingly not a clue about how to run a football club. VAR is a nonsense, we need to go back to the ref and linesmens' decisions - a linesman running the whole length of the line would also help. Not only do teams play with poor ref's, and ref decisions, they now play with ridiculous millimetre precision technology and incorrect third ref decisions. I make no apology to say it but 30 years ago there's no way that Grimsby would have won that game. Saints would probably have come away as 2-0 winners.

0

deanosfc8 added 14:41 - Mar 2 Do I really think we would be in this position in the league and out of the FA cup right now under Ralph... NO I did say several times be careful what you wish for...
-3

Farlow added 15:08 - Mar 2 With our total lack of striking talent he should have used Dom Ballard earlier,in fact they might as well use the rest of the season to find out which of the youngsters can make it. They said Ralph would develope young talent but i cant name one. I Thought Selles would be good but i was wrong we need a top coach.
3

saintmark1976 added 15:12 - Mar 2 Nick you say “the Saints support had voted with their feet and deserted their side”.Rather like Eric Morcambe you have the right words but not necessarily in the correct order. What most sensible fans can see is that it’s the playing team together with the club’s board and senior management that have in fact deserted the support. The trust between the club and its fans has been shattered by a series of unfathomable decisions starting by not sacking Ralph in the summer, failing to sign a decent replacement for Ings in innumerable transfer windows and culminating in hiring the services of Jones. Please Nick, for once in your life stop blaming the fans for decisions made by others over which they can exercise no control whatsoever, apart from deciding not to waste their money on shambolic displays such as yesterday evening.

3

dowater added 15:21 - Mar 2 i think that the entire saints squad should put this weeks wages to charity as they dont deserve the huge sums of money that they are being paid. 1st division here we come, at least we might win a few more games. to be honest, i cant wait to go down and for all the rubbish on exuberant wages to leave. its just a shame that we will also loose the good players like JWP, KWP, ABK, MS, RL etc. for rock bottom prices as they know we will want to clear the wages. with that we will also loose all our up and coming talent and be left floundering in the lower divisions. i blame the board for the transfer decisions. to sell PL players like romeo for cheep and replace them with unproven kids, what did we expect.... we were trying to copy Brentford. the main difference is, that they brought emerging talent when in the lower leagues and honed their skills and team cohesion, in the lower leagues with no one looking. then when on the big stage PL, they shone. we actually thought that we could do that from the off in the PL??? when are the owners going to realize that there business model is all wrong. to be in the PL is a money looser. most if not all clubs loose money. yes we may get the odd gem and sell for good money, but you dont get that every year, just once in a while. we need a base team of PL quality players and then introduce the emerging talents one at a time, let them settle then introduce the next, not buy 5-6 youngsters and hope that we can stay up. in all my years of supporting this club, this is the lowest i have seen it and seriously makes me wonder if i will buy another ticket... got my brother in law coming over from OZ this year and was going to take him to a game, but not sure i can handle the embarrassment

6

Blogs 31 bloggers

Preston North End Polls