It really should have been a victory, but one small slip up and its another two points dropped, but there were many plus points to still take.
Nigel Adkins took some risks for once, whether they were the desperate acts of a man under pressure of his own calculated choices we will prehaps never know, but he freshened up the team and it looked good for it.
Once we had gone a goal up we never looked like losing the lead, until that is we actually did, having had the benefit of seeing the goal again on television, I have to say this, although some will blame Gazzaniga and it cant be doubted that if he had wellied it up field the ball would have been right up the pitch and the goal wouldnt have happened, this is unfair, this is the Premier League at this level its perfectly acceptable for a goalkeeper to play a ball to a defender and expect him to be able to deal with it, Yoshida who had a decent game otherwise, could have easiily controlled it, if he felt he was under pressure then he had plenty of time to clear it upfield himself.
The other talking points surrounded Adam Lallana , sadly he is getting a reputation for going down too easily in the box and like Luis Suarez, he now has to be virtually steamrollwered before he gets a penalty, in fairness to the ref though, in the first half he got it dead right, the second incident with the benefit of tv shows that again it wasnt a penalty, although it was harsh booking Lallana who cant be expected to stay on his feet every time he is tackled, sadly his reputation with this ref was now going before him, that was very much the case with the third incident when Monk clearly blocked off Lallana, in any other area of the pitch this would have been a free kick, OK at least obstruction, but it was in the box and the referee was clearly swayed by the fact that he felt Lallana was diving.
We really should have got three points, but this was not to be, however it was a good all round display by Saints, the spirit appeared to be back and there is hope for the future but its going to be tough make no doubt about it.
My only worry was our lack of substitutions, only one made Fox for a clearly tiring Shaw, a good tactical decision and Fox added something going forward in the final minutes, but why didnt we sling on another sub in the final minutes, Ramirex playing two games in quick succession after six weeks out looked dead on his feet and although he showed it less Cork was tiring having not played all season, why didnt we throw on mayuka for a bit of pace, or ven as we had a corner in injury time throw on Rodriguez who is strong in the air, Im just a little disapointed that we didnt try to do something that might have snatched those extra couple of points.
verall though it was a good display, defensively we were a little better, although at times we still got carved open down the left with Lallana pushing too far forward and getting caught on the break, but we got away with it, but as we found out, even one defensive error is one too many i this division.