A disappointing ending to a day when once again Saints luck deserted them and the referee was the talking point of the game.

This did not feel like a big game from start to finish, perhaps it was the empty seats, mainly in the Saints sections, but also in the Chelsea end, but Saints supporters seemed resigned to a defeat and it needed something to spark both the team and the supporters into life.

Early on it looked like Chelsea might win by a cricket score, they danced around and showboated and had several good chances including one that clipped the bar, however after this spell Saints settled into the game and got to half time with the scores still level.

But the game changed within a minute of the restart when Giroud again scored against Saints and if one man can be accused of ruining Saints season it is this, in the League he has scored three against Saints and without that last minute equaliser for Arsenal and his brace last week, Saints would be four points better off and out of the bottom three, we didn't need him scuppering our FA Cup bid as well.

Saints although looking jaded and lacking fight did have their moments though, Shane Long should have put us level, but tried to round the keeper rather than shooting, Caballero dropped the ball over the line and it was later proved their was little contact if any from Charlie Austin, but the ref was far too quick to disallow the goal for a foul and VAR was not brought into action.

Austin hit a post with the ball an inch forward and it would have gone in and an inch back and Gabbiadini would have touched home, but this was Saints day, one lacking any sort of luck of any kind.

Sadly we seem to be caught in a downward spiral now and something needs to break this, the supporters look shellshocked the team look shellshocked, something has to break the circle in the last four games if we are to somehow stay up.

Some Saints fans questioned the commitment of certain players, but when there is so much confidence lacking and nothing going right, finding form is not as easy as just showing commitment.

My spirits dropped when I saw the swathes of empty seats in our end, I't can't have helped the players either, not blaming the fans here, just calling it how it is, empty seats do not inspire players, it needed something else to do that and nothing is going right for us as a team.

A disappointing ending to the cup run, but I would rather have had this game and trip to Wembley than not had it, the problem was no one really believed, certainly not the fans who fell very silent after the kick off and pre match there was hardly a feeling of optimism on the trains or the pubs, certainly not the players who seemed to be looking to contain Chelsea and hope that for once the luck might go our way, it didn't !

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 10:36 - Apr 24 "The PL is an evolving model". Not sure what that means but isn't the point that this match WASN'T the PL ??
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Wembley76 added 17:04 - Apr 24 Err, wasn't the poor uptake of tickets (by both sets of fans) more to do with the scandalous hike in prices compared to previous semi-final ties? Secondly, I'm 'old school' no cup games at Wembley unless it is THE FINAL!
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simmo400 added 20:25 - Apr 25 Think we will have players on big wages who don't have saints at heart. Why should they move on when their on big bucks next year ? Why would they ? We could quiet easily be another Sunderland. Such a shame I thought we had a great academy but where are these players coming through lately the wheels have come off everywhere at this club.
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