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Southampton At Huddersfield The Verdict

It was another game of two halves and one that saw too much complacency in the Saints team, leading to conceding a a late equaliser, that left us rueing a great chance to make up real ground on those above us.

Russell Martin made a couple of changes before taking his seat in the stands at the John Smith's Stadium, Jan Bednarek returned to the centre of the defence after suspension and Ryan Fraser came in for Charlie Alcatraz.

From the very start Saints looked comfortable and settled into their normal game, keeping the ball and looking for openings, the home side seemed content to sit back, battle hard and stop us creating any real chances.

Stuart Armstrong hitting a post was one, but it looked like we were going to go into the break still all square, Saints have made a habit of injury time goals of late, but this one was different in that it was in first half injury time, it was a case of two Armstrongs, Stuart Armstrong played a ball across the box, perhaps more in hope than anything else, but Adam Armstrong showed his pace off two yards and darted in front of a defender to steer the ball home.

This should have seen us take real charge in the second half, but in my opinion complacency had set in, not just on the pitch but in the stands as well, Saints had a lot of possession but rarely looked like either conceding or for that matter scoring, they seemed content to sit back and keep passing the ball, in the away section it seemed that the travelling support, magnificent at Hull & Millwall were also confident that we were just going to see this game out, there was not the usual noise we have been used to away from home this season.

As the half went on, Huddersfield started to come out of their shell, they knew that they had to try and get an equaliser, but they bided their time, they didn't initially pour forward in search of it and risk getting caught on the break, they waited.

As the game entered it's last 10 minutes we had made only one sub, Samuel Edozie on for the ineffectual Sulemana. In truth although Edozie didn't set the game alight, he still did more than Sulemana as he was more direct, Sulemana is a great talent with a lot of pace, but at the moment he lacks an end product, be that a killer cross or pass or shots on goal.

We looked in control, despite the home side going for it, we looked like we could handle it, so you have to question whether the 3 substitutions on 80 minutes was a little too much in one go.

It seemed to upset the balance of the side, unlike some who blamed Manning the moment the equaliser went in, I didn't think he was any worse than the rest, but 1-0 in the final stages it did seem strange to bring off a defensive player for a more attacking full back.

We should have been looking to see out the game at this point, either keep Bree on or if we needed fresh legs then Mason Holgate would have been a good option.

But it was not just there that the balance was upset, Shea Charles coming on in midfield for Stuart Armstrong was not a like for like player and up front we moved Adam Armstrong out wide to bring on Ross Stewart, I understand that we want to give him game time, but this was not the time to do it.

Huddersfield sensed that they could get something out of the game now and that we were disjointed, we had lost some of the discipline and we paid the price for it in the 87th minute.

In truth and having watched the replays, there is no one who can really be blamed for the goal, it was a good curling if a little hopeful cross that evaded everybody.

Suddenly Saints found some urgency and brought on Che Adams and strived to look for a winner, but we were now unbalanced, we lacked wide men to get the ball in and we had no one in midfield to play balls into the channels.

If there was one thing I noticed is that we still perhaps lack communication, we like to play to our central midfield players feet when they are facing their own goal, too many times they played the ball the way they were facing, when the opportunity was there to turn and run into space, that isn't the fault of Will Smallbone or Flynn Downes themselves, they are not being told that they have time.

This will perhaps improve in time, but it is a reason why we drop points against teams near the bottom, we have to find space going forward against resolute defensive and midfield lines, we have to do that by making that space ourself, at Huddersfield we failed to do that.

So a disappointing result in the end that felt like a defeat, but it wasn't it was our 9th game unbeaten and although we are still only in 4th place and not the 3rd a victory would have given us, we still picked up a point on Ipswich and that is a plus.

It could have and should have been a lot better at Huddersfield, we could have taken a big leap forward, but it's now gone and what matters now is Bristol City on Wednesday evening and then Cardiff City on Saturday, both at home, this is all that matters now, not what has gone whether it is dropping two points at Huddersfield or getting walloped at Sunderland.

So onwards & upwards, hopefully both the manager and indeed the players have learned from this game

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