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Southampton At Nottingham Forest The Verdict

Saints carried on at The City Ground where they left off at Manchester United, by conceding 3 goals, but they dug in, rode their luck and almost snatched a point in the dying moments of the game.

Up at Old Trafford on Thursday, Saints threw away a 1-0 lead by a series of substitutions that to be blunt just didn't work.

So surprisingly the starting line up to take on Forest, contained several of those substitutes, whilst the likes of Lesley Ugochukwu and Kamaldeen Sulemana who had arguably been our best players against Manchester United, found themselves on the bench.

From the very start we didn't look up for it, we looked like a team who knew they were missing key players and were up against it, so it was no surprise that Forest scored with barely 11 minutes on the clock, we backed off and allowed Anderson plenty of time and space to pick his spot, standing right behind the goal, you could see the lack of organisation and challenges from early in the move.

We found a fragile confidence for a while and enjoyed a lot of possession, but that is how Forest like to play it, they sit deep and play the ball ;long to catch you on the break, although in fairness they can play a decent short passing game as well.

Just before the half hour mark, it was deja vu and again you could see it coming and likewise when Chris Wood was given a free header from close range to make it 3-0 on 41 minutes.

The mood was not good in the away section and a few people called it a day at half time and left the ground, however most stayed and stuck with it.

At half time Ivan Juric strangely made only one change, on came Big Les Ugochukwu for Flynn Downes and although Forest were still well on top, at least now we had a big strong player in the centre of the park to combat them.

On 58 minutes came a triple change, Manning, Sulemana & Onuachu on and it seemed that at least we were willing to have a go.

The first ray of home came only 3 minutes later when on the hour, a shot from Big Les was on target, but it hit Jan Bednarek and deflected into the net, Saints were back in the game.

Or where they ? within minutes it seemed that Forest had restored the 3 goal lead, however the most relived man in the ground was Aaron Ramsdale who looked at fault for the goal and was saved his blushes by VAR.

Saints grateful for the let off, now seemed to be playing with some confidence and without fear, Forest looked rattled and were no longer the cocky side they had been, on 83 minutes they too made a triple change, but it changed their shape and Saints went for the jugular.

We started to dominate the midfield and looked dangerous in attack, Forest were now sitting deep and hammering the ball forward rather than pass it when they got it.

Throughout the game Forest's tactics were to spoil the game, too many times there players went to ground and stayed there, it happened far too often and to far too many innocuous challenges to make it a coincidence.

They almost paid the price with the 12 minutes of injury time signalled and almost immediately Saints were back in the game when Tall Paul headed home his first ever goal for the club almost two years after joining.

Now Saints piled forward and almost snatched an equaliser on a couple of occasions, but Forest hung on for the win.

So Ivan Juric's 5th straight defeat in the League and as I said, a mirror image from the United game where we started well and ended badly and at Forest we started badly and ended well, encompassing a middle period stretching over both games where we conceded 6 goals in what was only a little more than the equivalent of one half of a game of football.

You feel that Ivan Juric's job spec here was not to keep us up, or if it was, then that has been abandoned, he did not put out his best side, it seemed like it was about giving a few people a game, rather than putting out the best side for the job.

Defensively we were woeful, Forest ran us ragged for most of the game, we lacked strength and we lacked leadership, it was almost as if the result did not matter, now it is all about looking towards next season where it is now inevitable that we will be in the Championship.

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