With 20 minutes to go it looked like Saints were dead and buried and heading for their sixth consecutive Premier League defeat, but then came a stirring end to the game that has broken the losing streak and offers hope going forward.

On 70 minutes there weren't many Saints fans who were holding out much hope and a section of the Northam End had broken into a chorus of "Your getting sacked in the morning" when Leeds scored their second, perhaps the first time the crowd had turned on Ralph Hasenhuttl en masse at a game.

But thankfully the bulk of the home support although dismayed by what they had seen did not turn on the manager.

The game in the first half had been fairly even, both sides had had chances but the game remained goalless at half time.

After the break Leeds came out like a train, so much so that when they scored a minute into the second half it wasn't even their first attack, Saints defence had been caught napping and suddenly the pressure was on Saints.

But if the first goal was a shock the second was again poor defending, a failure to defend a corner and when the ball was flicked on a man sleeping and not pushing up to play Rodrigo onside.

Now it looked like we were dead and buried, Ralph Hasenhuttl made two quick substitutions , Stuart Armstrong & Elyounoussi off and Adam Armstrong and Joe Aribo on, but the game didn't turn just yet, on 70 minutes came the 3rd change, off went Jan Bednarek and on came Sekou Mara , a bold and brave move by the manager and one that was about to pay off.

The move started on the left Adam Armstrong got the ball by the touchline played a smart one two with Che Adams and raced towards the byeline, he then pulled the ball back to find Joe Aribo.

But Aribo found him closed down by the keeper, it would have been easy to get a short away and been blocked, but he kept his head took another step to leave the keeper floundering and then fired through a crowd of Leeds players on the goalline to put Saints back in the game.

Now it was game on and the crowd were behind the team again as Saints poured forward, it took a moment of magic to bring us level, in fact two moments of magic, the first when Mara got the ball and played an inch perfect sublime pass behind the Leeds defence, but there was still work to do, Kyle Walker Peters glided past the defender and fired home into the far corner, a finish any striker would have been proud of, yes Mara's ball was worth salivating over, but it shouldn't completely overshadow KWP's finish.

The hope was now for a rousing finish, it didn't quite end like that but there was a decent shot from Mara that made the keeper work.

At the end it felt like a win, the truth was that there was still a lot wrong mainly at the back where we seem to be unable to organise ourselves and communicate, the frustration is that if we sorted that out we would be a half decent side, certainly going forward the three substitutes contribution to the game bodes well for the future.

So there were plus points from this, firstly that Ralph Hasenhuttl now seems to have a coaching staff he can trust and converse with during games, seeing him talk to his bench during the games and input is something that I haven't seen him do since Danny Rohl left in the summer of 2019.

Every manager needs assistants he can trust and lean on and yes tell him when he is getting it wrong sometimes.

Second plus point was the contributions from Adam Armstrong, Joe Aribo & Sekou Mara, in regard to Armstrong his first season here was underwhelming, but he showed glimpses of what he can do, he was overshadowed by Broja in the mid season and never really got much of a look in after, I never dismissed him back then and i think that this could be a good season for him, he didn't score but he had a great assist.

Joe Aribo did score and it was pleasing to see that he could do so at Premier League level, he didn't snatch at the chance when it came and it will do his confidence wonders.

Sekou Mara didn't do much in what was his first Premier League outing, he was an unknown quality, but he showed it isn't how much you do it is about influencing games, one precision pass can change a game and he played it, he also worked a good chance for himself which the keeper had to save.

But the issue still remains of a back line that seems unable to contribute with each other, on the first goal we had three men at that near post yet none of them got a block in, if we don't get a leader in the back four then our season is going to follow the same path as the last three, sometimes we will get away with things and win games and others we will let in soft goals and drop points because of that.

Moussa Djenepo has got unfair stick in some quarters, but he is a player working hard in a position he is not used to, he should be being talked through a game by the defenders behind him, he is getting no help from them whatsoever.

The worst sight for me though was the kit, at one point the crowd burst into a chant of come on you reds, it petered out perhaps as those singing realised that there was little red in our kit, we looked more like Leeds than they do in our mainly white kit, from behind we were Fulham, the picture below captures this, it doesn't look like Saints players celebrating, but it does look like a Saints crowd, plenty of stripes in it outnumbering the few new shirts in evidence.

The main thing though was to get something out of this game, end that losing streak, draw a line in the sand and move forward, this we have done.

On Saturday Ralph Hasenhuttl changed the course of the season with his substitutions, now he needs to change it further with the signing of an experienced central defender, scoring isn't the problem, shipping six goals in two games is especially when you consider that a decent defence would not have conceded at least half of them.

The next two weeks are going to be big pointers as to how the season goes, truth is we need one more player in and that perhaps needed to be Conor Coady, that was never going to happen, but there are others out there like him.

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 22:36 - Aug 15 I hope this means the end of the 3 CBs. If you have to change a formation because you are getting stuffed and end up with a draw then that formation is not working. I reckon that's obvious. If we had three world-class CBs then maybe but... The coaching staff are paid good money and they need to earn it by organising the defence. That or sign Nick's longed-for experienced man at the back. I fear he will be waiting longer for that than those guys waited for Godot.

2

KriSaint added 15:19 - Aug 16 From the time we changed the shape and brought on A. Armstrong, Joe Aribo and Sekou Mara we outplayed Leeds!!, and it was very encouraging to watch. Now Ralph has to stick with the right shape and the right players, please. Romeo Lavia has looked good for us, and he was the one who kept the ball under difficult circumstances and started the possession spree that involved 9 quality passes before Aribo scored to 1-2 vs Leeds. I look forward to the game vs Leicester, who don't look particularly good without Schmeichel in goal and with unsettled players Fofana and Tielemans. I think we can get a result vs Leicester. It's definetely an ok time to play them, even if it's away from home! COYS!

0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Southampton Polls