On Tuesday night we had the highest of highs beating Chelsea, on Saturday at Molyneux we came back down to earth with a bump, it wasn't a bad performance but two lapses in concentration, one at each end meant the 1-0 scoreline was in favour of the home side and not the visitors.

We knew what Wolves would be like and how they would play and for most of this game we coped well and didn't let them catch us on the break as they have done seemingly so many times in the past few years.

But on the stroke of half time Wolves got their usual breakaway goal, catching us short at the back and Podence completely unmarked scored at the back post, should Bazunu have done better ? No I don't think he could have done, the Wolves man dinked the ball and wrong footed him, did he mean to do it, having watched replays I think he did, but he really shouldn't have been in that position in the 2nd minute of first half injury time, we have to learn to shut down things.

In the second half it was Saints chasing the game who had more of the attacking play and then came what looked like the equaliser, all Che Adams had to do was head it in from barely a yard out after the goalkeeper had fumbled it backwards and upwards, it looked like he had done, but replays showed he completely mistimed his jump, missed his header and it hit his arm and went in, Adams continued his penchant for scoring the difficult chances but missing the easy ones.

Later on he almost redeemed himself by getting in a clean header that rattled the crossbar. It was not a day for Saints headers, Armel Bella Kotchap should have scored in the first half with what was a free header and he tried too hard to get power and direction and in doing so put it wide.

Ralph Hasenhuttle could not be accused of sitting back, on 56 minutes he made an attacking double substitution taking off the defensive minded Diallo and the innaffective Elyounoussi and bringing on Djenepo & Stuart Armstrong, on 73 minutes it was two of the new signings on, Edozie & Maitland Niles for Aribo & Perraud and on 83 minutes Mara for Adam Armstrong.

We had some promising attacks but ultimately couldn't break down the Wolves defence, so it was a game of two lapses in concentration, defending we gave them a goal and at the other end Che Adams mistimed his jump, on another day the 1-0 scoreline could have been reversed, to be truthful neither side deserved to win, a draw would have been the fairest result, we would have taken that.

Some Saints fans have been complaining about the team selection, truth is that this was with the exception of the injured Lavia, the team that beat Chelsea, it deserved the chance to go and beat Wolves.

From the new signing point of view, Edozie looked a handful and made a couple of decent runs, Maitland- Niles less so, but they both looked good additions to the squad.

It will be interesting to see what Ralph does next week against Brentford, he now has plenty of options, this game was a disappointment, but Rome or for that matter football teams were not built in a day, but we can see a far better squad now being assembled than this time last year.

Photo: Action Images

Boris1977 added 09:34 - Sep 5 A bit disappointing but not surprising. As saints fans we've been used to this type of kicking the big boys then messing up against the others. My main concern is with the new additions will this provide Ralph with more choices and flexibility in selections or will it result in more odd head scratching selection just as he seems to have settled on a formation at the back and intuitive selections and subs? Time will tell. We know where we are as a club so the results are going to come from decent coaching and management rather than spending silly money - let's hope we match on. COYR

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Boris1977 added 09:35 - Sep 5 March On
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Block8 added 10:43 - Sep 5 We had some bad luck on Saturday in reality, yes he did miss hit it & yes it was harder for Che to cock it up than score it! However we again showed that tendency to leave our flanks unprotected whilst all charging up field, something we didn't do against Chelsea. There is the makings of a decent team here, still a couple of obvious weaknesses when not at full strength but decent none the less. Full week off to recuperate and go again, Brentford are another that are quick in transition so we need to work on plugging the gaps. COYR

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davidargyll added 10:50 - Sep 5 Good report. Wolves for quite a while have been a tricky team to play against, as shown by overall last season conceding the 5th least number of goals. And Saturday showed why they are so good at it. Ok so Che’s bad luck had something to do with it but their game plan of not often allowing us to get in behind them was pretty well executed. Individually, I know there has been comment about Stuart A not being brought on earlier (or even starting). But am I alone in thinking that he doesn’t (yet) seem to have got back his (pre-injury) zip from early last season? Hopefully that’s only a matter of time. Secondly, sacrilegious to say this I know but the other player who also seems to me to be a bit off the pace is JWP, a couple of slack passes and a marked lack of killer dead-ball crosses were pretty uncharacteristic (I hope), or am I being overly harsh…? Finally, last season my bete noirs were Messrs Salisu and Djneppo. But, to mix metaphors, those two ugly ducklings have grown into really tough, fighting swans. But now their unenviable position has been taken up by Ibrahimo Diallo - or Jello as they insisted on calling him on the tv feed I was watching. On Saturday’s performance “rabbit” and “headlights” to describe his performance would be putting it politely; Jello by name he may be, let’s hope it’s not Jello by nature … So no real complaints about the result because (a) it was the third game for most of the team in a week, and (b) over the last couple of years, we’ve played worse and at least drawn. And generally Saturday saw a team performance we can be proud of. Plus there was the added bonus of being able to see, however briefly, our newest recruits and they do look good: AM-S certainly stopped us conceding a goal with almost his first touch and Samuel Edozie’s silky feet were a joy to behold.

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dirk_doone added 11:24 - Sep 5 That was Wolves' first league win in THIRTEEN games. The last one was five months ago. If we'd had a decent finisher up front, we should have beaten a team like that. The summer transfer window was generally good but we still haven't got a goal scorer to replace Ings and until we do we can expect a lot more 'Southampton nil' results.
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halftimeorange added 11:37 - Sep 5 We should've had a draw. There were some good things from the new boys. We knew that Che, whilst being the hardest worker, isn't consistent in scoring goals. Despite a few idiosyncrasies on Saturday, Gavin Bazunu is the best GK prospect we've had since Antti Niemi. Mara needs more game time. It's work in progress. Which way it goes remains to be seen but, it's a lot more positive than three months ago.

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felly1 added 11:59 - Sep 5 A fairly dull game which was decided by small margins. Unfortunately as seems to be the case when we play this lot, the margins always fall in their favour. Should have been a draw.
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wibbersda added 12:01 - Sep 5 Now 2 games we should not have lost. I hope it's not a trend. In both games, we conceded in KWP territory. I think he needs to limit his bursts forward as he is leaving too much space.
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JoeEgg added 12:28 - Sep 5 "Some Saints fans have been complaining about the team selection, truth is that this was with the exception of the injured Lavia, the team that beat Chelsea, it deserved the chance to go and beat Wolves" Bu Ralph didn't ask this eleven to play the same way as they played against Chelsea and in any case you cant compare Wolves with Chelsea! We failed to take the iniative and instead of frightening Wolves the way we took on Chelsea we allowed them to gain in confidence - one Saints shot on target in 60 minutes - come on. You have a manager to assess the opposition and pick a team to play accordingly. Ralph doens't seem even after three years to be able to do this.

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DellBoyWally added 13:49 - Sep 5 I notice Joe Egg turns up when we lose!! Just to blame Ralph!! He wanted the Bournemouth reject as manager. He spends multi-trillions of £££s, has an easier start to the season and are ahead of us only on goal difference!! We played a bit flat, MoE contributed very little and I was disappointed in Diallo - been hoping for more from him. An (expensive?) instictive striker would be nearing double figures already. We'd have taken points against MU and WW, possibly wins. (6 points; at least 5th place) That was the biggest hole in our summer dealings. Besides that I'm ok with the squad - and selections!!

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IanRC added 15:12 - Sep 5 Will be disappointed if Moi starts given his recent performances. Really think we should have won that with a bit more attacking intent. Still bring on Brentford.
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underweststand added 15:37 - Sep 5 The sort of mediocre game that we should learn from. We're very predictable with just Adams alone up front, and although he fought like a terrier, he was often outnumbered by 2-3 defenders. His disallowed "handball " goal was either unlucky?... or just plain careless -depending on your view of him as a striker. Not many stand-out performers to brag about, and Wolves were little better. Late subs. apps. from Maitland-Niles and young Edozie did little to improve the side so late on in the game. My one regret from an impressive transfer window was our inability to find a good striker with a goalscoring record. Bad luck for Wolves with new signing Sasa Kalajdzic getting an ACL injury just before half time, but as Saints had been linked with him a lot during the summer, perhaps it was some sort of blessing that we hadn't signed him instead.

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Colburn added 16:13 - Sep 5 Again, I don't blame the players. Ralph said afterwards we looked a little burnt out from a heavy week, yet he made one change. Elyonoussi was ineffective after putting in an amazing shift and performance against Chelsea. Stu Armstrong should have played from the start and he made a positive impact when he came on, being fresh. So a game we could have won and should have drawn passes us by again from Ralph burning players out and not trusting the squad depth. Mara again didn't get enough time on the pitch to find his feet. Same story as last year, Ralph only seems to care about the results against the big 6.

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saintmark1976 added 17:14 - Sep 5 DellBoyWally, your comment regarding Joe Egg does you no credit Sir. This site has always tolerated the views of others whether Saints win lose or draw, let’s keep it that way please. In respect of the game it was a result I fully expected. If there’s a team who haven’t won a match for a hundred years or a player who hasn’t scored a goal for a decade, they can count on us to oblige. It’s been like that all of the time I have been a supporter, a journey that began in 1959.

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felly1 added 17:54 - Sep 5 SaintMark1976, Agree with your comment about being respectful of other views, it's just a shame that there's a group of regular posters to this site that never seem to want to post anything positive and seem to disappear after a win, and then magically reappear once we've lost.
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saintmark1976 added 18:42 - Sep 5 felly1, thanks for your support of my post, as you say, let’s keep it respectful whether we are “happy clappers”or “we are doomed” merchants. For what it is worth, perhaps we don’t hear much from the latter category ( of which I tend to be one) when we win, simply because we don’t win very often ? Anyhow, going forward Ralph has now got the investment he previously craved together with a new coaching team. Let’s see what usage he makes of the new situation because as has been said many times before it’s a results driven business

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SanMarco added 18:51 - Sep 5 Yes - should have had a draw from that one, just like the Manure. As nearly all fans are saying the missing piece of the jigsaw in the transfer window was a goal scorer. Che does many good things but he isn't going to score loads of goals. I believe that in his pomp Ings would have scored in at least one of the Manure and Wolves games and rescued at least a point. Having said that I am cautiously optimistic that the new players will help us at least hold our own.

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Block8 added 10:33 - Sep 6 Is everyone forgetting we have Mara? Let him settle in then we may just find that we do have a goal scorer!
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