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Southampton V Ipswich Town The Verdict

Well on the plus side we stopped the flow of goals into our net, but aside from this, here was a game where an Ipswich side had a game plan and stuck to it and of course there was the obligatory get caught in possession moment from Saints.

Perhaps this was always going to be a game of small steps hopefully leading to a bigger one, certainly the first 30 minutes were encouraging for Saints, firstly they didn't concede in the opening minute of the game and indeed they had the best of the opening half hour with Adam Armstrong and Che Adams both seeing good chances go just wide.

But on the half hour mark came yet another goal conceded due to being caught in possession and giving the ball away, Shea Charles the culprit on this one and within seconds the ball was played through to Hutchinson who gave Bazunu no chance.

Now the die was cast, Ipswich got two solid lines behind the ball at all times and waited for the Saints to give away the ball and attack on the break.

Here was another plus point in that we didn't get caught on the break as we have done so many times already this season, we dealt with it and tried to build up our own attacks, but we are a team lacking in confidence and although we edged the game in terms of possession, we were wary of getting caught on the counter and didn't over commit and that made it difficult to create and indeed score.

So we took a few small steps in this game, but the bigger steps were not to follow just yet.

So where did it go wrong in this game, there wasn't much argument about the starting line up, although a few eyebrows were raised about Joe Aribo, certainly when the first change was made on 56 minutes, a triple one, it seemed to make us stronger.

But there were too many players out there playing with fear, the fear of getting caught on the break was perhaps the biggest, but that wasn't the only one, the fear of giving the ball away, the fear of the crowd on the back, all of this in my opinion saw a team full of players with no confidence to play the killer ball, it was about basics and doing the basics is often not good viewing although it keeps the scoreline down.

But the main issue out there is our fear of not following instructions, we are scared of putting our foot through the ball when it is needed, we are always looking to play the pass, when we are closed down we still look to play it even when it isn't on, sometimes you just have to launch it.

Shea Charles was the man caught out this time, but a look at the video shows that although he had the ball at his feet, there was absolutely none of his team mates on for a pass, he was looking for them, but they weren't there and in that split second Ipswich pounced.

Earlier in the season we would have had players moving off the ball and demanding it, certainly Ipswich did, but that has gone out of game, the fear has kicked in, we are not flowing, our players don't want the ball, they are now more concerned about not getting caught out.

Yes Shea Charles was the man caught out, but he was given no help by his team mates.

There was a feeling of panic walking out of St Mary's after the game, the owners, the manager getting a lot of stick, but the truth is there is a long way to go in this season, we have had a lot of squad upheaval, we have to give the manager time to get things right, to be blunt he has barely had six weeks with the bulk of this squad, as August decimated the squad in the transfer window.

He has to be given the chance if only for the reason that we have no other choice.

Sport Republic have had a lot of criticism, but they have made the money available, yes they have made mistakes, the first one in my opinion was sacking Ralph Hasenhuttl, the second appointing Nathan Jones and then appointing Ruben Selles.

You have to ask whether they bowed to public opinion on all three of these decisions, that was their fourth error, they didn't back their own conviction.

Now they have to back Russell Martin and show the courage of their convictions, we lack a leader on the pitch, they have to show that hey can lead off it, certainly now we have a Director of Football in Jason Wilcox hopefully they will, one thing is for sure if we keep pressing the panic button everything goes wrong it is a recipe for disaster.

I see people commenting on line that the manager has had 7 games and that is enough to judge him, I have seen people saying that after a dozen games that will be enough, both are wrong, at present we are in the middle of a bad run, but we are still only a win away from the play off spots, this is nowhere near terminal.

It is time for cool heads, in the boardroom, in the dressing room, on the pitch and in the stands, I would add on social media as well, but that is never going to happen..

If the Southampton board had listened to the fans in 1974/75 season then our history would be much different !

I am not trying to dress this up in any way, at the end of the day it is three straight defeats and that is not good, but it is not the first time I have seen that happen at Southampton FC and I am sure that it won't be the last.

A few weeks ago there was much optimism, now that seems to have evaporated, I am not going to tell anyone what they should do, but myself I'm going to keep calm and give this manager a chance, no one said this would be easy.

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