Well it was a better performance and scoreline than the same fixture 6 months ago, but ultimately the result was the same and Saints will really consider this a game that they really should have got something out of.

The evening started with a period of silence in respect of the Queen, a silence observed impeccably by both sets of supporters, pleasing to see after some issues at other games.

If ever there was a game where the phrase deja vu could be used, then it was this one, in one respect it was good that it wasn't deja vu for the corresponding fixture at Villa Park last season, but sadly it was a performance that was very similar to our last time out, the 1-0 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers, were we also looked comfortable for much of the game, but ultimately lost it for a lack of concentration just before half time.

It was a game of few chances, there were actually only 4 shots on target between the two sides, 2 of Villa's 3 came just before the break when Gavin Bazunu had to make a smart save, but in the subsequent scramble Villa got a foot in first and fired home from close range, in truth this was the only real time either side looked like scoring.

These are situations were quick reactions are needed, we were caught sleeping as Villa were more alert to the ball than we were.

In truth Saints never really got going, they seemed to win the first ball ok, but Villa constantly won the second, meaning we made it hard for ourselves in then having to win it back, we never seemed to be able to get the ball down at our feet and have a run at the Villa defence.

Ralph's game plan seemed to be keep it tight first half and then look to get a grip of the game and press forward in the second, that was going all to plan until Villa scored and that meant we were going to have to play catch up.

The first change was at the break when Juan Larios came on for his debut in place of Romain Perraud, clearly more of an attacking full back than the Frenchman, also on for Ibrahima Diallo was Joe Aribo, Ralph had changed the emphasis from defence to attack.

To be honest not much changed, we didn't lose anything defensively, I don't think Bazunu had a shot on target to save second half, but then again neither did we create anything either, Villa had their goal and were content to hold what they had and although they looked ok on the break, they rarely looked like they would add to the total.

With 20 minutes to go Stuart Armstrong was on for his namesake Adam, and also Sekou Mara on for Che Adams, but again little changed, the last throw of the dice was with 11 minutes to go when Samuel Edozie came on for Elyounousi, in truth this was a change that should have been made a lot earlier, Elyounoussi was never in the game and his replacement had barely a chance to shine as the home side got behind the ball and gave us nothing.

This was perhaps a small criticism that could be levelled at Ralph Hasenhuttl, did he show Villa too much respect, certainly he left Elyounoussi on a lot longer than he should have been and Sam Edozie on the bench for far too long, he is aware that this is a side that needs to be allowed to nurture, that it needs to be reined in sometimes to avoid mistakes as we did last season, piling forward and getting caught on the break, but sometimes you have to allow them off the leash.

So the end result was another 1-0 defeat and disappointment as this was a game that although we didn't deserve to win it anymore than Villa did, we certainly didn't deserve to lose it either.

The good news is that defensively we seem to have sorted things out, our last three fixtures have seen only 3 goals conceded, if we compare the same three games last season, all played in the second half of that season, we conceded 13 goals and scored just one without taking a single point.

So from this perspective there is visible improvement, just the 3 goals against and 2 for with 3 points on the board.

Perhaps the best moment of the night for the travelling Saints supporters was sadly not from their own team, but from one who was formerly one of our own, Danny Ings introduction on 84 minutes was perhaps an indication of just how downhill his career has gone since leaving St Mary's just 13 months ago.

When he left for his "Project" that would have included being in the England squad for the World Cup in Quatar, now that dream has long gone, he is reduced to a bit part at Villa, a late sub to run the game down.

How different that could have been, if he had stayed at Saints then things could have been a lot different, not just for Ings himself but for Saints.

I didn't join in the abusive anti Ings chant, that quite a few did, but I did cheer enthusiastically in the final minutes when with Saints attacking and Gavin Bazunu up in the Villa box, the ball was cleared to Ings, with an open goal, albeit from distance, he blazed his shot far and wide, sadly the biggest cheer that Saints fans would get to give on the night.

So that is something to not only build on, but to do so with optimism, this is now a young side, but it needs to gel and a lot of the players in it are still learning, but they will only get better with experience and that will bode well.

So disappointment at Villa Park, but there are the shoots of recovery sprouting, we just need to now turn those shoots into draws and wins and from this perspective the Everton game in two weeks time is a big big game.

Photo: Action Images

SAINTSNIL added 10:01 - Sep 18 Good report from the official Southampton FC reporter......
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darthvader added 10:06 - Sep 18 Woefully poor in many departments. Hopefully Lavia will be back soon we really miss him Che needs to practice his jumping, too often his timing is way off. Their goalscorer was in an offside position when the ball was headed foward so a second or so later he scores? We were bad but it doesn't help when the opposition foul at every opportunity and the ref let's them get away with it most of the time. Also frustrating when we can play so well against a Chelsea side full of talent, and then so shiite against a poor villa side. Larios looked good going foward but is very slight and easily knocked off the ball. Let's hope we can get back to winning ways in the next game

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HythePeer added 11:00 - Sep 18 I was quite excited about this season having seen some of the early performances of the new players but alas, they are slowly being Hasntaclued.
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saintmark1976 added 11:02 - Sep 18 A fella summed it up brilliantly when posting on another site, I think it was the Southampton Echo. I make no apology for some plagiarism. His point was that you could give Ralph the current Man City squad in its entirety. Within a week he will have played most of them out of position, confused them all with his unfathomable tactics and turned them into a team which would be lucky to avoid relegation. Please Sports Republic, make it end by sending him back to Austria.

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felly1 added 11:03 - Sep 18 Absolutely dire game. Feel sorry for the travelling fans who gave up their money and time to watch that. Worrying signs of a side losing their confidence and we failed to pass and move and create at all. Hope I'm wrong but I can see a long hard season and at best we'll just about have enough to stay up.
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JoeEgg added 11:19 - Sep 18 Another Ralph masterclass in mismanagement! And as for the claim that the team are 'playing' for their manager- what a joke! A dreadful, dreadful game.- two very very poor sides. Apparently we learned nothing from the Wolves game and our players were just pathetic showing neither energy nor enterprise. But how could they? Once again Ralph picked a side where most of our players had little idea of what they were supposed to be doing.. The manager is I'm afraid clueless.The buck stops with Ralph. One shot on target Come on - we are better than that. Elyanoussi who seems to be the first name on Ralph's team sheet was a total embarrassment. The attacking midfield of Elyanoussi; Djneppo and Adam Armstrong when announced must have frightened the living daylights out of the opposition! There are some promising players in our squad who will no doubt win us a few more points and may even win us a coveted 15th position by the end of the season, but more than that is highly unlikely under current management. A two week break - time for the new owners to act..- what an opportunity............... some chance!

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davidargyll added 11:25 - Sep 18 Hmmm. Well, if the TV presentation was anything to go by, rose-tinted glasses come to mind with your description of this performance, as I reckon dire would be a more accurate take on it; but then we are an average PL team and that by definition is how average teams perform from time to time, ie sometimes good, sometimes the direct opposite. And poor though we were, to me it was more an example of how age, guile and toughness will always beat youth, skill and exuberance. And there were a couple of distinct early signals: The first was JWP, interviewed on Sky before the game, when he talked about what a breath of fresh air the youngsters had brought to the squad. BUT HE SAID IT IN A REALLY UNCONVINCING TONE THAT SUGGESTED HE DIDN’T BELIEVE IT ONE JOT. In other words are the senior members of the squad finding life with the kids tricky to adapt to? Is there maybe a grain of truth in the “unhappy dressing room” rumour? And secondly, almost immediately after the off, John McGinn unceremoniously bundled and bullied KWP off the ball. “Welcome to the big boys club” he was saying. Stevie G is arguably fighting for his job, and his boys - bar Coutinho - are not prize winners on the skills front, so I’ll bet his message to his team in the dressing room was “Go out and show this bunch of kids who’s really the boss.” Which is exactly what they did. They played the game with a determination to win, whereas we didn’t. Result? They were Peaky Blinders, we were omnishambles. I’m not going to talk about individuals - the whole team simply wasn’t up to the challenge - and, yes, it was only one game where arguably the three points were more important to Villa than us. But, the lesson must surely be “TOUGHEN UP” or this won’t be the last time we get beaten by a more streetwise opposition.

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zonehead added 11:37 - Sep 18 That was a dire performance, Villa were bad, and somehow we were worse. No shots no chances created, Djenepo has no end product and disrupts the team a bit like Carlton Palmer used to, headless chicken ends up on the ball far too much.
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kingolaf added 11:40 - Sep 18 Yet another ‘Comical Ali’ like verdict. Just as I expected.
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ElSanto added 12:03 - Sep 18 I don’t know enough about football tactics to know whether our lack of any good football was due to Villa or us. But we looked void of any tactics, any confidence to go forward quickly, or even a midfield, full stop. Something was very wrong in the formation and tactics. Ruben Selles now shares half of that responsibility. Elyounoussi, i feel, is a player suited for the top 6 games where we need to defend and be tight - the way Ralph plays him doesn’t work against the rest of the league. Sadly, it doesn’t look like Diallo is up to the standard against talented premier league teams when it comes to controlling a midfield and not just defending. The team has potential, but this match was very poor. We need to cut out these type of games if we are to progress. They happen too often.

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AndyD added 12:21 - Sep 18 Only the 2nd time I have been to Villa Park - first time over 40 + years ago. Really impressive ground, reminded me of Peaky Blinders, once in the ground much more modern & good views & atmosphere. I was lucky enough to be invited as guest & looked after by some ex Villa players who had some great memories of playing at the Dell & the time Chris Nichol thumped Mark Dennis! As for the football - well the less said about that the better!

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IanRC added 12:52 - Sep 18 Abysmal performance as a result of shocking selection and tactic choices. El Younousi has been very poor for most games this season and waiting till the 40th minute to substitute him was pathetic. Similarly a tactic of long balls up to Che when Mings and their other CB were clearly winning everything in the air. Admittedly the team was not helped by a referee who allowed McGinn to kick everyone with impunity and who failed to punish Bailey for a dreadful challenge that would have seen a Saints player sent off (think Bertrand v Leicester). Would have liked to see a Saints player execute a McGinn challenge on Coutinhio. Another three points thrown away, I have supported RH so far but I am really beginning to wonder particularly after he blamed the players ignoring his own poor choices. At least BK came across at the end to thank the short changed fans, others did not ….

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Block8 added 12:52 - Sep 18 We have some good attacking talent, without perhaps the most important of all a finisher. However we are constantly risk averse in our method of play when we have chances to go forward, we constantly passed backwards and then thumped it upfield towards Che Adams who was outmanned by two very good CB's.? JWP is probably the worst culprit but in his defence without Lavia we have no true defensive midfielder in the squad, JWP is more comfortable with a more free role and he certainly has the stamina. Villa compressed the midfield and also squeezed up on our FB's and we had no true width within our system and couldn't play out of defence. We have some very good wide players in this squad but prefer to play two number 10's to allow the FB's to push up wide, what we don't have is a plan if this doesn't work. It was obvious after less than 30 minutes that changes were needed, if not in personnel then definitely in shape and system of play. Che needed help, JWP needed help and the back four needed help in the shape of an out ball. I'm sorry to harp on but Diallo and Djenepo are not up to this level of football and if you sign attacking players then why oh why don't you give them a chance to shine? We have just lost two games, without genuinely trying to win themand these are games we really need to go for. Here's hoping when Lavia is back & Maitland Niles learns how to play football we will!

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I_would added 12:56 - Sep 18 More rosy bias from Saints Media Director Nick, and more idiocy from Coco The Kraut!
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claus5 added 13:15 - Sep 18 Why whenever we lose is it always the "ref let them get away with tackles" brigade come out in force? You have to fight fire with fire, not every tackle is a foul worthy of a card. That is what makes football exciting, dig in,toughen up a bit!!!!
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highfield49 added 13:27 - Sep 18 Agreed there were lots of areas where we could have performed better but for me the crucial factor, again, was the lack of any attacking threat. No lack of effort from Armstrong and Adams but they are too easily contained and not particularly good goal poachers either. Time to give Aribo and Mara more game time and find out if they are better finishers and less predictable than the current first choices.

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cocklebreath added 13:37 - Sep 18 Better performance? Fook off Nick it was pathetic
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Southamptonfan added 16:36 - Sep 18 Terrible performance, terrible report full of excuses, and ofcourse the minute silence was respected. We arn't from f@cking Merseyside are we.
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AmericanSaint added 16:46 - Sep 18 Sorry Nick, but this is an awful summary and not sure what game you watched. We were horrible and so were Villa. VAR got the goal wrong, the ref was horrendous and we couldn't string two passes together. Only two players that should any decency was KWP and RP, our wingbacks. MO should not have started and I think Diallo should have been off after the 1st half. Djnepo had a decent 1st half, but 10 minutes in the second disappeared and should have been replaced with Naitland-Miles. JWP reverted to his old backward passing self and NOBODY was moving off the ball. Literally, nobody. How many times were our CBs looking for a pass and had to heave it up front? I re-watched the game and so many times the middle of the pitch was open for a quick one-two and yet none of our players thought of being there. yes, RH deserves 50% of the blame on this one but the players deserve the other 50%. They all looked like lost schoolboys on the pitch. UGH, this was a travesty on all fronts and all the travelling away supports should get a refund. Ok, so our next game is in 2 weeks so lets see what happens. One thing that will push me over the line to the rid-of RH side will be if ME starts. He has been poor the last 3 games and if RH can't see that, then he is either blind or there is something going on in the background that we are not aware of. keeping the faith but losing the patience. COYR

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Farlow added 17:15 - Sep 18 The reason JWP is struggling is because he needs a strong midfield partner and that aint Diallo I hope our generosity in letting Romeu go does not cost us big time.
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SWH1748 added 17:28 - Sep 18 Sorry Nick, not read any reply’s or post the start was enough. It was not a better performance than last season. Last season we tried, this time we did not even try. Worst effort I have watched probably ever by our players. They need to repay the travelling fans. A Total Disgrace.
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SWH1748 added 17:29 - Sep 18 Darthvader yes he was but Salisu trying to head clear played him onside 🤷‍♂️
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SWH1748 added 17:43 - Sep 18 American Saint how can Maitland Niles replace anyone when not on the bench 🤷‍♂️
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HoustonSaint added 18:58 - Sep 18 How many times is Ralph going to pair A Armstrong with Che & get nothing from it. Elyounoussi is not premier league starter talent level. We sign 10 new players & then trot out the same group in the attacking half that failed a year ago & that is baffling. The defense does appear to be more stable now & that thankfully is a big step in the right direction.
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SanMarco added 19:47 - Sep 18 Another 0-0 that we managed to lose. Against teams who defend reasonably well we seem to score 0. Not the end of the world away from home if we also concede 0 sometimes. Ralph seems to be leaving players out due to the 'system'. I watched the whole 90 mins and can't say I saw anything remotely systematic. Just a bunch of people who didn't seem to know each other. This youngster approach we have relies on a core of experienced professionals to help it bed in. JWP is a shadow, Elyounoussi a waste of space, Stuey isn't starting and Romeu has gone. My optimism has nearly gone and another 0-1 vs Everton in a couple of weeks and my glass will firmly be returned to 'half-empty'. Even if you assume that B'mouth and Forest will probably go there is no obvious favourite for the third down. It could easily be us if we don't start scoring more regularly.

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