Southampton V Walsall The Verdict Sunday, 7th Jan 2024 09:31 A break from the relentless pursuit of promotion for Russell Martin's Saints and the managed rung the changes with only 2 remaining from the starting line up on New Years day at Norwich. Russell Martin made multiple changes and the starting line up against Walsall revealed a mix of those who have played a big part in the promotion push, fringe players and some youngsters, it was not a line up that it had been hard to predict. The two youngsters coming in to the starting line up were Jayden Meghoma and Sam Amo Ameyaw, both of who had played for the first team earlier in the season, so the only debutant on show at kick off was goalkeeper Joe Lumley who couldn't be described as a youngster turning 29 in a few weeks and with over 200 League games to his name.
So although it could be described as a reserve side in many ways with the fact that only Taylor Harwood- Bellis has been a regular started this season, it was till packed with experience and with a smattering of players looking to show the manager that they are worthy of more game time in the championship. Not least Ryan Fraser and it would be the Wee Man who would dominate this game and show Russell Martin that his core fitness levels are now up to 90 minutes. Fraser would open the scoring after only 6 minutes when Harwood-Bellis played an exquisite through ball into the path of Fraser who finished with aplomb.
But if the 20,000 Saints supporters in the impressive crowd of 22,627 thought this would open the floodgates then they would be wrong, it would be the best part of an hour before that would happen and in between there would be action at both ends, with so many changes it was inevitable that a few passes would go astray and that was the case and to be honest by the time the second goal game with half an hour to go, Walsall could have sneaked an equaliser, although to be fair we had missed a few chances ourselves. But after an initial flurry after the break Saints took total command and it would be the Wee man again, this time turning creator and he crossed for Sekou Mara to control the ball, turn and smash it home high into the net leaving the keeper no chance.
Ten minutes later Fraser got his second with a smart finish into the corner after a pass from Charly Alcatraz and then with 12 minutes to go Alcatraz was again the provider as he played in Che Adams for a smart if scrappy finish. To be honest this was an emphatic victory made all the more impressive by the fact that it was achieved by so few players who would normally be in the starting line up, so what can we learn from this game. Firstly that Joe Lumley had a solid debut and looked the ideal back up for Gavin Bazunu by showing that he is quick with his feet and will fit in with the way we play, however he had little do do other than regulation saves etc, with Walsall having only 6 attempts and of those only 2 on target.
Interesting that it was Alex McCarthy on the bench, Gavin Bazunu is the undisputed number 1, but the pecking order is now clearly defined behind him. The back line saw Jayden Meghoma coming in for his second appearance for the club after his debut at the debacle at Gillingham were he was just about the only ray of light. In the main the back line did it's job, but it had a few dodgy moments mainly of it's own doing, seeing Mason Holgate play the full 90 minutes was good and hopefully he will still be here in February, he deserves to have had more game time than he has in the last couple of months. In midfield Smallbone, Charles & Alcaraz looked a good balance although in fairness all were at a higher level than their opponents with respect.
Talking of Charly Alcatraz, he had a decent game going forward and showed that he can create as well as score chances, but he didn't half give the ball away a lot, if Ryan Manning gave it away as much as Charly, then there would be much criticism. Up front Ryan Fraser showed that if he has lacked the core stamina to be able to play the full 90 minutes in a game earlier in the season due to his time in the wilderness at Newcastle, that he has now upped his fitness levels and is ready to step into the gap on the left caused by Sam Edozie's injury at Norwich. It was good to see Sekou Mara get a goal, he has come under fire in some quarters who judge him on last season, however if we judge everyone on that car crash then no one would get a second chance. Sam Amo- Ameyaw had a decent game, but he is still young and a work in progress so we should give him the time to develop. It was a surprise to see Che Adams come on, given that he might well leave in January you would have thought he would not want to be cup tied, does this suggest that he might be staying. Of the other subs, Tyler Dibling like Meghoma was making his second appearance in a Saints shirt, he too played at Gillingham, but only 5 minutes as sub, so no real time there to make an impact.
He came on in this game with 14 minutes to go and at 17 he is a talent, he showed glimpses of that against Walsall and hopefully he might well play some cameo roles this season. Cameron Bragg was making his debut and he had little time to make an impact, hopefully he like Dibling will be energised by yesterday. So some positive things to be taken from this result, but they should also be taken with caution, we were playing a Walsall side who are mid table in League Two and had the blow of losing their leading scorer Freddy Taylor who was recalled from loan by his parent club Lincoln City on Friday , given that he had scored around a third of Walsall's League goals this season, that was a big blow to their chances in this game. But if we compare this by last year's FA Cup run where we struggled to beat a poor Blackpool side in round 4 and then the debacle at home to Grimsby in round 5, then we have made great progress in a year, we are now a side that has an identity, some might not like the possession football game, but the fact is that most sides in the top two divisions play this way now, for us it is about fine tuning the strategy and this game highlighted that we have strong reserves in the squad and that has been proven by our League results in the last 5 weeks or so and will hopefully pay dividends going forward.
It was also good to see such a big crowd at St Mary's in truth there seemed to be a lot of regular fans missing and replaced by a lot of families and casual supporters, I don't have a problem with that, yes it can be annoying when they stand in gangways and block the view of the game because they don't know where they are sitting, but we want to encourage them to come to more games and build our supporter base further and games like this help create supporters from the younger generation. So a good result but we should not get carried away, the focus has to be on the League campaign and we should just see this as a bit of fun with the opportunity to give a few of the fringe players a run out. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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