Things finally starting to look up!

September 28^th 2010

I missed the last away game at Sheffield Wednesday which we won due to work. Strange fact – Both away games I have missed have resulted in two victories. Coincidence?

Another away day at one of my most memorable matches from last season. Saints making the short trip into Somerset to face Yeovil. The journey to Yeovil is a short but slow one. The whole trip involves A roads and the slowest getaway from a ground possible! My brother and I headed off early to pick up a few of the lads and head to the game. We arrived at a decent hour and found some free parking just outside the ground. The stewards at Yeovil were very helpful and even directed us to the nearest social club for a quick drink before kickoff. Yeovil is a terraced stand and we got into the ground early to gain a good vantage point. Watching the players warming up we even indulged in a bit of Alan Partridge style chanting to our left back “DAN”!!

The game started at a mediocre pace and Saints settled well. The highlight of the first half was the thunderous effort from Rickie Lambert which crashed into the underside of the bar and looked to have crossed the line, but alas the Lino didn’t agree! Yeovil then decided to go against the spirit of the game and their number 7 (Williams) dived in the box at the away end and was rightly told to get up by the ref. You can imagine the abuse we dished out! We tried hard during the remainder of the half but lacked the cutting edge.

Second half started with a Saints Sub. Our Brazilian Samba Superstar Guly coming on to replace the young starlet Chamberlain. The rain started falling at a horrendous rate and as the Saints faithful were all getting soaked and miserable, Guly brightened our evening with a crisp finish into the bottom corner. 1-0 to the saints and all of us were getting ready to start a conga! Just as is typical with Saints we then gave away a soft penalty which was converted. We pressed for a second goal as the rain eased and seemed to be getting on top. Our midfield again disappointed me by looking for the Hollywood pass when a shot from 20 yards was on. We resorted to knocking the ball long in an effort to grab the winner. In the fourth minute of added on time, Guly again had a snap shot from inside the box, this effort cannoning off the inside of the post and Saints had to settle for a point.

Andy, Jamie & Vish enjoying some pre match banter at Yeovil!

October 3^rd 2010

This time the Saints had a home game against Bournemouth. Now the press and some supporters seemed to think of this match as a local derby, but come on! Bournemouth are nothing but a lower league team who we will finish above at the end of the season. Our real Rivals are the fishy mob from Portsmouth. Now playing them would be a proper derby. It did make me laugh when I heard the game had been dubbed “the new forest derby” by local press!

Bournemouth travelled to St Marys in numbers and sold their full allocation of tickets. This also included the mouthy chairman they have Eddie Mitchell. The former chairman of lowly Dorchester Town was claiming to have been banned from attending the game by Nicola Cortese due to Mitchell publicly stating that Cherries boss Eddie Howe had turned down the manager’s position at Saints. These ludicrous claims were denied by Saints and Mitchell was told he could attend once he’d paid off his bar bill from the previous month’s meeting in the league cup. Mitchell ended up paying for a corporate box for himself and family.

The atmosphere was good as Bournemouth started brightly in what seemed to be the biggest game in their history! The one and only effort which was on target from the Dorset club was after 45 seconds as they hit the post. The ball bounced away from danger and I don’t think Kelvin Davies had much to do after that. Saints went up the other end and almost scored as Bernie was denied by a decent save from the opposition keeper. We slowly took control of the game, listening to Nigel Adkins’s instructions and passing the ball around. Morgan and Deano in midfield having their best games for a while. We took the lead in the 19^th minute when Lambert was challenged in the box and the cherries player handled the ball. Up stepped our Goal Machine to smash the ball high into the roof of the net. From that moment on we never really looked in trouble. Even Jason Puncheon was having a good game even if it was for his tackling rather than dribbling!

Second half started with Saints knocking the ball around. 10 minutes into the second half the ref had no choice but to award another penalty as Saints caused chaos in the box and Puncheon was crudely bought down. Up stepped Rickie Lambert again and buried the ball into the net at the northam end. 2-0 and things looked rosy! We saw out the game with some good passing and some determined challenges. Bournemouth full back Smith was dismissed for two yellow cards and Saints sent on the returning Richard Chaplow to beef up the midfield. Richard left his mark on the match with a crunching challenge which earned him a booking on the Bournemouth skipper.

All in all, a good game, it obviously meant more to the opposition fans who decided to attempt to invade the Northam end and actually ended up injuring a steward. Bournemouth has a reputation as being a retirement town for the older generations, but it seemed that all the scag heads from Boscombe had decided to make the short trip into Hampshire, probably hoping to score some more Crack!

A fitting and well deserved result, Eddie Mitchell the Bournemouth chairman might need to have a look at himself following this game. A Chairman is a pivotal figure in any football club and should act accordingly. Giving the “V” sign to opposition fans and then signalling that Saints would be going down is not the way to behave! Bournemouth again lost their cup final 2-0 and hopefully will realise their place in local football hierarchy.  

A big thank you to all those that have been able to read this and if you have any comments, good or bad please get in touch.

All the best

Neel