The View From Churchmans

(FA Cup Tie)

Well, overall it was a fine performance and one we didn’t deserve to lose. I
think Southampton were better than they looked, having come to contain us
without any particularly positive ambitions, but most of our team rose to
the occasion and we had most of the better individual performances on view.
What says it all though is that despite all our possession and effort,
Richard had as many saves to make as their keeper. We don’t get many chances
to play a team that’s clearly at least as good as we are though, and it’s
only in those games where you can see what your weaknesses are. Ours were
two-fold: an absence of any real creativity down the right side, and the
inability to link the midfield to the attack. Work on those George, and
things will really be in place.

Some ratings:

Wright 7: to be fair, Richard didn’t have much to do (it seemed to be 15
minutes before he had to touch the ball) but generally he was sharp when
needed

Wilnis 6 McGreal 8 Mowbray 6 Brown 8 Clapham 8: A magnificent display by the
defence, Jamie in particular was back to his best, which was lucky as in
Ripley we faced the best winger we’ve seen all year. Unfortunately it tied
Jamie down and it was to his credit that he got forward well on several
occasions. McGreal was unspectacular but simply faultless, and for that
reason my MotM. I think Mogga was at fault for the goal, if not I’ll raise
it to a 7 (must watch the video). Fabien was pants though, often wasting
space and time which Jamie would have died for, and very shaky on the back
foot

Magilton 8 Holland 8 Stockwell 7: Jim would have been runaway MotM if he
could have kept up that performance for a second 45 minutes. But as his
influence diminished (Southampton clearly knew where they’d been losing it
and took steps), Matt came more into things. Micky looked a little unsettled
replacing Fabien at right wing-back, I don’t think he likes it there

Scowcroft 7 Johnson 8: two more terrific performances, the only downer being
that most of the guys’ best work was done way too far back – I hate to see
Johnno getting the ball 40 or more yards from goal with 5 defenders in his
way; that’s where Matt or Jim should be doing the business. If they could
only have played further up and linked a little better it’d have been 8 or 9
for both

Subs: Axeldal, Wright, Naylor: gave us the shot in the arm when needed but
all three were dreadfully wasteful of possession and even attacking chances.
It obviously wasn’t to be.