Southampton v Rovers - Match Report

We didn't offer any real attacking penetration in the first half, apart from one shot by Jon Stead that was saved. Although our passing was neat and tidy at times, there was no zip, no fizz and very few incisive moves. There was a chronic lack of width in the first half which meant we were unable to get round the back of the Saints defence to cause them real problems. We had no penetration whatsoever on our left-hand side. And there were only one or two sporadic moments of good attacking play down our right flank. For Phillips' first goal, our defence went to sleep. It was also poor play in midfield to allow the ball to be played into our box in the first place. I thought the point of having Flitcroft and Matteo in midifeld was that we would be solid and difficult to break down. That was not the case yesterday. Emerton is clearly not a right-back. (Mind you, is he actually much better going forward?) After the break we initially looked a bit more lively after a welcome change in personel. Ferguson did well to get forward into the box and score a well-taken goal. 15 minutes later, Emerton (surprisingly) actually got to the byline for a change and put a dangerous cross in. The diminutive Dickov was on the receiving end, and smashed the ball into the back of the net. The 3 points were there for the taking at St Mary's, but due to a combination of Mr D'Urso's performance and our own inadequacies, we failed in the task. From a position of being 2-1 ahead against what looked like a rather average/mediocre Saints side, we certainly shouldn't have lost the game. But instead of putting the Southampton on the back foot, attacking them down the flanks and trying to get a 3rd goal, we sat back too much and invited pressure. Friedel couldn't have done much about Anders Svensson's powerful strike into the far corner of the net, but our defence should certainly have cleared our lines better and not allowed the ball to be crossed into the box from the Saints right-hand side It looked like being a 2-2 draw - two points lost, but not a complete disaster to draw away from home. That was up until Mr D'Arseh*le decided to create a few headlines and get himself into the back pages. Match report written by Anti Euro Smiths Fan

Southampton: Niemi, Telfer, Lundekvam, Higginbotham, Le Saux, Fernandes, Delap, Prutton, Anders Svensson, Beattie, Phillips. Subs Not Used: Crouch, Cranie, Best, Van Damme, Smith. Goals: Phillips 32, Anders Svensson 74, Beattie 90 pen. Blackburn: Friedel, Emerton, Short, Johansson, Gray (Gresko 89), Flitcroft (Neill 45), Ferguson, Tugay, Matteo, Yorke (Dickov 45), Stead. Subs Not Used: Enckelman, De Pedro. Booked: Dickov, Ferguson, Johansson. Goals: Ferguson 50, Dickov 68. Att: 27,492. Ref: A D'Urso (Essex).

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