Saints V Tottenham Hotspur The Verdict Sunday, 10th Mar 2019 11:13 At 4pm there was an air of despondency around St Mary's less than an hour later and there was an outbreak of optimism and happiness after a game of two halves and a referee. Let's start with the negatives, Saints were defensively awful in the first half, early on Harry Kane pulled off Yoshida and left him floundering and volleyed wide, the danger signs were there but we ignored them, the back three just couldn't seem to mark their players and kept getting left for dead. That was best illustrated on the Spurs goal when Vestergaard appeared to be completely aware of Harry Kane and we left him completely unmarked for an easy goal. This highlighted the need for a leader in the back four, but despite the fact that we were all at see, we hung on in there desperately and got into the break with only that soft goal separating the sides. Two changes at half time swung the game, Saints came out with Long & Josh Sims offering the pace to take the game to Spurs and unhinge them, however we still had to defend and put ourselves into the position to win the game. With 15 minutes to go though it looked like Saints might be frustrated, we had missed a couple of chances and it seemed that referee Kevin Friend was doing everything bar putting in a couple of tackles himself to ensure Spurs won the game. But then came the ending to a game that we have waited all season for, a Saints comeback to win a game, it was a calamitous goal from a Spurs perspective, two defenders attempted to clear but didn't, a third strangely opted to step over it not realising that Yan Vallery was behind him, the Saints man scuffed his shot that confused Lloris and we were on equal terms. Referee Kevin was no Friend of Saints, when Josh Sims was kicked in the head just inside the penalty area it was obvious to everyone in the ground that it should be a penalty, it wasn't a hard decision in that you can't raise your foot that high it is dangerous play, it should have been simple for Kevin Friend if he knew the rules. It appears he didn't and more to that pint he was making them up as he went along, twice the ball was put out for a throw in and twice Friend restarted the game with a drop ball not a throw in, this was somewhat bizarre. Saints winner came in equally bizarre circumstances, the cross for Stuart Armstrong was inch perfect, he was completely through on goal when he was fouled, Kevin Friend didn't disagree with that, but there was no red card, it was a goal scoring opportunity just as much as if it was a through ball rather than a cross, yet the official could not fatho that. But cue James Ward Prowse who is suddenly showing the promise that he always had but could never quite bring to the fore and he repeated his free kick from a week earlier at Old Trafford to give Saints the lead. There was now only 9 minutes to see out the game and the crowd were up for it and so was the team, but the feeling was the ref might have the biggest say, you felt that not only would he give Spurs a penalty but he would take it himself such was his inept display. But Saints were not going to give it away and they never really looked like letting in yet another late late goal, there was however one more bit of drama left when Sissoko raked his studs down the back of Nathan Redmond's calf that provoked a spate of handbags at dawn, Redmond did little wrong even when the Spurs man thrust his forehead into Redmond's face only right in front of the referee, red card surely but it was just a yellow card for both. Saints fans prepared for a lengthy period of extra time, this skirmish took 2 minutes to settle , add four substitutions and a couple of lengthy stoppages for injuries to Shane Long and you could reasonably have expected 6 minutes of injury time possibly 7, yet the clueless ref for the only time in the game gave something to Saints, perhaps he meant to give 14 minutes, but it was only 4. This was the a game no one expected Saints to win, Cardiff must have thought they were guaranteed to pull out of the relegation zone when they beat West Ham, but this result must have deflated them big time. It was a game that highlighted the fact that we are weak at the back and still need a striker, but it also highlighted the spirit that Ralph Hasenhuttl has injected in this team, sadly we are always going to ship goals at the back, ultimately there is a weakness there, but there are games we can get away with it and this was one of them. It also highlighted that we are not far off being a good side under the Austrian manager, we survive this season and there is a bright future, a couple of decent signings and we can compete again. But in the meantime we have taken a big step towards safety, we have shown that we can beat the big sides and we look very different from the team of a year ago or even four months ago. It is hard to pick a man of the match, James Ward Prowse is an obvious choice, but everyone played there part and that is the great thing whatever our shortcomings we are a team again, we play for each other and have spirit and that will cound a lot in the final 8 games of the season. Outside St Mary's it was an outbreak of happiness and more to the point optimism, for those who were at the game the faith is returning, the hope is back, this needs to continue, we have three weeks to get everyone fit including Danny Ings and Shane Long who contributed greatly to helping swing the game in our favour before he went off. The season is starting to swing in Saints favour, we are good enough to pull clear of the dropzone, we just need more of the support that emerged in the second half at St Mary's on Saturday, it was great to see the ground rocking again. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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