Report
IBO Reporter: channonite
|It’s fair to say that I was nervous about this match, with a 29-year-old keeper making his Premier League debut and to begin with, it looked as though his teammates in front of him had the same thought, as it was one clanger after another.
The first notable one was when a long raking pass from Brighton’s defence eluded Sugawara, and before you could blink, Mitoma had the ball and was through on goal with only the rookie keeper to beat. Fortunately, the nippy Japanese put the ball wide, partly through Lumley rushing across goal narrowing the angle.
Lumley continued to be kept busy, and next to threaten the goal was Rutter, who ran across the area and sent a left-footed shot just wide of the near post.
That warning was not heeded, and a short time later, Rutter’s next shot actually hit the far post, with Lumley well beaten. A big let-off.
It was one chance after another for Brighton, and next up was a header from Welbeck, which only just looped over the bar. It just felt that a goal was coming. The law of averages suggested that sooner, or later Brighton would make one of these count.
Which is what happened. It turned out to be a really simple goal when a long raking pass from Lamptey found Mitoma, who had got goalside of his compatriot, Sugawara, and headed in, giving Lumley no chance. ⚽️ 1-0, and not quite half an hour gone.
Having gone a goal down, Saints then seemed to settle and played some quick, sharp football, which almost led to an equaliser when an excellent, accurate cross from Sugawara found Archer right in front of the goal. Instead of an easy tap-in, he somehow managed to screw it wide of the near post. It just looked like a lack of confidence.
That was the sum total of the action in the first half, which some fans have characterised as Saints being “rubbish”, which I don’t actually agree with. There were a couple of individual mistakes from Sugawara, one of which led to the goal, but they were put under a lot of pressure from a very skilful and confident side who are riding high in the Premier League at the moment.
The worry for the second half was that Downes had been booked early on for a fairly “robust” challenge, and the Brighton manager Fabian Hürzeler was waving imaginary yellow cards in Downes’ direction every time he challenged for the ball. You worried that at some point in the second half, the referee might fall for this. Downes will miss the Chelsea game next week, as it was his fifth booking of the season. Still, Saints had got to the break only having conceded the one goal, so there was all to play for in the second half.
Not long after the start of the second half, Harwood-Bellis got booked for a silly challenge on Mitoma when he just stepped, shoulder-first, in front of the Brighton player, and that means that he will also miss the Chelsea game, as it was his fifth booking of the season.
One of the noticeable things as time ticked by was how confident and assured Lumley looked. Not what I was expecting at all. This in turn seemed to settle the defenders and when O’Riley brought the ball down for a shot at goal, he was quickly closed down, so much so that when he did get a shot away, Lumley was ready and easily caught it.