Report

IBO Reporter: channonite

|I missed the Manchester United game due to a pre-booked holiday, but there was a whole different atmosphere at St.Mary's than the first home game. There was a more upbeat feeling in the air; indeed, the Northam was way more vocal. This was my first chance to see Ramsdale in goal, and he looked a very imposing figure.

To my right in the Itchen are two retired blokes, and they have three friends sitting in the row in front. All used to sit in the area of the Kingsland, now occupied by the away fans. They are amiable enough but are firmly in the “Lump it up to the striker” camp, closely followed by “Don’t fanny around at the back”. This is repeated loudly many times each match and is beginning to get on my nerves. All five are a familiar genre: bald, very overweight, seem to wear shorts all the time, but more importantly, are always late to their seats and first to leave. We used to have a group of roofers like that who sat in front of us for years, but at least they kept their opinions to themselves. Ah, well, it takes all sorts.

So, from the start, Ipswich looked to press like mad, and we obliged, coughing up the ball time and again. One early mistake saw the legendary (in his own mind) Sammy Szmodics clean through on goal, but Hagrid was guarding Saints goal, and the Ipswich man returned to being just an average Championship forward and missed. Horribly.

Saints then gave a good impression of a Premier League team, with Fernandes, Fraser, Lallana and Archer contributing. After a bout of quick, sharp passing around the Ipswich penalty area, the ball came back to Lallana, who looked up and threaded an inch-perfect pass to Dibling, who took two steps forward, losing two markers in the process, and tucked a lovely left-footed shot, low into the right-hand bottom corner of the net. 1-0, and only five minutes gone. The cautionary words of a friend’s wife rang in the back of my head. She always says when any team scores in the first five minutes, “Too early”. She is often proven correct. It was an outstanding goal though.

Ipswich came right back at Saints, with Szmodics again giving a poor impression of a forward by heading right at Ramsdale, who dismissively caught the ball without seeming to move. It had been flagged for offside, so it wouldn’t have counted anyway.

Sugawara then did a fantastic job dispossessing two of the Ipswich forwards when they should have done so much better. It will be no surprise to learn that one of the forwards was Szmodics...

Then Dibling showed his awareness by sending a long raking pass, which landed at Archer’s feet, and he shook off the attentions of two defenders, but in rounding the keeper, it looked like he had made the angle too acute, but his shot looked good until it hit the upright and bounced out again into the grateful arms of the recovering Murić. Gut wrenchingly close.

Ramsdale then made a smart save down near his near post, pushing the shot from Davis behind for a corner following a trademark rapid counter attack from Ipswich. From the second corner in succession, the ball came out to Hutchinson, who hit a fierce shot towards the top corner, but there was that man Ramsdale again, rising to tip it over the bar.

That was the last action in an absorbing first half, but would we come to rue that missed chance from Archer?

The second half began with another missed chance. Again, it was Archer who shook off two markers but, in doing so, had lost his balance and shot straight at the keeper. This guy’s luck has to change soon.

Saints then lost possession, and Ipswich came roaring forward, but I needn’t have worried because Szmodics could only fire tamely into the side netting. The Ipswich fans thought it had gone in, which led to some light-hearted banter for a few minutes.

Saints then passed up a gilt-edged chance when Sugawara sent a superb long crossfield pass to Fernandes, who found himself alone and the keeper on the wrong side of the goal. Inexplicably, he chose to cross the ball to Archer rather than shoot. The Saints forward was further back than Fernandes, with defenders around him and the keeper in front of him. Predictably, the ball rolled harmlessly away for a throw-in to Ipswich.

Martin then made three changes, off came Lallana, Fraser and Archer, to be replaced by Ugochukwu, Stewart and Brereton Díaz.

Saints kept on the attack, with a great move from Sugawara to Fernandes, who in turn found Brereton Díaz all alone in front of goal. Unfortunately, his shot only troubled a few Saints fans towards the back of the Northam.

By this stage, Dibling was obviously tiring, and he was replaced by Adam Armstrong for the last eight minutes of normal time.

Ipswich were now throwing everything at Saints, and the home side were really under pressure. Seemingly, in an attempt to shore things up a bit, Martin replaced Fernandes with Aribo, but it didn’t seem to work.

We were now deep into time added, and could Saints hang on? I think we all know the answer.

One last corner, and it wasn’t cleared very far, falling to the Ipswich captain, Morsey a long way out. He steadied himself and unleashed a fierce drive, which sailed over the head of Ramsdale into the net. 1-1. Feck, feck, feck.

The remaining two minutes of the match were spent in total disbelief, anger, frustration, you name it. We had the chance to bury the game, but we didn’t for various reasons. It was a sickening blow. I was still angry two hours later when I finally got home. It was so close to the first win, but the Premier League is unforgiving. Still, there was enough on show in this match for me to think, somewhat optimistically maybe, that Saints will finish above 18th place in the League and survive for another season.

Man of the Match

For me, there was only one candidate - Tyler Dibling, who just made everything look so easy. Some of his moves were just sublime; with the faintest drop of the shoulder, he took two defenders out of the game. It wasn't just his own game either. His awareness of where his teammates were on the pitch bordered on telepathy at times. He has the ability to pass long, or short with accuracy. In short, I just love watching him.