Harwood-Bellis heading his and Saints first goal of the game
|Bloody Leicester have beaten us home & away in the last 2 seasons. Our last win was at home in 2023, when a Charley Alcaraz goal won that EPL fixture. We are due a win!
Leicester have 7 points from their last 15, but 6 of those came from their last 2 games: away to Norwich, followed by a decent home win v Stoke. Cifuentes likes a 4-2-3-1 with Daka as the striker, but their danger men are Ghanaian winger Abdul Fatawu and 21-year-old Jordan James (on loan from Rennes), who wears 6 but plays 10 and has already accrued 25 full caps for Wales. Vestergaard and Faes remain their twin centre-backs, but left back Thomas is suspended for this one.
Three straight wins for (feels like) the first time since the Titanic went down have shown our last transfer window was actually pretty decent. Will Still must regret not being able to get a tune from this squad when Tonda made it look easy. There will be changes from the side that routed the Jones Boys at The Valley as we go to The Den on Saturday and have a benchful of guys baying for a start. One imagines the atmosphere at SMS will be more positive than of late.
Gavin Ward is the Ref tonight. He has over 500 EFL games under his belt, so (hopefully) he’ll know what he is doing.
|This was Sky’s main match chosen long before they knew Boro v Cov would be the top two. At least we had a majority of Scummers (Prutts and Steve Davis) in the studio to balance the Leicester fans on the gantry.
Tonda made 2 changes, the expected replacement of Bragg by Downes, plus a surprise of Quarshie instead of Cap’n Jack. LCFC changed both full-backs with Choudhury in for Ricardo and U21 skipper Aluko replacing the suspended Thomas.
Leicester are used to beating us and began as though this result was another formality. After a couple of early attacks, Saints were pushed back, but we survived their first corner. Leo was hauled back as he carried the ball out, and young Aluko was booked. Our attack ended with Leo shooting too high.
Leicester then pinned us back, winning a couple more corners. The second from James landed in the middle of our box, but, in the resulting melee, Faes, Skipp and Aluko had shots blocked by our defence. We survived another corner, blocked an effort from Daka and took the sting out of their early charge. My notes say ”SFC defending well”.
On 17m, Fatawu clattered Manning, who elected to take the free kick himself. The big lads came up, and he swung a peach of a cross into the path of THB, who powered his header home. 1-0 Saints.
Might have been offside, but we don’t ruin games trying to split a fart in two in this division. Leicester went in search of an equaliser, and Mavididi swung in a cross which James met, but Baz dived to his left to turn the header off the line: a big moment in his, and our, season.
That confidence we’d seen last Saturday was apparent again, and our running and passing saw us pressing them back. They weren’t afraid to commit the odd foul either, and, as usual, Leo was their prime target.
On 23m, a delicious, pitch-long move saw us increase the lead. Our defenders are finally looking confident playing out from the back, and they gave the ball to AA deep in his own half. Leo was already on his bike, and the Geordie turned the ball into his path, and he embarked on one of his trademark dribbles.
We had runners everywhere, but Finn Azaz was closest. As he drove into the box Leo played him in, left foot shot past Begovic, 2-0 Saints. I had forgotten Begovic started at PFC, but the Northam hadn’t and gave him a tirade of abuse pretty much all evening.
Tom Fellows had already had a few runs and crosses, but during the 2nd quarter, he became increasingly influential. Our back three were pushing up, allowing both him and Bad Manners to get on the ball in their half. Tom kept going by Aluko, and on 33m the full back grabbed Tom and took him down. A second yellow saw him sent off on his full debut and all but ended the game as a contest.
Leicester’s adjustments saw Skipp drop back to be tormented by Tom for the rest of the evening. Tom fired over on 36m, but with the next attack, Leo drew a fine save from Begovic at the cost of a corner. The remainder of the half was attack v defence, and Leo and Manning shared corner duties until our third goal arrived. Manning took it from the right and again found THB. Our number 6 escaped his marker’s clutches and powered another strong header home for 3-0.
AA finally got a shot away on 45m, collecting Tom’s pass, turning and shooting right at the keeper. The +2m saw us win a series of corners, but the only chance fell to Woody, whose effort was blocked. HT = 3-0.
Saints were out well before the oppo, who made two changes for the 2nd half: Fatawu and Mavididi were replaced (with an eye on the Blades next Saturday) by Ayew and Soumare.
The remainder of the game was somewhat of a phoney war. 10-man Foxes were determined to keep the score down, and we saw no point in fighting with the game won. AA, of course, kept trying to score but could not, but both he and Leo forced saves from Begovic, and Caspar had a shot blocked.
Both sides’ substitutions suggested a focus on next Saturday as they replaced James and Daka with Decordova Reid and Thomas (presumably not the suspended one). Manning and Azaz made way for Wellington and Aribo, but the game was slowing to a walking pace.
On 76m, Downes met a Scienza cross but put his header wide and soon after, both Leo and Tom were replaced by Robbo and DD. If Skipp was relieved at seeing the back of Fellows, he was soon faced with a fresh Robinson trying to make his mark. The last changes saw Page on for Winks and Bragg for Downes.
In the final minutes, our youngsters both got shots away, Bragg forcing a save and Robbo firing wide. The added minutes came and went, and Saints were 12 points from 12: heady stuff after the thin gruel we’ve recently had to dine on.
Leicester are awaiting the result of their PSR hearing, so dropping into the bottom half as we pass in the opposite direction was not on their critical path. The match stats showed we were utterly dominant, and Baz collected a clean sheet for making a single, yet important, save. Yes, a 9-0 might have exorcised some demons, but the club has moved on even if we supporters can’t. Onwards and Upwards!!
|I can’t remember a time when there were so many candidates for our best player. We now have a functioning team that opponents will fear, and a guy younger than Will has done that in just a few weeks. Wowser!
Anyhow, my first Saints game had Terry Paine turning his marker inside out, and I’m a sucker for wingers taking defenders on. I absolutely loved watching TOM FELLOWS do the same to those pesky Foxes.
Four matches, four wins. Tonda Eckert has transformed Saints into a winning team that are exciting to watch
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