Match Report

IBO Reporter : channonite

Saints squeaked through to the next round of the League Cup by the skin of their teeth, winning 3-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in normal time.

I think it fair to say that not very many Saints fans gave the team anything more than a snowball in Hells chance of winning this round, but I was encouraged by the look of the team and there was no sign of either Vestergaard, or Hoedt in the heart of the defence.

In goal we had Angus Gunn, with McCarthy being rested and young goalkeeper Harry Lewis on the bench. No sign of Fraser Forster then. In front of him was a three man central defensive unit of Jack Stephens, Maya Yoshida and Jan Bednarek. Cédric and Matt Targett were the full backs/wing backs. The midfield unit was as before - Højbjerg, Lemina and Redmond. Up front, Gabbiadini was partnering Ings, so there was a just a chance we might give the Everton defenders something to think about.

There were some promising signs after the kickoff, as almost immediately Targett was looking very effective going forward and Saints had two corners in as many minutes. Ings was clearly going to be a thorn in Everton's side and had a shot hit ex-Saints goalkeeper, Maarten Stekelenburg.

Everton were having difficulty creating anything and following a smart interchange between Gabbiadini and Redmond, the Englishman shot just wide of the far post. This seemed to shock the Toffees into life, with Gunn saving from Bernard and two shots going close, one of which from the dangerous looking Lookman, was very close indeed.

Shortly after this flurry of activity, Targett was there to head away danger from Bernard and then Saints had a spell where they had the upper hand, Gabbiadini shooting wide. The Italian had looked impressive in the game so far, linking up intelligently with Ings and you just got the sense that they were on the same wavelength.

Once again Redmond made his presence felt on the left, cutting in to shoot and unfortunately hitting the base of the post. almost on the stroke of half-time he made a similar run on the left, but this time squared the ball to Ings who, as all great strikers seem to, had all the time in the world to touch the ball once and tuck the ball into the far corner, past Stekelenburg. 0-1. That is four goals in five games for Ings and he is rapidly confirming the potential we all thought he had to transform our season. If only it was so simple in the centre of defence!

At the start of the second half we saw that Everton manager, Marco Silva had made a change, bringing on Niasse to try and offer more of a threat. With the change of emphasis, Saints played more counter attacking and again Targett, Redmond and Gabbiadini were prominent for the away side.

Then came the moment where I felt sure Everton would equalise, when Lookman broke through and was one on one with Gunn. However, the Saints goalie rushed out and met Lookman to smother the ball. Excellent reactions from the young keeper in only his second game for Saints.

Shortly after this, Lookman was replaced by Everton's record signing Richarlison, to great excitement from the home fans. It didn't seem to have the expected effect, as the only team that looked likely to score was the away side. Saints then won a corner, taken by Redmond and Stephens rose above the Everton defenders to send a bullet header goalwards, only to see Stekelenburg brilliantly tipping the ball over.

Chances fell to both sides, without coming to anything. Then, on 73 minutes after a wonderful bit of interplay between Gabbiadini and Ings, Hughes decided to strengthen the midfield, taking off the Italian forward and replacing him with Davis. To put it politely, I question this substitution, as Gabbiadini was having a fine game and he and Ings were really stretching the Everton defence. The effect of the change was predictably to encourage the blue defenders to bomb forward and almost immediately it felt like the last ditch defending at the Alamo.

Eventually the inevitable happened in the 85th minute and Niasse linked up with substitute and ex-Saint Theo Walcott, who calmly slotted the ball beyond the oncoming Gunn. 1-1. Brilliant.

At this point I gave up taking notes, as I had thrown my pencil across the room! It was just as well Saints survived to full time, as I was busy cursing.

So, 1-1 at full time and so to penalties.

• Everton - Davies - SCORED 1-0
• Saints - Ings - SCORED 1-1
• Everton - Tosun -SCORED (Although Gunn got a hand to it) 2-1
• Saints - Davis - SCORED 2-2
• Everton - Richarlison - MISSED 2-2
• Saints - Højbjerg - SCORED 2-3
• Everton - Zouma - SCORED 3-3
• Saints - Targett - SAVED 3-3
• Everton - Walcott - SAVED 3-3
• Saints - Cédric - SCORED 3-4

So, Saints win 3-4 on penalties and the reward is another Premier League away tie, this time at Leicester.

Conclusions

A good team performance, with some outstanding individual showings, almost undone by a ridiculous substitution.

The real plus points for me were firstly the obvious chemistry between Ings and Gabbiadini. Two intelligent footballers who seem to understand each others games. Amazingly there are still fans out there who do not rate the Italian, but hopefully they will come to see him in a whole new light soon.

Secondly the improved performance of the defence, which didn't look like an accident waiting to happen, although Maya Yoshida made one horrible back pass that Gunn was thankfully very quick to react to. If he looked a bit rusty, it is hardly surprising, given his lack of any sort of game time since he came back from the World Cup. I will be interested to see what the team selection is for the weekends game against Chelsea.

Lastly and most definitely not the least was the performance of Angus Gunn, an outstanding talent. Saints are very fortunate in having two excellent goalkeepers, neither of whom is Fraser Forster, but Gunn certainly looks like a future England regular, hopefully while still a Saint.