UP FOR THE CUP!!

Thanks once again for taking the trouble to give us your account Matty.........much appreciated!!

Can Saints beat Yeovil and reach the 5th round?

be really interesting to see what team we put out but we ought to have enough to get past Yeovil even without Ramirez and Lovren, suspect lallana and a couple of others might start on the bench

Boruc
Cline, yoshida, fonte, Chambers
Davis, Cork Schniederlin Ward Prowse
lambert, Guly

subs
Davis, Hoovield, Stephens, Harrison Reed, Rodrigues, Gallagher, Lallana

well positives,

Home win. in the next round of the cup, Guly scored (albeit penalty), Gallagher scored his first senior goal, clean sheet, no injuries.

and that is about it, not a very good game of football, Yeovil were not as good as Burnley and were pretty much lump it forward but all credit to them they worked hard and made life difficult for saints and until we scored the second goal the game was not over. Lambert apparently has a slight hamstring injury and clearly rested for Tuesday night so Rodrigues and Guly supposedly up front though Guly played more left side of midfield. Yoshida and and Hoovield at centre half and Davis in goal as Boruc had a back strain. Fonte on the bench with Gallagher and that shows the problem of Osvaldo as we basically started the game with 1 striker.

First 15 minutes was pretty awful staff, we couldn't string 2 passes together and Yeovil were quite happy to hit long and look for the pick up. Miller was lively for the visitors though their main threat was form set pieces. Rodrigues in a rare attack from saints had a header which went onto the bar but no one following up when saints took the lead from a corner. Hit deep to centre of box and Yeovil defender under pressure handled the ball. fortunately it was in front of Dowd as he seemed to miss most other things all day long. Thought Rodrigues was going to take the penalty but Guly was keen to and took the ball of him, seemed we did not have a nominated penalty taker without Lambert there. Fortunately Guly sent goalie wrong way and placed into left side of goal with goalie diving the other way. Good for Guly to score but to be honest he was pretty awful most of the game. Little energy and certainly did not seem to be fit which meant when he did get the ball the game slowed down. Lallana went close with a cross come shot from the left side of the goal which bounced of the bar, Guly then had a tame effort easily saved. Yeovil nearly got an equaliser in a goal mouth scramble where Kelvin managed to be in the right place at the right time to block, then right on half time Miller had a chance but blazed well wide.

Yeovil had a chance in second half when saints backed of a player outside the box and despite 4 saints players around them had a low shot which kelvin did well to get down low and palm away fro a corner. Guly went off after 10 minutes of the 2nd half to be replaced by Gallagher who nearly got on the end of a cross . Saints got that all important 2nd goal saints with a ball played through into the right side of the box, Gallagher beat his man, cut in and fired past their goalie for a good first goal. That took the steam out of Yeovil, Cline had a good shot well saved then was nearly a great goal with break down the right side, deep cross to the far post met by Davis on the volley with a great save by the goalie who made another good save fro Gallagher at the end.

Davis 7 kicking still as iffy as ever but some solid and key saves, great to have him as back up
Shaw 7 flashes of brilliance and other times not as good
Yoshida 7 fairly comfortable most of the game
Hoovield won plenty of balls in the air though wish he wouldn't head to opposition
Cline 7 got forward well
Schneiderlin 7 looked comfortable on the ball
Cork 7 a lot of work though his distribution was not great
Wrad Prowse 6 average first half better in the second
Lallana 7 not at his best but flashes of class
Guly 6 would have been 5 but took and scored the penalty
Jrod 7 some good runs but poor finishing today

Subs
Gallagher 8 real handful and early days yet but at last our academy may have produced a striker
Davis 6 anchored the midfield when he came on
Harrison reed 6 only a few minutes

Home draw please, preferably against a championship side though not many left, also Man C to draw Chelsea, Liverpool v Everton and Swansea v Arsenal would be a good draw.

Thanks Matty again. Doesn't seem to have been a great game but hopefully we will be back on song for Tuesday.

Thanks once again Matty, a good report.

Not the home draw we wanted but away to Sunderland is winnable if we play a full team, they have a relegation battle plus are already at Wembley so that might play on their minds. If we can pick up 5 points form next 3 games can afford to put strongest team out.

Plus as I had hoped got 4 of the big guns playing each other and will be probably 3 teams from outside Premier league in quarter finals so one of the non top 4 premier teams, like Wigan last year, are going to have a good chance of making the final

Saints have played Sunderland 3 times so far this season, drawing twice and losing once, although arguably they deserved better results. Can Saints get through to the last eight?

fact they did not play mid week could be a key factor with our style and work rate will be tough to do all over again and I wonder whether Gallagher might start with Rickie on the bench. Also think he might start Wanyama which will allow him to rest possibly Schneiderlin. Know Morgan has been outstanding but giving him a rest or at least having on bench has to be an option.

I think we will get a draw, which will be okay for us, not them. If we get a replay they will not field a strong side so draw Saturday win the replay

I agree a draw would not be a bad result for Saints......but I don't think it's going to happen. I think we will either win or lose outright........and my feeling is we could win, maybe quite convincingly perhaps by 2 or 3 goals......please!

Really disappointed with the result but more disappointed with the team selection. sic changes from the starting 11 against Hull with Davis in goal, Hoovield, Ward Prowse and Guly starting unless major injuries was a really poor decision by MP.

not going to say any more as think he has let the fans down, surprised if there will ever be a better chance, safe in the league before end of Feb and big clubs playing each other. Players will also be disappointed as they know the best 11 and therefore know wasn't top priority.

Agree with you all the way Matty. Tino gave the impression of not being interested......a mistake for a number of reasons.... for one thing a Cup win (or even an appearance in the Final) would improve the club's profile and make it easier to attract quality players.

Matty, you said.....'they know the best 11 and therefore know wasn't top priority'. Absolutely right. I think this was probably the reason the players didn't seem to be interested......only Lallana, Clyne and Shaw seemed to be putting in any effort. Even then we should have got a replay, but Lambert managed to miss an open goal in the last few minutes.

The more you think about it the more you can see what a poor decision this was. Our biggest challenge is to keep our star players, Shaw, Lallana, Lovren, Chambers, Cline who could sign for a top club. To keep them we need to think that better off playing for us than on a bench somewhere but they will want to win silverware and when they look at the team we played Saturday they will think we have no ambition when it comes to silverware so if Arsenal, Man U Chelsea make a bid can you blame them if they decide they want to go?