Southampton: Sept — Oct 2011

Hello friends and welcome back to another episode in my final FM 2011 season. Let’s get right to it and see how The Saints did over the last couple of months.

September 2011:

We started off the month at home to our bitter rivals Portsmouth but what promised to be an intriguing encounter was nothing more than a drab 0-0 draw as both midfields cancelled each other out.

Away to Millwall we fared much better with Kevin Das Nevis open proceedings with a wonderful 25 yard strike after 19 minutes. Andrew Davis headed in from a corner 8 minutes later to double the lead and after the home side pulled one back in the second half some wonderful play by Stevanovic created an own goal and that was enough for a 3-1 win.

Four days later at St. Mary’s and it was Stevanovic again in front of goal but this time he scored his first goal for the club, a darting into the 18 yard area to meet a Lallana cross. We gave away a daft penalty on the hour allowing Preston back into the game but a wonderful curling shot 11 minutes from the end by Puncheon gave us the home win.

We stayed at home for our Tuesday night League Cup third round tie against Birmingham which produced a hard fought battle that saw us remain in deadlock by half time. I had fielded some of my “youngsters” mainly due to fatigue but it was the substitutes Guly do Prado and Jason Puncheon who provided the goals the latter being a another awesome strike by Puncheon to snatch victory late in the game and send us through to the fourth round.

We had two games left in the month and both of them away from home against difficult opponents. The first game was as Bramall Lane where we dominated possession but had a frustrating afternoon in front of goal until Lee Barnard gave us the lead after 57 minutes with Jason Puncheon adding a second deep into injury time. This win put us top of the table – overtaking Leicester who we were to play next.

Leicester proved to be a far tougher team which is why they had been at the top for a while. Once again we left it to the second half to make a presence in the game with Fonte heading in from a corner to give us the go ahead goal. Leicester were relentless in their search for an equalizer but over extended themselves to the point that we caught them on the counter which ended with a magnificent strike by Tom Cleverly three minutes from time and secured our top spot.

October 2011:

Back at St.Mary’s it was a similar story as we took on Wigan but a far earlier goal broke the deadlock with Kevin Das Neves hitting a stunning goal from 25 yards after 13 minutes. Andrew Davies doubled our lead from a corner just on the hour mark to record another 2-0 victory.

The international break followed this game so by the time we faced Middlesborough at home we looked somewhat “ring rusty” which was reflected in 0-0 draw bringing our winning streak to an end. We quickly got back to winning ways though with Lee Barnard bagging himself a first half brace as we beat Watford 2-0 at Vicarage Road. A workman like performance saw us beat QPR by a single goal at St Mary’s with midfielder Stevanovic heading in from close range midway through the first half.

It was all change for our next game for the visit of Premier League side Ipswich Town in our League Cup fourth round encounter. I had mainly being playing the second string players for this competition and decided to keep the theme going. Guly do Prado who had dropped down the striker pecking order started up front and the Brazilian made an immediate impact with a wonderfully crafted through ball to ML Jason Puncheon whose shot beat the keeper to make it 1-0 after 8 minutes. Three minutes later we broke down an Ipswich attack with Tom Cleverley running almost the full length of the field and his cross into the box was met by Guly do Pardo …2-0!! Not surprisingly do Prado had to be substituted early in the second half as his lack of fitness caused an injury but he had down enough to ensure we would make it through to the quarter finals.

The draw for the quarter finals was made soon afterwards and we will have to face Spurs at White Hart Lane which is a pretty tall order.

The final game of the month saw us travel to Reading where we put in our worst performance since our opening day defeat at Derby and were comprehensively beaten by the home team and put a long unbeaten run to an abrupt end. I didn’t see this coming at all.

Results Summary:

League Table:

Fixtures:

The next couple of months we see us play against teams pushing for promotion including Birmingham and Blackpool and we have that League Cup match against Tottenham as well.

That’s it for this update and thanks a lot for taking the time to read it. Well I’d better get ready for work and my one hour subway ride!!