Reading 1-1 Southampton
Attendance: 21, 889 (4,203 away fans)
Yesterday I made the trip to Reading along with over 4,000 other Saints fans to see if Southampton could maintain the gap at the top of the league. After a tough 1-0 win over West Ham on Tuesday night which seen a record crowd of 32,150 at St Marys, the players would have to pick themselves up again against a Reading team who are finally starting to find some form. There was one change from the team on Tuesday with Jack Cork replacing Morgan Schneiderlin who was on the bench with Adam Lallana missing for the third game in a row.
Saints got the game underway and had the first half chance when Connolly and Chaplow created a good move down the right with Connolly's cross just getting blocked before Chaplow could get on the end of it after a good run into the area. The rest of the half was all Reading and they almost took the lead around 17 minutes when McAnuff pulled the ball back across the goal mouth which only needed somebody to tap into the net but Dann
y Fox was quick enough to smash the ball clear. Simon Church then tested Davis from distance but the Saints captain was there to tip around the post which was followed shortly by a superb save from Davis as Mikele Leigertwood drilled the ball from 30 yards but Davis somehow got a hand to it to turn over the bar. With Reading shooting towards us in the first half it was safe to say we seen most of the game as most of the game so far was played in Southampton's half and I was pleased when the half time whistle went to take us in 0-0!
Fonte came off for Martin at the start of the second half which was proberly a good idea seeing he was on a booking and was having a hard afternoon! Reading started strongly again with Southampton just not able to get out of first gear and almost took the lead after Alex Pearce headed narrowly wide. Against the run of play Southampton almost took the lead after being awarded a free kick just outside the area, Danny Fox whipped the ball in and Martin headed down and somehow Adam Federici getting down to save low. Saints needed something extra to get them going and they got that when Steve De Ridder came on replacing Connolly who injected an extra bit of pace and flare and instantly put Chaplow through on the right who maybe should have took it on his left but decided to cut inside and shot low but the keeper was there to make the save. Just when Southampton looked like they were starting to get into the game Hammond gave away a free kick on the edge of the area which McAnuff smashed against the post but Leigertwood got to the rebound to fire home. Things got worse a few minutes later as Dean Hammond got sent off for a second booking and it started to look like Saints were going home with nothing. However having ten men seem to wake the players up and on 81 minutes Southampton levelled after Guly flicked on a throw in down the right to De Ridder who ran into the area and hammered the ball off the cross bar to level the game to send us 4000 fans mad in the away end. The last ten minutes was frantic as both teams tried to win it but nobody really created any clear cut chances. Overall Reading will no doubt feel they deserved to win the game but dare I say it..if you want to finish at the top you have to get points when not playing very well and Southampton did just that. I was impressed with the way they stuck at it with 10 men and even went on to try and win the game at the end, cracking stuff. Oh yeah, its also safe to say the Southampton fans dominated the home fans in terms of chanting and atmosphere.. "You only sing when your winning!".
Attendance: 21, 889 (4,203 away fans)
Yesterday I made the trip to Reading along with over 4,000 other Saints fans to see if Southampton could maintain the gap at the top of the league. After a tough 1-0 win over West Ham on Tuesday night which seen a record crowd of 32,150 at St Marys, the players would have to pick themselves up again against a Reading team who are finally starting to find some form. There was one change from the team on Tuesday with Jack Cork replacing Morgan Schneiderlin who was on the bench with Adam Lallana missing for the third game in a row.
Saints got the game underway and had the first half chance when Connolly and Chaplow created a good move down the right with Connolly's cross just getting blocked before Chaplow could get on the end of it after a good run into the area. The rest of the half was all Reading and they almost took the lead around 17 minutes when McAnuff pulled the ball back across the goal mouth which only needed somebody to tap into the net but Dann
y Fox was quick enough to smash the ball clear. Simon Church then tested Davis from distance but the Saints captain was there to tip around the post which was followed shortly by a superb save from Davis as Mikele Leigertwood drilled the ball from 30 yards but Davis somehow got a hand to it to turn over the bar. With Reading shooting towards us in the first half it was safe to say we seen most of the game as most of the game so far was played in Southampton's half and I was pleased when the half time whistle went to take us in 0-0!Fonte came off for Martin at the start of the second half which was proberly a good idea seeing he was on a booking and was having a hard afternoon! Reading started strongly again with Southampton just not able to get out of first gear and almost took the lead after Alex Pearce headed narrowly wide. Against the run of play Southampton almost took the lead after being awarded a free kick just outside the area, Danny Fox whipped the ball in and Martin headed down and somehow Adam Federici getting down to save low. Saints needed something extra to get them going and they got that when Steve De Ridder came on replacing Connolly who injected an extra bit of pace and flare and instantly put Chaplow through on the right who maybe should have took it on his left but decided to cut inside and shot low but the keeper was there to make the save. Just when Southampton looked like they were starting to get into the game Hammond gave away a free kick on the edge of the area which McAnuff smashed against the post but Leigertwood got to the rebound to fire home. Things got worse a few minutes later as Dean Hammond got sent off for a second booking and it started to look like Saints were going home with nothing. However having ten men seem to wake the players up and on 81 minutes Southampton levelled after Guly flicked on a throw in down the right to De Ridder who ran into the area and hammered the ball off the cross bar to level the game to send us 4000 fans mad in the away end. The last ten minutes was frantic as both teams tried to win it but nobody really created any clear cut chances. Overall Reading will no doubt feel they deserved to win the game but dare I say it..if you want to finish at the top you have to get points when not playing very well and Southampton did just that. I was impressed with the way they stuck at it with 10 men and even went on to try and win the game at the end, cracking stuff. Oh yeah, its also safe to say the Southampton fans dominated the home fans in terms of chanting and atmosphere.. "You only sing when your winning!".
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