Saints 0 Burnley 1

If the Bristol City game showed why Saints should be challenging for promotion, then this defeat showed why we’re battling relegation. Since relegation from the premiership I’ve lost count of the number of games which follow the same pattern: Saints dominate possession, opposition defend and hoof, we don’t create any real chances and get caught out from a set piece. There’s a basic lack of power and pace throughout the squad which leaves us far worse off than teams with less technical ability like Burnley.

Saints started quite brightly with Surman joining attacks well from left-back and Licka looking lively cutting in from the flanks. But we failed to create any clear-cut chances with Wright-Phillips looking desperately low on confidence and John starting to look tired after carrying the goal scoring burden for so long. After Surman had a long range effort well saved Burnley broke and Lucketti gave away a soft free-kick. Saint’s marking was poor and only a superb Richard Wright save denied Burnley. However from the resulting corner Saints let Caldwell wander from back post to front completely unmarked allowing him to head the only goal of the game.

Second half Saints continued to dominate without creating; a number of crosses and pull-backs narrowly missed onrushing or backpedalling players betraying a lack of composure in the final third. Saints best chance came when Wright-Phillips steered the ball onto the post from close-range and Euell couldn’t force the rebound home. Jensen in the Burnley goal made two good saves from Idiakez and Safri but the fact that Saints had to resort to shots from outside the area told its own story.

It’s all eyes on the other teams next weekend as Saints don’t play till Monday away at leaders West Brom. Leicester and Wednesday play each other in the biggest game from our point of view, anything but a Leicester win will see us back in the relegation zone but a draw is probably the best result as long as we pick up some points in our last two games. Unlike most sides in this division West Brom actually try to play attacking football so I’d expect Saints to have some joy going forward, however our brittle defence will mean a 3-3 draw is probably the best we can hope for!

Category: Match Reports

Tags: Burnley, Defeat, Match Reports, Relegation, Saints

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