[themaclad]

Southampton 3 Adams 2 S Armstrong Preston North End 0

Southampton line-up: McCarthy; Walker-Peters, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Manning; Aribo (Smallbone, 70), Downes (Charles, 45), S.Armstrong (Rothwell, 70); Brooks (Sulemana, 83), Adams (Edozie, 76), A.Armstrong. Subs not used: Lumley, Stephens, Bree, Fraser.

PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Holmes (Cunningham, 40), Whatmough (Ledson, 70), N.Mawene (Browne, 70), Brady; Frøkjær; Osmajić (Evans, 79), Riis (Keane, 45). Subs not used: Cornell, Stewart, Best, Seary.

Attendance: 27,636 (556 PNE fans).

Referee: Mr S Barrott.

Well finally managed to get there a combined total of 900 miles and after 33 ninutes we had lost, half joked to my mate on the way down this had the making of a Luton away a couple of seasons ago, not quite they won by four.
Coach arrived nearly three hours before kick off.
The burned out unit on the industrial estate was the cause of our aborted trip can see why it was postponed, home player would have parked their slightly upmarket cars near it.
Once you get off the industrial estate the City has a seaside feel about it, and some fine historic buildings, wandered down to the docks area, excellent idea putting transport on for those from the Isle of Wight to get to the game.
525 hardy souls made it from the North, Fantastic played Mawene in midfield managed to get booked in 53 seconds otherwise thought he did reasonably well.
Actually looked for the early period, Saints passed tehe ball about trying to find an opeening whilst on our occasional flurries into opposition territory, Mads FJ had a shot easily saved by late replacement keeper Alex McCarthy.
Then they scored thing about all three goals was they really didn't have to work hard for them, First ball in from the left Lindsay swwitches off, Adams doesn't, the second well worked inter passing past statues Adams easy finish, third just horrendous Holmes weak clearence falls straight to S Armstrong and ends up being returned into the net.
S Armstrong unlucky hit the inside of the post from outside the box.
The hapless Holmes had a roasting and was replaced before half time, he is not a right wing back and never was but our lack of cover in this position is blindingly obvious.
Survived until half time.


The second half was underwhelming Saints probably could have scored Woodman made a great save from Brooks but like our game against Rotherham the home side probably had a good workout, we did get into the box and Mads FJ pass to no one in space summed up our night.
Ah well QPR Saturday night away the M40 again the joy, roll on the end of the season.

Southampton manager Russell Martin told BBC Radio Solent:

"It was a brilliant performance, we played some beautiful football, so aggressive, relentless energy and we need to live there now for the next four games.

"It was an incredible performance in the first half, and even in the second half, when it can be so easy to take your foot off the gas but I felt they wanted to score again.

"They stuck to the detail, the shape looked good, we won the ball back relentlessly and limited a good team to one shot all game which is not easy in the Championship.

"They have to keep it going now for four more games, starting on Saturday, because if they don't take care of that it will become pointless again.

[On Bazunu injury]: "It's his Achilles and looks like a really, really bad one, so we expect him to be out for the season. I'm devastated for him, we all are."

Preston manager Ryan Lowe told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"It was a game of two halves for us. The gameplan we set out to do in the first half was nowhere near, and the second half was more like us, but the game was probably over at half-time, 3-0.

"We've just debriefed and showed the lads the goals and you can't give a team like Southampton those type of chances - a couple of individual errors, one we could do better with, one we could have got hold of the ball better.

"The first half performance has cost us a result, possibly

IT DID