[themaclad]

Attendance: 27,233 (1,027 PNE pre-sales).

Referee: Matt Donohue.

Threerelegated Premier sides played, three Premier League sides beaten, thing about the victory yesterday given the injuries to key players, we had only 8 subs(though why we have got to this many subs,, is beyond me) two of which had not played a first team game.
Southampton now on a run of 5 wins in 55 games, started better , the Brazilian Scienza caused us problems, also Manning's delivery at set pieces is always decent.
We scramble an early effort away and Scienza shot produced a TV save by Iverson, one moment that did stand out was a home attack fizzled out and the less than speedy Hughes left Aziz for pace, always rated Aziz but he was anonymous yesterday so much so, he was substituted at half time when we were one up.
At the time of the goal we were probably having our best period of the game, not a goal of the month winner, Dobbin firing home after his intial shot had been saved.
You could see the confidence drain from the home players and the home support.


Fellows and Robinson half time substitutes gave the Saints a boost they looked better but we saw out the iinitial surge and gained control and pinned them back, couldn't get a second, and only a fantastic finger tip save by Iverson tipping the ball onto the bar from a goalbound shot Jander kept us in the lead.
Saints pushed for the leveller and in doing so led themselves open to attack, Thor on as a sub, fired narrowly wide and in the 93 rd minute the big Icelander was involved in the second, quick throw out by Iverson to his fellow Dane, Mads who ran 75 yards with the ball one two with Thor ball into net, the Saints fans who hadn't left started to join their fellow supporters, thoose that stayed were less than impressed at the end.

As Still said hard work beat talent, maybe Will the talent should work harder.

Strangely we are apparently an average side, it that equates to being sixth in the league, I'll take it


HECK

Paul Heckingbottom thought his side were excellent in the victory over Southampton and was happy for everyone involved to get the chance to celebrate a late second goal.

North End secured back-to-back wins courtesy of Lewis Dobbin’s fourth of the season and Mads Frøkjær’s second-half stoppage-time strike.

Heading to St Mary’s with a number of injuries, that didn’t hold PNE back against a Southampton side recently relegated from the top flight.

Hecky said: “I’m proud of the performance – really strong. I thought we were excellent and really aggressive against the ball.

“We restricted where they could have the ball because they create chances. People might talk about their results and things but they've been creating chances. We restricted them to very, very little today.

“I said to the fans that this group of players will give everything for the shirt. They want to win. They'll give everything and what more can you ask for? That's it. The fans should be as proud as I am of the players and the performance that they put in today.”

Before Dobbin’s goal in the 38th minute, there was little in the way of chances, and once ahead North End never really looked like conceding.

That being said, Daniel Iversen had to come up with an incredible stop in the 70th minute to stop Caspar Jander from finding the top corner, tipping his effort onto the crossbar.

The Saints were chucking the ball forward in the game’s late stages and after standing up to that, PNE broke in the fourth minute of stoppage-time, leading to a terrific moment as Frøkjær made it two to make sure of the victory.

Hecky said: “The fact it was Mads and Stef (Stefán Thórdarson) is great for me as well because they've been training really hard, so for them to get that recognition with the goal is good because they were performing well when they came on.

“I think the players deserved that second goal. I've not looked back at it. I think for what we limited them to and the opportunities we had, I think it would be a well-deserved 2-0.

“I know we enjoyed it there because you know there's only a minute or so left. The players enjoyed it for their efforts. They deserved it and then the fans sort of know it's done and they can celebrate early so it was a good moment that.”

STILL WILL

Will Still was left with familiar frustrations after Southampton fell to a 2-0 defeat to Preston North End in the Championship at St Mary’s.

Saints went close to taking the lead when Leo Scienza’s curling shot was saved by Daniel Iversen, before Lewis Dobbin opened the scoring with a scrappy close-range goal seven minutes before the interval.

Caspar Jander rattled the crossbar in the second half with a stunning shot that was touched on to the crossbar by a spectacular Iversen stop, before Preston substitute Mads Frøkjær-Jensen made sure of the points with a very late second on the counter-attack as Saints piled forward in search of an equaliser.

“We’ve not done our job on two occasions and conceded two goals. It wasn’t good enough,” Still reflected.

“We tried a lot of different things, put players in different situations to try and create what we could, and it hasn’t paid off.

“The way we’ve defended that first goal is really poor and not good enough from us. Not everyone has done their job on each particular phase of play. We know that if everyone doesn’t do it then we make it difficult for ourselves, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”

After dissecting the goals conceded, Still assessed Saints’ efforts in front of goal.

“I think it was same old. We’ve created more than enough situations or opportunities, but we’ve ended up not scoring a goal,” he added.

“I don’t think we’ve reacted badly after we’ve conceded. If anything we’ve come out after half time, made a few changes and got a momentum back in the game, but their keeper tipped it on to the crossbar and it doesn’t go in.

“You keep plugging away and plugging away, throw the kitchen sank at it at the end and get caught on the transition. Even on the transition, we’ve got a two-man overload in our box, but we’re not defending our goal as we should and concede a second.”