Our U21 can count themselves rather unlucky to come away with nothing from a strongly contested cup game with Premier opponents Southampton this evening. Ultimately, we lost 2-1 – due essentially to 2 passing errors that the visitors punished. Although we pressed hard, we didn’t quite possess the necessary sparkle up front to pull the goals back. Nonetheless, it was an entertaining affair.
We started with a 3-5-2 formation, switching to 4-3-3 in the 2nd half, with Seb Dabrowski slotting into the left back role after half-time: Evan Watts; Iestyn Jones, Arthur Parker, Richard Faakye; Zac Jeanes (s – Aimar Govea 59m), Mitchell Bates (captain), Jacob Cook (s – Josh Pescatore 76m), Ben Lloyd, Seb Dabrowski; Glory Nzingo, Sammy Henia-Kamau (s- Morgan Bates 69m). Unused subs: Kit Margetson (g/k), Callum Deacon.
The Saints were a tall side, quite physical but quick to break and find players in space.
Early exchanges were quite even – O’Brien-Whitworth and Fry had a couple of snap shots flash wide, we pressed but didn’t have much sight of goal until Mitch Bates had a shot blocked just after the half hour. At this point Southampton had already collected 2 bookings from what appears now to be a typically over officious referee for games at this level. This wouldn’t end well for Southampton’s Will Merry, the 2nd player initially cautioned.
The visitors took the lead on 35 minutes when a pass was intercepted well inside their own half, Southampton broke at speed, located centre forward Dipepa unmarked and he finished cleanly.
To this point, our back 3 of Jones, Parker and Faakye had been steady and capable, so this was something of a blow. In fact, Faakye stopped Dipepa doing pretty much the same thing a couple of minutes later.
Approaching half-time, Ben Lloyd collected a great through ball from Arthur Parker but couldn’t keep his shot down so we went into the interval a goal behind.
We weren’t posing much of an attacking threat and this theme continued until Aimar Govea joined the action just before the hour. We committed another gift on 66 minutes to allow Akachukwu a clear run and shot on goal, which he was always going to convert.
Morgan Bates added some vim to our attacking power. It was a real shame that we had a goal disallowed with just over 10 minutes to go when Nzingo’s goal was ruled out after the referee pulled back play for an injury to a Southampton defender, who had to be replaced with a facial wound. Among various further bookings, Merry saw red and was dismissed for bundling over Govea with 4 minutes of normal time remaining. It was genuinely quite peculiar to witness what presumably was a relative entering the field of play to warmly congratulate him as he left the pitch.
We finally got some return bang on full-time with a neat close range flicked Govea finish from a wonderful Josh Pescatore cross. Morgan Bates glanced a header narrowly wide during added time from another superb Pescatore centre. Southampton played out the final minutes and looked relieved to have clinched the win.
Until Govea and Morgan Bates entered the fray, we never quite looked to have enough up front – we’re missing the creative contributions that the likes of Liam Smith and Kyrell Wilson might have provided. It turns out that Thomas Woodward is also out of action with a knee injury.
Outside of that, Mitch Bates gave of his best – including hitting the bar from distance – while our back 4 looked generally comfortable. Seb Dabrowski was the standout performer, both defensively and going forward. As someone of this parish sat next to me mentioned, Seb’s looking as though he’s enjoying his football again after a dip in confidence toward the end of last season.
It was challenging to keep up, but I counted 11 bookings in all, including the 2 cautions for the dismissed Merry. Another refereeing masterclass!