Planet Swans ArchivesSouthampton let slip a valuable victory as the latest in an ongoing series of defensive mistakes allowed Nathan Dyer to grab an equaliser for Swansea City after Morgan Schneiderlin had given Nigel Adkins’s team a deserved lead. Southampton had been excellent until that blunder in the 73rd minute, seemingly on course for their second Premier League win of the campaign and their first clean sheet.
If Adkins is precariously perched on the St Mary’s ejector seat, the home crowd were intent on telling his employers that the manager’s place in their affections remained secure, with banners and chants proclaiming their faith in the beleaguered manager from the outset. What Adkins needed, of course, was for his team to put in a similarly convincing performance and they set about that in impressive fashion.
A side whose average age was made even younger by Adkins’ decision to give a full debut to 17 year-old left-back Luke Shaw began with admirable composure. Perhaps the manager’s decision to break with routine and shelter the squad in a five-star hotel this week had made them immune to the pressure that their lowly league position put them under?
Tidy interplay from both teams was a feature of the match but Southampton carried a greater goal threat throughout. After a few half-chances at either end they produced the first shot on target in the 14th minute when Rickie Lambert nodded a Jason Puncheon pass to Adam Lallana, who swivelled smartly before letting fly from 18 yards, bringing a solid save from goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmell.
Lallana was a major influence in proceedings, his combinations with Rickie Lambert, Gaston Ramírez and the fit-again Jack Cork accounting for much of the hosts’ menace. In the 16th minute his lay-back to Ramiez led to the Uruguayan curling a fine effort fractionally wide from 20 yards.
Swansea were showing plenty of slickness too, but not much in the opposing box until Ki-Sung-Yong created space for himself with a wonderful shimmy.
His ensuing shot from 15 yards was beaten away by Paulo Gazzaniga.
Ramirez, revelling between midfield and attack, tested Tremmell with two more respectable shots before Jose Fonte spurned a chance to break the deadlock in the 36th minute, electing to cross rather than shoot after Lambert found him with a clever freekick.
The half-time whistle brought applause from the locals, who clearly appreciated their team’s enterprise and the fact that there had been little trace of the defensive fragility that has undermined their campaign so far.
They were carved open early in the second half, however, when Pablo Hernandez got in behind Shaw and pulled the ball back to Wayne Routeledge, who whacked wildly over from 16 yards. The threat soon switched back to the other end, with Ki having to make splendid last-ditch intervention to prevent Lambert from converting from close range after more conniving with Ramirez. Southampton thought they deserved a penalty in the 62nd minute when Lallana tumbled under a challenge from Ashley Williams but instead the midfielder was booked for supposed simulation. No matter, two minutes later Southampton seized the lead that their play merited. Lambert nodded a long diagonal pass to Scheiderlin, who encapsulated his side’s commendable poise by controlling deftly before heading into the net from close range.
Southampton soon undid all their fine work in familiar fashion. In the 77thminute Gazzaniga put Maya Yoshida under pressure with an ill-advised pass and the centreback was too easily dispossessed by Swansea substitute and former Southampton winger Dyer, who punished him by racing forward and sending a low shot in off the post.
Lambert went close with two headers after that and Lallana was denied another penalty but Southampton could not recover the lead they had thrown away. To clamber out of the relegation zone they must shed that self-destructive habit.
