24 August 2024
Southampton 0 Nott’m Forest 1
Southampton welcomed Nott’m Forest to the south coast looking to register their first win since returning to the top-flight. Many will feel that it should of happened last weekend when they dominated Newcastle at St James’ Park but they were wasteful with their chances. This is not something you can afford to do in the Premier League.
The visitors looked to attack from the off. Williams exchanged a neat one-two on the edge of the box and ran towards goal. The angle was tight but as he tried to get a shot off McCarthy did well to get a block in with his outstretched leg. It was an early warning that Nuno Espirito Santo’s team were looking to ensure that they were the ones who would be taking all three points here.
The Saints only really got into the game after the first twelve minutes. They huffed and puffed on the edge of the box but their shots at goal were largely disappointing. Not that any of the chances were clear-cut by any stretch of the imagination. That said, they failed to work Sels in the Nott’m Forest goal. Martin already looked frustrated on the touchline.
Forest were starting to hurt the hosts on the counter-attack. Each time they were getting in behind the defence and their full backs had acres of space to work with out wide. Aina put a great cross into the back post where he picked out Wood. He had all the time in the world to ready himself for the header but it was straight at McCarthy in the Forest goal.
Nott’m Forest were growing in confidence. Southampton were having to get everyone back to defend. As Armstrong cleared, it was played to Sangare in the middle of the park. He took one touch to steady himself before going for goal from some way out. The shot seemed to be heading in, forcing McCarthy to tip it over the bar for a corner.
As the corner was recycled, Wood struck a volley across goal. With players queuing up at the back post, a goal seemed certain. Somehow though, Milenkovic who had stayed up could not get any sort of a touch to put the ball in the net. At this point Espirito Santo must have been having flashbacks of all the chances they wasted the week before.
Russell Martin’s side seemed a shadow of the team that played Newcastle off the park last week. Brereton Diaz had people wondering if he had Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility on all afternoon. Armstrong was having to come so deep to help out at the back, that even when they cleared their lines there was no one up there to help build an attack at all.
Into the second half Nott’m Forest must have sensed that this game was there for the taking. Despite the hosts still dominating possession, the visitors’ more direct approach was creating chances at regular intervals. All they needed to do was to find the back of the net once and you questioned whether The Saints were capable of coming back from that.
McCarthy was doing his best in the Southampton goal to prevent that. The home fans were starting to get a little tetchy with what they were seeing on the pitch. These were not the sort of home performances they had become accustomed to last season. However, the Premier League is a completely different beast to the Championship.
Aribo then had the chance to clear but dwelled on the ball too much. He was pickpocketed on the edge of the area and the ball was lifted into the box. Gibbs-White got up to head at the back post but his effort was blocked on the line. The ball rebounded back to the Forest midfielder, who drilled it into the back of the net to finally break the deadlock for the visitors.
The goal forced The Saints into some more attacking play. They often got the ball out wide but they really seemed to be lacking someone with the intent to attack those crosses. Armstrong had an air shot as Walker-Peters drilled a ball in but nobody could get that telling touch to convert. By this stage Forest we happy to absorb the pressure and look to pick them off on the break.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side managed to hold on for all three points, much to the delight of the travelling fans. Forest have had an unbeaten start to the season and will be hoping that there will be no flirting with relegation this time around. Russell Martin has a tough job to keep his Saints in the Premier League, they need to be more dominant, especially at home.
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