Match Review – Southampton 1-1 Brighton

Points mean prizes, and Brighton and Hove Albion claimed another valuable point towards the ultimate prize in playing Premier League football again in 2018-19. But the main feeling when walking away from St Mary’s after the 1-1 draw with Southampton was one of frustration that all three points weren’t in the bag.

Southampton were one of only three teams below us at the start of play and on a club record run of 11 games without a win in the Premier League. Their confidence was low, the home crowd were restless – who doesn’t love hearing 30,000 opposition supporters booooooooooooooooooooo – and Maurico Pellegrino was a man under pressure.

For the first 15 minutes, the Albion looked prepared to take advantage of the Saints woes and heap more misery on the club Gus Poyet reckons should be our rivals. We went on the attack from the first whistle, Jose Izquierdo blasting wastefully over when when placed within 20 seconds of kick off and Davy Propper having a slightly harder chance which ended in the same outcome.

That positive start was rewarded when Glenn Murray gave the Albion the lead from the penalty spot with 15 minutes played. It looked a soft foul from the away end, Solly March going down like an Amsterdam window woman under a challenge from Wesley Hoedt. Still, it was enough to convince the man in the middle to point the spot and give Murray the chance to net his ninth of the season. We always did like that Mike Dean.

At this point, our attacking football coupled with Southampton looking absolutely abject meant that a comfortable win looked more than achievable. So what did we do? Sat back, retreated into our own half and looked to defend the 1-0 lead for the next hour of the game. Given how poor we’ve been defensively recently and our penchant for conceding from set pieces, it was unlikely we would see the game out but we abandoned all pretence of going for a second goal which looked more than achievable in the hope of doing exactly that.

Only lady luck prevented Southampton equalising before half time, when Maty Ryan dithered on a back pass for far too long, smashing his attempted clearance into Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg with the ball looping up into the air and thankfully onto the crossbar after which we managed to clear it away.

Shane Long, Oriel Romeu and Ryan Bertrand all had half chances while Murray showed good feet to work space for a shot that was straight at Alex McCarthy. That would be our last effort on goal of the game incidentally with an hour still left to play.

Pellegrino made a double change at the break, throwing on attackers Sofiane Boufal and Guido Carrillo. The equaliser came just past the hour mark and it was from that familiar foe, the set piece. A low free kick came in from James Ward-Prowse and a combination of a wall that looked like it had been built by the same firm who constructed the Leaning Tower of Pisa and some pussy footed defending in the box allowed Jack Stephens to back heel home.

Back on level terms yet having seen how vulnerable Southampton were when attacked from that opening spell, you’d have thought that Chris Hughton would release the handbrake and go for the win. The crowd certainly thought so if the chants of “ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK” were anything to go by. But no, Hughton played his normal trick of waiting until after the 75th minute to make a change when Leonardo Ulloa replaced Murray.

Any hopes we had of going for the win dilapidated with the second change, Pascal Gross being withdrawn for Beram Kayal. 4-4-1-1 became 4-5-1, Anthony Knockaert and Sam Baldock remained sat on the bench and any hopes of actually winning the game were out the window. The decision not to throw on Knockaert in particular was baffling given that March could have been the first man in football history to manage a negative pass completion rate.

Remarkably, Hughton came out afterwards and said we were going for the second goal. He must have been on a strong batch of LSD given we didn’t create any chance of any note for the final hour of the game and for most of that time we were defending deeper than the current location of one of Southampton’s most famous sons, the Titanic. Against an under pressure side booed off by their fans at the break and who looked there for the taking in the first 15 minutes, we were happy to defend our way to a draw. These were levels of negativity not seen since the days when the great Mark McGhee was in the hot seat and trips to St Mary’s were more memorable for players being thrown off the team coach than the football.

Anyone clamouring for a managerial change must be taking an even bigger dosage than LSD than Hughton has to claim we went for the win. Even if we lose every game between now and the end of the season, Hughton should remain Brighton boss as there is no man better qualified to bring us back up from the Championship again if it comes to it.

But none of that means he is above criticism. Last night was a real chance for three points but his over-conservatism means it wasn’t taken. See Newcastle United away. See Southampton at home. See Eveton at home. His use of substitutions is also an area that needs looking at as you can say with worrying predictably when the changes will come, and it is always after 70 minutes which often leaves too little time to have any effect.

Warren Aspinall reckons we need seven points out of 12 from these four consecutive games against our fellow strugglers. That seems about right. A point at Southampton is a good start, but it won’t be if come 5pm on Saturday we haven’t beaten West Ham United.

Stick your house on a draw.