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Southampton At Watford The Verdict Monday, 1st Sep 2025 09:17 Saints will consider this two points dropped after leading twice at Vicarage Road, but with some new signings now through the door who weren't available for the trip to Watford, we can put this one behind us and look to the future. Cameron Archer gave Saints the lead after only 10 minutes, however I was not there to see it, I was one of hundreds of Saints supporters who missed the kick off due to chaos at the turnstiles. I was there in good time or so I thought, arriving at the ground 10 minutes before kick off only to find a massive queue and one that was getting restless, the problem was that firstly Watford had caused a log jam by their filter system to search people and then with 2,300 people there were only 5 turnstiles for the away section. That would have been bad enough, but the scanning system for the tickets did not seem to be working properly, dozens of Saints fans were finding their tickets were not scanning and the stewards just sat back and did nothing, whether that was through a lack of training or they just didn't know what to do.
The situation was getting very tetchy and it was touch and go whether the situation could have escalated, as I went through the turnstiles Saints scored, it had taken me 20 minutes to get in and there were still more than a hundred fans behind me. Having taken the lead you would hope that Saints would build on it and for the rest of the first half that was the case, Watford poured forward, but we dealt with it well and seemed good value for the half time 1-0 lead. Second half was very much a repeat of the first to start with and once again it came from us being caught on the break with no cover at the back, Ryan Manning seemed to be fouled, but there was no one covering behind him and Baah picked his spot. That was a shock we had been comfortable up to that point, but Manning in midfield had 3 defenders behind him marking 1 attacker, no one had read the game and got across to cover.
But it was Manning who gave us the lead with yet another le Tissieresque freekick on 78 minutes and you then thought that would surely be it, we would batten down the hatches and see the game out. But that didn't turn out to be the case, the lead lasted only 3 minutes before N. Irankunda showed that he too had been watching videos of Le God, my first though was that the wall was not lined up properly, but watching it on video changed my mind, the wall was well places, the Watford man lifted the ball over the left hand man and into the top corner, it was a great free kick. No one can accuse Will Still of not reacting, we threw on Ross Stewart to give us 3 men up front and even Ronnie Edwards to give us height, but it was to no avail.
The final whistle saw boos from some Southampton fans, I am not sure why, we had still walked away with a point and we had got through the opening 4 fixtures after losing key players with just 1 defeat, yes things are not right, but in truth the manager in this game did not have the personnel to play anything other than a back three, he only had 1 genuine winger in Ryan Fraser and he had to play him in the centre of midfield after another mystery illness to Flynn Downes who was fit to play at 1.45pm, but falling ill by 3pm. He had had to reshuffle the pack and he did, you can say we should not have conceded the first goal, but the second was an unstoppable free kick.
The biggest thing that was obvious was our lack of pace down the wing, Ryan Manning & Mads Roerslev are not wing backs, they got forward well, but neither had genuine pace, the openings were there to exploit the space behind the Watford full backs, but we didn't have the explosive pace to do so. That will hopefully change with the arrival of Tom Fellows from West Bromwich Albion on Friday, sadly too late to play a part in this game and hopefully another winger by 7pm tonight. At the back once again Will Still changed things in an effort to stop the errors, he kept the same personnel as the Stoke game but switched Taylor Harwood-Bellis to the left and jack Stephens to the right, I'm not sure why. So this game could be said to be the last game of pre season and now the real work will begin tomorrow when Will Still knows exactly who has stayed and who has gone and more importantly who has arrived.
The last few days have seen a lot of activity with Finn Azaz, Tom Fellows, Caspar Jander, & Elias Jelert all arriving since Friday, although I am not sure why we have signed Jelert, he is a dedicated right back, but so is Mads Roerslev, they are both vying for a spot in that position in the Danish International side and now also at Southampton. Hopefully there will be one or two more coming in today. So lets not judge Will Still and his squad on the first 4 games of the season as his squad was taking shape, as we know little activity happens until the final days of the transfer window and we are now nearly through that. The first month of the season is a free pass for a manager, yes it would be nice to sit a little higher in the table, but it is early days, Will Still has come through it not with flying colours, but with enough seen to suggest that he can get us promotion. But the honeymoon period ends tomorrow and he has two weeks to work with his squad, or at least those not on International duty and start to fashion a team in the style that he wants to play. All Photos Via Reuters Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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