In an unwitting tribute to the great Dolly Parton, who passed away that day, Saints efforts were limited to the working day on Tuesday when sadly kick off was 7.45pm.
We were playing West Ham in the League Cup, which is sponsored by the energy drinks company Carabao. They had lost 3-1 at home to Charlton at the weekend and their manager, Nuno Espirito Santo, was starting to feel the heat early in the season. So he did what anyone would and picked a load of acadamy players and those who need a game from the first team squad with his “best” players on the bench. We picked a fairly strong side so all looked good at kick off.
That got better after 10 minutes when Leo Scienza picked up a loose clearance on the edge of the West Ham penalty area ran right across the area and placed his shot back in the left hand side of goal. 1-0 and well deserved.
That is, sadly, really where the fun stopped, West Ham grew into the game and Joel Piroe, fashioned two good chances the second of which required a strong save from Peretz. A brief period of attacking from Saints followed and a Scieza free kick was deflected wide for a corner, which teed up some comedy football. The corner was headed out to Cam Bragg whose shot appeared to be heading for the corner flag but he hit it so poorly it had massive spin on it and it became wide ball that was headed back into the area that ultimately fell to Jack Stephens but he’s a centre half so his shot went hopelessly wide when the keeper should have been at least making a save.
Could we get to half time still in the lead? Simple answer, no! A West Ham attack was broken up by an attempt to clear the ball which resulted in a corner. This was swung over and appeared to be going straight to Saints keeper Daniel Peretz, but he got his feet wrong/forgot to raise his arms/forgot he can catch it/saw a mate in the stand and let it glide over his head, where upon 19 year old Josh Ajala gratefully headed it into an empty net. Half time 1-1.
The second half started much as the first had ended with West Ham starting to control the game and sure enough 8 minutes had passed when a shot from the aforementioned Ajala fell at the feet of Jack Stephen’s who passed it back to Ajala. He gratefully shot it back through Stephen’s legs and into the corner of Saints goal.2-1.
Nuno then smelt blood and brought on 4 subs all of whom would have played for West Ham in the premier league (two were only signed in the summer, but you get my point). That changed the game completely and we were playing catch up thereafter as although we brought on a couple of first choices from the bench, the momentum was with West Ham.
This was underlined when “Taty” Castellanos made it 3-1 with 15 minutes to go and then 6 minutes from full time Jared Bowen, who should be playing in the Premier league, showed his class to bury a half chance to make the final score 4-1.
All in all a bad night and if Saints want any feedback, charging £22.50 for a mid week game with home games at either end of weeks and closing a whole stand results in a ground with poor atmosphere which must have impacted the performance. The only real singing came from a full West Ham section, which statrted more in hope than expectation have seen their starting 11, but by the end was in full voice and only made my mood worse!
Next…..Millwall who are top of the league.
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