Nottingham Forest kept giving Southampton ways back into this crucial Premier League match, but Saints couldn’t take them and relegation now seems likely.
Well, it’s not mathematical yet, but as the weeks go by and Southampton continue to resolutely refuse to pick up any wins, to say this aloud starts to feel more like something of a comfort blanket than a cold, hard statement of fact. It does remain possible that the Saints could win all of their last three games of the season, while three of Nottingham Forest, Everton, Leicester City and Leeds United lose all of theirs, but possibility isn’t the same as plausibility and with each passing game the thought that continues to fill the mind is, “well, three of them have to fall at some point, and why shouldn’t one of them be Southampton?”
The likelihood of that three not containing this team is reducing to a singularity. Pretty soon it will be mathematical, and the opportunities to make this not so are already considerably diminished. Defeat at The City Ground would leave Southampton requiring permutations, and about their best chance going into this game was Nottingham Forest’s form, their recent win against Brighton & Hove Albion being the only bright spot amid a run of defeats which has left them in a situation which is fairly perillous in its own right.
As Southampton slide from view, their shortcomings have become all the more apparent. They explode from the stalls in this match, pressing and hassling, penning Forest back in their third of the field, but to practically no material effect whatsoever. And then a long ball releases Brennan Johnson, he passes inside for Taiwo Awoniyi, and Forest have the lead. Four minutes later it’s 2-0, Awoniyi again, with the marking being at best… vague. But Southampton aren’t a bad team. There are no bad teams at this level of professional football any more. That’s the nature of the game, these days. And three minutes later they pull one back. A lifeline, a route back into the match.
Two minutes from half-time, they concede a penalty kick. 3-1. Gibbs-White.
Early in the second half, Southampton see the whites of Nottingham Forest eyes. Five minutes in, James Ward-Prowse clips the ball over and Vojnovic Lyanco heads in. The boot is now on the other foot. A feint strain of “When The Saints Go Marching In” can be heard drifting across The City Ground amid the crackling nervous tension. Ward-Prowse has found his aim. Further free-kicks…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…