| Southend United 1 Southampton 3: An Adam Lallana brace on a slippery Roots Hall pitch helped see the Saints march on to their first away win of the season. |
With the rain pouring down in south east Essex into the early evening this game could have gone either way, but the breaks went to the away side who in the end deserved the three points but were made to fight all the way by a hard working Shrimpers side.
Seeing the size of the Southampton side as the marched on to the pitch soon saw a positional change from an unchanged Southend team from the one that beat Stockport last weekend.
Simon Francis moved into the centre, allowing the smaller Osei Sankofa to escape the land of the giants and feel relatively safe at right back.
Blues midfielder Alan McCormack was the only player wearing a black armband and whatever was on his mind affected his game as he was well below par.
The awful weather hadn't dampened the atmosphere inside Roots Hall with the Blue Voice in fine form amongst the slightly disappointing crowd of 8,281 with a fair turn out from the south coast.
You could have guessed as early as the 6th minute that maybe this was not to be Southend's day when home keeper Steve Mildenhall made a smart save from an unmarked Rickie Lambert header, clearly having two hands on the ball.
All eyes moved down field expecting a boot down the field. Instead it was hugging Southampton players and angry Shrimpers chasing the ref to know how a goal had been given.
My spies towards the south end of the west stand tell me the wet ball slipped out of Big Steve's grasp and was bundled into the net by Neal Trotman.
Lee Barnard, who has a swagger about him nowadays, the confidence borne of a man whose found the net 100 times already, hit a shot straight into the arms of veteran Saints keeper Kelvin Davis.
Mildenhall then made a fine double save from Adam Lallana who was put clean through on goal and seeming odds-on to make it 2-0. Brilliant work by the Southend shot stopper.
Captain Adam Barrett then went up the other end to shoot straight at Davis before ex-loanee left back Dan Harding, now with the Saints, decided to bring down Francis Laurent in the 27th minute.
Up stepped new left back George Friend, 25 yards out and the exact same spot that Harding scored himself against Leeds a year ago, to strike the ball home off the crossbar and a flapping Davis.
However, you felt the away side was continually breaking out of defence with speed and finding the front players through fine passing movements, in fact looking like a Tilson Blues side when at their best.
Then poor defending by Francis only five minutes after the equaliser saw the ball go straight to Morgan Scheirderlin, whose shot got a fortunate deflection off Lallana and with Mildenhall going in the opposite direction, the ball ended up in the net.
The home support was moving out of their seats as half-time approached when Lallana again scored, this time with a fine strike from over 20 yards after a long Davis clearance, the ball finding the right hand corner of the net giving Mildenhall no chance.
Mass Southampton defence for the second half with some panic clearances at times. You could see this was a team yet to win away from home.
And if Francis had scored from a corner, his goal bound header saved on the line by, who else, Mr. Harding, we might have had an interesting finish.
However, the Saints continued to break well with the wonderful named Papa Waigo N'Daiye seeing his shot well blocked by Friend and having Scheirderlin booked for diving in the penalty area.
Roy O'Donovan, on for Francis Laurent who once again couldn't repeat oustanding form from one match to the next, had a good shot turned away for a corner but overall there was little real penetration by United who fell to their second successive home defeat.
Southend Player Markings: Mildenhall - 7, Sankofa - 6, Francis - 7, Barrett - 7, Friend - 7, Laurent - 5 (O'Donavan - 5), Grant - 7, McCormack - 5 (Christophe - 6), Moussa - 7, Freedman - 5 (Sawyer - 6), Barnard - 7.
| Coca-Cola League One, Friday, 9th October 2009 @ 19:45; Roots Hall |
| | |  |  |  | | Friend 27
| | Trotman 6
Lallana 32, 45
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| | | 12 | Goal Attempts | 12 | | 7 | On Target | 10 | | 5 | Off Target | 2 | | 0 | Hit Woodwork | 0 | | 1 | Offsides | 1 | | 6 | Corners | 6 | | 10 | Fouls | 12 |
| | | Referee | | G Hegley, Hertfordshire - 7 | | Attendance | | 8281 |
| | Southend Utd. Cards | | (none) | | Southampton Cards | | Harding | 26 | unsporting behaviour | | Schneiderlin | 54 | unsporting behaviour |
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