Argyle 2 Southampton 0

By: Jim | December 26th, 2008

The sense of relief – both among the fans and the players – was palpable. Six games without a win, including four defeats, were now behind us. Leave aside the moderate and nervous nature of the performance; leave aside the fact that Southampton were abject, woeful and hapless, bound indisputably for League One: today was all about the result.

Sturrock made five changes from the defeat at Barnsley – Fallon for MacLean up front; Duguid and Noone (making his first start) in the midfield for the disgraced and suspended Walton and Mackie; McNamee and Cathcart replacing Timar and Folly. For Southampton, Wotton was not even in the 16, denied what surely would have been a rapturous reception from the crowd, and apparently on his way to Brighton on loan. Without Perry, Lallana and Wright-Phillips, the Saints’ side looked woefully short of quality and experience – and so it proved.

Poortvliet has an unenviable task. Committed to the Dutch principles of passing football, in charge at a club losing a reputed £800,000 a [b]week[/b], he is having to get by on a bunch of academy kids (albeit the most prolific academy in the country) and the odd loanee. With the vultures circling (again) for the cream of their crop – Drew Surman and Adam Lallana are both apparently off next month – relegation, with or without administration, looks a certainty.

The game itself rarely threatened to lift itself above the mundane. Summerfield and Fallon (twice) had superb chances to open the scoring – Fallon’s second chance was denied by a point-blank save from Kelvin Davis – while McGoldrick really should have scored for Saints when given the freedom of Home Park at the far post. Seven minutes before half-time, though, Argyle’s pressure finally told. Noone’s long throw cannoned off a Saints defender and was headed for a corner. Noone reacted quickly and rather than shepherd it out produced a superb first-time cross which Fallon powered past Davis. Four minutes after half-time, Gallagher wriggled though from the right hand edge of the box and laid it to Fallon, whose shot was blocked by Lancashire’s hand. Summerfield grabbed the ball, and once Fallon had been treated for the injury he sustained in the challenge, drilled it into the bottom left-hand corner of Davis’s goal.

Thereafter, Argyle contrived to make life as difficult as possible for themselves. The defence and midfield sat deeper and deeper, the confidence drained out of the team and simple tasks like passing the ball and clearing their lines became challenges too far, and Southampton really should have got one back when Smith sent McGoldrick through and Larrieu first came, then changed his mind, and could only watch while McGoldricks shot struck the outside of his left hand post. Mackie replaced Noone – who was playing with a virus and who had thrown up at half-time – and MacLean, unbooed this time, came on for Gallagher who had had a wallop on the ankle early on and thereafter had played well within himself, not helped by a fussy and frequently inaccurate linesman. The two subs combined for easily the best piece of play of the whole afternoon: MacLean brought the ball down, turned and played in Summerfield who hit an instant first time ball switching play to the right and to Mackie, who took the ball on, beat his full back and hit a glorious shot, which Davis tipped away at full stretch.

Four minutes of injury time (how?) failed to trouble the Greens and the three points were secure. While mistakes had been common place, the desire and togetherness was never in doubt. The whole team lived on their nerves for the last 15 minutes and there were times when I could swear Argyle were doing their best to make things as difficult as possible for themselves. Noone’s first start showed up the best and worst of him: going forward he was a threat and an excitement, defensively it was heart-in-mouth time every time he had the option of a simple clearance or running the ball out of defence. Duguid’s return, even though he ran out of steam towards the end and made some uncharacteristic errors, was almost certainly what won us the game: his commitment and anticipation of danger getting us out of trouble on several occasions. Craig Cathcart’s return was also welcome and he slipped back into the centre of defence as though he’d never been away.

33 points – 19 away from safety. 12th – and 12 points clear of the bottom three. Relegation, never a serious prospect is now a distant, far distant, fear – and I think those who take some sort of gloomy pleasure in predicting it need to take a reality check. Similarly, the play-offs are a fantasy. We are what we are – a moderate, mid-table side in a competitive, energetic and exciting league. The January window approaches and the word is there may be a lot of activity – in and out. We will have to see. In the meantime, we go to Cardiff on Sunday, where a point would be an excellent result. And then – next stop Arsenal!