And with that, I’m gone. It’s been a blast. Bye!
And Mauricio Pellegrino also does some talking:
I think it was a chaotic game, in different terms. OK, we conceded a couple of, in my opinion, soft goals, after after we changed a little bit to play more direct, because they are really compact, and we put Dusan behind the two strikers, and after equalising we conceded another goal really quick, and after this I think we were in our best moment. In these 20 minutes we could win the game, but also we could lose the game. The feeling is, OK, maybe we could win, we could lose, but for the manager to see this type of game with a lot of different moments, I don’t like.
In some aspects yes, in others no. OK, I think Newcastle won a lot of second balls, but other things I think we have to improve in defence, because we are conceding every single game at home some goals, and goals we can avoid.
I think the game was really tough but with good intentions, on the part of both teams. I have to congratulate my players, how we react, but we have to improve in essential parts of the game. I think it’s one point, it’s not the best for us, but in how we concede the first and the second goals, I think a point is a positive way.
Rafa Benitez speaks:
I think during the game you could see that we could get the three points. After with the penalty, they were pushing. It was quite difficult, but we finished strong and we could have scored at the end. Difficult, but at least we get a point and we finished with ambition.
We did well, but still we conceded two goals so something was wrong. We have to keep working hard, keep improving, and my big disappointment was a pity for the fans. To bring 3,500 fans away, this distance and on a Sunday, we could have won three points and they would be happier.
We are fine, but we can be better and we have to be better and hopefully we will be better. We have to defend better, don’t concede two goals, attack better, to score more than two, keep the ball a bit better, but I’m still very happy with the team.
Dusan Tadic talks to Sky:
Second half we played more direct. We scored a quick goal and then we conceded a goal and after that we showed character to come back. I think we can play in different ways. also in the last couple of games we played with a No10. We created a lot of chances and didn’t score many goals. We can be dangerous in lots of ways. We came back, it’s good for character, but I think we can play much, much better and we will show that as the season goes, I think.
Manolo Gabbiadini also spoke, but his English remains basic and it would be mean to quote him. Suffice to say that he is “very happy” to have scored some goals.
So Manolo Gabbiadini, starting his first game for over a month, celebrated by remembering how to score, and then he did it again, twice dragging Southampton back from behind. It was a bad day for Fraser Forster, a lucky day for DeAndre Yedlin, and a reasonable day for everyone else. The point takes Southampton 10th, while Newcastle remain ninth.
Final score: Southampton 2-2 Newcastle
90+6 mins: Ritchie’s corner is headed clear by Van Dijk, and the referee’s whistle blows!
90+6 mins: Newcastle end the game on the front foot. Murphy’s curler is headed wide. Another corner.
90+5 mins: Into added time at the end of added time. Yedlin’s cross from the right is headed clear. Then Ritchie’s cross from the left is kicked clear.
90+3 mins: Shelvey attacks, and though he’s tackled the ball falls to Gayle, and a good pass would have put Shelvey through! It’s not a good pass.
90+1 mins: We will have four minutes or so of stoppage time, but the first two of them are taken up by physios.
90 mins: It’s all going now. Southampton break and scream downfield, and suddenly the ball is bouncing about the Newcastle area and being randomly headed and booted in various directions. In the mayhem, Ritchie and Hayden clash heads and go down.
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89 mins: Goal-line clearance! Newcastle come forward and win a corner, Lejeune wins the header, and Davis is on hand to boot it clear!
88 mins: Southampton continue to push, and win themselves a corner. Bertrand crosses and it loops limply to Elliot.
86 mins: Boufal finds the overlapping Bertrand, whose cross is pushed clear by Elliot. The crowd roars. For perhaps the first time all day, they seem to believe.
83 mins: Boufal sends a tricksy exaggerated backheel straight into touch.
@Simon_Burnton You thought that was cynical from Long? He basically kicked the ball out of play, and Lejeune tripped him for no good reason
— Port of Brandon (@portofbrandon) October 15, 2017
When Long suddenly stopped it was only so as to ensure he was taken out. It’s like deliberately slamming on the brakes while you’re driving, just so the driver of the car behind you crashes into you and you can get lots of cash from their insurers. Of course, it is their fault – they should have left enough stopping distance – but it’s still not really cricket.
82 mins: Charlie Austin replaces Long for Southampton, which seems a popular move. Newcastle bring Murphy on for Atsu.
79 mins: Hayden is booked for clattering into Lemina after the ball has gone.
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78 mins: Newcastle have come out of their shell a bit since the goal. A fine ball into the box finds Gayle, who taps back to Ritchie, who blasts a shot into the nearest defender’s face.
77 mins: Gabbiadini is booked for a thing.
2 - Manolo Gabbiadini has scored more goals in this game (2) than he had in his previous 15 @premierleague appearances (1). Renaissance. pic.twitter.com/5DKx8ecGtS
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 15, 2017
77 mins: Newcastle pump the ball into the area, and Lejeune heads weakly goalwards. Forster collects, to wild and ironic cheers.
GOAL! Southampton 2-2 Newcastle (Gabbiadini penalty, 75 mins)
That’s a super penalty, sent high into the side-netting to the taker’s right!
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Southampton have a penalty!
74 mins: That’s a bit cynical from Long, and silly from Lejeune. Long trades passes with Boufal and then just stops; Lejeune doesn’t, and thus runs right into him.
73 mins: Yoshida has the ball, 10 yards inside Newcastle’s half. He looks up, sees lots of blue shirts and passes backwards, to widespread disgruntlement.
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70 mins: Ritchie’s free-kick from the right is headed partially clear, and Lejeune, off-balance, shanks a shot comically high.
69 mins: Newcastle bring Gayle on and Joselu off. “Can someone explain to me how Fraser Forster does not get roundly lambasted in the same manner as Claudio Bravo did last year?” asks Matt Loten. “Is it the fact that he didn’t come in to the Southampton side at the expense of another English keeper, á la Bravo and Hart? Or the fact that he is at a ‘lesser’ club, and therefore press and pundits just aren’t paying a great deal of attention? I cannot fathom how a player as consistently poor over the last 18 months as Forster has been has not missed a single league game in that time. Southampton’s backup keepers must be absolutely shocking.” He’s getting plenty of criticism, though what he really deserves and needs is some time out of the limelight, and the team.
"Forster hasn't covered himself in glory" - Claridge
— BBC 5 live Sport (@5liveSport) October 15, 2017
Was he at fault for #NUFC's second goal?#SOUNEW ⚽️ 📻 https://t.co/SrTTGubbgu pic.twitter.com/jFgu3PZh0a
67 mins: A second Southampton switch: Steven Davis comes on for Oriol Romeu.
66 mins: In theory, Merino’s arrival means Shelvey is now a little more advanced. In practice this means he is now spending most of the match standing 20 yards outside his own penalty area, rather than 10.
63 mins: A change for Newcastle: Perez is off, and Mikel Merino is on.
63 mins: Southampton have had 68% of possession in the last 10 minutes. Newcastle ignore that, spring downfield, Atsu tricks his way into space on the left and passes to Ritchie, whose 30-yard shot is deflected wide.
60 mins: Gabbiadini, with Lejeune at his back, goes down in the area. The referee gives Newcastle a free kick, to the striker’s fury, but he had a fistful of shirt there and was tugging it wildly.
59 mins: Boufal, with his first touch, turns deliciously away from Ritchie. He may do nothing else today, but that was very nice.
57 mins: Southampton take Redmond off, and bring on Sofiane Boufal.
56 mins: It is not a second booking. That was an obvious and undeniable cautionable offence as you will ever see.
55 mins: Yedlin, booked for dissent in the first half, takes out Redmond. Surely this is a second booking?
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54 mins: One minute and 26 seconds divided the goals.
52 mins: That does not look good for Fraser Forster, who should really have held on to the first shot, should certainly not have just shovelled it back to his opponent, and even then should probably have saved the follow-up.
GOAL! Southampton 1-2 Newcastle (Perez, 51 mins)
Well that didn’t last long! Ritchie plays in Perez, whose low first-time shot isn’t great but isn’t held. The ball rolls back to Perez, who slams it in from an acute angle!
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GOAL! Southampton 1-1 Newcastle (Gabbiadini, 49 mins)
Redmond picks out Gabbiadini’s run into the box but his first touch takes him wide. He gets to the byline, pauses, turns around again, runs back to the edge of the area and then, just when it looked like he was mucking about and wasting everybody’s time and would never ever pass the ball to anyone ever again, shoots low into the near corner!
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47 mins: Newcastle hit the bar! Perez has the ball on the right, falls over, seems to have lost it, gets up again and runs off with the ball. Joselu pokes a toe at his cross and sends the ball looping up, over Forster, and down onto the woodwork.
46 mins: Peeeep! Newcastle start half two.
It has, in short, been a textbook away performance from Newcastle. The players come out for the second half, and Southampton need to change the game.
Half time: Southampton 0-1 Newcastle
Newcastle sat back, defended deep, randomly scored and then sat back and defended deep again, only more so. More boos greet the whistle, as Southampton trudge off.
45+1 mins: There will be but a single minute of stoppage time.
45 mins: Newcastle have a throw-in, deep in Southampton’s half. It’s thrown to Joselu, who has nobody anywhere near him as he spins and volleys goalwards. That would have been the world’s least excusable goal had it gone in, rather than looping tamely high.
42 mins: A quick rat-a-tat passing exchange around the area ends with Redmond sliding to Long, 16 yards out. He’s immediately pounced upon by three defenders, and his shot is deflected up into the air, and his header bounces to Elliot.
41 mins: Lovely work from Tadic on the left, twisting this way and that before eventually squirming into space. His cross, though, is rubbish.
40 mins: Bertrand finds Tadic with a low pass into the area, but he is immediately closed down by two defenders, and the ball deflects wide.
38 mins: Newcastle end a lengthy cycle of clearance-cross-clearance-cross when Perez clatters Yoshida. Free kick.
36 mins: Southampton have had 65% of possession but still no shot on target. Long has a half-chance in the area and swings his boot, but Hayden blocks.
34 mins: Newcastle, goal tucked firmly in their pocket, are defending deep and in numbers. Southampton are yet to figure out a way through.
30 mins: Yoshida passes straight into touch, and Sky’s microphones pick up a few boos.
28 mins: Southampton win a free-kick, 40 yards out. They spend a while getting everyone in position, and then they try a tricky, training-ground-honed routine. It does not go well: Redmond, the taker, passes straight to a defender.
25 mins: Ritchie passes long and low towards Perez but Yoshida gets there first, only to fall over, his ankle possibly clipped. The assistant, standing three yards away, does not think there was a foul and the Newcastle man starts sprinting goalwards, but Kevin Friend, 50 yards away, blows his whistle!
22 mins: Now Southampton have a corner. Elliot runs out to claim it but fails, and Van Dijk heads across an empty net and wide!
22 mins: That was a lovely, clean strike from Hayden. Forster had already dived in response to Atsu’s shot, and was given no time to prepare for another.
GOAL! Southampton 0-1 Newcastle (Hayden, 20 mins)
Newcastle lead! Ritchie’s deflected cross finds Atsu, whose half-volley is deflected back to Hayden, whose first-time shot from 20 yards rifles into the net!
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19 mins: Newcastle win a corner, and though Ritchie’s centre finds Lascelles, the header loops harmlessly to Forster.
17 mins: The ball is passed back to Forster, whose first touch is poor and whose reaction is dozy. Perez closes him down, and the goalkeeper eventually blasts his clearance into the Newcastle man and is lucky to see it bounce harmlessly off the pitch.
16 mins: A chance! Van Dijk carries the ball out of his half, Redmond crosses from the left, and Tadic, beyond the far post, heads over the bar when he might have nodded back across and presented either Gabbiadini or Long with a tap-in.
15 mins: Tadic cuts inside from the left, and lashes a shot over the bar from 30 yards.
12 mins: “I am doing my own red button function and am watching only van Dijk (when he is in the frame obviously),” writes Ian Copestake. “I find that he is majestic.” I too find that his movements, just when strolling around the back-line or quietly covering opposition runs, are unusually graceful. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a brilliant defender, mind.
10 mins: Shelvey offloads the ball in midfield, after which Romeu arrives and bulldozes him to the ground. It looked like a booking, it smelt like a booking, yet somehow it isn’t a booking.
9 mins: And a shot! The corner is headed to Atsu, on the edge of the area, whose low left-footer hits the side netting.
8 mins: And a good move from Newcastle: Perez flicks the ball to Ritchie in midfield and runs down the right for the return pass. His cross is turned behind for a corner.
7 mins: Newcastle are now playing their part, though that Redmond cross apart, the two penalties have remained resolutely unentered. Except for back-passes.
5 mins: Newcastle win the ball from the keeper’s punt forwards and raid down the left. It ends with a Southampton throw-in, but it’s something.
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5 mins: Elliot just just taken a goal kick, which puts him ahead of most of his team-mates, who haven’t so much as touched the ball yet.
3 mins: Southampton did the kicking off, and have done pretty much all the kicking since then. Newcastle have at least done some heading, Manquillo nodding Redmond’s cross away from danger.
1 min: They have kicked off.
They are about to kick off.
They are no longer in the tunnel.
The players are in the tunnel. Big moments.
Now it’s Rafael Benitez’ turn to talk:
I know him really well. I think he’s a good manager. He was a good player obviously. I wish him all the best, after this game. It depends always on players. You can organise whatever you want but if you have players playing well it is easier to win.
[Asked if Southampton’s lack of goals might make Newcastle’s task easier] Yes but in the Premier League you can suggest Crystal Palace aren’t scoring any goals and they beat Chelsea. We have to approach the game like anyone, knowing we are playing against a good team.
Mauricio Pellegrino talks to Sky, and stubbornly refuses to answer questions about his relationship with Rafael Benítez in any meaningful way:
We were trying this week with another striker. i think we need another body close to Shane, to be together there, because I think we are dominating, we are creating chances. We will try today and hopefully it will be a good day for us. My concern is trying to create chances, how to penetrate them, how to manage possession, the tempo of the game. If we do all of these things, the goal is a consequence of the performance on the pitch.
It’s Southampton against Newcastle. Rafa is a person that I respect, because he helped me a lot in my life as a player, and as a coach. Hopefully it could be a good game. I think we are doing good things, the right things. The problem is results sometimes change the opinion around the team. We have to analyse, be quiet, be patient and try to support the team. In 90% of things I am happy with our job.
Southampton bring in Manolo Gabbiadini for Steven Davis, with the Italian tasked with partnering Shane Long, who wasn’t fit enough to play for Ireland in the week but has recovered from hip-knock in time to start. Newcastle, meanwhile, bring in Lejeune and Hayden and ease out Clark and Merino.
The teams!
The team sheets are in, and these are the names upon them:
Southampton: Forster, Cedric, van Dijk, Yoshida, Bertrand, Romeu, Lemina, Long, Tadic, Redmond, Gabbiadini. Subs: Hoedt, Davis, Austin, McCarthy, Ward-Prowse, Boufal, McQueen.
Newcastle: Elliot, Yedlin, Lascelles, Lejeune, Manquillo, Shelvey, Ritchie, Hayden, Perez, Atsu, Joselu. Subs: Clark, Murphy, Gayle, Diame, Merino, Darlow, Jesus Gamez.
Referee: Kevin Friend.
The teams are in!
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) October 15, 2017
Here's how #SaintsFC line-up to face #NUFC this afternoon in the #PL: pic.twitter.com/X0rNFJlXUJ
TEAM NEWS: Here's how Newcastle United will line up at @SouthamptonFC in the @premierleague this afternoon (kick-off 4pm BST). #NUFC pic.twitter.com/hgz8tFwbKI
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) October 15, 2017
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Hello world!
So, this is a big game. No, really, it is. Southampton, you see, have 14 more league games to play in this calendar. The final 10 of those include fixtures against all of last season’s top seven and visits to Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United. Before that run begins, they play Newcastle (h), West Brom (h), Brighton (a) and Burnley (h). Seventh in the league as we approach this game (and potentially eighth by the time they kick off), they could do with getting some points on the board. “The game on Sunday is really important for us,” said Mauricio Pellegrino. See, I told you. He then added puzzlingly: “Obviously I would like to win as much as we can, but the position right now doesn’t mean anything, because the conclusion has to be at the end, and the conclusion is at the end.”
Newcastle, meanwhile, are enjoying a gentle reintroduction to top flight life. Fully 71% of their opponents so far are in the bottom half of the table, and so are three of the next four (the other being Burnley). A glance at the head-to-head record doesn’t make very encouraging reading for them, though: their last four visits here have seen the Saints win 3-1, 4-0, 4-0 again and 2-0 (the last time Newcastle kept a clean sheet in a top-flight game here was in 1969, 26 matches ago), and Rafael Benitez has a 0% record in his three Premier League games at St Mary’s.
Anyway, and most importantly, hello!
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