itsbeautifuloutside

Southampton 1

• Lambert 57'

Basically, I am going to paste in from a thread on the IBO Forum, that Simmo started for my opening statement, because spot and Ivan pretty much nailed it. The only surprise at the beginning was that mad Arthur was completely missing And Davis started in his place, No idea why?

spot says: "Main problem seemed to be Begovic. He kept getting in the way when we were trying to score. Thought J-Rod looked out of sorts. Also we could try using boots with studs next term so our players spend less time on their arses."

Ivan says: "It was very average, another example of completely failing to break down a team happy with a point from the off. Add it to the file including: West Ham/West Brom/QPR/Wigan/Swansea/Sunderland/Naarch

Some decent performances in there, but some poor ones too."

However, I will waffle a bit obviously, I mean, it's expected…

Player Scores :

Davis : did okay, not sure if he couldn't have got to the goal but by and large did okay whilst that herd of wildebeest they call a Stoke team tried to trample all over him during dead ball situations. 6/10, Did enough.

Clyne : quite positive going forward and there was a very interesting bit where he hurdled and onrushing wildebeest (that looked like he wanted to do him very much harm) and then kind of passed the ball into nothing… Very axiomatic of this game actually, We were better than them and then we did nothing with it. 6/10.

Fonte : I thought he did reasonably well today, he certainly didn't look out of place. I'm not sure who was picking up Crouch for the goal but by and large I thought Jose did Okay and tried to drive the team forward by advancing up the pitch well past the halfway line on numerous occasions. Whilst his efforts were not unremarked, they weren't remarkable In that regard (which is probably why he's a defender). 7/10, for me he was the most competent of the central defence although that is with the caveat that Jos was the battering ram and did all the rough stuff and falling over etc.

Hooiveld : fell over, a lot, Still, Fought his way fearlessly through the wildebeest and did adequately if not outstandingly. 6/10, what the hell were they doing for studs in this game?

Shaw : didn't look himself although there were flashes, going forward he was disjointed today and he definitely let the cross come in for the Goal although he wasn't getting much cover At this point so he was pretty much on his own. Certainly not his best performance 5/10, he'll be better when he is rested.

Cork : did a lot of cleaning up after the others, very industrious and very effective in defence from the midfield. Tried to pass forward as well but as we all know, this is not necessarily his forte. We looked susceptible when he went off as he did a really effective job of tidying up after Crouch got hit by the ball, all of a sudden Crouch became a playmaker for Stoke when Corky went off but there was enough energy left to deal with that from the others. 8/10, efficient and now needs to work on his attacking game all summer to really Cement his place as one of the best pair of midfielders in the premiership.

Schneiderlin : he was pretty awesome today. Not quite the attacking force we have seen this year from him but saying that, he ruled that midfield. Honestly, awesome in a pretty tired and mediocre example of football. 8/10, If he could have got on the end of something It would have really been the perfect end to a great season for him.

Davis : lots of running, I'm starting to believe this is really the kind of player we should expect Pooch to bring in, he likes interesting a lot and he uses Him a lot as well, it's just a shame he's not a little bit more effective in the final third. For me today he didn't do enough, there were flashes and I could see what he was trying to do but he just didn't quite have it 5/10.

Possession

• Southampton 52%
• Stoke 48%

Shots

• Southampton 11
• Stoke 7

On target

• Southampton 7
• Stoke 3

Corners

• Southampton 3
• Stoke 4

Fouls

• Southampton 9
• Stoke 7