Saints At Newcastle The Verdict

Back in the January transfer window Saints took a gamble, they knew that there would be games that gamble would backfire on them, the result at Newcastle was one of them.

Ralph Hasenhuttl took a gamble in the January transfer window when he allowed Wesley Hoedt and Cedric Soares to go on loan and did not sign replacements, Hasenhuttl knew that his central defence was not strong enough, but he was confident that it was good enough to keep the club up, so he preferred to keep his transfer budget dry for the summer, unfortunately this would be one of the games that it would backfire.

It is fine to talk of loyalty and good club men and there is usually a reason that long serving players are just that and that is that they cannot get a better club elsewhere, that is the case with the likes of several of our central defenders and it came home to roost on Saturday at Newcastle when we handed two first half goals to Newcastle on a plate.

Tactical changes at half time from Ralph were good and we almost got back in the game, but ultimately we had made the same old mistakes with the same old culprits.

Injuries did not help the manager, but ultimately he could have had a better performance from some of his side.

We have to write off this game, ultimately Cardiff's loss and Brighton's draw did not damage us too much and our position is essentially unchanged, we just need to hit that 40 point mark and then we can prepare for next season.

This game was like many other in this campaign, reasonable overall performances ruined by individual errors and we have to grit our teeth and accept that, but next season we want more quality in the centre of our defence.

On a plus side Mario Lemina's return can only be a help in the final games.

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