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Southampton At Tottenham Hotspur The Verdict

Very much a game of two halves at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Saints dominated the first and then struggled in the second.

It is very easy these days to rant and rave about Saints, no one can deny that the last few months have been unacceptable, although they have also seen us reach and FA Cup semi final and lose narrowly to one of the top teams in the Premier League this season.

But last night's defeat at Spurs probably had everything that has been good or bad about this season in the space of 90 minutes.

Ralph Hasenhuttl rang the changes, five to be exact from the starting XI at Wembley on Sunday and for the first half they appeared to be working, we dominated the game and had several chances to take the lead including a superb double save from Lloris in the home goal.

When Danny Ings glanced home a header in the 30th minute things were looking good, but there were already some ominous signs on the horizon, and for all our possession we just didn't seem to have luck on our side, the ball wasn't bouncing for us.

The second half saw Spurs start to dominate, but for all their possession in the main we defended well and looked quite comfortable, but the game swung in the 57th minute when Danny Ings had a shot and pulled up immediately and went off.

Three minutes later and we were behind and it took an exceptional goal from ex Saint Gareth Bale to put things level.

Clearly we were now feeling the pace having played a tough game at Wembley only three days earlier where Spurs had had five days rest, but they didn't overrun us, they had plenty of the ball but they rarely threatened Alex McCarthy's goal, the defence was covering him well and Mohamed Salisu at left back was coping in the main with Bale.

There was a scare when Spurs appeared to have scored, but it was quite rightly ruled out with a home player clearly impeding the view of McCarthy.

But as we entered the last 4 minutes of the game we appeared to have weathered the storm, but then came a moment of madness when we failed to clear the ball properly and Moussa Djenepo made a rash challenge on the edge of the box which was originally given outside, VAR spent a lot of time debating and called the ref to make a decision and he rued inside, truthfully I couldn't tell having watched it maybe 10 times on a wide screen tv so not sure how the ref could give it.

That meant that an incident in the 86th minute saw a penalty converted just before the 90, it's gone now, but VAr should be there to sort out the obvious not spend 3 minutes or more drawing lines, VAR is a good thing, but it has to be accepted it is there to sort out 75% of controversial incidents quickly and not spent a lot of time looking at the other 25%.

The penalty was despatched and we lost the game and it would be easy to go on to social media and start the aftermath ranting.

But it should be noted that given the circumstances Saints put up a battle against a team chasing a Champions League spot and almost got there, if we had got to the fina whistle and drawn it would have been seen as a good result, perhaps a corner turned.

But a rash challenge on the edge of the area changed the game and suddenly we go from a decent point to ranting about the manager's ability to pick and motivate a team.

I don't blame Djenepo, he had to make the challenge it was just rash, but the game is littered with moments like this where a moment of madness costs points and costs managers their jobs.

If we take a good look at what went on I would say this, it was a game of two halves as previously stated, in the second we were on the back foot a lot, but we kept our shape and didn't let the overrun us , they had three shots on target during the entire game, we weren't hanging on, we were running on empty but we kept running and kept battling, James Ward Prowse covered 12 kilometres, that is over 7 miles.

Yes at times we gave the ball away too much and that didn't help but in the main we played as a team and when we lost the ball we got behind it and made sure we didn't pay the price.

Ralph Hasenhuttl must be tearing his hair out, what can he do, this team last night were playing for the manager and put in the effort, but we just don't seem to have luck on our side.

I still believe in Ralph, we have to get through to the end of the season and pick up a few more points that gets us over the line and safe from lingering relegation fears, we are quite capable of doing that.

It is what it is, we now have to start to look towards next season, we know the squad has some weak links, but in the main we have individual players out of form, not individual players who are out of their depth.

Unlike the West Brom defeat where there was little to praise, this was a game that showed that we still have what it takes, but we ran out of steam in the second half, we have to ask why, perhaps we have had to wrap players in cotton wool during the injury crisis when we were down to the bare bones, perhaps we have not been able to train with the same intensity and that has lead to a lack of stamina.

But we have to get up dust ourselves down and move on, if only for the fact that it is all we can do, we can moan about the things that we can't change, but we need to concentrate on those we can.

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