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Southampton V Fulham The Verdict

This was perhaps our best chance of getting that vital point, but again we saw good work undone by a collapse in the final stages and another injury time goal conceded, the same old issues were still there to see.

I did not disagree with Simon Rusk's starting line up, he didn't change much and kept it simple for the players on the pitch to keep it tight and know what they were doing.

One change was of course Ross Stewart in up front in place of Tall Paul, worth a try if nothing else.

Saints weathered the early Fulham bluster and then took the lead after 14 minutes with a deft Jack Stephens header, in fairness to Jack over the years, if he has a trademark goal, this has been it and it was a perfect header.

But there were still 76 minutes left on the clock and would we have the ability to defend it.

The answer was for a while yes, we dug in, rode our luck at times and were good value in keeping the lead and could have doubled it on a couple of occasions.

But the problem was that as legs tired we dropped deeper and deeper back, by the time Fulham levelled the score on 72 minutes, they had made 3 substitutions and we had made just the one, Cameron Archer coming on in place of Ross Stewart.

That was a change up front, understandable, but having go to 70 minutes, you could see that we needed fresh legs to combat the Fulham midfield who were now taking command, we had Joe Aribo, we had Will Smallbone, both capable of holding the centre of the midfield, but they never got on.

Critically one of the subs that Fulham had made was Smith-Rowe who popped up with the equaliser, a game changer from the bench and we had no one bar perhaps Tyler Dibling.

Tyler Dibling did get on shortly after the equaliser, a fair enough change from one point, in that he offered an attacking outlet, but we needed to shore up the waves of attacks from the visitors, we needed experience and we needed some defensive midfielders.

With 5 minutes to go we brought on James Bree, a defender to join the 5 other defenders who were still on the pitch, it was clear that the bus had been parked on the edge of our penalty area, it was just a wall of defenders and we could not release the pressure.

It was gutting when Fulham hit the winner in the 2nd minute of injury time, but when you look at the replay, most of the 6 defenders on the pitch were stood marking thin air, certainly not Sessegnon who had a free header, ironically from a cross from another of their substitutes Adama Traore.

This felt like the worst defeat of the season, it was just sickening, but it highlighted the problem all season, a lack of quality and more importantly a lack of leadership on the pitch.

I understand why Adam Lallana isn't in the squad as he is assisting Simon Rusk, but he was the one player in the stadium that we truly needed, an experienced leader to hold the team together, someone who could organise and urge others on.

There were good points to be taken though, the fact that we competed for virtually the whole game again, but teams like Fulham are packed full of athletes who muscle you out and play to a formula paced on winning the ball and attacking at speed, our team can't compete with that, we looked like kids compared to the Fulham side, no one can accuse our side of a lack of effort, but they are not big enough, strong enough or to be blunt fit enough and we don't have fresh legs that can change that when needed.

The bench was full of defenders and midfielders, only Cameron Archer a recognised forward, but it was more about the players not in the squad for various reasons, how we could have used Adam Armstrong, Shea Charles and even Sam Edozie on Saturday, all out on loan.

Why is there no space for Ryan Fraser, Charlie Taylor, Armel Bella-Kotchap & Albert Gronbaek, all experienced top flight players

But it is what it is, we need to keep striving for that point and next week we travel to Leicester, a team in freefall, just 1 draw in the last 11 games, and their record before that isn't much better, they haven't even scored a goal at home in the League since 8th December , what could possibly go wrong !

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