Once again we saw a spell of dominance and good play by a Southampton side completely undone by lapses of concentration & shoddy play, we are dropping points due to the same things every week, where will it all end.
This is the second attempt at writing this verdict, the first disappeared into the ether due to a computer issue and that is perhaps for the best as in truth I am sick of moaning about the same old issues after every game and then writing about it again the following week, i could almost save a template for each Verdict and just change the names to suit.
So I am certainly not going to write the same article twice in one day, so this is a lot shorter and to the point than the last one, but the conclusion is still the same.
We have all watched this game either by being at the ground, on TV and also the highlights or perhaps I should say lowlights, some of us were perhaps masochistic enough to have done both.
This was a game that once again saw a better quality team fail to beat one that was of inferior quality, due to the fact that the opposition, were better drilled, better organised and had leadership both on and off the pitch.
One that knew what it's task was, played to a system and was highly motivated, that description cannot be applied to Will Still's Southampton side.
So why after 11 games are we sitting 17th in the table, with the possibility of dropping down further and finding ourselves only 4 points off the relegation zone ?
The answer is everything that Bristol City were last night, motivated, organised, well drilled, we are not, they were a team, we are a group of individuals who are thrown together.
Harsh, but I think true !
Will Still is having a lot of bad luck, he had a lot last night, but that is the least of our problems, he may well be happy with the stats last night, 67% possession, more shots and for that matter shots on target than the home side and of course a higher xG, however that is calculated.
But again the stat that matters is not in our favour, so the problem isn't the quality it is the application.
We are a team that plays the way it does without belief that it is the best way, when you have 3 different players making mistakes for 3 goals, that is not bad luck, it is symptomatic of the belief that the players have in the system and to be blunt the manager !
Perhaps I am wrong, but the results and the league table support my theory rather than Will Still's.
So where do we go from here, what does Johannes Spors do next, I would beggar this question, if Will Still had arrived replacing a manager who had been in place for the last 3 seasons, then I would perhaps be writing his obituary now and not this verdict, but that is not the case and if he is now sacked, then his replacement will be the 5th man in the hot seat in 10 months, this is possibly the only thing keeping him in the job at the moment, but is that right.
Now I don't enjoy writing this, far from it, I would be far happier praising Will Still as a great young coach, I would be happier having seen Saints win last night and up in the promotion race, but I am not doing that.
The manager has been given all the tools he needs to do the job, we have bought in some decent players at this level, including Tom Fellows one of the best wingers in the Championship last season & Finn Azaz who in the past 3 seasons has scored and created more chances than anyone else in his position, yet neither can get in the starting line up, Why ?
So what happens next ?
Do we keep faith in the manager, something that he does not seem to have in his own judgement at present given the chopping and changing or do we change things now.
If we do that who do we replace him with.
Ex Saints manager Dave Merrington once said to me that at any given time a manager is only 4 games from being hailed as the greatest thing or from being on the verge of being sacked.
I would think that this is the case with Still, Saints will give him another chance, but we cannot go another 4 games where we average just a point a game.
I truly hope that in 4 games time Still is repaying the faith his employers have shown in him and he is still the manager of Southampton Football Club, a team now in the top 6 or thereabouts.