A blow to Saints promotion hopes but hopefully only a temporary one as Saints throw away a great chance to win.
Saints couldnt have had a better start to the game, going ahead in the opening minutes and once again it was Billy Sharp who showed just why he is currently the most prolific finisher in the Championship after Rickie Lambert slid a ball across the box to him.
But from then on Saints although looking comfortable for most of the game, couldnt seem to get their game together against a Boro side who sensed they were in last chance saloon and so went for it, again it was the same old same old for Saints, who conceded two soft goals that really should have been dealt wit.
All season I have spoke about how our central defensive pairing seem to just make fatal errors in games that for the most part they have looked comfortable with, the equalising goal deep into first half injury time in many respects was a carbon copy of Pompey's second goal a few weeks back, a nothing cross in the area wasnt dealt with by Hooiveld whose poor header lacked power and distance and fell invitingly to the unmarked Bailey, whose shot wasnt the best in all fairness, Hooiveld should have easily blocked it, but he didnt and his attempt probably unsighted Davis who could do little.
Simiarly in the second half, Jutkiewics rattled Fonte who held on to his arm when he really had no need to as the ball was dropping over both their heads to Butterfield who would have swept up with no challenge, a needless free kick was conceded and Boro had won the game.
Certainly Saints had their moments, not least on 55 minutes when Lallana was brought down on thedge of the box by Hines, the Boro man had been shown a yellow card five minutes earlier and to be blunt the ref bottled showing him another when he really should have, if he had done so then the game would have swung in Saints favour, but it didnt.
It pains me to write this, especially because the same things are happening week in week out, but the fact is our central defenders are not good enough, or to put it bluntly they have flaws in their game which mean that they make mistakes at vital times, at this stage we really havent got much choice, but if we do get promoted this has to be a big area for improvement, I dont know what it is, because in the main both Fonte and Hooiveld are sound for the best part in all games, but they just have this flaw which means they lose concentration at vital moments, if each of them had done their job at these two vital times in the game, then we would have taken all three points.
But its all still in our hands, all we need to do now is beat Coventry and whatever the Hammers do wont be enough, get the job done and then we can worry about next season.