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Saints V Tottenham Hotspur The Verdict

Two teams who wanted to win the game made for a pulsating game of football in which Saints managed to salvage a draw in the dying minutes.

The answer as to whether Ralph Hasenhuttl was taking the cup seriously came in the team line up, aside from giving Angus Gunn a game in goal the outfield 10 were just about as strong as the Austrian could put out given injuries.

It was a game with action at both ends and once again VAR played a controversial part rightly denying Spurs a goal in the first half when strangely the linesman couldn't spot the Spurs man four yards behind the last Saints player.

It also got it right for Spurs actual goal, Son was neither offside nor did he foul Danso, something that VAR had to check for both offences, but it got it right and that is what mattered.

Sadly this was a goal that again we should have defended better, Spurs broke from deep and carried the ball past a couple of tackles that really should have stopped them, they had our defence in disarray and once again chasing the ball and leaving men unmarked, this time Son who strode through and placed a shot into the far corner.

On the plus point, Saints did not lose heart and came back with confidence and a desire to win.

What was got wrong though was Saints should have had a penalty when Danny Ings wriggled through and replays showed that a Spurs defender clearly moved his hand towards the ball to handle, VAR did not even look at it and should have.

Ings was at the heart of all Saints play, he had a great chance in the first half when a quick free kick saw him chest the ball past Lloris and hook it towards goal only to be denied by a goal line clearance, he also flicked across the goal only inches from the post and had a free header an inch wide when he should really have scored.

He made amends though 3 minutes from time when a great through from Hojbjerg put him through on the left and he laid the ball back for Boufal to sweep home for the equaliser.

Overall a draw was probably fair, but perhaps Saints can consider themselves unlucky as they were the better side in the final half hour and created several good chances, you felt if one had gone in a little earlier than the 87th minute Saints might have gone on to win it.

Ironically we will fancy our chances more away from home than we would at St Mary's, the Spurs goal like the Wolves goals were on the counter attack and that is something we still haven't quite learn't to handle, when sides break quickly at us from deep toooften we are disorganised and fail to pick up players.

Away from home we play deeper and that does not allow sides to catch us on the break so often and suits us as we have players who can break fast ourselves, so the old FA Cup adage is twisted a little bit for us, we have got a draw and now we can get them at their place and finish the job.

We can go there with confidence that these days we are a decent side, we just need to stay a lucky side as we are still not all we should be in certain situations defensively.

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