FAN’S VIEW  2025/26 –SOUTHAMPTON AWAY

Beforehand

Since my last FV we’d picked up four points from two home games bringing our return from the last four matches to 10 points, making us one of the Championship form teams. Given what happened at the very end of the Charlton match though I was still, almost a week later, feeling a tiny bit deflated. I don’t like knocking a player like Ciaron Brown who is one of those who absolutely puts his body on the line for the cause, but that was a moment of utter madness, there’s no getting away from it. How precious two extra points would have been at the end of the season remains to be seen.

In my mind there was also no getting away from the fact that the teams we’d been getting these points against were not of the same class as the Saints who were on even better form than us, having not lost since the 17^th of January.

Yes, I know this is a league “where anyone can beat anyone else” and all the better for that it is too, but realistically they would have to be off form somewhat and we’d have to be bang on it at the top of our game if we were to have come away with even a point.

Compared with us Southampton are massive. The cost of the squad, the wages, the ground, the fanbase and of course those goddam parachute payments to help them along the way.

You’ve probably gathered by now I wasn’t expecting much.

Southampton 2 Oxford United 0

I am not someone who gets too carried away with formations or is that quick at picking up how a team is set up. Players obviously carry out, or try their best to carry out, the instructions their manager/coach has given them but there’s 11 v 11 (usually) and I’d like to think we have guys who can adapt to whatever’s necessary given the way a game unfolds without always being told exactly what to do from the sidelines.

We’ve recently played four at the back and that’s brought rewards. We started at St Mary’s with three at centre half and two full-backs. That’s a five. I’ve called them full backs not wing backs because as far as I can recall they didn’t do any wing back stuff. We lacked width and never caused Southampton any problems down the flanks.

Matt Bloomfield will have had his reasons. I don’t know what they are. I’ve not heard his post-match interview. There’s an article in the Oxford Mail headlined “Bloomfield explains U’s formation change for Saints defeat”. I wouldn’t buy the Mail even if it cost just 5p and I’m certainly not subscribing online (and yes, I used to write the Fan’s View – a very short one each week – for that very paper back in the day). A headline such as “United told to stop work on new stadium or face enforcement action” appears to be utter nonsense. I can’t go any further because I’ve not read it so perhaps I’m wrong but I’d argue anything in quotes needs to be taken with a whole tablespoon full of salt. Wasn’t us guv, just reporting what someone else said. It’s long since I’ve trusted (most of) the press both local and national. At times it comes across as if the OM is a mouth piece for FOSB. Hardly even handed are they?

Back to the football. We’ll never know how we would have got on if the formation had not been tinkered with but without doubt the set-up we went with didn’t prove successful at the outset. The very opposite. Two goals down and not even a quarter of an hour on the clock.

The first came in the sixth minute. Israeli keeper Daniel Peretz on loan from Bayern Munich threw the ball out having acquired it following an Oxford corner. The man he found had time on the ball. Six passes were made with us sitting back and not pressing the player in possession. Nothing wrong with that per se but the seventh pass was a killer, slicing through our line of four and behind that line of five. The ball went between Ciaron Brown and Jack Currie. £8m Tom Fellows, who was almost certainly Currie’s man, cut the ball back first time and it was met by a stretching Cyle Larin inside the six-yard box. The scorer had run between Sam Long and Michal Helik. Whose responsibility was it to go with him? A case of too many cooks all round here? Would four at the back with an extra man further forward trying to cut out the supply have worked better?

That said, the pass that undid us was pure quality. We don’t deliver this type of ball. And when was the last time we scored after a seven pass move without the opposition touching the ball? We all know that’s just not our way.

I’ve got a mate who always questions Jamie Cumming whenever we let a goal in. I’m quite defensive of him. This was all a bit quick but could he have reacted that little bit sharper and taken a step towards the ball before trying to make his “body bigger”? Given some of the mistakes made by keepers in the Premier League and at Wembley at the weekend this was nothing though.

The second came from a wonderful strike of the ball by Shea Charles from 35-40 yards out after he’d been set up by a short corner routine. We had no-one anywhere near him, presumably thinking there’s no way he can score from there.

Top teams on top form score goals like these.

At this stage I – and I suspect many others in the away section – feared an absolutely demoralising tonking. That we didn’t concede further is a crumb of comfort of sorts and says something about the character of the team.

The stats are now fairly much the norm with us having 30.8% possession. We did have nine shots but only one of these was on target. The home side had 20 with seven on target. Their passing accuracy was 93.4%. We didn’t make it difficult for such a high rate to be achieved. Our percentage accuracy was 77.5%.

For a team to be effective when they have so little of the ball they need to be more clinical than possession-based outfits. With two thirds of the game gone Will Lankshear did really well to rob a defender just inside the Saint’s half. Could we have closed down in this fashion throughout and prevented them from getting a stranglehold on the game instead of sitting back? Anyway our Spurs loanee was through on goal. One on one with Peretz. All he had to do was score and we’d be back in it. He put it wide. He seemed to stumble a little bit and not get his feet quite right to do what needed to be done. The composure just wasn’t there.

There were a few other misplaced passes and bits and pieces that highlighted our inferiority when compared to those in stripes.

We could have gone further behind when Fellows hit the bar after Cumming had kept out a Ross Stewart attempt with a smart save down to his left.

There’s no way we can claim that we deserved something from the game and the margin of defeat can’t be argued with on the evidence of the 90 plus minutes. I did though think we were denied a nailed-on penalty when Stan Mills was shoved over in the penalty area. No chance, as little Oxford have had the one Championship penalty they’re allowed in any two-year period.

Have to say though that I thought we looked a bit more like a team that could play a bit of football at this level when the subs came on and we changed our formation. I’ll repeat I’m not being critical here. The manager has to deploy his troops as he feels appropriate to get the best outcome he feels possible. I don’t think he held the cards to produce a winning hand.

Southampton seemed to see our biggest threat as being long throws into the box so they moved the advertising hoardings closer to the pitch. We complained on health and safety grounds – quite rightly – and they were moved back again. We didn’t score from, nor create any genuine panic from, a long throw as far as I could tell.

There were however still some positives to be taken from the day. Like the previous weekend most results elsewhere weren’t kind to us but Pompey getting thrashed at QPR 6-1 could turn out to be rather helpful come the final reckoning.

Off the top of my head I’d say our chances of survival now stand at about 25%. There’s little point looking at all the fixtures for ourselves, Leicester, Portsmouth, WBA and Blackburn and trying to work out what the results will be to get the likely final table. Experience tells one loud and clear that it never works out like that. Plenty of twists and turns and unexpected events will occur.

The importance and backdrop to each remaining fixture will change as each game is ticked off.

Game 40. Hull at home. They’re 5^th, five points off second place and only three points ahead of Southampton, 6^th and Wrexham 7^th.

Game 41. Pompey away. They’ve only got one more point than us. Their form is dreadful. They’ve only gained one point in their last six games.

Game 42. Watford at home. In 9^th place, seven points outside a play-off slot. If they don’t win both their games before they visit, they’ll probably have nothing much to play for.

Game 43. Derby away. The Rams are 8^th just three points behind Southampton.

Game 44. Wrexham at home.

Game 45. Sheffield Wed at home. Ah! This is different. When I said earlier that anyone can beat anyone I nearly added except the Owls. I thought better of it, don’t want to tempt fate. But surely, come on. They’ve won one game all season – they beat Portsmouth at Fratton Park. They’ve gathered just one point form their last 17 games.

Game 46. Millwall away. Does it bear thinking about? As things stand the Lions are 4^th only two points behind 2^nd placed Middlesbrough although 3^rd placed Ipswich are on the same points but with a game in hand. The best-case scenario is obviously that we travel to the capital already safe. Can’t see that happening somehow. So the next best thing is that they can’t get automatic but also have secured a top six slot.

If the visit to Hampshire had been early in the season there would have been much more “new ground” focus. This was our first league game in Southampton since 1987. As we drove into the city, I recognised the turn I took a few times decades ago to see us play at the Dell. They vacated that ground in 2001 after playing there for 103 years. They’ve been at St Mary’s now for a quarter of a century. That’s scary. So truthfully not really a new ground but a new one for me, and plenty of others, to tick off.

We sold out the visitors section. There are rare occasions when I’m disappointed with our away following but on days like this, I’d argue our fans are second to none. Noise throughout, backing the team all the way, no drop off even when we went two down and nothing critical shouted at all that I heard.

The chances aren’t high, and we could easily be two divisions apart for the 2026/27 campaign, but I very much want to visit again very soon.

I quite often label the establishments we have a pint or two in before games as “top pubs”. The two we visited on Saturday very much fell into that category. I’d go as far as saying if I had to pick two within approx. 10 mins walk of each other to go back to the South Western Arms and Bookshop Ale House would be very hard to beat.

The South Western Arms is right next to St Denys station. Plenty of ales to choose from. Every one selected by our party was of great quality. Large pleasant courtyard. Interesting old hippy landlord. Wasn’t expecting it to be reggae he put on the jukebox.

Just about every pub we visit on our season long tour is unique but there are similar characters that pop up in many. There’s the guy who is clearly a local, knows other locals but is a bit of a loner and not too close to them. Happy to sit on his own drinking his beer. Happy to have a brief conversation with anyone. Not really into football but knows there’s a match on. They always ask “who we playing today?” I’ve noticed they always leave the “are” out. We weren’t wearing colours. The SWA had such a character that asked such a question. Tim B answered “Southampton”. Brilliant. Good to have you back Tim and thanks for the lift.

The Bookshop Alehouse was everything a micro pub should be. Posters on the wall included “Awesome things will happen today if you choose not to be a miserable fucker” and “Notice to political canvassers. You are wasting your time I’ll be voting loony.”