After Wednesday's dismal performance against Everton fans were expecting not just a similar result but some decent attacking play to go with it. There's little doubt that Saints play best when teams look to attack and West Brom should have been perfect opponents, on a roll and with a will to prove themselves in the Premiership.
Indeed both sides started brightly and it made interesting viewing watching how Strachan's personnel changes took effect. As I've said in the most recent Editorial, Strachan has a problem in that he has no complete, all round midfielder on the books. All have strengths but are weak spots that unbalance the side. Against WBA I was surprised to see a lack of attacking midfielders. I had expected Fernandes in particular to have a lot of joy running at their defence, and especially getting to the byline. Instead Paul Telfer got the nod. Paul makes an excellent partnership with Dodd and the team is probably stronger with his presence. However he isn't an attacking option and so Saints would have to look elsewhere for inspiration. That would usually have been Anders Svensson. However the Swedish international was on the bench, while Matthew Oakley got a start.
Saints have missed Oakley. While not particularly dominant, his always puts in excellent passing and his all round vision gets the side moving in the right direction.
So, while I expected a solid Saints performance, I wasn't too sure about the number of chances we would create. This seemed especially important after the lack of opportunities on Wednesday. In the end though Saints did have the chances to win the match. There weren't a huge number of them, but they were there.
Of course being Saints, there just had to be yet another problem waiting in the wings. It's fine getting the chances, but to win you really have to put them in the net. Marians Pahars had two clear cut opportunities to take the game away from West Brom, but both finishes were poor.
On both occasions, the Latvian international was through on goal with only Hoult to beat. The first, after good work by Delap, was put wide. The second, and easier chance was held fairly comfortably by Hoult.
While having not shaken of the perception of being a motionless lump, the pedestrian James Beattie did have a header get past Hoult, only to have the ball cleared off the line by Gilchrist.
West Brom had only one good chance in the first half , but the effort form Balis, who had got past the defence went across the face of goal. Beyond that, and a couple of spells of good midfield possession in the second half, they didn't look likely to cause any problems. In fact, Saints looked like going for a win with the addition of Anders Svensson for the solid Matthew Oakley.
So it was left to Paul Jones to step in and give the home side a helping hand.
Jonah seems to be involved in calamitous situations in most seasons. While his errors are of course more noticeable than anyone else's you can't help but think that they could have been so easily avoided.
Yesterday's comedy moment saw a long range Gregan shot bounce ahead of the Saints goalkeeper. Now Jones had seen the shot coming from a fair distance, had positioned himself and had went down to collect the ball. Unfortunately, he went down too soon. The ball bounced a few yards ahead of him and Jonah found he could only get a hand to it as the ball trickled over the line.
Jones is a great shot stopper. But there are areas of his game which have needed work for a number of years. I've generally backed the Welsh number one mainly because I've always expected him to improve in those areas to become a better all round 'keeper Now, whether it has been complacency, or he had reached the peak of his abilities, or whether there is something really lacking in Saints goalkeeper coaching, I don't know. The fact remains that Jones hasn't improved a jot under certain situations and a belated attempt to rectify this upon the arrival of Niemi will not be enough for him to keep his place.
Niemi is a top notch 'keeper who I have seen on numerous occasions. While it was fair to give Jonah his chance to keep the number one jersey, I would now expect Niemi to be making his debut in the next fixture. After that, Antii will then have the pressure on himself not to lose his place. The competition will hopefully keep both 'keepers on their toes, which was the club's intention.
With Saints now trailing, Gordon Strachan had no option but to change things round. On came Brett Ormerod for Jason Dodd.
Saints never really got the benefit of having three up front as Paul Williams picked up his second yellow card and was sent off for holding back Jason Roberts.
Strachan made his final change when he had to bring on Tahar in place of Marsden to keep the team solid at the back.
Saints had failed to score against a West Brom team who did push up if the opportunity presented itself. Faced against a West Brom side trying to hold out at all costs for the win, they had no chance. A Paul Telfer shot went straight to Hoult, while James Beattie's effort form a poor Svensson freekick went miles over.
So Saints put in a another solid display and get nothing from it. We created chances which is excellent but failed to convert them. Oakley played well and there were good performances from others. However we still look lacking going forward. We should be capable of beating a team like West Brom. I worry that the lack of a real cutting edge is down to Strachan's managerial technique and coaching. I think he doesn't use Svensson to the best effect, expecting him to be another run of the mill midfielder. I understand his approach, but as I've said we don't have an all round midfielder, so why not play to the strengths we do have?
More than anyone, Saints are used to carrying attacking flair while other players fill in to compensate defensively. I'd like to see Svensson used far more in linking plays up, becoming in effect our playmaker. Now, while we shouldn't become dependant on it to the exclusion of all else, it has to be better than the desperate thumps up to Beattie I keep seeing. Oakley, Marsden and Telfer have all good defensive capabilities so I've no doubt they could act as cover from a more dynamic approach.
I'm a lot more optimistic about things than I should be given the results. Pahars will put those chances away in future games, so I've no real criticisms. Jones will be a better player for having been replaced by Niemi.
We have strength in defence to handle Williams dismissal. A midfield of Marsden, Oakley, Svensson (as playmaker, please) and Telfer looks good especially when you have the pace of a Fernandes to use as a more attacking option. Delap too, while not in my first eleven can do an excellent job in a number of positions as can the underrated Jo Tessem.
Things will get better, I just hope it's sooner rather than later.
Teams:
West Brom: Hoult, Gregan, Moore, Gilchrist, Balis, Wallwork (Sigurdsson 45), Johnson, Koumas (Dichio 62), Clement, Roberts, Hughes (Dobie 45).
Subs Not Used: Jensen, James Chambers.
Booked: Hughes, Moore.
Goals: Gregan 79.
Southampton: Jones, Dodd (Ormerod 83), Williams, Lundekvam, Bridge, Telfer, Marsden (El Khalej 88), Oakley (Anders Svensson 76), Delap, Pahars, Beattie.
Subs Not Used: Niemi, Fernandes.
Sent Off: Williams (85).
Booked: Williams.
Att: 26,383
Ref: D Gallagher (Oxfordshire).
Footy Mad Report:-
West Brom skipper Sean Gregan scored his first goal for the club to earn them their third successive victory against 10-man Southampton at The Hawthorns.
The defeat was a nightmare for the Southampton goalkeeper Paul Jones who fumbled Gregan's hopeful 35-yard drive into his own net 21 minutes from time.
Southampton, who also had central defender Paul Williams sent off in the 85th minute after he collected his second booking, should really have wrapped up back to back wins before Jones' fumble.
Strikers James Beattie and Marian Pahars both wasted golden chances and the misses came back to haunt Southampton when Gregan struck.
Pahars should really have put them in front after 18 minutes, but he fired wide when faced with only Albion goalkeeper Russell Hoult to beat.
Gregan and Hoult then failed to deal with a bouncing ball on the stroke of half-time, allowing Beattie to head the ball towards an empty net.
Fortunately for Albion, back-pedalling central defender Phil Gilchrist was on hand to hack the ball off the line.
Albion were then indebted to Hoult 14 minutes into the second-half for a stunning save to deny Pahars.
Pahars created the chance himself, taking the ball off Albion substitute Larus Sigurdsson before seeing his shot saved at full stretch by Hoult.
It proved to be a vital intervention by Hoult as Albion took full advantage of the let-off when Gregan grabbed his first goal for the club since his £2million summer move from Preston and secured Albion's third successive 1-0 win