Southampton 3-0 LCFC, post-match thread

[Freddy]

15 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

Top post.

 

I remember going to Fratton Park in 2010 and being humiliated and losing 6-1 but I knew that once we unpicked the error of Sousa that we’d be ok.

 

We could (and should) sack Marti but nothing will improve.

 

Our wage bill is out of control, we have the same dossers in charge who created this and have zero scouting network so will continue to just overpay awful players from lazy agent referrals.

Spot on, our unrealistic wage bill fuels the fire that continually burns us, Moving on players is virtually impossible. 

[adejo92]

7 hours ago, Gamble92 said:

Honestly don't mind a bit of positivity on here but the way people talk about certain players because there's been a push for them to play by some is laughable. 

 

That's Thomas tonight and he has 20 new pages calling him a competition winner. 

100%

 

I don't want to bash him, but hes literally done the bare minimum anyone would expect of a footballer, got a silly booking after 5 minutes, committed another silly foul less than half an hour later - getting sent off and sealing the defeat - and suddenly its the second coming of Roberto Carlos.

Edited 26 November 2025 by adejo92

[LCFCJohn]

45 minutes ago, Noahfence said:

Well I’m just stating what I saw! 
 

Did well in his first 1v1, was supporting Stephy & got amongst it at a corner. Just trying to not pile in on a 18 year old. 
 

Two deserved yellow cards I have no complaints about that. 
 

First league minutes coming away against the most in form team in the league after ZERO sub appearances. 

That’s not the way on here, come on!

 

You have to laugh at him, pile on and say he’s crap and non-league standard. 
 

If you are going to make silly comments like pointing out he is 18, chucked in with no prior minutes away at an inform Southampton, one of the best sides in the league, you are not reading the room 

 

And we don’t take positive observations about things he did well either.

[adejo92]

3 hours ago, LCFCJohn said:

Despite the game itself, the most embarrassing thing is some of our ‘fans’ actually celebrating Aluko getting sent off to claim they are right not to want youth players in!

 

Embarrassing and pathetic to go with everything else wrong with this club.

On today's episode of things that never happened.

[foxfanazer]

Blows my mind that people are still surprised by how shit we are

[LCFCJohn]

7 minutes ago, adejo92 said:

On today's episode of things that never happened.

It absolutely did 

 

Maybe a minority but on the match thread there were people who could hardly hide their glee to say ‘told you so’ about giving him a chance!

[Bert]

I think one of our biggest problems is our mentality and every way you look at the different scenarios you can pick holes in it. 
 

We were well on top before they scored and then we just went to shit like we’d instantly lost. Compare that to Coventry on Saturday who were 2-0 down but come back to win 3-2. 
 

Portsmouth and Wrexham at home - real solid first half performances with deserved leads then come out in the second half with an air of complacency like the job was already done, don’t take any more chances that’s 4 points thrown away. 
 

Look at the Middlesborough game as well. 1-0 up. They get a man sent off with less than 10 minutes to play and we decide to hold on and defend rather than trying to play and press home our advantage. 

This league is really trash -  when you consider the 6 extra points we should’ve got from them 3 home games would see us 3rd and in the race for autos. 

 

[ALC Fox]

Obviously Aluko's sending off betrays his rawness and inexperience at senior level. It's unfortunate that he's being parachuted in while we're at our weakest point since certainly 2010/11 but potentially 2008/09, although I've a feeling Nige's League One winning side would bully our current team into submission.

 

Of course, we can't carry a player who is so raw that he'll be risking a red card every week, but I think I saw enough that he has the ability to be successful at this level. He tracked well, made some crucial blocks, and took up some really good positions further up the pitch.

 

There were times in that first half where he had took up a position inside the pitch when the ball was on the right and he was free in a really dangerous position but often the other players just weren't looking for him. Granted, he probably should be demanding the ball and that's to his detriment as a young player. He also made some good overlapping and underlapping runs when Mavididi was in possession and faced up by two defenders, dragging one away and giving Stephy room, with one such example leading to the cross that James nearly scored from.

 

For me, Aluko is dominant at U21 level and showed enough in less than one half that he has the ability to do well for us in the Championship. But if he wants to do that soon, he needs to become a lot savvier quite quickly to avoid the kind of situation he got himself into last night.

 

I've more confidence in him long term than Thomas and Kristiansen, although the reality is that right now he should probably be rotated in rather than being an automatic starter. And the fact he's actually more of a right-back is encouraging too.

[fazzyfox]

It seems the refs card threshold (other than being in a blue shirt) was the grabbing of the shirt. Several times ankles were clipped by players breaking through and no card was shown, the blatant handful of shirt shows it's not a timing issue, it's a deliberate act to stop someone so no sympathy, cut it out of your game from every training session to every game at every level you play so it doesn't become a habit. I agree in part as it spoils the game seeing players held back by their shirt and the momentum of play broken up but it is laughable that fouls causing injury are let go and deemed a lesser offence. That Downes is considered to have put in a "within the rules" performance until the booking (which could have been red) is farcical whilst the same refs nit pick other stuff.

[Tommy Fresh]

I wanted Aluko in last night and he definitely has the athleticism we lack from Thomas and Kristiansen, always going to be a fairly tough game for him though when Marti hasn't used him all season and then he's thrown in against a very in form Southampton side

[LCFCJohn]

25 minutes ago, ALC Fox said:

Obviously Aluko's sending off betrays his rawness and inexperience at senior level. It's unfortunate that he's being parachuted in while we're at our weakest point since certainly 2010/11 but potentially 2008/09, although I've a feeling Nige's League One winning side would bully our current team into submission.

 

Of course, we can't carry a player who is so raw that he'll be risking a red card every week, but I think I saw enough that he has the ability to be successful at this level. He tracked well, made some crucial blocks, and took up some really good positions further up the pitch.

 

There were times in that first half where he had took up a position inside the pitch when the ball was on the right and he was free in a really dangerous position but often the other players just weren't looking for him. Granted, he probably should be demanding the ball and that's to his detriment as a young player. He also made some good overlapping and underlapping runs when Mavididi was in possession and faced up by two defenders, dragging one away and giving Stephy room, with one such example leading to the cross that James nearly scored from.

 

For me, Aluko is dominant at U21 level and showed enough in less than one half that he has the ability to do well for us in the Championship. But if he wants to do that soon, he needs to become a lot savvier quite quickly to avoid the kind of situation he got himself into last night.

 

I've more confidence in him long term than Thomas and Kristiansen, although the reality is that right now he should probably be rotated in rather than being an automatic starter. And the fact he's actually more of a right-back is encouraging too.

Great balanced post. 
 

I agree with the last paragraph. Given Ricardo’s situation, Aluko should have been given minutes and integrated in at right back against sides less likely to cause so many problems. Throwing him in out of his main position, away at Southampton was throwing him to the wolves (the ones with some bite not the ones from Wolverhampton).

[Sol thewall Bamba]

11 minutes ago, Tommy Fresh said:

I wanted Aluko in last night and he definitely has the athleticism we lack from Thomas and Kristiansen, always going to be a fairly tough game for him though when Marti hasn't used him all season and then he's thrown in against a very in form Southampton side

He did alright until the first booking but I was disappointed at how slow he looked. Was comfortably slower than Azaz who I don't believe is exactly known for pace.

[RoboFox]

1 hour ago, SemperEadem said:

Clapping them off, I can’t understand that.

It's so commonplace it seems nobody even bothers to comment on it anymore. 

 

Some of fans are just happy the club exists. They'll applaud the players for just turning up to earn their sixty bags a week. 

[Chelmofox]

Aluko should be straight back in that side after his suspension, and given minutes in his first game back. Worst thing we can do is dump him back into the U21s and forget about him. 

 

He's not the first player to get sent off for trying to impress. Ramsey did it as well and was straight back in the side.

 

Its important everyone makes sure that this sending off doesnt define him,

[Aleksz]

2 hours ago, SemperEadem said:

The two fat heavies that follow the team around annoy me. No other team lets security staff on the pitch.

 

Feels symptomatic of the players being mollycoddled.

Noticed this for a while but it annoys me too in a way I can’t really explain considering they’re just doing their job. 

[moore_94]

2 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

Aluko should be straight back in that side after his suspension, and given minutes in his first game back. Worst thing we can do is dump him back into the U21s and forget about him. 

 

He's not the first player to get sent off for trying to impress. Ramsey did it as well and was straight back in the side.

 

Its important everyone makes sure that this sending off doesnt define him,

People will do this unfortunately, like they tried with Nelson and the Huddersfield game

[Unabomber]

59 minutes ago, LCFCJohn said:

It absolutely did 

 

Maybe a minority but on the match thread there were people who could hardly hide their glee to say ‘told you so’ about giving him a chance!

Yeah it was Lionater

[Bert]

Just now, Unabomber said:

Yeah it was Lionater

Grass 

[Unabomber]

Just now, Bert said:

Grass 

Mods have a word 

[HedgeEnd]

51 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

He did alright until the first booking but I was disappointed at how slow he looked. Was comfortably slower than Azaz who I don't believe is exactly known for pace.

He was up against Fellows on that side. Who was certainly faster than him and was the reason for the second yellow. Certainly Southampton targeted that side, Skipp was blowing massively during the second half when he slotted in over there. 

[Tommy Fresh]

52 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

He did alright until the first booking but I was disappointed at how slow he looked. Was comfortably slower than Azaz who I don't believe is exactly known for pace.

He kept pace with Azaz for the second? He just seemed to pull back from him, whether he was also wary of the bloke behind him as well or just didn't read what Azaz was going to do at the end

[Noahfence]

53 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

People will do this unfortunately, like they tried with Nelson and the Huddersfield game

The Nelson situation was utterly embarrassing. He had a mare in a cup game and certain people wouldn’t accept it was just a poor day for him.

 

Comes back in for 2 league games and looks absolutely fine. Shock horror! 
 

Probably would’ve helped Aluko if he’d have had any minutes at all this season, but no not even a few minutes off the bench. 

[Dan]

I did have a little feeling at the time if the early wins were probably what will keep us up rather than get us up. The performances have been absolutely dreadful all season.

 

I think we spawn enough results to survive this year. We'll go down next year though.

[Dan]

1 hour ago, Chelmofox said:

Aluko should be straight back in that side after his suspension, and given minutes in his first game back. Worst thing we can do is dump him back into the U21s and forget about him. 

 

He's not the first player to get sent off for trying to impress. Ramsey did it as well and was straight back in the side.

 

Its important everyone makes sure that this sending off doesnt define him,

No it will be held as an example to defend a crap manager even though over time he was proven to be wrong.

[MrSpaM]

I feel like the only solution to all this is for us to become the underdogs, sit back and counter attack, just like all the teams that have successfully thrashed us this season, and the only time we've ever looked like scoring this season

 

We got promoted, did the great escape, won the league and the FA cup playing like that, i'm sick of watching this "dominate possession with no end product" football