Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Rafa Benitez is still searching for his first win as Newcastle Manager, the search continues Today with a trip to the South Coast and a visit to St Mary’s. They’ll go up against a Southampton side who last week just lost touch with the teams above them in the hunt for a Europa League spot.
Last weekend Southampton were beaten 1-0 by league leaders Leicester at the King Power stadium. Southampton didn’t offer to much in all fairness and their run of 3 games unbeaten had come to an end thanks to a Wes Morgan header.
That means they find themselves 4 points off of 6th place which as it stands is the last guaranteed Europa League place, it could drop down to 7th if Manchester United or West Ham win the F.A. Cup but Ronald Koeman will obviously want to finish as high up the table as possible and not be reliant on other clubs to do him a favour
The only real attacking threat that Southampton offered last Sunday was when Sadio Mane seemingly had a shot handled by Danny Simpson, luckily for Leicester Michael Oliver decided not to award a Penalty and Red Card. Funny how you get the luck when you’re at the top of the table.
If your luck is in at the top then it’s never in at the bottom, but then again Newcastle have been masters of their downfall too many times this season and that was exactly the case last Saturday at Carrow Road as they lost a vital relegation 6 pointer.
Twice they managed to get themselves level thanks to goals from Alexsandar Mitrovic but failure to close the game out and come away with a point could and probably will prove very costly. A massive win for Norwich a hammer blow for Newcastle.
There’s no win in 5 matches for Newcastle with only a solitary point coming from the Tyne-Wear Derby, they also find themselves 6 points from safety. Time really is running out for Rafa Benitez and Newcastle, he needs to find a first win Today.
Defeat for Southampton would probably all but kill off any hopes of a Top 6 finish, the question will be whether The Saints will go marching slowly towards the end of the season and whether Newcastle are more hungry for a result. An upset is possible but I just don’t think Newcastle have it in them. A home win for me.
