Southampton 1 Newcastle United 3

Premier League

Saturday 26 January 2025

Saints statement

The context

Our 91^st of the current League grounds together. We had both, however, been here before; John – soon after St Mary’s opened – to watch Manchester United, while my own first visit came back in 2015 when Hull were the opposition.  

The journey 

bridge

We looped around Southampton and parked over the river in Woolston. Finding a space proved easier said than done, and our post-pub walk across Itchen Bridge took thirty long minutes. The usual latecomers likewise straggled along Marine Parade – which sounds idyllic but really wasn’t – past mobile burger vans, decrepit dockside buildings and sundry nautical paraphernalia.

The ground

excellent

St Mary’s will never set pulses racing. You could be watching football in many another Taylor-era construct. It most resembles Leicester’s equally prosaic concrete bowl, with distressing hints of Middlesbrough, Stoke and Derby; good views, family-orientated, totally bland. If their intention was to erase any reminder of The Dell’s quirky charm then its designers did an excellent job.

Flesh and wine

sticky wicket

You seldom find a Marston’s house this far south. The Cricketers Arms on Portsmouth Road – formerly Woolston Inn, Railway Hotel and New Bridge Inn – had other significant advantages, being reasonably handy for St Mary’s but not close enough to get packed out or serve ale in plastic pots. Hampshire’s first county cricket ground once stood nearby.

posh

Time had been getting on. There didn’t seem many food choices on offer, apart from a solitary hotdog van halfway along Marine Parade, so we decided to grab some concourse fare inside the ground. My pie was self-consciously posh and only slightly burnt, while John happily troughed some of the air-fried fast food he always enjoys so much. 

The game

predictable

Everything felt rather predictable. Southampton were bottom, while their visitors would replace Manchester City in the fourth Champions League place if they avoided defeat. Jan Bednarek made us all sit up when he leapt – like a veritable salmon – and headed James Bree’s curling cross over Martin Dubravka, but familiar defensive frailties saw Alexander Izak get Newcastle’s equaliser from the spot and then brush aside static defenders to crisply score another.

second half

Controversy surrounded the penalty. Although Joe Aribo’s challenge on Izak looked perfectly harmless, VAR can’t help poking its unwelcome electronic nose into such matters; an abortive Matheus Fernandes consolation would later cause equally farcical scenes. Sandro Tonali’s incisive run and shot past Alex McCarthy had by then put Newcastle three up, and they might have won by more but for some wasteful second half finishing.  

Teams and goals

Southampton: McCarthy, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Bree (Fraser 88), Manning (Sugawara 60), Aribo (Lallana 88), Ugochukwu (Smallbone 79), Walker-Peters, Fernandes, Armstrong (Archer 60), Onuachu. Unused subs: Bella-Kotchap, Downes, Lumley, Wood-Gordon.

Newcastle: Dubravka, Hall, Burn, Schar, Livramento, Joelinton, Tonali, Guimaraes (Miley 79), Gordon (Almiron 88), Izak (Willock 79), Murphy (Longstaff 92). Unused subs: Botman, Kelly, Osula, Pope, Trippier.

Goals: Southampton: Bednarek 10. Newcastle: Izak 26 (pen), 30, Tonali 51.

Attendance: 31,141.