George Burley was again left frustrated by his sides inability to hold onto a lead on Saturday, as Southampton’s first ever league visit to Crewe ended in a stalemate.
Just as they did against Coventry last week Saints squandered another 1-0 lead late on, and missed out on the chance to record their first victory on the road since beating Millwall way back in October.
It was a match Saints should have won; Dane Peter Madsen gave Saints the lead on the hour mark, and at that point we looked comfortable and should have been able to push on and finish the job against struggling opponents.
Instead Dario Gradi’s team came back into it; eventually grabbing the equaliser through Luke Rodgers after a loss of concentration in the Southampton defence.
After their equaliser Crewe looked the more likely to win the game but both sides had to settle for another uninspiring point; a point wasn’t enough to drag Crewe off the bottom of the table and leaves Saints just about above the relegation fight.
It was the second week running that late defensive errors have cost us two points; though on both occasions a failure to score more than one goal when in the ascendancy, and kill the game off, can also be blamed.
George Burley took some positives from good individual performances but was again left frustrated with the result, he told saintsfc.co.uk:
‘It was very disappointing because that is two draws in a row from games we should have won after taking the lead. We feel we have thrown away four points.’
‘On the plus side there were a lot of good individual performances which is moving us on. Chris Baird was outstanding and did very well and I thought Jermaine Wright was excellent back at his old club’
The Head Coach was also impressed with on loan striker Peter Madsen, who scored his first goal in Saints colours:
‘Peter Madsen worked hard. It has taken him time to find his feet and it is never easy coming in from abroad but he worked hard for his goal today’
‘But it is a real sickener not to win the game. We had chances with Rasiak hitting the woodwork and going close a few times. But did not take our opportunities and then gave away a poor goal. It was a lapse in concentration and it has cost us.’
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