Southampton sack boss

Tuesday, 31/08/2010

by Chris Rann, Shoot's Southampton blogger

The King is dead. Long live the King. There is never a quiet weekend in the life of Southampton Football Club.

Saints finally scored their first league win of the season in emphatic fashion with a 4-0 win over Bristol Rovers at the Memorial Stadium.

After missing loads of chances in their first two games, the Saints players finally found their shooting boots. Jose Fonte opened the scoring with his first goal for the club from Jason Puncheon's corner and Saints never looked back.

Adam Lallana grabbed the second after latching on to Dean Hammond’s mis-queued shot. The points were never in doubt from this point and Rickie Lambert joined in the fun slotting home a penalty against his former club, after Barnard was scythed down.

Alan Pardew introduced Guly for his Saints debut late on, and the game was rounded off with Lee Barnard getting a long deserved goal.

Overall it was a great response to the disappointment of the first two league results. While the attacking positives were obvious it was also nice to get a clean sheet and to see another assured performance from young Aaron Martin in central defence.

It may come as a surprise then, as it has to the waking Saints fans that Alan Pardew was this morning sacked. While this is shocking news it would be naive to think that the Chairman made this decision after the resounding victory in Bristol. I think it has been in the pipeline for sometime.

I think I can speak for all Saints fans when I say thank you for last season Alan. It was the first season in a while that we got to watch a decent side playing decent football and the trip to Wembley was the icing on the cake. Genuine best wishes in your next job.

Football moves on and so must the club. While fans will be disappointed to start with, the excitement that surrounds a new managerial appointment will soon drown it out. The rumours are already spreading, and some high profile names are being linked to the job. Personally I would like to stick with an Englishman at this level, but I have a feeling it will be a foreigner.

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