‘28 shots 2 on target, gonna be another very long season’ – Southampton Fans React To 0-0 Draw With Swansea+Match Report

Match Report: Southampton 0-0 Swansea City

Southampon’s poor record on the first day of the season continued as they were held to a 0-0 draw at the St. Mary’s by Swansea City on Saturday. 

The club began on a strong note under new boss Mauricio Pellegrino, with Manolo Gabbiadini’s header clipping off the crossbar and Dusan Tadic failing to steer the ball into the net after Ryan Bertrand’s good work down the left-hand side, all this within just five minutes of kick-off.

The Saints deployed a high-pressing strategy that hardly gave Swansea any room to work with, but with 10 minutes on the clock, a counter-attack presented Tammy Abraham with a great chance. But the Chelsea loanee headed wide. A little while after, James Ward-Prowse was denied the opening goal by a superb block from Alfie Mawson. 

There were demands of a penalty from the Saints, at the 30-minute mark after Gabbiadini was felled by Federico Fernandez, but referee Mike Jones waved play on. Maya Yoshida then produced an acrobatic strike that just went wide of the mark as half-time arrived. 

After the break, Abraham had a shot blocked by Cedric Soares, and Southampton soon regained control of the game as Tadic and Gabbiadini continued to cause all sorts of problems in the attack, without working Lukasz Fabianski a great deal. Swansea were forced to sit deep and defend in order to protect the parity and defend they did.

Tadic almost pulled off a goal, but his shot was saved by Fabianski, before Yoshida headed over from a great opportunity to seal three points for his teammates. There was no shortage of chances for the Saints as they had as many as 18 shots in the game compared to just 2 by the Swans. But they could not break the deadlock and had to suffice with a single point.

Here’s how the fans reacted on Twitter, to Southampton’s performance: