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Saints went out of the League Cup last night after losing 2-1 to Birmgham City. No suprise you'd think but this wasn't the Saints performance I was expecting. The Saints side that I saw last night were bright, hungry, bold and creative. They worked hard and worked together in a manner I've not seen for a while. Despite (ultimately) not taking their chances they dominated Birmingham for most of the game. That, I was not expecting.

Then this happened...

Sky Sports | Football News | Match Report | Southampton v Birmingham - 25th August 2009:

Saints had to readjust when Graeme Murty was taken off on a stretcher with suspected knee ligament damage following an innocuous-looking challenge, while City threw on James McFadden and Garry O'Connor.

 About 25 minutes or so from time Murty raced out of defence to close down a shot. All eyes followed the shot and Murty ended up in a heap on the floor clearly in pain. Personally I didn't see what happened but those around me did. "late" and "studs-up" were the adjectives used. I'd like to see that again.

Saints weren't quite the same after that. Legs were tiring and while the will was there the balance and organisation were gone. 5 minutes of confusion saw Birmingham swing the scoreline back in their favour after Lallana's excellent opener for Saints.

So, a disappointing evening but now in the way I'd anitcipated. Disappointed in the result when we desrved better and disappointed in the referee who ought to have done better. Ultimately it made little difference as Birmingham took the chances they were given but Crossley was poor last night.

Missing 2 good penalty shouts if forgivable. It happens, we move on. What was dissapointing was his awareness of what happened in the few seconds after a challenge. There were numerous examples of players leaving a foot in, or following through in a challenge. Winning the ball is one thing but you can't then have a go at the player as well. That's a foul, and Murty's injury is a case in point. The ref missed it because he'd taken his eyes away too quickly. It's a tough job with so much going on but this is what makes the difference between the top referees and everyone else.

As a side note, I hadn't realised that Birmingham had managed to assemble Bowyer, Carr, Crossley and Quedrue into the same team. That's quite a collection of bruisers!