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| #nofilter |
The 2013/14 Premier League campaign drew to a close with Sunday's visit of United at St. Mary's. It would be the second time this season that the crew from Manchester would be seeing a Manchester team after a four-hour journey. Seems fitting. This year there was no drama for Southampton, no threat of relegation. It was all but a celebration of a successful 8th-place finish with a club-record of 56 points.
On the other boot, United's 7th-place finish is their worst in Premier League history. The Manchester side will also be missing from European competition of the first time in 25 years. These facts were met with resounding praise from Saints fans who welcomed United with their rendition of "Glory Glory Man United", singing loudly, "Who the f**k are United? ... as the Saints go marching on-on-on!"
Lambert opened the scoring near the half-hour mark when he cooly finished 1v1 against de Gea -- after, of course, bloodying up Vidic (photos of a visibly angered Nemanja Vidic can be seen on the Daily Mail).
Unfortunately, United's £37 million man Juan Mata cancelled out Lambert's goal with a curling free-kick that froze poor Artur Boruc to his spot. It must've been the vodka slowing his reactions.
The lap of appreciation following the game got a bit emotional -- totes emosh as Mackinnon said (distinct chuckle, short pause followed by, "did you really just say 'totes emosh'?"). If it is in fact the last time we see several of these players in a Saints uniform it was a good'un. But please, don't Lebron James us for Champions League football...Southampton FC 1 (Rickie Lambert 28') : Manchester United 1 (Juan Mata 54')
Southampton starting XI: Artur Boruc, Nathaniel Clyne, Luke Shaw, Morgan Schneiderlin, Jose Fonte, Dejan Lovren, Jack Cork, Victor Wanyama, Rickie Lambert, Steven Davis, Adam Lallana.
Subs: Paulo Gazzaniga, James Ward-Prowse, Guly do Prado, Calum Chambers, Jos Hooiveld, Harrison Reed, Sam Gallagher.
Manchester Utd starting XI: David de Gea, Chris Smalling, Patrice Evra, Shinji Kagawa, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Adnan Januzaj, Darren Fletcher, Robin van Persie, Juan Mata, Danny Welbeck.
Subs: Ben Amos, Michael Carrick, Ashley Young, Tom Cleverly, Antonio Valencia, Tom Lawrence, Chicharito.
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Edit note: This would have been posted Sunday, but after traveling up and down the M6 twice that weekend, the Saturday for ice hockey, and an exam on the Monday, I was a wee bit tired and preoccupied with other things.
