Crystal Palace vs Southampton FA Cup Third Round

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all well!

On Saturday 7th of January Palace hosted Southampton at Selhurst park in the FA Cup Third round and I FINALLY got to a game. I hadn’t been to a match for over two months having missed the post World Cup boxing day Fulham fixture due to illness and the Tottenham midweek game due to parking issues, so it felt good to be back! Although I am glad the two games I missed didn’t prohibit our best performances, and if anything was the complete opposite 😬. The last home game I attended was ironically our 1-0 win over today’s visitors Southampton back in October 2022.

With the third round being when Premier League teams are introduced it was Palace’s first Fa Cup game since our trip to Wembley back in April 2022, so last season’s successful run was on the minds of everyone as we hoped for the same again!

Palace were coming into this game off the back of a 2-0 win away at Bournemouth so should have had full confidence in themselves, they would’ve also been aware of their poor recent home form but we could only hope they used this as motivation. Southampton come into the game in the worst situation possible sitting rock bottom of the Premier League having lost their last 6 games, including a 1-0 loss against us.

Patrick Vieira made two changes which saw Will Hughes and Odsonne Edouard replace Jeffery Schlupp and Ebere Eze. Tyrick Mitchell was still unavailable following the Boxing Day dismissal, so Joel Ward kept his place at left back. The bench didn’t have as many youth players named as I expected with John-Kymani Gordon being the only academy representation.

I’m going to write my match report in a slightly different style, so please let me know what you think!

Crystal Palace exit the FA Cup early as they fall short as a Southampton double in the second half cancelled out Odsonne Edouard’s opener.

Palace started the brighter of the sides keeping the ball in their possession for lengthy periods, Wilfried Zaha almost put his team ahead after receiving a great cross field pass from Michael Olise, but his effort was tipped over the bar.

The Eagles didn’t have long to wait until another chance presented itself, the move started with Joachim Andersen winning the ball back in his defensive half before playing up field to Zaha, one touch later he was playing Edouard in behind the saints’ defence where he could find his finish.

With the momentum swinging Palace’s way they instantly came close to a second, an in-sliding Jordan Ayew met an Olise low driven cross, but his efforts were stopped by the underside of the crossbar.

Some parts of the game when Palace were in possession they played some lovely football and showed real quality but the chances they created they couldn’t execute.

An area Southampton are particularly strong are set pieces and that was further proved in the first half of this game. The saints captain James Ward-Prowse whipped the ball in, no man touched it on the way and it flew straight into the top corner of Vicente Guaita’s goal; Joel Ward was the closest defender, but the ball just flew straight over his head.

The second half started the same as the first with Palace looking lively, with Zaha and Olise linking up again, but as the half went on momentum started to shift. The saints tried to hit us on the counterattack many times before asserting their dominance.

Vicente Guaita was called to action to keep the score level after a Southampton cross was helped on by Adam Armstrong making the flight more unpredictable, but Guaita successfully directed the ball over the bar.

The Palace keeper was involved once again but he went from hero to zero giving Southampton the winner. He misjudged the time he had on the ball outside his box allowing Adam Armstrong to block the ball from Guaita’s attempted pass and finish the ball into the back of an empty net. This was extremely frustrating as a Palace fan as it was the 7th second-half goal they’ve conceded in 3 games, definitely an area Patrick Vieira needs to work on.

Before this goal the away fans were sharing their disliking for their managers playing style, I’m sure they’ll have different views now!

Patrick Vieira looked to his bench to find a way back into the game, with nothing to lose he switched to a 3 at the back introducing Jeffery Schlupp and Ebere Eze to the attack, though I feel this should have been much earlier rather than bringing Milivojevic on as they only had 15 minutes to make an attacking difference.

Southampton’s Samuel Edozie posed a lot of threat in the closing stages possessing a lot of energy against a deflated Palace team. In contrast Olise was seemingly very frustrated and wasn’t able to channel this into his game.

The Eagles hunted for an equaliser to take the game to a replay but just couldn’t take any of their chances. The final chance of the game came from Zaha, but his shot was deflected out for a corner which Palace showed no threat from all afternoon.

Rainy South London mirrored the feelings of the home fans as the final whistle confirmed Palace’s exit leaving myself along with every other Palace fan both frustrated and concerned having lost three on the bounce at home.

The next palace game which I will be attending is Chelsea away next weekend (so look out for that post), a huge challenge for Patrick Vieira and his boys to try and get something out of and get us into the top half of the table.

Thank you for reading

Ellie Xx