Saints Boss Alan Pardew On The Game

Last updated : 27 September 2009 By Thetashkentterror

Alan Pardew
Southampton manager Alan Pardew spoke to BBC Radio Solent about his side's 1-1 draw at Brunton Park against Carlisle yesterday, Pardew suggesting that a 94th minute equaliser was the least the Saints deserved from the game :


" The game was a funny game because I can't remember coming away from home, we must have had 16 corners today. Flying across the box, we had so many chances, the keeper (Lenny Pidgeley) ironically makes a mistake for our goal but he was magnificent during the game. Disappointed with the goal we conceded, a bit unlucky, a couple of ricochets and both goals had a bit of fortune to them. But really today I felt we should have won this game.

" I have to say credit to our fans today though, if we were as good as our fans then we would have won this game, they were absolutely brilliant today. They stayed with us for the whole duration and when we were really, really pushing. We gave the shirts to the fans not because we were celebrating the draw, it was just the effort that they put in, it was brilliant from them and we thank them as a group.

" This is six games unbeaten and the positives I am going to take from it was the desire not to get beat today. It never looked like it was going to go in for us, the keeper made save after save after save, nothing fell for us, ricochets fell to them. But in the end our persistence paid off.

" Jacob Mellis not scoring and then them going up the other end and scoring was a crucial moment in the game. Because I genuinely felt that if we had taken the lead today then we would have won the game. It was a big, big opportunity that he didn't take and unfortunately at this level, at any level, they are massive moments."



" They went down the other end and scored and it put real pressure on us, but we showed character today. I thought that we had some good quality out there, one or two didn't have their greatest games for Southampton but we had some good performances and we can take that into Tuesday night.

" You have to pay credit to Carlisle today, I think for the people who haven't travelled from Southampton, this was a centenary celebration for them. They made a couple of changes to the team that made a big difference, the centre-half (Richard Keogh) in particular I thought was brilliant today. They gave us a real good go and us playing well too.

" A point was the least we deserved, this would have been a really harsh defeat if that had happened. That many set-plays away from home, that amount of pressure, something needed to give and it just didn't look like it was going to happen. But fortunately for us we got a chance and we managed to take it.

" We had a couple of incidents during the game where just a little bit of fortune didn't fall our way. But listen, we are going away from here and we are sort of crawling to get rid of this (ten point) deficit. It is nine points we have got now and hopefully we can put that to bed on Tuesday.

" We have got to make the next two matches pay and obviously we will be able to get the ball down a little bit more at home. You would like to think that if we get that kind of support at St Mary's on Tuesday and Saturday then that should inspire us to win, but as I say, as I was so pleased with them today. "