Southampton 3-1 Birmingham: Azaz Pizzazz Helps Saints March On

Credit: Alzay / shutterstock.com

Newly-minted Saints manager Tonda Eckert took charge of his first game of his official tenure this weekend at home to Birmingham. After impressing with 4 wins from his 5 games as the interim head coach, the German was awarded the position on a permanent basis this week and celebrated in style. Two from Armstrong proved too strong for Blues as their away form, or lack thereof, continued on the south coast.

Home is where the heart is. In the case of Birmingham City, home is the only place they have any hope of picking up a win as of late. If they’re going to achieve their promotion dreams they set out in pre-season, sorting out their away form needs to be a priority. At St. Andrew’s they're strong, they have the third best home record in the division and have only lost once in nine games, but they’re 21st in the away table. They’ve won 2, drawn 2 and lost 6 of their 10 away games thus far, crucially only managing to score 7 goals across those games. It isn’t good enough, and it won’t get your promoted no matter how easily you put teams away at your place. In their last 4 homes games they’ve hit a maximum 12 points and scored 14 goals in the process, away from home in the same period they’ve managed just a singular point and three goals, the disparity is plain to see. The away fans will certainly be feeling blue on the coach back to the midlands.

In Southampton’s case it’s all smiles as Tonda Eckert has delivered an early Christmas present by returning the now unfamiliar winning feeling back to the south coast. In his six games in charge, he has already picked up more points than the previous regime had in their eleven games. You wonder if Will Still will still be hot property now the footballing world sees what his Saints side can really do. Southampton, much like Ipswich and potentially Sheffield United, have had their slow starts almost totally forgiven by the rest of the league as everyone continues to beat each other and drop points in unexpected games leaving the gap from the bottom half to the play-off places relatively short. Despite being really quite dreadful, Saints are just three points from Stoke in 6th with 27 games to go. They should be able to close that gap. With the win this weekend, Tonda Eckert has also surpassed the points total achieved by Southampton in the whole Premier League season last time out, the good times are well and truly back at St. Mary’s.

Finn Azaz’s £10m+ summer move from Middlesbrough had been largely ridiculed after a poor start to the season, and it was clear to see why. The attacking midfielder just couldn’t replicate his scintillating form from last year in his new colours, failing to register a single goal or assist in the eight games he played under Still, finding himself eventually being used as a bit-part substitute at times. Up to that point, Azaz looked like another expensive bust in a long line of Southampton failed transfers in recent years, and his own fans began to get on his back. Since Eckert has come in, however, Azaz has come alive. He has yet to go a game under the new boss without registering a goal contribution, netting 6 goals and providing 2 assists in the 6 matches since the German took charge.

The Irishman managed a goal and an assist today to take the game beyond Birmingham’s reach in the first half. His goal was the opener, and the first in a series of goals in this game that seemed to be part of a 90 minute goal of the season competition. It was interesting defending from a Birmingham perspective, Azaz found himself with acres of space and plenty of time just outside the box, shifted the ball onto his left foot and drilled his shot from the edge of the area into the bottom right-hand corner and well beyond the reach of the outstretched hand of James Beadle.

Similarly for the second, Azaz found Armstrong in miles of room 30 yards from goal. The forward took the ball inside and effortlessly beat the weak challenge of Christoph Klarer, lining up a shot as nobody charged him down and firing his effort into the opposite corner to double the hosts’ advantage. It looked like Chris Davies’ side were playing with ten men for both of these goals, that amount of space and time afforded to players of that quality will hardly ever go unpunished, and they found themselves 2-0 down before the half hour mark. You can’t help but feel it was preventable.

For the remainder of the first half and the start of the second, Blues piled on the pressure in search of a way back out of the hole they’d dug for themselves. Finally, on 54 minutes, Southampton cracked after some magic from Demarai Gray. The Blues’ hometown hero made his triumphant return in summer following a 10 year absence that saw him lift a Premier League title at Leicester, compete in Europe at Leverkusen and travel across the globe to play for Al-Ettifaq. And who can forget the pre-season Florida Cup win with Everton? He showed once again that he hadn’t left all the magic in his boots in the Saudi sand dunes, cutting in from the left onto his right foot and bending a beauty across goal and into the far corner. It’s always a shame to see goals of that quality scored in big losses, another belter that will be lost to the sands of time.

Deficit halved, Birmingham were back in the game. All they had to do was keep it tight and continue pushing for the all-important equaliser. Four minutes later, Saints restored their advantage. Feeling left out and wanting to get in on the action, Brazilian attacking midfielder Leo Scienza worked the ball from the left flank across the box to the same area the first two goals had been scored from, and lo and behold he was also greeted with an expanse of green grass and a half-hearted challenge from Klarer. At least this time Beadle was ready, saving the shot from Scienza into the path of Armstrong for a proper poacher’s finish. 3-1, and that’s how it would stay. A huge 3 points and the continuation of Eckert’s stunning record for Southampton, while Blues’ away blues continued.

All of Birmingham’s best work came at two goals down, wether that be at 2-0 or for the remainder of the game at 3-1, they were able to create chances and dominate the ball against a very adept Southampton side. But playing well at 2-0 down doesn’t win you any points. Davies needs to tighten them up defensively on the road, this isn’t League One anymore and teams aren’t just going to sit back and pray at the sight of a £40m team bowling into their patch. If they can manage to sort themselves out when they travel, they’ll be comfortably in the play-offs and have a chance at a second consecutive promotion, but if Davies can’t manage to get them there then there’ll be questions as to if someone so inexperienced should be trusted with such a big job and financial war chest.

Jolly old Saint Nick won’t be the only Saint eyeing up the December calendar with glee (yippee). Southampton have a blend of real top-to-bottom tests of their capabilities in Coventry and a return trip to St. Andrews as well as some games they’d really fancy themselves to dominate with ease on current form away at Norwich and Oxford. If they can pass their tricky assignments and turn over the teams they should be beating, things could look a lot more merry and bright for Tonda Eckert’s side as 2026 rolls around. Who knows, they might even be making faces at automatic promotion if their run-in continues at the same pace.