Norwich City 2-1 Southampton

Well, that was about as enjoyable as finding a parking ticket on your windscreen after Christmas shopping. Saints made the trek to Carrow Road with 62.9% of the ball but somehow managed to leave Norfolk with nothing but regret and a healthy dose of frustration. Sometimes football really is a cruel mistress, and Saturday afternoon she was wearing yellow and green.

The first half passed by like a particularly dull episode of EastEnders – lots of possession, plenty of huffing and puffing, but precious little to get excited about. Saints dominated the ball as expected, stroking it around nicely while Norwich sat back and waited for their moment. You could sense the Canaries were perfectly content to let us have our pretty passing patterns, knowing full well they had something nastier brewing for the second period.

Then came the sucker punch. Three minutes into the second half, J. Makama decided to announce himself to the 25,627 in attendance by finding the net with the kind of finish that makes you simultaneously applaud and curse under your breath. Saints’ response was immediate and encouraging – Ryan Manning leveled things up on 57 minutes with a strike that briefly had us believing this might be our afternoon after all. For exactly four minutes, optimism reigned supreme.

But Makama clearly hadn’t finished his party piece. The Norwich striker grabbed his second on 61 minutes, and despite our best efforts to find an equalizer, it proved to be the winner. Credit where it’s due – the lad took his chances when they came, while we somehow managed to register 12 shots but only trouble their keeper three times. It’s the kind of conversion rate that would make a cryptocurrency investor wince.

The stats tell a familiar tale of Saints dominance that ultimately meant nothing. Sixteen shots to their five on target, nearly two-thirds of possession, and yet we’re heading home empty-handed while referee James Bell didn’t even need to reach for a card all afternoon. Sometimes the beautiful game is anything but.

Still, there were positives to extract from this Norfolk nightmare – our passing was crisp, Manning’s strike showed we can still find the net when it matters, and we created enough chances to suggest better days aren’t far away. In the Championship, these things have a habit of evening themselves out eventually. Hopefully sooner rather than later.