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Savage's suspension left Steve Bruce with the dilemma of who to bring in alongside Aliou Cisse in the middle of the park. Bruce opted for Bryan Hughes, whilst Damien Johnson returned to the first eleven due to Paul Devlin's injury. One positive in the squad selection was the appearance of three products of the club's academy on the bench, in Darren Carter, Craig Fagan and Joey Hutchinson - albeit as a consequence of the current injury crisis.
Neither side started the game too brightly, with players struggling to retain any sort of possession or create any chances of note. Blues set their stall out early to get the ball wide to Stan Lazaridis at every opportunity for him to attack Saints skipper Jason Dodd, but in fairness Dodd was up to the task all afternoon, and on the occasions Lazaridis did get free, his final ball was poor to say the least.
The first half lacked any real quality, with Blues failing to trouble Paul Jones (returning for the injured Antti Niemi) in the Southampton goal, as Clinton Morrison wasted the best chance dragging the ball wide. At the other end, the home side conjured up one or two chances for themselves, with Nico Vaesen saving with his legs from both Beattie and Brett Ormerod, and Anders Svensson wasting a good opportunity by trying to do too much in curling it around the Belgian 'keeper.
At half-time the score was 0-0, and rightly so, as neither team really meritted leading.
The second half was a different story, however, with Southampton upping the tempo and Blues fading. The home side began to mount the pressure, and eventually got their reward midway through the half with the award of a slightly dubious-looking penalty. Darren Purse had needlessly gifted possession to Southampton, and when a cross came in, it appeared to hit Purse's hand, and Jeff Winter pointed to the spot. Following Vaesen's delaying tactics, Beattie stepped up to send him the wrong way and make it 1-0.
This woke Blues up, and whilst they began to apply some pressure, they still failed to create any opportunities, and it was Southampton who looked the more dangerous on the break. With 10 minutes remaining, Bruce threw caution to the wind by throwing Jovan Kirovski and Fagan on alongside Stern John and Morrison, but within a minute the game was over.
Southampton broke forward and Ormerod carried the ball down the right hand side, before firing across a low ball that seemed to evade everyone, though Anders Svensson may have got a vital flick, and there was Beattie at the far post to rifle the ball home. Blues were now out of the contest, and the remainder of the game was played out with Blues appearing to accept their fate, and Southampton happy to take 2-0.
This was a very disappointing performance by Blues - particularly in the second half - with far too many players dramatically under-performing. Olivier Tebily (whilst out of position) and Stern John had their poorest performances in Blues shirts, whilst Purse was erratic with his distribution and Hughes was lost yet again. Southampton are a fair side these days, especially at home, but their own lacklustre first half performance should have inspired a fired-up Blues side going for the win in the second half, and this was far from the case. With one or two other results not quite going the way of Steve Bruce's men too, the following couple of fixtures at Fulham and then the visit of improving Charlton take on extra significance now prior to a very, very tough month or so thereafter.
PLAYER RATINGS:
Vaesen - Ok
Tebily - Struggling as a right back, poor
Kenna - Adequate
Cunningham - Not as assured as usual
Purse - At fault for the first goal and appalling distribution
Johnson - Not fully fit - never got into the game
Lazaridis - Disappointing
Cisse - Tired towards the end due to doing the Savage-type harrying game
Hughes - Went missing in midfield
John - Very poor
Morrison - Tried but to little avail
SUBS:
Carter - Some nice touches
Fagan - Chased everything
Kirovski - Unable to influence matters