NCFC 25/26 • Southampton (H)

I was sat up in the roof for this one as I thought I'd try sitting somewhere else for cup games, and it was actually easier to see everything playing out from that higher perspective. Tonight, though, that wasn't exactly a good thing. Before kick-off someone a few seats along pointed out that Jesus Christ himself was walking to his seat a few rows in front of us, but even he couldn't perform any miracles.

I feel like I'm starting to watch the same match every game I go to. We start off well, but instead of bagging a goal or two, we don't take our chances and then inevitably concede out of nowhere.

Tonight was much the same. We had balls in the box and even hit the bar, albeit from a deflection. We should have been a few goals up. But after a few breaks in play, one of which came after Kvistgaarden landed awkwardly after challenging for the ball in the air, it felt like the momentum had gone. I looked up at the clock showing 41 minutes and thought to myself that the pace has slowed, and we just needed to make it through to half time. Not 30 seconds later, we conceded after Kvistgaarden gave the ball back to them right outside our box and they curled it into the corner.

The second came from Chrisene jumping to try and clear the ball but kicking nothing but air, and they slotted home.

The night was finished off by a decent shot from range for their third. Game over.

I also think I finally worked out why we have had such high passing stats over the past few games - as ever, The Simpsons predicted it.

We just looked so slow at the back and lacking any creativity to push forward. We seemed to be going with the "they can't score if they don't have the ball" approach. This would be fine if we were 2-0 up and seeing the game out and didn't need to score, but not in the position we were in, as we did need to score.

Kenny seemed to be the only one trying to actually pass the ball forward. Fisher seemed to be playing as if he didn't want to be here. Nobody else really had a standout performance. In fact the consensus from the people around me was that Topić, who came off for Kenny after 65 minutes, had actually been our best player, and it seemed like a strange change to make.

Overall, a bit of a bust. Cup run, we hardly knew ye.