Showing His Premier Ability

The Glovers battled well against Southampton on Saturday but in the end their Barclays Premier League ability, and class, proved enough to get them an FA Cup fourth round win over us.

I think that plenty of people came out of this game with credit, and the 3,400 Glovers fans that made the trip to the St Mary’s Stadium would’ve come away as proud of us as Gary Johnson said he was following our FA Cup exit.

One man in particular that raised his profile was Marek Stech.

Stech made several great saves to keep The Glovers in the game, and at least give the score a level of respectability that we deserved. Talking in The Western Gazette today he has paid tribute to Southampton’s Premier League ability though, which proved the difference in the end.

‘You can see people sprinting, really wanting to get to the ball. You can see the difference.

‘When they are counterattacking you can see people running to get the ball and really wanting that goal. That’s the difference – a change of the pace.’

He’s a goalkeeper and they are paid to make saves so he was modest about his own performance in the game but didn’t hide his desire to play in the Barclays Premier League one day, and if he keeps performing like this then he’ll get his chance.

Playing at that level is what he says he wants as a Glovers player, the reality is that isn’t going to happen but I admire his respect for the club and his clear commitment to playing for us. Stech has previously played in the Premier League, or at least been on the books of a club at that level, as he was with West Ham in the past.

The Glovers didn’t sit back, we kept trying to play our football and this pleased him, there are plenty of positives to take out of this game and he’s looking for us to take them forward into our upcoming SkyBet Championship games this week that start against Derby County on Tuesday.