Adam Lallana’s Saints Under-21s are building something special

Adam Lallana’s Under-21s travelled to Sutton to face Crystal Palace earlier this week and came home with five goals. Palace’s own match report headlined the game as a stun for the hosts, which is a generous way for a home club to describe a hammering.

Ehibhatiomhan’s afternoon

Princewill Ehibhatiomhan scored on 26 minutes with a close-range finish after a deflected cross. Ten minutes later he scored again, from the rebound after a one-on-one with Sillah Dibaga was saved.

Joe Gibbard headed one back for Palace on 39, so Southampton took a 2-1 lead into the break.

The second half belonged to the visitors. Aston Daley scored from the rebound after a shot by Romeo Akachukwu, Dibaga was played through to finish past the keeper, and Ehibhatiomhan completed his hat-trick on 64. Palace’s second, from David Angibeaud on 66, was his first goal at this level.

The club’s report on the Juventus draw six days earlier had him on 12 goals in nine games across all competitions. The hat-trick takes that to 15 in ten.

What Lallana is building

Adam Lallana has coached the group since Tonda Eckert took the top job last season, and his selections say a lot about how important he sees the job. For the Juventus game in the Premier League International Cup at St Mary’s on the 20th October, he put a first-team goalkeeper in goal. George Long played, and 7,767 turned up to watch.

Ehibhatiomhan scored after seven minutes from six yards, finishing a low cutback from Dibaga. A 25-yard strike from the substitute Davide Marchisio on 68 made it 1-1.

Dibaga is the other name worth remembering. Saints Marching made the case that Tonda Eckert should consider the winger for first-team minutes, pointing to four goals and six assists in eight Under-21 appearances and the 57 minutes he played in the FA Cup against Leicester City last season.

Ehibhatiomhan has made his own case too. He scored twice in a 2-0 win at Wolves in September, and Saints Marching asked then whether that striker’s brace at Wolves should mean more time around the senior squad.

None of that makes the Under-21s a conveyor belt, and Eckert is entitled to be careful with forward minutes. It does give Lallana a squad that scores freely, plays on big stages and has players demanding attention from the first team.

For a coach who used to wear the shirt himself, five goals at Palace is a decent afternoon in the technical area. Akachukwu, one to watch in Southampton’s academy, had a hand in one of them.

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