News summary
Tonda Eckert liked the first half and found nothing to like about the second. His group have to become "more robust and resilient", and Saturday's visit of Millwall is when he wants to see it.
Romeo Akachukwu started for the first time and had to anchor the midfield in a role that is not his own. Eckert thought he did it very well but it was clear that the youngster is being used to fill a gap in a threadbare squad, rather than being seriously readied.
A decision on the teenager follows once the squad starts moving, and Eckert made no attempt to pretend it will not.
Southampton's negotiating position got a small lift on Tuesday, when Harwood-Bellis made the PFA Championship Team of the Year.
This week also marks twenty five years since Southampton left The Dell, and a 4-1 home defeat was not the way to celebrate it.
The Kingsland stand was shut for the tie. The club seriously misread the £ 22.50 ticket price, and many fans decided to stream the action at home instead. Most of those who did travel to St Mary's had gone well before the end.
Transfer news
Conversations are going on over Harwood-Bellis, and Eckert said Southampton may have something to announce in the next few days. He has been training with the group again, so he is not completely frozen out.
Derby want Ben Brereton Diaz back on loan. Southampton will not do loans, so the £3.5m asking price is where this one has stuck. Eckert expects news there too.
Celtic want Yukinari Sugawara on loan, because Alistair Johnston is out until at least October. They have called him their ideal solution at right back, and Southampton are ready to let him go this week.
Petar Ratkov said no again on Tuesday, so the striker search continues. An offer above €10m with bonuses on top was not enough, even though Gennaro Gattuso does not think a penalty-box striker suits how Lazio plays.
Mads Roerslev is not being picked; he is not out through an injury. Eckert called James Bree his number one and would not say whether Roerslev would stay. It's never difficult to read between the lines of an Eckert interview, though, no matter how candid the German thinks he is being.
Southampton looked way off it
Leo Scienza put Saints ahead inside ten minutes, keeping a half-cleared Tom Fellows cross alive before finishing low across the box. It was his first goal of the season, and about the only thing Southampton did well.
Josh Ajala had not started a senior game before Tuesday. He headed West Ham level from a corner Daniel Peretz misjudged, then put them ahead when a Jack Stephens half-clearance dropped for him.
Taty Castellanos and Jarrod Bowen finished it off late on, though the tie had been gone a long time by then.
Saints Marching opinion
West Ham did not need their first team. Nuno Espírito Santo left out nearly his entire first team, and his match-winner had never started a senior game.
The cup exit itself costs Southampton little. Saints led, then stopped threatening for nearly an hour.
Eckert was not talking about the cup when he reached for the word robust. His defence looked softer than an episode of Bagpuss. Nathan Wood went down like a skittle in a bowling alley from the smallest amount of physical pressure for West Ham's opener. Then, Jack Stephens failed to get any distance on a clearance and gifted the Hammers a second.
Six days from the deadline, Eckert has one league win, a defender he expects to sell and a squad that is still not good enough to challenge. The Championship is a highly competitive league, and West Ham are the pick of the division. However, if Saints are not robust enough to cope with the Hammers' second IX, how on earth can they be expected to match their first?
Millwall arrive on Saturday unbeaten, so the reaction Eckert wants has to come against the division's most in-form side. The Lions may well arrive smelling blood.
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