Saints have released Rudi Skacel and Ryan Smith following the end of the season which has left the club looking at life in League One with a points deduction.

Skacel, who signed in a protracted £1.6m deal from Hearts three years ago, has ultimately failed to live up to the hype surrounding his transfer in 2006, and his release has come about after it was revealed that his contract was renegotiated upon his return from a loan spell with Hertha Berlin which shortened his contract by a year - he had originally signed a 4-year deal.

As one of the club’s highest earners, and following a reported show of dissent when he was substituted at Sheffield Wednesday three weeks ago, this end is hardly a surprise, and I suspect there won’t be many Saints fans who will be particularly sad to see him go. That said, there will be a lot of disappointment that he never really lived up to the top billing he was given when he signed for the club.

Ryan Smith was given a short-term contract after signing on a free transfer from Millwall - while showing occasional flashes of ability, he was never able to replicate it on a regular basis, and probably shows why he had failed to make the grade at other clubs earlier in his career.

Three senior players are also out of contract at the end of June, but it is hoped that they will remain with the club in League One, albeit on much reduced wages. Jason Euell, Bradley Wright-Phillips and player of the year Kelvin Davis will all become free agents soon, but all have made encouraging noises in recent times about their desire to stay, even if it involves taking a big pay cut.

Saints failed to take numerous good chances that came their way in a game they dominated, and missed an opportunity to move out of the bottom three in the process.

Full report to follow…

Two goals from Jason Euell and a first senior strike for Matt Paterson gave Saints a comprehensive win at Ipswich to make it three in a row for the first time this season. Could the Great Escape be on the cards again?

My view of the action as the players clap the fans at the end.

It was the Saints who started the brighter out of the two teams, applying a fair amount of pressure on the Ipswich rearguard in the first 20 minutes, but without little reward .First Saganowski drifted out to the left and pulled back well, but no-one was in the box, before the polish international dispossessed Town captain McCauley and bore down on goal, only for the defender to recover and tackle well.

Moments later Saganowski dropped deep and fed McGoldrick, who turned expertly well in order to lay off for Surman to shoot, but his effort was deflected over the bar for a corner kick. While the home side finally got a sniff at goal when Stead cut in and blasted woefully over the bar and they should have done better when Quinn dinked a ball through the middle for Counago, who was forced wide by Saeijs and fired past the side netting.

Saints had a golden chance to open the scoring with just over a quarter of the game gone, when Euell curled a high and accurate through ball over the top for Saganowski, who’s cheeky attempt at a lob was smothered well by former Southampton loanee goalkeeper Richard Wright. But an even better chance would come minutes later, in which the referee had a large role to play….

Surman’s whipped free kick delivery was perfect and Saejis’ header flew into the net, only for the linesman to disallow for an apparent foul. Frustration wouldn’t last for long though, when the away side would score an almost carbon copy goal, without the fouling…

Surman again swung in a great free kick and JASON EUELL rose above McCauley to guide a header into the bottom left hand corner of the net.

Euell would enjoy further recognition from the away support when he headed away to safety from a goal bound lob from Norris - who was in plenty of space, when Davis failed to punch away a free kick and was left stranded.

And the hosts appeared to slowly be getting back into the game, when they hit the frame of the goal. Quinn found David Wright in space and the full back shot against the cross bar. It would have been harsh on Saints who had fought hard and deserved a half time lead, which they could have doubled, when Schneiderlin sprayed the ball out wide to McGoldrick, who in turn supplied Skacel, but his fizzing ball across goal was not met by the outstretched Saganowski.

Half time: Ipswich Town 0-1 Southampton

The Saints came out for the second half showing the same desire as they had in the first half. And David McGoldrick was first to get a shot away, when he collected Davis’ goal kick and attempted a swerving strike from distance, which Wright did well to gather.

McGoldrick seemed in a determined mood in the second half and could have scored a wonder goal, when he cut in from the right, beating two defenders, before curling millimetres wide of the post, when perhaps he could have crossed.

Ipswich did offer a threat from set pieces, with McCauley nodding on for half time sub Walters to head at goal, but his shot was just over the bar. However Saints were still continuing to create chances and show desire to take all three points. First McGoldrick forced Wright into a smart save, where he had to parry wide, before Perry’s volley from the resulting corner by Gillett was ruled out, again for another unseen foul.

The home side responded with desperation and should have done better to equalise, when another substitute Lisbie turned in the box, but saw his low shot tipped wide.

But it was Saints who failed in the decision making department, first Saganowski cut in and shot at Wright’s legs, when he had Euell screaming for the ball. Before Surman dispossessed Bruce and squared for Euell and McGoldrick to both combine to miss from a matter of yards, when their was space at the near post for Surman to tuck the ball away.

Saints did manage to stamp victory on the match, when late on JASON EUELL chased onto a through ball and shot at Wright, but with the keeper grounded, Euell managed to nick the ball away and turn, before firing into the empty net.

And to complete a fantastic display, MATT PATERSON, who had just come on as a substitute, won the ball in midfield and with his first touch, shot low into the bottom corner, from the edge of the box, for his first senior goal.

Full time: Ipswich Town 0-3 Southampton

This was an excellent performance from Saints and things are starting to look up. At last we have a decent formation, at last we have a decent blend of youth and experience and at last the burden is off David McGoldrick as a lone striker, as we are now playing both Saganowski and Euell upfront and I believe this is the reason for our three wins on the bounce - the game at Ipswich sharing similarities in performance from the previous two wins at home to Preston and Cardiff.

Again we played with a diamond shaped midfield and the team could be proud of the effort they put in over the course of the game. Our passing was much better than the opposition, furthermore we managed to close down the opposition frequently and this forced the defence to put a lot of balls out for throw-in’s that perhaps weren’t necessary.

Upfront Euell closed down well and held the ball up to feet really well, which enabled Saganowski to drift into the channels and McGoldrick to push forward from midfield - this was particularly noticeable in the second half.

In midfield Surman had a great game and his delivery for the first goal was lovely. He also showed some good range of passing and a tireless display. Schneiderlin was solid enough, but not spectacular and same with Gillett, who I felt was a little off the pace.

In defence I was particularly impressed with the contribution of Chris Perry, who won a number of headers and vital blocks, while Saeijs was solid as ever and the two full backs Skacel and James got forward well.

Overall I think we thoroughly deserved to win, as we outclassed and fought harder than Ipswich in most and if not all departments of the game. Ipswich of whom, did not look a top 10 side. For the next game I wouldn’t change anything and think we could be successful if we attack Birmingham in the same manner as we have attacked teams in the last three games.

Saints head to Burnley tomorrow looking to atone for Monday night’s defeat at Crystal Palace.

In the three meetings at Turf Moor since our relegation, we’ve won twice and drawn once, but that good record will be put to a stern test tomorrow afternoon as Burnley are currently flying high in the Championship table. With ten wins from their 22 games, they currently sit in 4th place, six points behind Reading and just ahead of Sheffield United, who they beat 3-2 last week.

Typically, Burnley have made a good start to the season in the Championship only to fall away around this time of the year, and our 3-2 win last season was the beginning of their familiar slide down the table. They ended in 13th place, which was fairly comfortable, but finished only ten points ahead of relegated Leicester City, which goes to show how close the bottom half of the Championship was last season.

They have reserved their best form for in front of their own fans this season, unlike us, and have only lost once on home soil, which was their first home game of the season - a 3-0 defeat against Ipswich. Since then, they’ve won 6 and drawn 4, scoring 17 goals in the process.

If we’re to get anything from the game, we’re going to have to make sure we defend properly from set-pieces, something we failed to do on Monday night for Craig Beattie’s goal which was probably the strike that knocked the stuffing out of us.

Burnley are sweating on the fitness of Michael Duff and Chris McCann, but otherwise manager Owen Coyle has a full squad to choose from. Their goals have mostly been shared between Martin Paterson (signed from Scunthorpe in the summer), Robbie Blake and former Manchester United winger Chris Eagles. They are the key players to look out for tomorrow.

For Saints, Morgan Schneiderlin is expected to come back into the side, possibly in place of Alex Pearce with Jack Cork moving into the centre of defence alongside Chris Perry. The whereabouts of Jason Euell seems to be a bit of a mystery after he was expected to come straight back into the fold after serving his three-match ban, and Anthony Pulis may be on the bench for the first time after recovering from a broken foot.

Amid all the fuss about the FA Cup third round draw, it would be easy to forget that Saints have a league game tomorrow, where they welcome Sheffield Wednesday to St Mary’s.

Wednesday have been very hit-and-miss so far this season, in fact they have a symmetrical record in that they have won 8 and lost 8 in the Championship, and indeed their home and away form are direct opposites (6-2-2 at home, 2-2-6 away). While their away form overall is poor, they did win their last game on their travels - a 2-0 win at Blackpool - but like us, they seem to struggle to score goals.

Their leading scorer is Marcus Tudgay with six league goals, four of which have been scored at Hillsborough. At the other end, they have conceded 25 goals in 10 away games so far, which is the worst away defensive record in the Championship by some distance. Meanwhile, Saints have kept two clean sheets in a row and are unbeaten in three league games.

Jermaine Johnson is sidelined for the Owls with a knee injury but they could be boosted by the return of Tommy Spurr, Frankie Simek and Wade Small from their respective injuries.

Saints will again be without Michael Svensson, but Olly Lancashire could feature after he came through a reserve outing in midweek. Jason Euell is now available again after serving his three-match ban. Jan Poortvliet isn’t expected to make many changes from the team that started the goalless draw at Charlton, although Jordan Robertson may make way for Alex Pearce or Lancashire to allow Jack Cork to play in midfield.

Saints face a tough trip to the Madejski to play free-scoring Reading tomorrow afternoon. The Royals have only dropped two points at home so far this season (a goalless draw against QPR recently) and are averaging 3 goals per game. Not a statistic you really want to be seeing, but one that we’re going to have to overcome if we’re to get anything out of the game.

Saints have only played one competitive game at the Madejski Stadium since it opened in 1998, which was a 2-0 defeat that came as part of Reading’s incredible 33-match unbeaten run to earn them promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history in 2006. We’ve also played a number of pre-season friendlies there, and Saints maintain an unbeaten record in those, but it’s competitive games that count, and we’ve lost on the last three trips to Berkshire - that match in 2006 and two cup upsets in the mid-90s. Overall, our record at Reading isn’t too shabby at all. From 19 league and cup games, we’ve won 6, drawn 5 and lost 8, although with the exception of the 2006 meeting, the two teams haven’t met in the league since 1960.

Reading boast the Championship’s leading scorer in Kevin Doyle. The Irishman has scored 14 goals, 11 of which have come on home soil. The Royals recently paid his former club Cork City an undisclosed sum in settlement of a sell-on clause in his contract in order to save themselves a bit of money in the long-term on the assumption that he will command a hefty transfer fee should they choose or be forced to sell him. Fellow Irishmen Stephen and Noel Hunt have been their other key contributors, weighing in with 5 and 6 goals respectively.

Reading manager Steve Coppell is expected to name an unchanged line-up from the 2-0 win at Sheffield United last week. Centre-back Andre Bikey is expected to have recovered from a knock which prevented him from playing for Cameroon this week.

Alex Pearce, who has already scored two goals for the Saints from centre-back, is ineligible to play against his parent club. Chris Perry will probably replace him. Olly Lancashire is also a doubt after being forced off against Wolves last week, with Paul Wotton his likely replacement if he’s ruled out. Michael Svensson is probably out of contention after being struck down with illness, as has Oscar Gobern.

Jason Euell is also definitely out as he begins a three-match ban after his appeal against the red card given to him last week was rejected. Jordan Robertson and Romain Gasmi are in contention to feature, and Bradley Wright-Phillips will probably get a chance after impressing as a substitute last week.

Saints will be backed by more than 3000 fans after Reading agreed to give us an extra allocation of tickets. The last chance for Saints fans to buy tickets at the normal rate of £23 for adults is at 3pm this afternoon. Any unsold tickets will be available from the Reading ticket office, but with a £4 increase on that price.

The FA have shown an unsurprising lack of a backbone by rejecting Saints’ appeal against the ridiculous red card shown to Jason Euell on Saturday.

The three-match ban imposed for straight red card offences will therefore remain, and Euell will miss the next three games - against Reading, Plymouth and his former club Charlton.

While video evidence seemed to clearly demonstrate that Euell’s challenge was contested equally as fiercely by Wolves’ Richard Stearman and that no Wolves player even appealed for a free-kick - let alone any sort of further punishment which would often be displayed for “straight red card” fouls - the FA have ignored this and upheld the decision.

Anyone with a modicum of common sense could see, particularly with the aid of the television highlights, that it was barely a foul, let alone a red card, but unfortunately common sense isn’t something in plentiful supply at Soho Square.

As I mentioned in my match report from the Wolves game, the FA are more than happy to bang the “Respect the Ref” drum, and yet fail to understand that sheer frustration from pure incompetence is often the reason behind a supposed lack of respect. Players don’t go into games with the intention of giving the referee a hard time - it is as a direct result of absolutely ridiculous decisions going against them that respect is lost, hence both Andrew Surman and Rudi Skacel collecting bookings for dissent on Saturday.

It’s also a sign of the FA’s priorities and ethics that they were very quick and willing to overturn the red card handed out (awarded correctly, in my opinion) to England captain John Terry after he rugby-tackled Manchester City striker Jo to the ground, and yet for a far clearer case of an incorrect decision being made, they throw it out seemingly without actually considering the case on its merits.

An Alex Pearce goal wasn’t enough for 10-man Saints to get any points from yesterday’s game as Chris Iwelumo and David Jones gave 13-man Wolves the points in a controversial but thoroughly entertaining game at St Mary’s.

Saints made two changes from the side beaten by Bristol City last week, with Jason Euell and Morgan Schneiderlin replacing Jake Thomson and Paul Wotton in midfield. Wolves started with Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Chris Iwelumo up front, leaving fellow strikers Andy Keogh and self-confessed Saints fan Sam Vokes on the bench.

Saints started brightly with Oscar Gobern and Rudi Skacel linking up well on the left and Adam Lallana and Jack Cork doing likewise on the right. The visitors, six points clear at the top of the table before the game, barely had a touch of the ball in the opening exchanges apart from clearances. However, with their first foray into the Saints penalty area, they opened the scoring. Michael Kightly’s far-post cross was cleared to relative safety, but Carlos Edwards worked himself a bit of space and put in a deep curling cross. The defence had stepped up to play for offside, and Iwelumo found himself unmarked 8 yards out to head into the far corner. This is the first of many decisions made (or not) by the officials that could certainly be argued to be “contentious” at best. My spies in the Kingsland stand told me after the game that Iwelumo was “miles” offside, so I’ll be waiting for the highlights later with baited breath…

As I mentioned in my match preview on Friday, Wolves have opened the scoring on 9 occasions this season, and on every occasion they went on to win the game. With the visitors having opened the scoring for a tenth time this season, Saints were obviously going to be facing a battle. However, battle was exactly what they did. David McGoldrick and Jason Euell exchanged a neat one-two which gave McGoldrick a clear sight of goal but Carl Ikeme pulled off a decent save although arguably McGoldrick probably should have done better.

Wolves had a fantastic chance to double their advantage when a flowing move (on reflection, probably their only such move in the entire game) which started with Michael Mancienne at the back and involved Stephen Ward, Ebanks-Blake and Edwards, with the ball finally falling to Kightly who had time and space to pick his spot, but that spot was inexplicably wide of Kelvin Davis’ right-hand post.

The visitors weren’t to be denied a second goal for long, though. Iwelumo flicked a header wide to Edwards whose clever pass found David Jones and after taking a good first touch, he hit a left-foot shot past Davis into the far corner.

Frustration was creeping into the home supporters at this point, with a lot of dissatisfaction and outright abuse being hurled in the direction of the directors’ box. The players, however, appeared to be focussed on their task. Lallana forced a corner and took it himself and found Alex Pearce completely unmarked on the six-yard line to power a header past Ikeme to bring Saints back into the game. Wolves manager Mick McCarthy would have been absolutely livid with the slack marking, particularly given that Pearce had scored an identical headed goal from a corner only two weeks ago at Preston. Chris Perry also scored a similar goal against Birmingham at the start of the season - it makes a pleasant change for us to be scoring rather than conceding such simple goals.

Jones had Wolves’ only other real chance of the first half, hitting a dipping volley from 25 yards which Davis did well to acrobatically tip over the bar. McGoldrick then created a bit of space for himself just outside the area and spotted Ikeme off his line but got the lob attempt completely wrong and the ball flew comfortably over the bar.

The real turning point of the game came two minutes before half-time. Jason Euell and Richard Stearman both slid in for what appeared to be a fair 50/50 challenge, with Stearman coming off worse from the tackle. Referee Lee Mason blew for a free-kick to Wolves but then to the amazement (and considerable anger from the majority of those inside St Mary’s) produced a red card for Euell. From my seat in the Itchen stand it appeared to be an absolutely outrageous decision and if the TV highlights allow people to draw the same conclusion as I did at the time, I’d expect an appeal against the decision.

The half-time whistle blew soon after, to choruses of boos from the Saints fans, not particularly at the scoreline or performance of the players, but because the referee (and, arguably, his assistant on the Kingsland side for Wolves’ first goal) had produced what appeared to have been a wholly unjust red card which seriously diminished the chances of Saints getting anything from the game.

Saints made a change at half-time with Bradley Wright-Phillips replacing Oscar Gobern in a like-for-like swap on the left wing. Wright-Phillips was immediately involved as he danced past two defenders but then scuffed his shot wide from long range.

Jan Poortvliet was forced into a second change almost immediately after Olly Lancashire was on the end of a very late challenge by Carlos Edwards which went unpunished. Lancashire was replaced by the experienced Chris Perry. Arguably, that challenge was actually worse than the one that Euell was sent off for, which only served to increase the level of frustration and anger from the home fans. However, the apparent injustice seemed to galvanise both the fans and the players as they tore into the league leaders for the majority of the second half.

Wright-Phillips had another effort from the edge of the area after good work by Cork and Lallana down the right, but his shot rebounded off the inside of the post and away to safety. The best chance Saints created came shortly after. Wright-Phillips’ cross was met by McGoldrick and Ikeme together, and the ball ran loose to Lallana who attempted to guide the ball over two covering defenders and into the empty net, but somehow he managed to lift the ball over the goal.

Saints were starting to get more and more frustrated with decisions that were going against them. Andrew Surman picked up a booking for disputing a decision by the linesman on the Kingsland side when he had dribbled away from Ward but the flag indicated the ball went out of play. Shortly afterwards, Rudi Skacel also saw yellow when he challenged Kevin Foley by the corner flag. There appeared to be little contact, if any, but Foley went to ground and the referee gave the free-kick. Skacel showed his clear disgust with the decision and found himself in the book.

Lee Mason appeared to be completely losing the plot with 15 minutes to go when he failed to award Saints a free-kick for a blatant trip on Surman on the edge of the area, and seconds later gave Wolves a free-kick for a foul by Schneiderlin, yet somehow Mason produced a yellow card for Wolves captain Karl Henry. Shortly afterwards, he then gave Wolves a free-kick for an identical challenge to the one that wasn’t punished at the other end!

Rudi Skacel then played McGoldrick in through the left channel and his run was abruptly ended by Mancienne in the area. A penalty seemed the obvious decision, but then everyone remembered the complete farce that they were dealing with, and the obvious decision therefore was for the referee to completely bottle making another big decision.

After 4 minutes of injury time, the referee blew the final whistle to more boos, all aimed at him. To their credit, most of the fans stayed behind to applaud the players off the pitch after a gutsy performance, and rightly so. They also stayed to make sure Lee Mason was left in no doubt as to the opinion over his performance.

In summary, I can’t fault the majority of yesterday’s performance. It would have been very easy for the players to crumble both at 2-0 down and also when Euell got sent off. It speaks volumes for the character that the young players appear to be developing that they completely outplayed the league leaders with only ten men for 47 minutes. However, the bare statistics will say that we lost 2-1 and collected no points from the game.

I’ll reserve the final word for today’s referee, Lee Mason. I’ve seen some incompetent performances in the years I’ve been supporting Saints, but I don’t think I’ve witnessed anything quite so inept for a very long time. The FA have made a big deal about their “Respect” campaign, suggesting that a lot of the criticism aimed at the men in black has been unjustified. Unfortunately, yesterday’s “performance” is a perfect case study demonstrating why referees fail to get the respect they want. It’s not a case of players and managers not respecting the referees and the difficult (but well-paid) job they do - when the game starts there is respect, but while some claim respect has to be earned, I would actually argue that respect has to be maintained by the referee. Mason lost the plot yesterday, and his bizarre (to say the least) decision-making lost him the respect of the players.

Things don’t get any easier for Saints as we now face a trip to free-scoring Reading. Backed by nearly 4000 Saints fans, however, who knows what might happen. Perform like we did for most of the game yesterday and I think we’ve got a chance of getting something out of the game.

Jason Euell is likely to be out for two weeks after sustaining a shoulder injury playing for the reserves.

As one of the remaining high earners, it was hoped that Euell would be in a position to contribute more to the first team, but this setback has put paid to that for the time being.