Southampton 0-0 Newcastle: Problems clear for Benitez and Hughes

With grim and unintentional irony, a mascot they were calling ‘Mr Monopoly’ was paraded around St Mary’s to promote a new Southampton FC edition of the board game, being billed as the ideal Christmas gift.

For Newcastle, any such merchandise would be the ultimate indignity, given supporters’ sentiments about their club’s owner, which require little elaboration. For Southampton, whose time without a goal on home turf now extends beyond 172 days, it was a reminder of days when this club actually scored goals, since Kevin Keegan, Matt Le Tissier and Rickie Lambert are allocated squares on the board.

Theirs was the manager looking the more uncomfortable last night given that Mark Hughes, unlike…