Lazlo78

Embarrasingly enough I forgot about tonight's game! Was watching some CL-updates when I noticed L1-scores... Hartlepool - Saints 1:1.... *blink* .... Hartlepool - Saints 1:2.... YEAH!

Honestly, this is quite funny coming from a Saints fan. We of all should understand that sometimes the overweight, lazy guy who does not work for the team is just... a god

Most probably we will be in this league next season. Yesterday's match can serve as a reminder next season that we will have no easy games, even if we are doing well in the league. Lots of speculation there, I know, but I think it will come true... And yes, no matter the league it's great to win games more often than losing!

Agree, personal mistakes is seldomly down to the formation. I don't care about 4-5-1, 4-4-2 or even the newfound 3-4-1-2 - I just want Pardew to choose the right players and give them the right instructions for any specific game. One game at a time.

Ok fair enough. Not having seen the replay I was cautious in blaming Lallana. He could have been trying to cover someone else's mistake. But as it wasn't the case - booo I am just surprised that Lallana was supposed to be covering someone that close to our box considering that he was AMC at the time...

James was out of position because we were 3 at the back and stretched. However, when he got back and challenged the winger, he did awful - that much I'll grant you Tbh I don't know who was supposed to be marking their scorer - but I did notice Lallana desperately trying to catch him...

I certainly hope so. All the funny responses do make me feel quite reassured though. Funny how a thread like this can turn out for the best

Totally agree. Their 1st was due to a misunderstanding between Harding and Lallana (and Trotman or Jaidi). The defense was stretched (and the central defenders + James should have pushed to the left quicker as a unit to close the gap) and Harding came forward. He and Lallana both went for the winger, Cox, and left their central midfielder unmarked. When Cox played the 1-2 with the midfielder, he exposed Harding for pace and took advantage of the fact that no central defender was backing up Harding. Small individual mistakes led to the goal... 2nd was a lapse of concentration by Trotman. What on earth was he thinking about staying on the wrong side of his man casually strolling behind him? 3rd goal was a result of us trying to push forward in a 3-4-1-2. Brighton kept their cool and exposed our defense. Much as we can criticise the team for conceding we can applaud Pardew for switching to a hitherto unknown Plan C. I hate it when managers don't try their hardest to avoid a defeat... Maybe I'm too easily impressed, but as I wrote earlier I think James' delivery was excellent. Kingsland Red: Deep crosses swinging away from the keeper may be a tad more difficult for the striker but they're also much more difficult to defend as you often can't get behind the ball. Brighton were sitting a bit too deep for this to really show, but if he had hit those early crosses on a defense trying to get back, he would have caused all sorts of problems for them. So I'd say not so QED on the crossing issue. Oh and while I'm at it - what is the issue with sideways passing on this board? I've seen it mentioned numerous times after a game that "we did too much of that useless sideways passing". But if we can't hoof the ball forwards and we can't pass it sideways - what's left? Watch a Barcelona match and make a derogatory comment about sideways passes again... When a team is expected to be in possession and dominate the match (as we often are) I would be very disappointed if the players were unable to shift the ball sideways - either by short or long passes - keep patience, and wait for the opportune moment to set the strikers up...

Those ECHO ratings were a bit out of touch but I do have one question: how can anyone (fan or journalist) claim to accurately give marks to 22 players or even just 11 players during a game?! I'm way too immersed in the game to notice all the movement off the ball and I do suspect it's the same with most others. This is why central midfielders in a defensive role are so difficult to rate, because they do their best work unnoticed... I can give marks to our defense based on their mistakes, but I can't for the life of me remember how Jaidi did for those long spells when we dominated. He might have played the perfect game and I wouldn't notice because I was screaming for Connolly and Lambert to get that goal. Right. The point wasn't to establish how unobservant I am - I'm merely wondering if others experience the same and then throw a few 5's and 6's at those players you didn't notice (or slag them off for being the worst player in the history of SFC)?

My negatives: - Trotman's lack of concentration - Jaidi's shakiness - Harding's positional play - James' positional play My positives: - James' crossing. By League One standards he really puts in some quality crosses - Antonio's throw ins. A new weapon? - Pardew's willingness to take action both in replacing Trotman with Thomas and in swapping from 4-4-2 to the (previously untested?) 3-4-1-2. Brighton played like men possessed but they ran out of steam in the 2nd half. Our entire defense was shaky from start to finish and their individual mistakes cost us goals. The freaky thing is: even though our defense was at sea and they were 2-0 up, we still could have "easily" won this! Which says a lot about or offence - even though people are complaining, they still managed to put Brighton under pressure for long spells and they created enough chances to win the game (Hammond, Lallana and Waigo all missed sitters)... Fair play to Pardew for realising that Trotman was out of the game and replacing him already at half time. A lot of previous managers wouldn't have done anything until the 80th minute... And it was nice to see him try to go for the equaliser instead of defending a 2-1 defeat. It did cost us the 3rd goal as the three man defense was stretched a bit too much. Mind you, James was skinned again and again in that 2nd half even when they were 4 at the back Perspectives: cut out the individual mistakes from the defenders and a bit more luck in front of goal, and we would have been 3-1 winners...

I'm off. Enjoy the win, everyone

Kickoff time here in CET is 5:30, so quite bad with regards to dinner and kids. But I just convinced the missus that we can always have dinner tomorrow and that sending me to the pub is a good idea. Pretty pleased with myself right now

Arsenal = Last league match at the Dell. Final goal by MLT. Brighton = Last overall match at the Dell (because they were the first ever opponents at the Dell). Stadium scrapped for souvenirs. Can't remember details or lineup...

Great read - thanks, Phil!

Just asked at my local pub (50 meters from my apartment) and yes, they will be open tomorrow and yes, they will be showing the game

Good call

Saints - Norwich

"Good. New era" as Saints clark wrote... still I find the list a bit frightening. I would have thought we had someone on the books with more games than James and Lallana

He was looking at a loan spell at Danish club Odense BK but the move broke down because they couldn't agree on the wages... I think he heavily relies on his Champ Man godlike status

I see that livesport247.com has the game scheduled. The quality there is a little better than the justintv-feeds, but the feed is very stable there. Do remember though that it costs €3/week to get membership. I'm absolutely thrilled that I'm virtually guaranteed to be able to see the game :-D

On the OS, AP singled Hammond out as our MoM from yesterday's JPT-game against Charlton

Damn you. Don't take my Swiss granddad away from me. It's bad enough that they made a painting of my English granddad and hung it in a gallery

Maybe it seems like a fairly obvious comment coming on the back of such an unbeaten streak, but I think it is becoming obvious that the mentality has changed. The team looks like they are expecting a win from every game and confidence must be sky high! We need to make sure that the mentality is so stong that we can cope with a run of bad results. I mean, a few personal errors, a few bad calls from a ref, a few screamers from the opposition's strikers and you can quickly hit som bad results even though there is no greater underlying problems with the team. If they can weather a run of bad results, there is no limit to what this team can do

Wonderful! Really brought a smile to my face. Herbie has always been an excellent host when I have been in Southampton. That's one painting I'd hang on my wall...

bummer....