HarvSFC

They seem to be changing the FA Cup final dates every other year these days, one year it's played the week after the season, the next it isn't. The argument is lost a little, when as already mentioned Newcastle and Tottenham are playing a friendly in Australia three days after the Premier League season ends. Two years ago Manchester City played Barcelona in a friendly three matches into the season, which was also bizarre.

I was surprised McCarthy was picked ahead of Lumley given he has been non-existent this season, but you've got to pick the goalkeeper who has played for England and been a below average Premier League goalkeeper, which probably makes him serviceable in the Championship over the below average Championship goalkeeper. Remember Lumley's stats at Reading weren't much better than Bazunu's, if they were, from what I can remember. Fortunately, we've only had to see the Watford FA Cup howler from him and that wasn't too costly. Feel more confident with McCarthy in the sticks, we know his drawbacks and deficiencies, while I don't think we've seen enough of Lumley to get the full experience, but I remember that lowlights video of him when he signed. Now, knowing our luck with McCarthy, he'll have a good end to the season and we'll offer him a new contract and a wage increase.

It's the hope that kills you. Up the Saints!

Strangely, there are only three players I'd be disappointed to lose this summer, Harwood-Bellis, Downes and Walker-Peters and they feel like an inevitability if we don't get promoted anyway, so double misery potentially this summer. Think everyone else in the squad is replaceable with a good scouting team, even with A. Armstrong's strong numbers. The good scouting team, is of course as always the worrying thing.

Indeed, it's a token gesture from them to make them appear as though they care about the fans, when there isn't a single professional football club in 2024 that does. Hence they charge their own fans £47 to watch Championship football. They said £15, or £47. From one extreme to the other. Leeds would make up the shortfall from the £15 pricing because they have a bigger stadium and would grant us a bigger allocation than what we could offer Leeds. You'd imagine we made a counter offer and asked them to meet in the middle at £30, which they would have then declined, going to their £47 tickets, but announced how it was horrible Southampton who stopped the reciprocal pricing. They were too loud in pleading their innocence, when the only information from Southampton has come from Alfie House and it looks like it was only their terms, or no terms.

The nostalgic kits are done, red and white stripes now, please.

One day we'll play well across a full 90, that day was not today. Really good in the first half, untouchable at times, but dismal and complacent in the second half, giving Coventry something to cling to with their goal. Could understand the poor second halves under Hasenhuttl, the players had used all their energy in the first halves under him, but with these tactics everyone kept saying the opposition would eventually tire from us keeping the ball, but it doesn't seem to be happening. Feared another Middlesbrough at the end. Onto the positives, Aribo was really good, especially in the first half. Coventry couldn't get the ball off him in the first half and couldn't understand why the Coventry player wasn't booked for a deliberate pull back after Aribo beat him all ends up, but the ref did seem to favour Coventry this evening. Glad the player who initiated the contact with Bazunu in the second half went off injured, karma. Scrappy goals to score, but we'll take them. Even with the autos pretty much out of our sights now we still need to keep winning so that we can go into the play offs with momentum and a good feeling. Coventry aren't a bad team either, beaten Leicester and Leeds in the last few months and are chasing down a play off spot in 7th, so could have easily slipped up to a team that wants it tonight, good professionalism. Major negative, Sekou Mara. What a waste of a sub, one of the worst performances I've seen.

We're closer to sixth than we are third.

This is what Russell Martin says word for word to his coaching team... But, it's about Jack Stephens.

Shields was wank. Has made two good signings at both clubs worked for amongst a load of shite in Lavia and Palmer and both he knew from City. Wilcox? Said all the right things in the media, but was Martin the best managerial appointment we could have made in the summer? Why did all of our transfer budget for the season go on a crocked striker from Sunderland and youngster from City, neither of which have contributed anything to the first team this season? Certainly question marks over him as well. Lets now hope it's third time lucky and lets hope we don't try the Rasmus Ankersen experiment again. Arsehole made us wait while he left Manchester City amicably while wanting to shoot off as soon as United comes calling. Twerks for the Manchester clubs.

He doesn't save anything that's not routinely right at him. Anything that's struck well, or hit with a bit of swerve and it goes in the net. Anything he has to dive for and it goes in the net. It's so poor. Like playing with an outfield player in goal for the entire season, well two seasons now.

Smallbone's on 4 goals, Aribo's on 3 goals. The key being Smallbone's played 2489 minutes this season, while Aribo's played 925 minutes. Aribo's also been used this season as a sub to help us see the game out, so driving forward hasn't been his primary role for much of the season. And I thought Aribo was crap up until December. But, Smallbone's just there. If only we had a Schneiderlin/Hammond/Cork next to Downes.

Brief overview of the shit he had to work with here: Took over the club in 19th place and with one win in our first 15 Premier League matches. His first game in charge was a 1-0 defeat to Cardiff, so it soon became one win in 16. He then beat Arsenal in his second match. Wasn't allowed any signings in January, we got weaker by loaning out Gabbiadini, but he wasn't really a Hasenhuttl player. Kept that squad up in 16th. We had just 9 points in December when he took over, we finished the season on 39 with the same group of players. The next summer, we were obliged to sign Ings and then Hasenhuttl was only given two more permanent signings. Che Adams from Birmingham and Moussa Djenepo from Standard Liege. So, the same squad that barely stayed up the season before with only Djenepo, who fizzled out after a bright start and a hot and cold Adams to help keep our Premier League status. We finished 11th with 52 points. We did get KWP in on loan at the end of the January window and the impactful Jacob Maddox. But, we did have to sell Targett to get Adams and Gallagher, Clasie and Austin made up the Djenepo fee. So, another summer comes around in 2020-21, how many permanent signings will Hasenhuttl get to bring in this window, after a couple of years in charge? 2. KWP permanently, which was key and Salisu, who didn't make his debut until February, the following year. So, he got to start the season without any strengthening to the squad, it got weaker again with the departure of Hojbjerg and Reed, who we replaced with Diallo in October, while Walcott came in on loan in October and Minamino in February. Understandably, the team dropped to 15th, but still stayed up comfortably with 43 points and made an FA Cup semi-final. Well into year three now, and we see Ings, our top scorer of the last few years sold for £30m to Villa and Vestergaard, who became king of the diagonal balls that season sold to Leicester for £15m. We bargain shopped their immediate replacements in A. Armstrong for £15m from Blackburn and Lyanco for £6m from Torino. We spent the remaining cash on Perraud, Simeu, Livramento and Small. Again, shopping around for bargains. Fortunately, Livramento turned out well and we stumbled across Broja on loan. We stayed 15th with 40 points. JWP was our top scorer with 10 in the league and Adams was second with 7, so we didn't really replace Ings. Now, the final summer, and finally some investment and some signings, but it wasn't the right investment, nor signings. Hasenhuttl loses his backroom staff and has the likes of Selles forced upon him by Sports Republic. Then we made 9 signings in the summer, but of those 9, only Lavia was of any Premier League standard and that didn't really enhance the squad, as we lost Romeu. So, the same struggling squad, just got a bit more bloated and that's when it looked like Hasenhuttl had finally given up, as even with the finances now coming, the team was still getting worse and he didn't have much say in the players being brought in, so was understandably frustrated when those players turned out to be crap. Essentially, Hasenhuttl was the one positive we had at the club for a number of years. He kept us up despite Gao, despite Semmens, despite Reed, despite Wilson, despite Krueger and despite all the crap he had to work with on the pitch. It was a shame it ended the way it did and he did look like a man who had lost the passion, which was a key part of his character and management. However, we now wish him well, it was a good ride.

Funny if it is true. Would seem Austin's a good judge of player.

Mike Dean played a big part in the United 9-0. But, yeah, Leicester were just relentless against us. So many games fizzle out after an early onslaught, like last night, taking Saka off at half time and then bringing on the rest of the squad players throughout the second half (Cedric). But, we just didn't have any answer for Leicester that night. Ayoze Perez became prime Messi. It was embarrassing.

Watched Lyon vs Lens tonight. A few ex-Saints. Lyon lost 3-0 with Caleta-Car and Maitland-Niles making up half of their back four. Maitland-Niles received a straight red at 2-0 and Kevin Danso scored the third for Lens.

Then you all get to go on holiday, see you in three weeks.

The more I see them play, the more I think both Jackson and Gakpo were two more poor finds from our scouting teams last season and we dodged a couple of bullets there. Would've been a few more million wasted. The two are struggling at Chelsea and Liverpool where chances are coming aplenty each game. Ramos also isn't pulling up many trees in France, but that's more from his stats pages, rather than watching him play for PSG.

That was abysmal. A Millwall side who had come into the fixture winless in 7 and losing 6 of those 7. Millwall's gameplan was to put some early challenges in, put some fear into our players, hope one of ours picks up a knock from the challenges and go for a scrappy game. It worked. Fraser, the victim of their rough play and his replacement Edozie didn't take his man on again after the first heavy tackle he received. Our play was summed up by one of our corners going straight out for a goal kick before it reached the box. The frontline today looked good on paper, but Adams was too isolated upfront, every time he got the ball nobody was playing off him and he had to come backwards every time. The same for A. Armstrong when he replaced him. Why we didn't play a two up top today at any point during today's game, I don't know. Brooks didn't do anything, just recycled the ball and as said, Edozie was too passive today, never committed his full-back. S. Armstrong made one run at the start, but anonymous after that. Really think this needs to be his last season here when his contract's up at the end of the season. Isn't suited to the English game anymore, but we'll probably give out one of those charitable contracts. The whole team were just really poor. Every time they just opted for the easy pass and usually that was to one of Bednarek, or Harwood-Bellis, rather than going forwards. Not one player tried to make something happen today, which is pathetic against 20th in the league. Even Walker-Peters was bad today, but again he's getting shoe horned all over the place. I know Alcaraz wasn't a key player in the unbeaten run, but he was a member of each and every match squad. But, he scored a cracking, decisive goal against Plymouth a month before his departure and a goal against Blackburn in the 4-0 win two weeks beforehand off the bench after missing the penalty. Letting a player who was contributing in the side go was just pure arrogance by the decision makers. Neither Leicester, Leeds nor Ipswich let first team players go in January. But, we'd have probably sold KWP if the right offer came in such is the lack of backbone at this club. Then replacing Alcaraz with Rothwell was moronic. But, then we spent money on two players this season. All of the season's budget on two players who have contributed nothing for us. Not really blaming Charles, he plays well for Northern Ireland and should be growing into his position with Downes out. But, we shouldn't be spending £10m+ on a player that the manager doesn't want to use.

Too many passengers in the team tonight, can't get away with it at this level. Manning, Rothwell, Smallbone, S. Armstrong and Mara were all bad. It's key for central midfielders these days to be able to play on the turn, Smallbone can't do that. Whenever Bazunu gave him the ball, Bazunu then received it back under pressure because Smallbone can only pass the way he's facing, leaving Bazunu to hoof it to a Hull shirt every time. Destroyed our game plan, surprised we had as much as 58% possession and Smallbone isn't good enough defensively to make up for his predictability on the ball. Even at the end he sent in a few weird balls to no one when we were putting on the pressure. Mara was a huge let down too. I talked him up the other week, his good cameos have fooled me in the past, but I thought where he made a good appearance from the start against Watford in the cup that he might be coming good. Unfortunately, not. Didn't do the basics tonight and when you can't do the basics at least pressure the opposition when they're on the ball and move when your team is in possession to give an option to. He did neither tonight. A. Armstrong laid off a good ball near the end of the first half and Mara was running away from the ball leaving the Hull defence and goalkeeper to deal with it easily. He's too unreliable. Martin said the second half was an improvement, but we couldn't have been any worse than the first half. I didn't think we were particularly good in the second half either, until the last five minutes when we scored. Their keeper had very little to do tonight. No excuses for not playing your best eleven in this modern era. 2011-12, Lambert, Fonte and Lallana (now a sicknote) all managed 40+ starts with three subs and a five man bench. Cork and Hooiveld just missed out with 39 starts. The luxury of having five subs and a nine man bench to choose from is being wasted, squad rotation isn't as necessary as it was 12 years ago with a lot of players only playing for 60 minutes a match these days.

Small murmurs around Corberan being replaced at West Brom too.

Yeah, Adams wasn't giving us enough movement upfront. A key part of our play these days is when we move the ball from the centre-backs to the striker. However, in the first half, Harwood-Bellis just wasn't able to find Adams and each time he tried to play the ball, it was going to a Huddersfield player. This changed in the second half with Armstrong and then Mara in the middle up top and giving the team options to pass to. I've been really impressed with Mara recently. He seems to have learnt what he's good at and is certainly making a case for the starting eleven.

Phenomenal. One of the best games I've been to, beats the Jonno Forte comeback against MK Dons. Rothwell's first goal too, one of the best. For a lot of the game it looked like we weren't going to hit 25. 2-0 down at half time, and Huddersfield deserved the lead. We didn't test their goalkeeper in the first half. Then the second half started, we blitzed them in the opening five minutes, had two penalty shouts before Rothwell's first and then second. Then the momentum went back in Huddersfield's direction and looked as though it was going to be a slog of a final half an hour, Huddersfield score from a deflection and it looked like it wasn't going to be our day. But, it was and the side never gave up. Tremendous. Another shout out for Mara, a player, like Aribo, who I thought wasn't going to make it here. He's made a lot of improvements to his game this season and that's a sign of good management and coaching. After years of seeing players decline after joining the club, we're now seeing a lot of them improving, Bazunu, Bednarek, Smallbone and A. Armstrong to add to the list. Shame the ref was a bit crap. Did nothing to stop the gamesmanship/timewasting from Huddersfield, for a period of time it felt like every time we attacked and the Huddersfield goalkeeper got the ball, a Huddersfield player would hit the deck and then the game would stop and go to a drop ball. He was very weak and held the game up a lot. When there's 13 minutes added on at the end without any major injuries something isn't right. Oh well, 25 unbeaten, pulling away from Ipswich now and keeping ahead of Leeds with a game in hand. Up the Saints!

Could Meghoma be another Shaw for us if we get promoted? Young talent from the academy replaces struggling defensive full-back and doesn’t look out of place.