jasonbenali

While we were solid and bright enough in the first half, it only felt a matter of time before City scored. They seemed to be probing for weaknesses and if you give KDB that much time and space with Haaland on the pitch, well, but let's face it they've done it against much better teams than us... I was left thinking that nearly all the youngsters should be on loan in the Champ or equivalent level smashing it like Tella or finding out that they're simply not up to it. Case in point, did anyone think Sully was going to score, he goes to pieces in front of goal with the pressure? To think he cost more than Ings shows what you get for your money these days... Final thought, you can get away with playing a false nine if you have goalscoring midfielders. We don't.

That had Brentford feel to it where we hardly laid a glove on them with low tempo aimless football although West Ham were worse than them. Amazingly we still could have scraped a draw with that header but to be fair they hit the bar as well. You get what you deserve eventually. Tall Paul is an absolute donkey outside of the box so why only 1 cross into him in the box? You know what he can and can’t do so use the advantage. So puzzled what’s happened to Stu - what happened to the driving runs and lost count of how many times he lost the ball. I don’t really blame Selles who clearly thought keep it tight then change it with the subs and surely he didn’t expect Mara and Stu to be so, so bad. He’s given everyone a chance and it’s all a bit deckchair and Titanic. We were debating MOTM - 3 votes for Lavia from the boys. He’s only 19. Class.

Same as 1st half start, lots of possession but no cutting edge at all. Almost waiting for the howler to make it 2. two poor teams

Too soon 😂 - I still haven't got over that game v Derby and the penalty shootout

Wow - did not see that coming after a chanceless 1st half and then going 3-1 down. So Spursy! We looked dangerous for periods of that 2nd half in a way I haven’t seen in a while, I don’t know why we can’t play that high energy press more often. That was the softest of pens to even out our poor defending but I’ll take it and what a finish. Boom.

God that was poor, we never laid a glove on them. We look so toothless up front and while we’re more solid these days if you can’t score it doesn’t matter. Adams was so isolated and we couldn’t get any quality delivery into the box even with Tall Paul to aim at. And of course our best chance fell to Ely as it always seems to. Felt sorry for Selles moving deckchairs around up front of this Titanic heading down!

Wow - 2 league wins from 3, I’ll take that, no matter how they come. (If Ihenacho keeps that up he has the makings our our new no.9, 3 golden, golden chances.) Lavia very solid but tired badly in second half, not sure why he started mid-week. ABK also good but him and Bednarek need to sort out positioning on crosses. If Maitland-Niles could get the application right he’d be a very decent footballer, that run early on was class. Good effort from Theo even if he’s lost that electric pace, used his experience well and justified the start. Adam Armstrong was so poor again, has lost all confidence. At times our press looked back to the good old days, at times completely disjointed. I think we just about have a Prem standard 11, just not a 16, aka Ely/AA/Mara… Final thought, if we have the ball they can’t score. Got lucky with the hoofball and were basically time wasting from 50 mins on. Leicester were wide open at the back with their high line, we really should have exploited it better with our pace up front. A win!!

Leicester's high line is suicidal - we've been in behind at least 3 times and have decent pace up front. Old school Saints defending! We don't look nearly as dangerous when they defend deeper. Hopefully they'll continue with it as they're behind and we can exploit it. I'll take that scoreline after the first half hour!

I’m genuinely confused about how poor Orsic has been. Has George Weah been on the phone again as surely that’s not the world Cup semi-finalist? Disappointed for Theo as was only bit of class all game and for me the VAR frame used was after the ball was kicked. Although he did piss me off by laughing and joking about it like it doesn’t matter. Less said about the centre backs the better. What were they thinking?!

Nuno for me. Experience in Prem with similar size club that can’t score goals, as well as in Champ taking a team up. Also good eye for a player. And seems decent guy. Finally prob hungry to prove himself again after Spuds

Just back from the game and I’m struggling to think of a worse second half performance in all my years watching Saints (plenty of contenders to be fair). For all the talk of ‘aggressive, front-foot football’ (whatever tf that means, doesn’t everyone try to play that?), we sat back and were under pressure from 10 men for nearly all the half. Special mentions: - We have probably the world’s premier free kick specialist with two presentable opportunities neither of which he hit at goal. Instead some nonsense off the training ground which messed them up completely. If it aint broke… - When at our best (long time ago) we had flying full-backs as our key attacking outlets and neither Bree nor Perraud are Prem quality. We sorely miss Liva and KWP. - The game seemed to pass JWP by and I thought he looked a little lost in his no.10 position - sorry to the haters but Maitland-Niles looked half-decent. Unexpected. - Lavia is a class player and needed better support (see JWP comment above) - love our new winger, the new Mane with similar lack of end product for now, but the boy has some skills and real pace - caleta-carr must have had a serious fall out not to get in that team ahead of bednarek - I defy anyone to tell me what shape we were playing when the sub blitz happened, it honestly felt like a kids chase the ball game - the big man won plenty of headers but we barely got on any of the knock downs - we just looked so disorganised and tactically naive - on a positive note my pre-match pint in town was a delight

Just about my favourite Saints game. All that stress built up trying to avoid relegation, the swings in the scoreline and the late winner against a close rival. I remember being hugged by total strangers and running up and down the stairs in the Northam going absolutely nuts. What a day in a bleak season.

Last time I went to White Hart Lane it was the one-sided 3-1 with the Charlie Austin consolation at the end and a pretty depressing experience. Yesterday's game is right up there as one of my best experiences following Saints, as it had just about everything - goals, hope, disappointment, injustice, karma... Conte (shhh) and Son were winding me up big time so that last minute equaliser being ruled out was just the sweetest moment and I can't remember celebrating that wildly at the final whistle for years. What a night to be alive!

Sat in the Spurs end and probably the worst atmosphere I've experienced at a ground and I once went to see Wimbledon the season their fans boycotted the stadium (OK, maybe not THAT bad). The only crumb of comfort was predicting 3-1 before the game and it all pretty much went as expected. We just simply cannot defend and Spurs rarely got out of second gear. Even if we had scored from more of our chances, they looked like they could score another. 3 very simple goals from not picking up our men - who leaves Kane unmarked at a corner?! One positive was that we looked quite dangerous from open play with some lovely moves creating space and chances, albeit mostly when 3-0 down. Some thoughts on the players: - Gabby looks totally shorn of confidence, he couldn't hold the ball up and when through on goal hooked a shot terribly that dribbled along the ground. The sooner Ings is back the better. Austin would have been a better selection and hopefully he'll push on after his goal. - The new man has to find a way to get the best out of Redmond - if he could shoot or cross consistently he'd be some player. Even without that he creates space for others with his runs. - We need Bertrand back desperately. Soares had a decent game. The two of them in tandem make us look much stronger going forward. - Trippier was left virtually unmarked by Targett who had a shocker - did he not watch the world cup? - Armstrong continuing his steady improvement, but even he missed a pretty easy chance on his left from a rebound with Lloris stranded - Davies looked tidy, but unfortunately a lot slower than his prime - Missed Lemina's energy Central defence aside I do think there's a half-decent team in there somewhere. Some games we've been solid in defence, some games good in attack, but rarely at the same time - best of luck Ralph, you're going to need it!

Understandably weak at the back given they hadn't played together and Forest can feel aggreived not to have got something from the game. Our winning streak pulled us through and we saw out the game expertly at the end. We need another mobile striker. If you don't present him with chances, Connolly doesn't do enough. Ricky was first class, the out ball, three goals and put real pressure on their defence. We didn't get Lallana on the ball enough, but I think Forrest earmarked him as the dangerman. Really missed having Cork in the middle as Morgan was too anonymous against a strong Forrest midfield with Greening and Reid catching the eye. Fox was really poor apart from the cross for the third. How many ex-Prem players did they have?? Great result, but we need some more quality in the squad - a central defender, a striker in particular.

Will they be sitting next to me, Steve?

Talk about throwing your wealth around, you do pay per letter!

We didn't have the run of central midfield, so not sure what you saw that I didn't. Gets stuck in much more than he used to, but didn't really catch the eye with his passing.

Didn't play well but didn't look like losing either. Deflected goal, set piece and a counter attacking goal was enough, but we created plenty more. Exeter passed it well particularly with ten men, but had nothing up front and our cutting edge made the difference. Trotman stood out for me on the plus side and Antonio was absolutely shocking. Quiet games from Lallana and Lambert, but their time will come again. Just pleased to celebrate a win in front of a full house.

Saga is wrong, he's top. Check out soccerbase.

Not yours as well?!

13 at time of writing, stato... So we've lost ground already? Pardew out!

Only 13 points off now! I do seriously worry though about what would happen if Lallana and Lambert get injured. However, it does look like the money's there to bring in loan cover should we need it...

Very amusing.

I did when I was on crutches last year - called the club who were no help as I was only temporarily disabled and wouldn't give me one of the special seats. Did sell me a seat in the front row, nearest the exit, but I still had to go up some stairs to get back down again so wish I'd gone a few rows back. Stuck the crutches under my seat. We lost 1-0 so no need to get to my feet all game... Best of all was going early and finding £5 parking within 200 yards of the stadium...