Saints vs Blackpool - Post Match Reaction

[dubai_phil]

Expected to see the much vaunted pass and move with the bal on the ground. From almost the first kick we seemed to keep chipping or lobbing the ball into the air. Gillett after so many good reports seemed not to get going and that seemed to set the tone.

Holmes looked quality in the first half but not much support in the box when he crossed it.

Our defence was torn apart time and again by pace and passing movements, Blackpool really could have scored 4 or 5 on a luckier day. We seemed to leave huge gaps around the pitch.

It seemed as if we were probably nervy with the cameras, and simply never got going. Blackpool then scared us a few times cutting us apart and the kids never relaxed into their own game. Some flashes around the edge of their box, Lallana looked quality until he was withdrawn deeper when the switches were made. DMG still early days, it will come but SJ kept things a little tighter

Very disappointing, bad day to have taken mates to the pub to show them the new revolution.

Most hurtful comment. "So how was that different from the last shower of sh*t you took us to watch...."

Shows how we rely already on Gillett, he didn't fire straught away and neither did we

 

Reality is good though, we have been getting AWFULLY carried away

[Toomer]

Talking in the car on the way home, IMO Blackpool did their home work came down with a game plan. Get in our faces for the first 15 - 20 mins and stop us playing our passing game, it worked and we did not have an answer to it. I think we need someone a bit older and wiser in midfield and with a bit about him for matches like this. We have to get used to it a lot of teams will do the same.

Edited 30 August, 2008 by Toomer

[Jimmy_D]

Just back, can't believe that poor imitation of officiating the bloke in the middle (I think he was supposed to be the ref) was doing. I thought we played well in the first half and with a little more luck would have been 2 or 3 up at the break. As it was we conceded the penalty, looked very harsh from right in front of me where I was sat. 2nd half we didn't play as well. Partly because they were picking up bookings and you could see them getting more and more annoyed with the ref. Even so, we were creating chances and I was convinced the goal would come for us, wasn't to be though.

 

Really can't believe we've just lost that, we didn't deserve to.

[SuperMikey]

I was really disappointed in the result today, I thought we could've got 3 points out of this game, but the 'We ought to win this game' curse prevails.

 

Davis 8 - Kept us in the game after the defence was sliced open. Perry and Svensson were too slow to cope with Kabba and Burgess and Davis had to make some excellent saves to stop us being 3-0 down at half time. My MOTM.

James 6 - Did a decent job but looked weak coming forward and on the ball. His marking was a bit slack too. I'd like to see Hatch given a chance at RB soon.

Surman 7 - Looked good on the ball and was a creative force, but his coming forward often left the defence exposed.

Perry 7 - Did a great job, kept the strikers at bay for most of the game and was important in corners, but was too slow to cope with Kabba.

Svensson 7 - See Perry.

White 5 - His passing was quite poor, he was pushed off the ball to easily and his late challenges cost us dearly (eg giving away a penalty). A good one for the future, but based on todays performance Dyer would be a better option for now.

Holmes 8 - Did a great job out on the left, but quite often had nobody to deliver a cross too, with McGoldrick and Lallana arriving too late in the box. Key player for us today.

Schneiderlin 7 - Had a quiet game but looked assured when called upon, works much better in a midfield role than in defence and maybe he ought to be played in his preferred defensive midfield role in the next few games to help out an otherwise slow and vulnerable defence?

Gillett 6 - Gave the ball away far too much and made some bad challenges. Tbf he worked very hard and passed the ball around well, but he needs to compose himself and concentrate on simple passing and not giving the ball away. Disappointing performance considering all the praise he's been getting on here recently.

Lallana 7 - Had a fantastic first half, coming close with two efforts and always creating chances. Looked good on the ball and very confident, he was very much the key to how we went about attacking today, although a quiet second half and squandering the chances he had bring down his overall mark.

McGoldrick 7 - Was kept at bay by the Blackpool defence and had a quiet game. He wasn't afraid to run at defenders and showed that he has some skill in that respect, but he needed to hold up the ball more often and I feel he could work a lot better with Stern John than Lallana up front.

 

Subs:

Dyer 7 - Played well out on the right, scared the defenders a bit with his pace, but was pushed off the ball too easily and didn't really concentrate on the game very much.

Wotton 6 - Didn't really have much of a chance to shine, although he made some good challenges and I would prefer him over Gillett in the starting line-up.

John 7 - I echo the Sky commentators, why didn't he come on sooner? We looked so much more assured in attack when he came on and he looked dangerous from set pieces, which was where we had been lacking previously. Should be starting imo.

 

My lineup for QPR:

 

-----------Davis------------

Hatch--Perry--Killer--Surman

--------Schneiderlin---------

-Dyer-----Lallana-----Holmes

--------John---DMG---------

 

Subs: Bialkowski, James, Cork, Gillett, BWP.

[Delmary]

We paid the price for not taking our chances first-half. Second-half, we ran out of steam and ideas. Dissappointed that there was no plan B. Very poor attendance today of 15,629. The club will not survive long on those figures.

Edited 30 August, 2008 by Delmary

[70's Mike]

Talking in the car on the way home, IMO Blackpool did their home work came down with a game plan. Get in our faces for the first 15 - 20 mins and stop us playing our passing game, it worked and we did not have an answer to it. I think we need someone a bit older and wiser in midfield and with a bit about him for matches like this. Wet have to get used to it a lot of teams will do the same.

 

 

sums it up for me

[L1Minus10]

Davis 9 - Our best player by a mile

James 5 - Some good stuff but i don't honestly think he's ready for 1st team. he's hardly ever played right back before.

Surman 6 - Thought he did ok. though he's the same age you can see he has more experience

Svensson 5 - Poor to be honest. Bound to have a dip after the adrenaline rush of just being out on the pitch begins to go.

Perry 7 - Excellent reading of the game

Schneiderlin 6 - Started well and faded badly. Didn;t think he should have come off though

Gillett 4 - Started well then after about 20 mins it all went to **** and he never recovered.

lallana 6 - Pretty quiet all game apart from that 5 minute spell in the first half.

White 2 - Got ball, fell over, Lost ball, fouled the guy. A game to forget.

McGoldrick 6 - Not 100% convinced by him but he played well in flashes today.

Holmes 6.5 - 8 for the first half, 5 for the 2nd.

 

Dyer 1 - Waste of space. I have no idea why this guy is highly rated by some and why on earth we gave him a new contract.

Wotton 5 - Tried his best but the midfield disappeared.

John 5 - Won a few headers but no service really.

 

Would like to see Cork in at right back for the next game, Wotton in midfield with lallana wide right and Pekhart up the middle.

[badgerx16]

Very poor attendance today of 15,629. The club will not survive long on those figures.

 

Live on TV, and a lunch time KO probably caused that.

[Saint Bones]

Gutted.

 

Finally get to see the boys play and it wasnt on par with the last two games ( on the call/match reports)

 

No arguments with the penalty and I guess a good lesson against the more 'physical' type team approach.

 

My hindsight says I would have liked Stern to start up front and Dyer on the right. Although as called on the commentary it would have been nice to see us revert to a 442 - by then we were chasing the game and riding our luck.

 

oh well - 2 weeks break ??? Bring on QPR

[itchen]

We paid the price for not taking our chances first-half. Second-half, we ran out of stream and ideas. Dissappointed that there was no plan B. Very poor attendance today of 15,629. The club will not survive long on those figures.

 

That's not a bad attendance considering it was live on TV and the opposition had to come from the other end of the country.

[badgerx16]

 

Really can't believe we've just lost that, we didn't deserve to.

 

Ball in net : Saints 0 Blackpool 4. Maybe a draw would have been fair, but Blackpool looked like a team, played with a plan, and most certainly would not have desrved to lose. :mad:

[derry]

Disapointing, need to get the passing game going again. I can see some changes for QPR. Probably Cork in midfield, Pekart up front with McGoldrick in the hole and Lallana wide right.

[BallBoy]

3 points

 

1) The defence was just awful. Blackpool are not very good but we were vulnerable throughout the game. Davis saved us several times after defenders had let them just walk through.

 

2) Too many times we were playing pretty football out on the wings but there were not enough bodies in the middle to receive the ball.

 

3) We are trying to play "intelligent" football but I wonder if some of our players actually have that capacity. We seem unable to actually think on the pitch. How we miss the likes of Marsden, Case or Ball who always knew what to do.

 

I still say that we will have the occassional good result to raise our spirits this season but I just cannot see us being consistent enough to challenge. We are just not strong enough yet.

[hypochondriac]

Ball in net : Saints 0 Blackpool 4. Maybe a draw would have been fair, but Blackpool looked like a team, played with a plan, and most certainly would not have desrved to lose. :mad:

 

OK blackpool deserved the win, but I don't see what that statistic has to do with anything. I could pick the ball up and run across the goal line 6 times and then by you logic we would have deserved to win?

[Kingsbridge Saint]

First sight of the new team for me today. Living in Devon and preparing to emigrate has meant no visit to SMS as yet. Have to say having seen that, we look very lightweight. Dyer cannot trap a bag of cement and should do extra training knocking the ball against a wall and controlling it. It's not rocket science.

[Saints foreva]

Am I really the only one who would love to see Surman leave on monday?

[Arizona]

Am I really the only one who would love to see Surman leave on monday?

 

Yep.

 

At 22 his career is practically over.

[AlfredKo]

Am I really the only one who would love to see Surman leave on monday?

 

Do you want to see Surman and Skacel in the same starting line up together again?

[southamptonfclegend]

why the f*ck is there a man of the match?

and whoever doesn't vote for davis is a n*b

nathan dyer is absoloutly SH*T

f*cking awful peformance?

total footbal... NO football played today at all

[St Marco]

Just back and have to say that was very poor display, by the team and by the idiots who boo'd them off the pitch, disgraceful. The performance was like our pre-season games where we showed effort for the 1st 25mins then just fell apart after that. What was even more worrying was the 2nd half we reverted to long ball even with John not on the pitch yet. Speaking to a Steward he summed it up perfectly "All flash and no substance". We can pass the ball about on the half way line better then anyone, but going forward we haven't a clue and defending at times is just pure frustrating. The only player who came out with credit for me was Davis again, if we had a worse ref we would of been beaten by many, if we didnt have Davis in form it would of been even more. The only chances i can remember us having was the 2 DMG made for himself and Gillets free kick, other then that there was nothing. I've said it before and i will say it again, Dyer is dire. He lost the ball in his 20mins probably more then the rest of the team combined. He gets taken off the ball by a micro beast. Also JP showed in my view some really poor decisions especially by bringing on Wotten (a defensive player) when we were 1 down.

 

Now that is all negative. The positives are they are young and are having to grow up very fast now and not having the time to develop as other players have. It is not their fault if we get beaten because they have no experience. Booing them is stupid and will just make things worse for us, they need the support of the fans because that is the only chance we have. We have no money so cant buy anyone. The people who are expecting so much from them should be ashamed.

[rpb]

why the f*ck is there a man of the match?

and whoever doesn't vote for davis is a n*b

nathan dyer is absoloutly SH*T

f*cking awful peformance?

total footbal... NO football played today at all

 

Do you tend to see thinks as either black or white, by any chance?

[hypochondriac]

Just back and have to say that was very poor display, by the team and by the idiots who boo'd them off the pitch, disgraceful. The performance was like our pre-season games where we showed effort for the 1st 25mins then just fell apart after that. What was even more worrying was the 2nd half we reverted to long ball even with John not on the pitch yet. Speaking to a Steward he summed it up perfectly "All flash and no substance". We can pass the ball about on the half way line better then anyone, but going forward we haven't a clue and defending at times is just pure frustrating. The only player who came out with credit for me was Davis again, if we had a worse ref we would of been beaten by many, if we didnt have Davis in form it would of been even more. The only chances i can remember us having was the 2 DMG made for himself and Gillets free kick, other then that there was nothing. I've said it before and i will say it again, Dyer is dire. He lost the ball in his 20mins probably more then the rest of the team combined. He gets taken off the ball by a micro beast. Also JP showed in my view some really poor decisions especially by bringing on Wotten (a defensive player) when we were 1 down.

 

Now that is all negative. The positives are they are young and are having to grow up very fast now and not having the time to develop as other players have. It is not their fault if we get beaten because they have no experience. Booing them is stupid and will just make things worse for us, they need the support of the fans because that is the only chance we have. We have no money so cant buy anyone. The people who are expecting so much from them should be ashamed.

 

One crappy game and 3 pretty positive ones. Still a lot to build on. I was quite concerned that we seem to lack a plan B, but I'll be waiting for quite a few more games before passing judgement.

[derry]

Probably for me one of the most important problems was Jamie White's inability to contribute. His coming infield made us narrow on the right, on one occasion went to the near post when the ball missed everybody he wasn't on the far post for the tap in.

 

His involvement was poor and a typical forwards, rash dive in, for the penalty. It was predictable he would be substituted at half time.

 

I can see the team being changed for QPR. along the lines of Davis, James, Svennson, Perry, Surman, 2 from Schneiderlin/Giillett/Cork, Lallana, Holmes, McGoldrick in the hole, Pekart.

Edited 30 August, 2008 by derry

[J Bizzle]

My thoughts:

First half we should have put them away, we were punished for not taking our chances. Lallana's miss was an absolute disgrace when i was playing for Salisbury city i would have been bollcked for wasting such an oppurtunity. We have players on the bench that should be starting and i do not think this formation is working, would work much better in my opinion playing 4-1-2-2-1. Have to disagree with the opening post, in football the Centre midfielders will only have the ball for 4 minutes of the game on average, schniederlin played good football and used the ball well when he had it. the only times i recall him giving possesion away was the two crossfield balls, which he was very unlucky with. Gillet however is way out of his depth and i would suggest playing wottonm, he has very little composure and doesn't get in the face of the opposition. Must have had a pass rate of 30% today, pathetic. I would suggest giving Lallana a run out from the bench the next 4 or 5 games, he is what i call a spell player and is always in and out of the game, not because he is not touching the ball, but because his movement and positioning isn't there. He is still young and needs to be nurchered this season. Mcgoldrick, now this guy is a talent. has a brilliant touch and vision, unlucky not to score could have done with more support, another reason for change in formation.

 

My player ratings:

 

Davis - 9

 

James - 6 did well for most of the game, kept Hammill Outside him, not allowing him to cause problems, pretty good defensive showing, going forward, fairly sloppy with a few balls.

 

Svensson - 6 not at the races, lost lots of ball in the air and Perry bailed him out several times.

 

Perry - 8 bailed Svensson out, and put in some meaningful takcles when others backed off.

 

Surman - 7 got forward well, and did his defensive duties, made one fantastic tackle in the first half.

 

Holmes - 7 dallied on the ball, tried to overcomplicate things on occasion, but overall had a decent game.

 

Lallana - 6 guilty of slowing the game down, missed two chances which he should have scored. Never got going.

 

Gillett - 4 Useless, well out of his depth, constantly giving the ball away.

 

Schneiderlin - 8 did his job well, broke up play and we looked worse after he went off. Made nearly all of his passes and usd the ball well.

 

White - 6 average game, would suggest changing boots. I think he should have stayed on the pitch longer. only thing he did wrong was give the penalty away, something he wont do again.

 

McGoldrick - 8 great game, direct, powerful running. Won lots of ball in the air and his distribution was good. Deserved a goal today.

 

Subs:

 

Dyer - 5 rubbish, gave the ball away lots and never got into the attacking positions the team needed him in.

 

John - 6 didn't really do much when he came on.

 

Wotton - 6 gave the ball away a few times, but won ball a few times. Nothing special from him but he did a job.

 

We will struggle unless we put our strongest team out. this does not include Gillet, Lallana, White and James. I would replace Gillet with Wotton, Lallana with Euell (for now, unless this Gasmi comes in), White with Dyer (he needs a decent string of games) and James with Cork.

[VectisSaint]

OK blackpool deserved the win, but I don't see what that statistic has to do with anything. I could pick the ball up and run across the goal line 6 times and then by you logic we would have deserved to win?

How naive can you get? If you can't see how them having the ball in our net 4 times this afternoon, in the way they did shows how much Blackpool outplayed us then I give up. They should have scored 3 or 4 other times as well. Yes they were goals quite rightly disallowed in each case, but each time they were very close decisions and many lineos would have bottled out of disallowing them (especially 3 times in one game). We were given a lesson in how to attack today by a poor CCC side, and there is nothing anyone can say that would convince me were were lucky not to have been beaten by 6 or 7. The defence was appalling (sad to say Killer was completely outpaced, outjumped and out muscled on several occassions), and but for some excellent saves by Kelvin we would have been completely undone.

[Saints foreva]

Do you want to see Surman and Skacel in the same starting line up together again?

 

Tbh I don't care, Surman is sh*te imo and lacks near enough everything. He jus isn't good enough tbh. No pace, crap passing and can't defend.

 

Get rid and get £1 million for him I say!

[magie]

The curse of telly strikes again - rubbish!!!!!

[Neilza]

Some people need to have a look at themselves in the mirror!! One poor performance, where clearly nothing was going to go right and suddenly everyone is ****. Gillett was very poor, but having seen all our other games this season, it was clearly an off day, to say he was out of his depth is just wrong. In the long run this could turn out to be a good defeat if there ever was one. It might just let the young lads know that nice football will get them so far but we have to have a plan B when the going gets tough. We've got 2 weeks to get things sorted now and I am certainly not giving up on the lads just yet. COYR!!

[Whitey Grandad]

How naive can you get? If you can't see how them having the ball in our net 4 times this afternoon, in the way they did shows how much Blackpool outplayed us then I give up. They should have scored 3 or 4 other times as well. Yes they were goals quite rightly disallowed in each case, but each time they were very close decisions and many lineos would have bottled out of disallowing them (especially 3 times in one game). We were given a lesson in how to attack today by a poor CCC side, and there is nothing anyone can say that would convince me were were lucky not to have been beaten by 6 or 7. The defence was appalling (sad to say Killer was completely outpaced, outjumped and out muscled on several occassions), and but for some excellent saves by Kelvin we would have been completely undone.

Yep, that's how it was.

[AlfredKo]

How naive can you get? If you can't see how them having the ball in our net 4 times this afternoon, in the way they did shows how much Blackpool outplayed us then I give up. They should have scored 3 or 4 other times as well. Yes they were goals quite rightly disallowed in each case, but each time they were very close decisions and many lineos would have bottled out of disallowing them (especially 3 times in one game). We were given a lesson in how to attack today by a poor CCC side, and there is nothing anyone can say that would convince me were were lucky not to have been beaten by 6 or 7. The defence was appalling (sad to say Killer was completely outpaced, outjumped and out muscled on several occassions), and but for some excellent saves by Kelvin we would have been completely undone.

 

This is all about confidence and can you take your chances. The young team has never experienced going behind at all in competitive games. If we take our chances in the first half, we should have won it. If we didn't concede the penalty so late in the first half, we should have drew the game.

[wadesmith]

Crap.

[Whitey Grandad]

This is all about confidence and can you take your chances. The young team has never experienced going behind at all in competitive games. If we take our chances in the first half, we should have won it. If we didn't concede the penalty so late in the first half, we should have drew the game.

Cardiff scored first, and no, we didn't deserve anything out of that game. Blackpool were better in every position except keeper.

[The9]

Very disappointing. Outplayed in 2nd half and much of the first.

 

Strange, cos I was there and am just re-watching the game and after looking under pressure for the first 10 minutes we've been stuffing them for the rest of the first half. The Sky stats after about 40 minutes showed our possession at 59%. Second half, yeah, we weren't really there enough.

 

Admittedly we COULD have let 4 in, but we also could have scored that many, and I just don't understand the opinion that we lack a "cutting edge". Lallana's two shots cleared off the line were just unlucky, and I was surprised to see we should have had a penalty when McGoldrick was pushed into the goalkeeper. We also made loads of half chances - my one complaint would be that McGoldrick simply doesn't work hard enough when the ball's in the final third, he's been ambling up when there's a goal waiting if he's in the box and standing still in the middle instead of moving to pull the defence around and frankly it's starting to annoy me.

 

Overall I didn't think we were that bad, a little bit too loose at the back (Perry in particular distributed badly and other than one block early on and a decent back header looked poor positionally and with the ball), and the team generally were lacking workrate in the second half. Couldn't argue with the pen, and there were more chances at their end than at ours.

 

Davis 9 : Some great saves, and couldn't do much about the disallowed ones. Lay down for the pen though.

James 5 : A bit too loose with his passes and tackles and Hammill got too much from him.

Svensson 6 : Got completely done in the 6 yard box at one point, got pulled all over the place by straight-line strikers.

Perry 4 : Lots of space around him and couldn't do a thing right for a lot of the time. One nice tackle, but he and Svensson let too much through.

Surman 5 : Got stuck in a bit too much and didn't really link up with Holmes much.

White 4 : Eek. Conceded penalty and really gave us nothing forward other than chopping the keeper outside the box after ball had gone.

Gillett 6 : Lots of hard work first half, touch was a bit off today, meant he had to make more tackles than usual.

Schneiderlin 6 : Some decent passes but didn't really leave his mark.

Holmes 8 : Strong performance, hard work, good crosses, quieter late on.

Lallana 8 : Very tricky, unlucky with 2 cleared off the line, again faded later.

McGoldrick 6 : Annoying, great on the ball but doesn't get himself where he can get it often enough or unrgently enough. Needs to be more involved.

 

Subs :

Wotton 7 : Impressed me with tenacity, simple passing and one glorious 45 yard pass.

Dyer 5 : Just doesn't do the right stuff at the right times, gave him a point for winning a header.

John 7 : Held ball well, linked nicely, needed to do better with his header.

 

Personally I'd drop Perry for Cork in the next game, and we need to stress hard work EVERY SECOND instead of just occasionally. Our good performances in the last two games came from workrate and that was lacking second half today.

[egreog]

Extremely disappointing after all the hype...........watched on tv........first 30 mins was enough..........surely no other club ever has so many false dawns!!............

[Delmary]

That's not a bad attendance considering it was live on TV and the opposition had to come from the other end of the country.

Was it our lowest ever league attendance at St. Marys? The trouble is our attendances have to be North of £23K (a figure AC once quoted) for the club to break even. Edited 30 August, 2008 by Delmary

[simo]

We are now 20th in the league!

[alpine_saint]

Wow, just got in and I am completely shocked at not only the fact we lost, but the manner in which we lost.

 

I seriously fancied us for the first time in yonks, to win this game comfortably. However, this just goes to show the let-downs we have to put up with in supporting Saints.

 

What happened, did the kids get too cokky after beating Brum ? Just goes to show that these players are not yet the finished article. I hope JP comes down on them like a ton of bricks.

 

I really hope they learn from this, and I hope a few of our fans did too, since it seems the consolation of playing pretty, dominant football for periods like in the Cardiff and Brum league games, banged on about on here repeatedly ad nauseam was not even present today. A few scales should certainly have fallen away from supporters eyes this evening.

 

JP may be on to a winning strategy. More likely is that this season will be a huge struggle.

 

Oh, and the attendance is deeply worrying.

[Graffito]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toomer

Talking in the car on the way home, IMO Blackpool did their home work came down with a game plan. Get in our faces for the first 15 - 20 mins and stop us playing our passing game, it worked and we did not have an answer to it. I think we need someone a bit older and wiser in midfield and with a bit about him for matches like this. Wet have to get used to it a lot of teams will do the same.

 

 

Agreed. Other than Davis, we had problems with the spine of the team today, especially in central midfield where we neither won nor retained the ball nearly enough nor offered much protection to the centre backs and also, uncharacteristically, with Svensson at the back who lost the majority of aerial challenges. Schneiderlin and Gillet didn't offer sufficient protection as holding midfielders. Talented though McGoldrick is, on today's evidence I think he needs help up front from someone with a bit more presence.

[Long Shot]

Negatives - Svensson, worryingly, beaten far too regularly in the air and on the ground.

Dyer -all pace and no brains. Holmes - worked hard but no real end product. McGoldrick - tried to be too intricate. Schneiderlein - anonymous and tried a fancy dan trick one too many for my liking.

Positives - Lallana - for me developing with every game, very hard to disposess and has an air of MLT about him.

 

I think we just failed to click today with our two main central midfielders having an off day. Blackpool sussed us out - broke up our passing game with series of fouls and then wouldn't let us take quick free kicks. Also the ref seemed to stop us as well. Still got a lot to learn.

[Legod Second Coming]

That friends was simply a bad day at the office.

 

No one really on their game (bar the MOM).

 

And I put it down to this:

 

Until today those boys just went out to play.

 

Today they were EXPECTED to win.

 

And it showed.

 

But life is nowt if not a classroom.

 

And that was a lesson learned the hard way.

[harwellsaint]

i think we will have more good days than bad, but we are on a steep learning curve and today we lost to the better side,but i do belive in what the club are trying to do.

[derry]

Maybe a bit of circumspection is needed. It's going to be a rollercoaster, and it always was going to be.

 

OK so we weren't as good today, 2 blocked on the line, brilliant save from McGoldrick, hit the post and lost to a penalty. Just watching it on tv now, we played good football at times. Burgess needed attention, he was our main problem winning the flick ons.

[positivepete]

The main difference today was that we wanted too many touches. In the first few matches we have played 2 touch and as a result the pace of the game was quicker and got the ball forward before the opposition had time to get their shape.

 

Gillett and Svensson had poor games by their standards, Gillett has looked good so far this season and hasn't looked out of his depth. His work rate and short passing has set the tempo in earlier games, he suffered today and so did the team.

 

Sorry for Jamie, a local lad making his home debut, lets hope he comes back stronger from this. Anyone know why Jake Thompson has dropped out of the reckoning?

 

Maybe we will do better away from home this season, as our counter attacking style may suit teams coming at us better.

 

Keep the faith, we have some good talent there. Anyway we didn't want the lads to play well in front of the cameras a few days before the transfer deadline did we?!

[ALWAYS_SFC]

Wow, just got in and I am completely shocked at not only the fact we lost, but the manner in which we lost.

 

I seriously fancied us for the first time in yonks, to win this game comfortably. However, this just goes to show the let-downs we have to put up with in supporting Saints.

 

What happened, did the kids get too cokky after beating Brum ? Just goes to show that these players are not yet the finished article. I hope JP comes down on them like a ton of bricks.

 

I really hope they learn from this, and I hope a few of our fans did too, since it seems the consolation of playing pretty, dominant football for periods like in the Cardiff and Brum league games, banged on about on here repeatedly ad nauseam was not even present today. A few scales should certainly have fallen away from supporters eyes this evening.

 

JP may be on to a winning strategy. More likely is that this season will be a huge struggle.

 

Oh, and the attendance is deeply worrying.

 

Alps, as you have said on earlier threads we have no Plan B and today it was obvious for all to see

[alpine_saint]

Talking in the car on the way home, IMO Blackpool did their home work came down with a game plan. Get in our faces for the first 15 - 20 mins and stop us playing our passing game, it worked and we did not have an answer to it. I think we need someone a bit older and wiser in midfield and with a bit about him for matches like this. We have to get used to it a lot of teams will do the same.

 

Blimey, this is really worrying. I wonder if we are a one-trick pony again, one that is really easy to out-muscle and out-wit.

[Saint_clark]

I think John had more shots on target than the rest of the team put together.

[alpine_saint]

Maybe a bit of circumspection is needed. It's going to be a rollercoaster, and it always was going to be.

 

OK so we weren't as good today, 2 blocked on the line, brilliant save from McGoldrick, hit the post and lost to a penalty. Just watching it on tv now, we played good football at times. Burgess needed attention, he was our main problem winning the flick ons.

 

And Blackpool had 3 goals disallowed, and came close about 3 other times, I've read.

 

Jesus, some fans need to wake up and tune into Reality FM.

[alpine_saint]

That friends was simply a bad day at the office.

 

No one really on their game (bar the MOM).

 

And I put it down to this:

 

Until today those boys just went out to play.

 

Today they were EXPECTED to win.

 

And it showed.

 

But life is nowt if not a classroom.

 

And that was a lesson learned the hard way.

 

Let's dismiss all bad games in such a manner and respond to victories with "we will walk this league", eh ?

 

Jesus.

[Legod Second Coming]

Alps, as you have said on earlier threads we have no Plan B and today it was obvious for all to see

 

 

Actually, we didn't need a Plan B.

 

We simply needed to play better.

 

We were poor.

 

What was your Plan B - rolling out Ronaldo??

 

We were poor. What part of that is not to get??

 

There's no need to start disecting it to discover the problems. No need to start yet another monotonous and ill-conceived witch-hunt. And certainly NO need to change the passing game which until today was working well. We simply didn't employ it today!

 

Blackpool played exactly as Birmingham did.

 

On Tuesday we were good. Today we were not.

 

That's how it goes some times. I hate it. You hate it. No-one is to blame because eveyone is to blame.

 

The manager said: We will lose and we have to LEARN from losing.

 

Well today we learned that we cannot enter the arena and expect to be GIFTED a win. We have to work harder, train harder and keep doing what we do well, and simply get better at it. IMHO

[Matt SFC]

Deserved to lose, but it is only 1 game in 46 and we certainly showed potential. Davis was excellent, while Holmes and Lallana looked our best players by a mile in the first half.