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Saints v Millwall Post Match Reactions


Thedelldays

Man of the Match  

619 members have voted

  1. 1. Man of the Match

    • Davis
      88
    • Murty
      99
    • Thomas
      29
    • Perry
      11
    • Harding
      172
    • Wotton
      2
    • Morgan
      126
    • Lallana
      2
    • Pato
      84
    • Saga
      6


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I said before the match (Calvin, back me up on this :) ) 1-1 Saints take the lead through Paterson, but concede sloppily from a set piece. Overall, not a bad start to the campaign, but it does highlight some frailties in the side, namely our woeful lack of depth. When Paterson got a knock he was replaced with ... Gobern, an unproven winger. Thought we lacked width aswell. James and Lallana disappointed me and Wotton just seemed not to have any impact other than a few last ditch tackles second half. Shook hands with MLT as he was walking up the Kingsland towards the Sky cameras at the start of the first half. :D

 

Davis - 8 Very good game, great pen save again. Maybe should have got back on his line quicker for their goal.

 

Murty - 8 Excellent play and a good leader. Used his intelligence to make up for his love of pies.

 

Thomas - 8 Won a lot in the air. I think my earlier prediction of 3-1 Millwall when we thought he was injured could well have come true with Lancashire.

 

Perry - 7 Reads the game well. Made a couple of great saving tackles.

 

Harding - 8 strong contender for MOTM in my book, but would liked to have seen a little more going forward. Had their right winger in his pocket all afternoon. Should he have gotten to their goal on the left hand post?

 

James - 6 I thought RM was his best possition going into this match, but really didn't impress. Solid enough but didn't provide much down the right.

 

Schneiderlin - 7 Decent game and a decent range of passes. Would have loved one of those two long range efforts to have gone in.

 

Wotton - 5 Tackling not bad, but when it comes to using the ball he looks poor. Always looking for someone 5 yards away from him.

 

Lallana - 6 Some good running at defenders, but no final ball. Didn't do much when he drifted further forwards towards the end either.

 

Paterson - 8 MOTM Well taken goal and seemed to work well with Saga. A good understanding between them and good link up play.

 

Saganowski - 7 I can't see a case for singling him out as lazy. He was nothing to write home about, but he had some good touches and worked well with Pato. Between them they caused Millwall all sorts of trouble in the first half. Looked lost up front on his own when Pato went off. Had two efforts disallowed. One wrongly, the other after the whistle had gone.

 

Subs:

Gillett, Gobern and Thomson. None of them had any impact. Thought Gillett should have started, but passing was poor.

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Just back from the game. Recorded the Sir Bobby tribute (well done guys) and Davis save. Sorry bout the quality but could be worse!

(davis save)

(robson tribute)

 

Now to the game! Personally i was quite pleased with our display. The first 10 mins or so i thought was pretty gash but that is to be expected really with all the changes we have made over recent weeks/months.

 

Alot of our players did well. I thought Morgan was excellent and for a spell was the guy most likely to create something. His passing was spot on for most of it. Harding did very well and looked comfortable as did Murty who i thought was quality. He made a few sprints to get the ball ahead of their striker which impressed me loads. We have lacked that desire to get to the ball 1st for sometime. Thomas and Perry did well for most of the game. I did not see what happened with the penalty or if it even was one but someone said Thomas may have pulled someone back?

 

Now for the negatives.

Way too many long balls which gave Saga and Patterson no chance. We just lack that little bit of creative ideas to help set up things. Morgan was doing it and tried to slot in some passes but overall passes were wasteful. We only really had long shots and a few headers, no real clear cut on the ground chances except for the goal.

The changes did not really have much impact and i thought if anything had a negative one. Gillett was awful, i would like to see his success pass & as was truely awful, the one where he had half a pitch with just Murty to pass to was shocking. Gobern tried to get involved and got some tackles in but did not really add anything different, same could be said of Thomson. But the effort was there and that is a huge plus over last season.

 

All in all i think we deserved to win so am a bit gutted with a draw but its a start. A few new additions and we will be fine. I thought Patterson did very well and had him or Murty down as my motm, maybe Murty just taking it with those runs he did.

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Their goal came as a result of their non-penalty, which was a blatant dive. We could of been 2 even 3 up at that point, so all in all, satisfied. The Ref was not our best friend today, thought Patterson showed great promise, and young Morgan, showed the potential, missing last season, we will do well to hold onto him IMHO............. The full backs were solid, which was missing last year, played with confidence, the AP effect!!!

 

 

it could be argued Thomas handballed it before the dive...well it cant be argued as he did...whether it was intentional or not is another matter...

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Just back from the game. Recorded the Sir Bobby tribute (well done guys) and Davis save. Sorry bout the quality but could be worse!

(davis save)

(robson tribute)

 

Now to the game! Personally i was quite pleased with our display. The first 10 mins or so i thought was pretty gash but that is to be expected really with all the changes we have made over recent weeks/months.

 

Alot of our players did well. I thought Morgan was excellent and for a spell was the guy most likely to create something. His passing was spot on for most of it. Harding did very well and looked comfortable as did Murty who i thought was quality. He made a few sprints to get the ball ahead of their striker which impressed me loads. We have lacked that desire to get to the ball 1st for sometime. Thomas and Perry did well for most of the game. I did not see what happened with the penalty or if it even was one but someone said Thomas may have pulled someone back?

 

Now for the negatives.

Way too many long balls which gave Saga and Patterson no chance. We just lack that little bit of creative ideas to help set up things. Morgan was doing it and tried to slot in some passes but overall passes were wasteful. We only really had long shots and a few headers, no real clear cut on the ground chances except for the goal.

The changes did not really have much impact and i thought if anything had a negative one. Gillett was awful, i would like to see his success pass & as was truely awful, the one where he had half a pitch with just Murty to pass to was shocking. Gobern tried to get involved and got some tackles in but did not really add anything different, same could be said of Thomson. But the effort was there and that is a huge plus over last season.

 

All in all i think we deserved to win so am a bit gutted with a draw but its a start. A few new additions and we will be fine. I thought Patterson did very well and had him or Murty down as my motm, maybe Murty just taking it with those runs he did.

 

penalty resulted, sorry to say because Morgan played a stupid pass square across his back four which was a shame because he seemed more comfortable at this level

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it could be argued Thomas handballed it before the dive...well it cant be argued as he did...whether it was intentional or not is another matter...

 

The ref had his whistle in his mouth for the handball but hadn't blown so he obviously thought about giving a pen for that. When the guy fell over it gave him the excuse to blow. I think he literally thought that two half fouls makes a foul which of course it ****ing doesn't.

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Happy with that.

 

Some good performances from MS & Patterson gives hope that they may well move from promising to effective this season. Even had some of that tippy tappy one touch stuff at times, but around the edge of THEIR box for a change

 

Squeaky on set pieces again, but also WE looked dangerous from Throw-Ins and in fact SCORED from one.... How long since that happened I wonder!

 

Bring in the experience and with the youngsters managing around 15/20 games around them we should have a very good and very technically gifted squad.

 

One swallow doesn't make a good night out oops summer, but the green shoots of recovery are there.

 

Get the old heads in and more fitness work and any worries of relegation can be replaced by hopes of a mid table finish!

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I would have taken 1-1 at the start of the day against a team who are gonna be fighting for the CCC. Plenty of positives, i thought Morgan was a class above anyone else and is my MoM, but Harding was also brilliant.

 

We all knew the weaknesess of the team so nothing new there, but our defending of set pieces is still woeful and I expected millwall to score from every corner/free kick today.

 

A couple of signings in by sat and huddersfield wont know whats hit them!

 

happy

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but that would not have happened if we had not set them up with a sucide ball which should have been played away

 

Sure, but that's football. Someone, somewhere wins the ball. To be fair, there were about ten touches from when Morgan lost the ball to the penalty. It started the process, but it's not like toppling dominoes is it?

 

It was a poor ball, but the penalty was a joke.

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The ref had his whistle in his mouth for the handball but hadn't blown so he obviously thought about giving a pen for that. When the guy fell over it gave him the excuse to blow. I think he literally thought that two half fouls makes a foul which of course it ****ing doesn't.

or he was playing some advantage as he could have got a shot in

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My man of the match by a mile was Thomas. I am surprised no one else thinks the same. Loads of headers won, attacks snuffed out. Really pleased with the other players mentioned Harding and Muty etc but Thomas for me really earned the MOM IMHO :)

 

He did play well, dominated in the hair up until about 70mins, he did tire as was expected.

 

I wouldn't say he was MOTM...he was good, but not as good as Harding who was my MOTM. - Murty close 2nd.

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A pretty decent effort all round against a team which is expected to be there or thereabouts. Patterson lead the line well and for someone who apparently wants to leave I thought Saga put the effort in. Shame about the goal which Davis should have done better with but he made a great double save and even collected a couple of crosses. Plenty to build on if AP can add a couple or more signings

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I was pleasantly surprised and thought we played some good football. The penalty decision was very harsh and we should have had a free kick when they got the corner that led to the goal.

 

Harding looked very good - and so did paterson - we might have found a decent centre forward!

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Morgan was fantastic,great passing and he is stronger in the tackle now.We need someone to play next to him who can pass though as Wotton could not keep the ball but hoofed the ball away.

Patterson,Harding,Thomas were also good.

 

Murty's workrate was incredible for someone who has not had as much pre season as the others he kept going up till the end when others were flagging.

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Good performance, especially defensively. I think aswell as one or two strikers we need to bring in some wingers, as Millwall seemed to play it wide alot and cross the ball to cause our CBs trouble.

 

Murty seems as though he has got quite a throw on him aswell!

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We need a midfield powerhouse. a strong but speedy defender more pace on the wings imo. Oh and a striker. Not much

 

2 strikers IMO.

 

You saw when we lost Pato today - we had no one else to play, we resorted to playing Jake up there! Madness.

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He did play well, dominated in the hair up until about 70mins, he did tire as was expected.

 

I wouldn't say he was MOTM...he was good, but not as good as Harding who was my MOTM. - Murty close 2nd.

He definitely didn`t dominate in the HAIR dept!! I think their 28 (Jason Price?) wins that one!!

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I'll take that. Millwall are one of the better teams in this division, and considering Pardew has only had a couple of weeks in the job, it's really not a bad start. Could have been better, but very promising.

 

It makes a massive difference having proper full-backs playing on either flank, with Murty and Harding both getting forward well to support the wide players. Thomas was commanding too, although he does look prone to the odd error here and there. Perry looked solid also, and although he doesn't have the legs anymore, he can still read the game brilliantly.

 

I was impressed with James at right-midfield too. Admittedly he went quiet in the second-half, but he has potential and got forward well. I can see him and Murty linking up well together down that right side, although I'd like us to sign an out and out right-midfielder in due course.

 

My MOTM however, goes to Morgan Schneiderlin. MS has always been criticised on here for not having any bottle and shying away from tackles, but he certainly didn't shy away from anything today. He got stuck in, battled away and held his position well. Had one of his long-range efforts gone in, we would have had an early contender for the 'Goal of the Season' award! Hopefully Pards can get the best out of Schneiderlin, and fingers crossed he'll reproduce good performances like today consistently over the course of the season. He's a very, very talented player, with superb passing ability, and I just hope we see the best of him this season.

 

On the whole, a good start, although there's lots of room for improvment. Still, plenty of promising signs, and as Pards has said, it's only going to get better from here on in. It'll be very interesting to see how we are playing come the end of August/early September. Anyway, onwards and upwards! Now bring on Huddersfield!

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My thoughts on today. Overall, not unhappy - we never win the first home ghame & never seem to win with Sky watching so I'd have taken it at the start, but until that comedy of errors set off by Morgan's slack pass you couldn't see where a Millwall goal was coming from. The lack of options upfront was painfully apparent.

Players - Davis - 7.5 - did what was needed, excellent pen save, but again added to the Fred Karno's circus everytime they had a corner

Murty - 8 - going to be a legend

Harding - 7 - I didn't think he was as great as others did, but happy to give him a chance to settle

Thomas - 6.5 - I still have a problem with him. Great at winning the ball in the air, but like Darren Powell before him he is incapable of directing his headers anywhere but up and he never chests the ball down & passes it, even when he is in space

Perry - 7 - solid & reliable, but getting slower by the game

James - 7 - I thought he did okay but not outstanding

Lallana - 8 - Did some good things today on left & right

Wotton - 6 - He looked League 1 in the CCC, now he looks League 2. Immobile, inaccurate & clumsy

Schneiderlin - 7.5 - should be a 1 for that sloppy pass that undid us, but otherwise looked a class above most of the game

Patterson - 8 - looks very like Rasiak & his eye for goal. This lad is going to be good

Saganowski - 6 - looked off the pace, though he worked quite hard.

Subs

Gobern & Thompson - 7 - Clearly a pair of good prospects, neither were able to make a huge impact

Gillett - 7 - chased around but his touch was poor, though still better than Wotton's.

Pardew - 8 - got them working for each other & somenice play at times. Subs were not very effective, but he needed a striker to bring on

Ref - fine, except for giving them a pen, but I couldn't see the incident from our end

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Maybe that's why it's not such a good plan to sign near on 10 new players within a few weeks!

 

I think theres a bit more too it than that. Even Burley wouldn't try and put a 7-1 hiding at home down to, "gelling"

 

Anyway, They're still 9 point clear of us and I'd wager they get their act together before we make that up.

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Just back from the game and very pleased with the performance. Excellent work by the back four and the midlfield do did a good job until mid way through the second half of containing Milwall. However their subsitutions worked well for them and they looked dangerous, whereas ours did not and Milwall finished the game well.

 

I know a lot of people don't like Wotton but in the first half I thought he was one of our best players.

 

Our attack was poor - in the first half Milwall were poor and with a better attack I think we could have won this game by half time. Nobody seems to create space or run behind the defense - we played a lot of balls in the air and even when we won them they never went to any of our players. Saga tried but was very ineffective. Patterson was ok but nobody seemed to come up and help them from midfield.

 

We need a good attacking midlfielder and someone with pace to run through defenses - Milwall CBs were slow but nobody seemed willing to run at them with the ball.

 

If Milwall are one of the better teams in Lge 1, then we are definitely top half material - we need more quality up front to be more than top half.

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Their goal came as a result of their non-penalty, which was a blatant dive. We could of been 2 even 3 up at that point, so all in all, satisfied. The Ref was not our best friend today, thought Patterson showed great promise, and young Morgan, showed the potential, missing last season, we will do well to hold onto him IMHO............. The full backs were solid, which was missing last year, played with confidence, the AP effect!!!

 

Spot on. They had better ball support in the midfield and were able to pressure saints players when we had the ball. Lallana really needs to get himself into the game more. Nobody is going to hand it to him and if more midfielders are brought in, he will find himself without a place. I would rather have a good 45 minutes (sheiderlin today) than an invisible 90 minutes (lallana today).

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Great start IMO, apart from the eventual result. We were excellent, particularly in the first half and Paterson looks like he could be an absolute gem in this league. What I'm pleased most with is the effort and determination the players put in: the Pardew effect was clear to see from the 1st minute. Yes it dwindled a bit in the last 20 minutes but that's a fitness issue, thought Jackett's subs were spot on and we just ran out of energy which is why they overran us a bit towards the end. Fitness will come, it's Dean Wilkins forte so all is well! We'll be up that league faster than Norwich ship goals!!!!!!

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Well, after some reflection I gotta say i'm pretty happy with that. In reality, were playing supposedly one of the best sides in the division, a team that were a whisker away from being in a better division than us.

 

What pleased me was that we didn't look as clueless as we were when we first went into the championship. Every division is different and even though wehad a few youngsters we really put ourselves about. We matched a pretty physical side and some players in particular never stopped running.

 

I know theres a long way to and weare still -9 points, but I think with a couple of new players, a striker, an extra defender, a winger and maybe a more attacking midfielder we could do pretty well. Obviously fitness will come as we go through the seasonas we tired towards the end.

 

Davis - 8 - Well, started as he left off. This guy is fantastic, penalty save and did nothing wrong at all.

Murty - 7 - Looked very solid I've gotta say. Another leaderand he really puts himself about.

Thomas - 7 - Yes, yes, yes. Looked tired but he is a brute. A few crunching challenges too.

Perry - 7 - Seemed dangerous at the other end, and did okay with 3 strong guys coming at him.

Harding - 7 - Looked good, gets forward okay and tries to stop the cross. Up against a good winger today.

James - 6 - Quiet today, but I like the idea of him there, has a great cross on him.

Wotton - 6 - Did alright, a few good tackles.

Schneiderlin - 7 - He really impressedme, did what we've heard he can do. Those 2 almost goals, some great long passes and kept it simple. He actually went into some tackles too.

Lallana - 5 - Not his position, not his day, but he may have to get used to it. He's gonna get tightly marked but we know he's gonna have glimpses of class. He defended well though, kept plugging away.

Paterson - 7 - I like the look of this guy, never stopped running, took his goal well, has a bit of strength and seems fearless. Almost an 8. Could be a good season for him.

Saganowski - 6 - Hmm, not the energetic performance I've seen him do before. Tried at times, but clearly not staying here for long.

 

Subs - No one did too much of note.

 

An encouraging performance in all.

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You don't think he should have done better with the goal?

 

TBF he'd just produced a cracking double save and it was a very good header from their player - just saw it on a replay, it did go high into the top corner...and if Davis had managed to get a hand to it, it really would have been a wonder save.

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