Wycombe V Saints - Post Match Reaction

[saintpat]

I think we strung 3 passes together twice- all night!!! Yes the pitch was poor and the ball was moving very slowly everywhere apart from on the wings- so what did we do- ignore the bloody wings- although Lambert spent the whole of the first half on the right wing!!!

We looked like we were running in treacle- not a poor pitch, our lack of speed was almost laughable.

We failed miserably to use Puncheon- how many times was he open but the player in possession failed to look in his direction. The fact is- he looked the only person capable of controlling the ball. Lambert was shocking IMO(although to be fair he did looked tired)- he obviously has no idea where he should be playing whilst Barnard is in the team . Papa gave us some speed and enthusiasm up front, if he could just learn the off-side rule he would be a possible game winner.

Thought Wooton was OK- certainly no worse than Hammond.

 

Why did we defend everyone of their corners with all 11 of our players in the box, whilst they had 3 standing outside? Surely even the poorest coach must realise that we need to have someone to hold win or challenge for the ball in the midfield area if t we manage to defend the ball successfully !

 

We have I'm afraid turned into a team who consistently HOOF the ball, with no concern about even hoofing the ball in the general direction of our own players. Lambert must get fed up chasing lost causes- and if you only pass the ball to the feet of players like Puncheon and Lallana once or twice in a game, then it is almost a waste of time playing them!

 

Yes we missed two sitters but Kelvin pulled off two fantastic saves. Wycombe were more organised and much quicker than us- but they are used to playing on a ploughed field- we are not.

 

It seems to me, we forget too often to play 'our game'- when we play footballing teams we play football, when we play limited skill teams, we play HOOF ball. It is time that we worried about OUR GAME and don't play our opponents game. Yes we haven't lost in the league for a while now- but with the quality of our team- we should be winning far more regularly.

 

My first visit to Wycombe and although the pitch was poor, I felt it was far from a poor ground. I thought the announcer was very amusing-especially when trying to pronounce Papa's name. The stand was more like a stand of my youth, and the acoustics in the away stand are fantastic- unfortunately we failed to use them to our advantage for much of the game.BUT THERE WAS NO BEER!!!

 

OK- whinge over, come on Saints, we are FAR better than this performance.

[stmusicdude]

Outplayed, out battled

 

**** poor

based on radio commentry? or forum posts?

 

It MAY of been crap, I don't know what I do know is your beginning to sound like a broken record! If people don’t agree with you they are "happy clappers" if they refer to current form you refer them to fact we haven’t won enough, when we were winning 3-1 & 4-1 you where whinging it wasn't a clean sheet..

If some get "upset" or hacked of you tell them they shouldn't be on a forum that is what it's for then do the exact same thing yourself.. What’s that all about ..

It has to be the funniest thing ever that your NEVER happy with how we win, if we win or when we win .. In fact I think it has some irony how selective your arguments are for our form & whether we are having a "good" or crap season. You keep saying if you was NC or ML you’re not they actually attend games & put their money where their mouth is!!

 

You started getting stroppy the other day when someone lambasted you for the way you whinge stating there is an ignore option. If you cant take the critism back when people disagree as you so often point out perhaps the forum is not the place for you?

 

According to you we have been out the playoff's for weeks & our season is over. Dont get me wrong I get frustrated at the draws too, and SOME points you make are very valid BUT many are not. Ok so we are out the playoffs would of been a bonus this season but there you go & maybe to much effott was put into the cup runs? if you say that ( not sure you do but if you did I would perhaps agree with you) BUT what I want to see from the team I love & am sure you do too is a run of form gaining momentum between now & May to show our intent for next season. we have just gone 2 games without conceding a goal . It's a START .. did you know we are in a spell of Some of the best ever saints form since the early 80s? & your still whinging

If we didnt know better, would be easy to think you WANT AP & Saints to fail

:o:o:o:o:o

[shurlock]

I think we strung 3 passes together twice- all night!!! Yes the pitch was poor and the ball was moving very slowly everywhere apart from on the wings- so what did we do- ignore the bloody wings- although Lambert spent the whole of the first half on the right wing!!!

We looked like we were running in treacle- not a poor pitch, our lack of speed was almost laughable.

We failed miserably to use Puncheon- how many times was he open but the player in possession failed to look in his direction. The fact is- he looked the only person capable of controlling the ball. Lambert was shocking IMO(although to be fair he did looked tired)- he obviously has no idea where he should be playing whilst Barnard is in the team . Papa gave us some speed and enthusiasm up front, if he could just learn the off-side rule he would be a possible game winner.

Thought Wooton was OK- certainly no worse than Hammond.

 

Why did we defend everyone of their corners with all 11 of our players in the box, whilst they had 3 standing outside? Surely even the poorest coach must realise that we need to have someone to hold win or challenge for the ball in the midfield area if t we manage to defend the ball successfully !

 

We have I'm afraid turned into a team who consistently HOOF the ball, with no concern about even hoofing the ball in the general direction of our own players. Lambert must get fed up chasing lost causes- and if you only pass the ball to the feet of players like Puncheon and Lallana once or twice in a game, then it is almost a waste of time playing them!

 

Yes we missed two sitters but Kelvin pulled off two fantastic saves. Wycombe were more organised and much quicker than us- but they are used to playing on a ploughed field- we are not.

 

It seems to me, we forget too often to play 'our game'- when we play footballing teams we play football, when we play limited skill teams, we play HOOF ball. It is time that we worried about OUR GAME and don't play our opponents game. Yes we haven't lost in the league for a while now- but with the quality of our team- we should be winning far more regularly.

 

My first visit to Wycombe and although the pitch was poor, I felt it was far from a poor ground. I thought the announcer was very amusing-especially when trying to pronounce Papa's name. The stand was more like a stand of my youth, and the acoustics in the away stand are fantastic- unfortunately we failed to use them to our advantage for much of the game.BUT THERE WAS NO BEER!!!

 

OK- whinge over, come on Saints, we are FAR better than this performance.

 

Agree with this - good post.

[tonibell]

Just got home - it helps living just 12 miles away.

 

The conditions and the pitch were awful. The ball never ran true and often never made the touchline as it was held up.

 

Only AP knows why he started with so many attacking players in those conditions - Lambo, Lallana, Barnard, Punchy and Antonio. If ever a match was tailor made for Wootton it was this one. Fortunately AP realised this fairly early and made the substitution. I thought Wootton did well.

 

Kelvin was surprisingly shaky in the first half. He was their most potent threat at times!! He made up for it with a great second half save.

 

We never had a corner all match .... but we created some clear cut chances. How Ricky missed his sitter I do not know. It looked harder to miss. Adam also missed a great chance.

 

MoM for me was Fonte. He s one classy defender.

 

I go with that well said...:smt038.. Sould have start Wootton the pitch was idea for him. Horrible drive home lots of road workers and one road in and out of stadium. The high light of the game was the Kids taking the half time penalty shootouts with the FUNNY celebrations

Edited 24 February, 2010 by tonibell

[shurlock]

The high light of the game was the Kids taking the half time penalty shootouts with the FUNNY celebrations

 

The kid with the pink gloves - Fergie would never allow that- and the one who tried to do a somersault and practically landed on his back - definitely more enjoyable than large parts of the game.

[Arizona]

I go with that well said...:smt038.. Sould have start Wootton the pitch was idea for him. Horrible drive home lots of road workers and one road in and out of stadium. The high light of the game was the Kids taking the half time penalty shootouts with the FUNNY celebrations

 

Without doubt.

 

The Saints fans were really getting behind them too. Think it was Wycombe's local under 11 side or something. They seemed to enjoy themselves and Saints cheering when they scored made their day I think. The celebrations we're comical. My personal favourite moment was the last kicker who was about 4 inches shorter than the other kids. Me and Baj started singing, "Marian Pahars, Marian ooooooooohhh...."

 

Kind of sad really, but that really was the most entertaining part of the evening.

[Justin C]

Right I don't write many long posts but this could be. We never looked like a top 2 team tonight and I think we don't adjust to the conditions of the league!

 

I was In a box in high wycombe end and everyone was friendly and kept saying how loud we were!

[Born In The 80s]

Just got in from the game. Absolutely exhausted after a long day at work then the drive up and back, but just thought i'd see what the general feeling was around today's performance. First off, today was very worrying. The result was bad enough, but to play it out the way we did was very disappointing. We offered hardly anything going forward against a side who have conceded an awful lot of goals this season. Hoofball was played throughout with our full backs pinging the ball up aimlessly to Rickie, who in truth, had no chance with very little Saints players making runs beyond him.

 

I've heard the pitch mentioned as an excuse. Utter bull****. Good players should be able to adapt to poor pitches. If Pardew thinks it's such a problem, he should either make them train down at the Sporty before an away game, or dedicate one of the pitches down at Staplewood for "away game training" where they just skim all the grass off it and make it as poor as possible. Maybe then we will learn to get the ball down and play. The sad thing is, as Harding and Otsemebor are aimlessly hoofing away, they are bypass the two most creative players in this league in Lallana and Puncheon. Everything that was good tonight came when we got it to Puncheon's feet - he looks a very good player by the way, as does Fonte at the back.

 

But overall after tonight, i have absolutely no confidence that this side can go away on the road and grind out 1-0 wins on ****ty, cut up pitches (something Leicester did all of last year in this league). And for that reason, i am very concerned about next season... Automatic promotion in the season 2010/11 looks a long way off to me.

[CanadaSaint]

That's an excellent post. Please pay yer five quid and keep posting.

[stmusicdude]

clearly shows you know nothing about how we play apart from the results.

 

exactly !!

I don't mind negative posters having a clear opinion etc IF they have an opinion based on things actually seen, not on fact we didnt win or radio comms or 5 second highlights!!

 

BUT that dosent mean I am happy either

[St Marco]

5 of the last 6 games have been away. If we won a home game then drew an away game things would appear much better. In the long term i don't think these have been a bad set of results. Of those 5 away games we won 1 and drew 4. Which means we got nearly 50% of the points available. Which is not too bad. If you look at the last 5 away games we sit 6th. With a better record then most of the teams we are trying to catch i.e Swindon. We have the 2nd best home record currently. 4 of the next 5 games are home games. If we win all those home games then we will be in the mix.

 

We should be beating teams like this, the players should be putting in more effort against the lesser teams. But it is not a bad result and we are not on a run of bad results. 1 loss in the last 8 league games. 6 of those games were away.

 

We have a nice run of home games now. Win those and draw your away games and your always do well.

[SW11_Saint]

Poor performance, no doubt. A 'rugby pitch' in every sense, but then we both had to play on it. I was at the game with some locals - some Wycombe fans, some neutrals and one who watched Wycombe regularly said, and I quote, "that was our best performance of the season, possibly the last couple of years" (?!), they also seemed quite pleased taking a point off us. Which probably makes the result even worse - they had about 8 new players in their squad too.

 

I think we had a 3-4 minute spell of football (I mean literally '3-4 minutes'!) in the first half, and weren't much better in the second. Antonio was awful, and rightly hauled off after about 35 minutes - he could barely stay on his feet. I was sitting quite close to Pardew who was absolutely furious with him and bellowing at him - no handshake for him when he came off!!

 

I was near their Directors box and there was a few old faces there - John Gorman, Steve Wigley, and also Mick Harford and Tony Coton (scouting??).

 

Poor result, and I guess it does for our play-off hopes, but they were pretty remote anyway. It's all about finishing as high as we can (you never know!), building confidence, and of course Wembley. And next season of course, when we will win League One...

 

PS Saw most of the Saints players as I came out (was a guest in Wycombe Corporate area) and like policemen, it's amazing how young players look these days - well, I suppose they are?!, but Dan Harding literally looks like a schoolboy in 'real life'!

[Legod Third Coming]

We were ordinary.

 

We were not ordinary. We were ffing awful. Player ratings as follows, everyone 0 apart from Kelvin who gets 5 - for making one amazing save but also letting the ball through his legs and nearly into the net.

 

Nothing to do with the pitch and everything to do with not being imposing enough. No energy, no movement, I've seen more movement in a techtonic plate. Hammond must have used more energy putting on his boots, the team bus must have completed more passes. Quite possibly one of the worst games of football I have seen in 35 years.

 

Ordinary? We can only aspire to such grandiose descriptions.

 

That's two hours of my life I won't get back that I would gladly swap for amnesia. In fact, I'd rather have shaved my scrotum with a flymo or ****ged Ann Widdicombe. Seriously.

[Goalie66]

We were not ordinary. We were ffing awful. Player ratings as follows, everyone 0 apart from Kelvin who gets 5 - for making one amazing save but also letting the ball through his legs and nearly into the net.

 

Nothing to do with the pitch and everything to do with not being imposing enough. No energy, no movement, I've seen more movement in a techtonic plate. Hammond must have used more energy putting on his boots, the team bus must have completed more passes. Quite possibly one of the worst games of football I have seen in 35 years.

 

Ordinary? We can only aspire to such grandiose descriptions.

 

That's two hours of my life I won't get back that I would gladly swap for amnesia. In fact, I'd rather have shaved my scrotum with a flymo or ****ged Ann Widdicombe. Seriously.

 

Oh come on Steve..Ann Widdicombe !! Yes it was like watching a Bull elephant sliding down a mile long razor blade using his testicles as breaks and certainly when I got home last night I was more enthusiastic in Reading the Pompey takeover saga in the Lounge than absorbing any match report.

 

It really was dire.Not one single corner !!! Three shots all game and by far the best part for me was the pre match handburger despite the fact I mistook a vinegar bottle for ketchup. Must have been an omen !!

[Professor]

Good result for next season. This sort of performance will show Cortese that Pardew's squad is not good enough to top this division and that to get out next year means a major clear out of the fringe players in the close season and a few serious first choice replacements especially in midfield.

[John B]

Good result for next season. This sort of performance will show Cortese that Pardew's squad is not good enough to top this division and that to get out next year means a major clear out of the fringe players in the close season and a few serious first choice replacements especially in midfield.

 

So we have to win every game do we.

 

Sometimes the team plays well sometimes it does not that is football

 

Unbeaten in the League in 2010 seems OK to me

[Saint Without a Halo]

Bad pitch, my arse. NOT GOOD ENOUGH. No more excuses.

 

Here Here! A "workman" and "tools" come to mind!

[Saint Without a Halo]

Someone please tell Pardew how to beat crap teams on crap pitches - soon.

 

If they are crap teams and we can't win just what does that make us!

 

It is time we give other teams the respect they deserve! They are motivated, work hard and keen to do well against a bigger team like us they are not their to roll over! We need to be able to deal with it without making excuses if we are to ever get out of this league!!

[Andy_Porter]

We missed him at Norwich too. He was very average. Didn't stop us beating them. Saints can play well without him, we just didn't tonight. The whole team played poorly, it wasn't so much a case of having a missing link. The defence kept hoofing it and bypassing the midfield. The midfield just didn't impose themselves physically on the game, which isn't one of Morgan's strengths.

 

He wasn't poor against Norwich, he didn't have his best game but he was still influencial. It really suprised me that some fans still see Schneiderlin as the tippy tappy boy we had last season. He's grown into a proper midfielder this season and he's easily as important as Hammond. When the two of them play together we play. When they don't we get Exeter, Leeds, Wycombe type performances.

 

Wotton had plenty of the ball last night and always needed one touch too many and when Wycombe had men behind the ball it cost us.

[Alan56]

I think we strung 3 passes together twice- all night!!! Yes the pitch was poor and the ball was moving very slowly everywhere apart from on the wings- so what did we do- ignore the bloody wings- although Lambert spent the whole of the first half on the right wing!!!

We looked like we were running in treacle- not a poor pitch, our lack of speed was almost laughable.

We failed miserably to use Puncheon- how many times was he open but the player in possession failed to look in his direction. The fact is- he looked the only person capable of controlling the ball. Lambert was shocking IMO(although to be fair he did looked tired)- he obviously has no idea where he should be playing whilst Barnard is in the team . Papa gave us some speed and enthusiasm up front, if he could just learn the off-side rule he would be a possible game winner.

Thought Wooton was OK- certainly no worse than Hammond.

 

Why did we defend everyone of their corners with all 11 of our players in the box, whilst they had 3 standing outside? Surely even the poorest coach must realise that we need to have someone to hold win or challenge for the ball in the midfield area if t we manage to defend the ball successfully !

 

We have I'm afraid turned into a team who consistently HOOF the ball, with no concern about even hoofing the ball in the general direction of our own players. Lambert must get fed up chasing lost causes- and if you only pass the ball to the feet of players like Puncheon and Lallana once or twice in a game, then it is almost a waste of time playing them!

 

Yes we missed two sitters but Kelvin pulled off two fantastic saves. Wycombe were more organised and much quicker than us- but they are used to playing on a ploughed field- we are not.

 

It seems to me, we forget too often to play 'our game'- when we play footballing teams we play football, when we play limited skill teams, we play HOOF ball. It is time that we worried about OUR GAME and don't play our opponents game. Yes we haven't lost in the league for a while now- but with the quality of our team- we should be winning far more regularly.

 

My first visit to Wycombe and although the pitch was poor, I felt it was far from a poor ground. I thought the announcer was very amusing-especially when trying to pronounce Papa's name. The stand was more like a stand of my youth, and the acoustics in the away stand are fantastic- unfortunately we failed to use them to our advantage for much of the game.BUT THERE WAS NO BEER!!!

 

OK- whinge over, come on Saints, we are FAR better than this performance.

 

Excellent post. Thought their ground ok pitch apart!!

 

As for the performance of our team, crap, and though someone may have already pointed this stat out, haven't had time to read most of the ****e on here, not only was the score nil. How many corners did Saints get last night????

 

NONE

 

Pathetic. One solution?? We have a great pitch at SMS and the training pitches are good. Get them training on some cut up turf for a few weeks at this time of the year. It might just work!!

[Saint Without a Halo]

Four points in every six, or two points per game will get us into the play offs.

QUOTE]

 

Errrrrrrrrrrr pray how?

We currently need to make up 19 points (or 16 if we win our game in hand) we have 15 matches left assuming we win the game in hand so if we get 2 a game that will give us another 33 points (including the 3 for the game in hand) take away the 16 we need to make up and we are left with 17 we are therefore assuming that many of the teams above us will get less than 17 points from their remaining 15 or so games or an average of just above 1 a game compared to our 2.

 

Not very likely given the top 7 are all in reasonable form and averaging well over 2 pts a game at present, bar possibly only Leeds and Chralton, and they are both so far ahead as to not even be worth bothering about!

 

 

We should actually be noting that far from eating into the gap between us and the playoffs it is actually increasing, having gone from just 10 points in early December to 19 now! We are actually going backwards!

 

On current form without a minus 10 start we would still be well short of the play offs and off by 9 points!

[Window Cleaner]

Is it not realistic to expect to beat the team second bottom in the league?

 

Chairman says it is....still what does he know.

[rooney]

Thanks for all the reports guys. How can we be so poor after the elation of Norwich? However, some of the other top teams lost at Home tonight so I expect their supporters are suffering too. We set are sights on mid table at the beginning of the season and it looks as though we shall be just below the playoffs come the end. We have a bonus with Wembley and had a good cup run so everything is not all that bleak.

 

The only thing that worries me is our ability not to win against poor teams and as someone else said, we play poor on bad pitches and they will be with us next year. We will still have virtually the same team then, so a change of tactics on those grounds will be needed.

[sadoldgit]

Here we go again, get a good result and we are world beaters and everyone loves Pardew, get a draw away from home and it is the end of the world and Pardew out! LOL

[Window Cleaner]

Just been reading through AP's piece on the OS, no Morgan and no Connolly for Saturday and he doesn't know for how much longer Morgan or James will be out..

[Wade Garrett]

Davis went from the ridiculous to the sublime. 2 fumbles followed by 2 world class saves.

 

Haven't really got a good word to say about anyone else, except Puncheon, who looked dangerous at times, and at least looked like he could run with the ball at his feet.

 

I have a bit of a problem with how Lambert is being used. For me he should stay up front, he was even back last night defending throw-ins. Why we don't leave even 1 forward up the pitch when we're defending corners I'll never know. Why Lambert has to take free-kicks 45 yards from goal, when he should be in the box I'll never know. Why Lambert is the one crossing the ball into the box from wide positions in open play, I'll never know.

 

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not having a go at Lambert. Just questioning how he is being asked to play.

[Liquidshokk]

Davis went from the ridiculous to the sublime. 2 fumbles followed by 2 world class saves.

 

Haven't really got a good word to say about anyone else, except Puncheon, who looked dangerous at times, and at least looked like he could run with the ball at his feet.

 

I have a bit of a problem with how Lambert is being used. For me he should stay up front, he was even back last night defending throw-ins. Why we don't leave even 1 forward up the pitch when we're defending corners I'll never know. Why Lambert has to take free-kicks 45 yards from goal, when he should be in the box I'll never know. Why Lambert is the one crossing the ball into the box from wide positions in open play, I'll never know.

 

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not having a go at Lambert. Just questioning how he is being asked to play.

 

+1

 

Does seem to be some odd decisions being made on Lamberts use.

[Window Cleaner]

+1

 

Does seem to be some odd decisions being made on Lamberts use.

 

Rickie probably sees himself as Wayne Rooney or C Ronaldo who both have a tendency to drift wide,trouble is they're both always where they should be,when they should be, Rickie hasn't quite got the hang of it yet..

[supersonic]

That was ****ing abismal. I paid all that money, took the afternoon off work nad got home at 01.30 this morning to go and watch that ****e!

 

really not happy. We had 1 half-chance in the whole game, all we seemed to do was punt the ball aimlessly long, in the hope someone might get on to it.

 

Harding looks very very suspicious at left back. Got done everytime by their winger (who looked tidy, but nothing special) and seems to be more interested in moaning at officials than concentrating on the game. A liability IMO.

[Chez]

The worst game I haev seen this season by far.

 

I've never seen the ball kicked into touch so much in my life, especially by us. The pitch was bad but it doesn't excuse some of the woeful passing. It does excuse some of the terrible control, and perhaps even the hoof ball to a degree - it was next to impossible to pass through the middle, but when there was time to bring it down, we invariably didn't.

 

Hammond is usally great at bringing it down and getting us going, but even he played it safe more often than not. It pains me to say it but Wotton actually showed more composure than Hammond last night, although he did get caught in posession deep in our own half that could have turned out worse.

 

In the end though you have to look at Lambert's and Lallana's misses and say if they had tucked them away, as they should, it would have been job done. Lambert was pretty poor on the night IMO, he won a fair few headers against quite a small centre back, but his all round game was poor. His passing pathetic, almost everything was misplaced. IMO he was extremely lucky to stay on the pitch. We don't have to play the lad the whole 90 minutes AP. Waigo should have got far far longer.

 

Davis 6 one tremendous save, some poor kicking, almost let one in through his legs, not a great deal to do.

Semi 5 never gets tight and talk about economy of effort. Maybe its just his casual style that I don't like, but he just never looks `on it' and a few times he just decided he'd pass on the 50:50. All he has is pace and even that doesn't seem to be enough to stop the winger crossing it in with ease.

Fonte 7 worst culprit for smashing it into the stand. I guess he was playing it safe but very frustrating all the same. Pretty solid though and handled pace well.

Jaidi 8 won everything and even when stretched by pacey forward never let him get past. We looked safe as house to anything arial.

Harding 7 Solid again. Nothing going forward though.

Antonio 3 miscontrolled a few times and then was subbed because Puncheon couldn't be trusted in the middle so someone had to make way for Wotton.

Hammond 5 hoofed the ball and thats about it. Ran around a lot.

Puncheon 3 (first half at CM) 7 (second half at RM) When at CM he underhit some passes in the mud that put us in trouble. Pitch didn't help. Looked dangerous out wide and our most creative player, but final ball not the best on a few occasions.

Lallana 3 Get out wide for ****s sake. Derry I am with you at least when taking last nights game in isolation. Tucked in all night. Not once did he hug the line to give Harding an easy out. Great chance put wide when he looked certain to score. Ran hard but totally ineffective.

Lambert 4 won some headers and gave the ball away a lot. Chased loads and load of **** hoofed balls. Missed from two yards.

Barnard 5 started brightly and touch looked good, but never any threat and touch slowly went. No service at all. Chased lots of crap and played deep chasing them. Is that what we want our stiker to be doing?

 

Wotton 7 One of his best games. Got the ball down and passed it to other Saints players. Thats more than most of the side could manage.

Waigo 6 Bright. Not on long enough. How about trying him alongside Barnard at the end of the game if the hoof/flick on tactic isn't working? Looked sharp and a threat. If I was him I'd be out of SMS as soon as possible as AP clearly doesn't rate him and even in a game that cried out for a change he still only gets 15 ****ing minutes.

Thomas - got a minute or so at the end up front.

Edited 24 February, 2010 by Chez

[Chez]

I have a bit of a problem with how Lambert is being used. For me he should stay up front, he was even back last night defending throw-ins. Why we don't leave even 1 forward up the pitch when we're defending corners I'll never know. Why Lambert has to take free-kicks 45 yards from goal, when he should be in the box I'll never know. Why Lambert is the one crossing the ball into the box from wide positions in open play, I'll never know.

 

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not having a go at Lambert. Just questioning how he is being asked to play.

 

 

could not agree more. Lets leave two up front at corners. We have Jaidi and Fonte and Hardign and Hammond and Wotton to win headers. When it is cleared we might be able to make it stick up front and perhaps scopre the on the break. You never know.

 

Lambert taking free kicks to chip into the box is rediculous.

[Chez]

We missed him at Norwich too. He was very average. Didn't stop us beating them. Saints can play well without him, we just didn't tonight. The whole team played poorly, it wasn't so much a case of having a missing link. The defence kept hoofing it and bypassing the midfield. The midfield just didn't impose themselves physically on the game, which isn't one of Morgan's strengths.

 

Morgan is not the messiah, but how often do we play well when he is not in the side? yes we play badly on occasions when he is in the first 11, and yes he has bad games himself, but I honestly can't remember many decent games without him. We always go longer, and we tend to give the ball away cheaper.

 

Simple things like getting the ball from the thrower and turning and spreading the play - as apposed to throwing it down the line, Lambert flicking it on to no one and the ball handed over to the opposition. That happened about 20 times last night.

[OldNick]

I have only seen the result and read a few reports on here.

Iam not going to start having a go at the manager, but I do think we can now stop using the -10 points as an excuse. Add those to our total and we would still be 9 points off a play off spot.

I am still backing AP

Tjhe biggest plus I can see is another clean sheet....also at the start of the season I would have taken what we have got , mid-table and a trip to Wembley

[Andyb1]

lol at 99% of the over reacting idiots on here. Saturday champions of the world, getting promoted (maybe even automatically), going to win the cup. Tuesday Going down, sack the manager, we're useless.

 

Sack everyone, close down the forum, we drew 0-0... I'm off to shoot myself.

[Wade Garrett]

I have only seen the result and read a few reports on here.

Iam not going to start having a go at the manager, but I do think we can now stop using the -10 points as an excuse. Add those to our total and we would still be 9 points off a play off spot.

I am still backing AP

Tjhe biggest plus I can see is another clean sheet....also at the start of the season I would have taken what we have got , mid-table and a trip to Wembley

 

I agree completely.

[St Michael]

Cannot believe some of the reactionary, wrist-slashing goons on here.

[Chez]

lol at 99% of the over reacting idiots on here. Saturday champions of the world, getting promoted (maybe even automatically), going to win the cup. Tuesday Going down, sack the manager, we're useless.

 

Sack everyone, close down the forum, we drew 0-0... I'm off to shoot myself.

 

I've not read every post from those that attended, but I don't see any that say `AP out'. Is it not you that is overeacting?

 

Edit: I looked a little further back and I apologise. There are some pretty overeactive posts.

Edited 24 February, 2010 by Chez

[Block 5]

The most boring game of football I've seen in quite a while.

Both teams looked like they'd spent an hour or two before the game sat in the dressing room with Cheech and Chong.

 

The half time entertainment was the best I've seen in a while.

Far more exciting than the game.

[Chez]

The most boring game of football I've seen in quite a while.

Both teams looked like they'd spent an hour or two before the game sat in the dressing room with Cheech and Chong.

 

The half time entertainment was the best I've seen in a while.

Far more exciting than the game.

 

agreed. Why on earth can't we just do that at SMS? Northampton away in the cup a few years back they had a pen comp with fans coming on the pitch to take them against teh reserve keeper. Perfect entertainment. What do we do, have two clowns run 30 yards with an oversized beachball hoping that one falls over so the club can make £250 from you've been framed. Total ****e. Embaressing in fact, as is the MC'd "raise the roof, lets get ready to rumble" bull**** before games like we did before the derby game - cringworthy.

 

Lets show some sort of class.

[Bucks Saint]

Davis went from the ridiculous to the sublime. 2 fumbles followed by 2 world class saves.

 

Haven't really got a good word to say about anyone else, except Puncheon, who looked dangerous at times, and at least looked like he could run with the ball at his feet.

 

 

 

Fonte was class, did everything he could to break up their (many, pacy and spirited) attacks

[Nick65]

Wycombe are a very limited side, but looked pretty compact, work hard and close down fast.

If it hadn't been for a couple of decent saves from Kelvin and solid performances from Jaidi and Fonte, that would have been enough to beat us last night and deservedly so, because most of the time we played like a pub team. I lost count of the number of aimless hoofs upfield or into touch - even basic control skills were lacking some of the time.

 

No corners says it all really, although on a pedantic note think we should have had one in the second half that ended up as a goal kick.

 

Quite impressed with Wycombe as a club, hardly any fans but a decent stadium and friendly atmosphere. They didn't seem to like Harding much though - what is it about him that winds up opposition supporters?

[Andyb1]

I've not read every post from those that attended, but I don't see any that say `AP out'. Is it not you that is overeacting?

 

Edit: I looked a little further back and I apologise. There are some pretty overeactive posts.

 

It was aimed at the people that didn't go and have their normal after game reaction to anything but a win.

 

I didn't go myself, it seems like it was a crap game we didn't play well in. I'm not happy we failed to win away against an inferior team, I'm just not suicidal

[Toadhall Saint]

Crap game - crap pitch and Saints weren't much better (if at all).

[Chez]

 

Quite impressed with Wycombe as a club, hardly any fans but a decent stadium and friendly atmosphere. They didn't seem to like Harding much though - what is it about him that winds up opposition supporters?

 

most of the moans were for the linesman who didn't give them much. Harding did however cut their winger in two and was rightly booked.

 

He is combative and not afraid to foul when needed. Home fans don't tend to like that. I do. Another solid game from him last night.

[Foxy]

Just got home after staying over at some friends' in Wycombe and I have to say the £18 spent on a ticket might wel have been better invested in a few pints in the very nice pub a couple of hundred yards up the road from their place. 0-0 is probably a fair reflection of a very poor game, in fact you could probably say that both teams were lucky to get nil.

 

In terms of the game itself it was always likely to be a bit of a grueller - cold damp conditions, swirling gothic fog and poor floodlights making it hard to pick up anything high, a sticky old pitch and opposition who were limited but committed in defence. And so it proved, a feast of hopeful hoists forward, miscontrolled balls and hacks into touch. The first half was largely memorable for several clearances over the stand to our right and into the carpark and a near-Taibi moment from Kelvin as a soft one slipped though his hands, legs and (for all I know) down a sock leg and trickled agonisingly goalward before he recovered to scrabble it to safety. Plenty of pratfalls with Antonio well to the fore in this respect, giving the appearance of finding conningly concealed trip-wires or holes in the ground wherever he went. He was clearly not enjoying the conditions and it was a probably a kindness to haul him off late in the half. Our main approach seemed to be to hoist hopeful balls toward (but rarely to) Lambert, bypassing a midfield which didn't seem to mind. Only chance of note came to Wycombe with a cross finding its way to the far post where Kelvin was quickly across to charge down a close range shot.

 

Halftime was a welcome respite and the kids doing the shootout could have given the players on both sides a lesson in enthusiasm.

 

Second half and it was more of the same for the most part. With Punchy now wide right we had an option to make use of the better surface out wide (a look at Lala's filthy kit told its own tale about a tendency to drift inside) and when we managed to work this out we suddenly started playing some decent football, resulting in a couple of very acceptable chances, the first a low ball fizzed across the 6 yard line to Lambo, who was probably taken a bit by suprise and shanked it gently to the keeper and a second where Lala, bursting into the box dragged one across goal and wide with the goalie nowhere.

 

Suddenly we were looking the part, but for some reason reverted to the big hoof and we were back to clearances into touch, but this time to the left as we were facing, where the bigger stand meant that we were denied the amusement of seeing the ball disappearing forever. It was looking for all the world like a 0-0 from there on in and, with a hefty shower adding to the delights of the occasion we were counting down the minutes to pub time as wycombe gave us a final fright, breaking through to draw a fine save before the game petered out into dreary nothingness. It had been a poor game perhaps best summed up late on when yet another high ball saw two players tussle beneath it, misjudge it's flight by 20 yards then tumble ring o' roses style onto their rear ends.

 

From a Saints perspective it was dreary, unimaginative fare with the only decent performances coming from Fonte and Punchy once he was moved out wide and perhaps Jaidi and Wooton who the conditions perhaps helped. We seem to have a problem dealing with limited opposition who defend in numbers not overcommit from midfield. The defence wasn't asked too many questions but looked reasonably solid for the most part but going forward we seemed unable to keep the ball or have the guile to manouvre their defensive formation out of position or stretch them with width or pace. In these circumstances we revert to the big hoik forward and if, as today, they can make Ricky's life hard and we have noone getting past him the result is all to often going to be a stalemate.

 

A draw on the back of the Norwich result is not the end of the world but if we are to push for promotion next year, or even through a late run to the play offs this, we need to find a way to turn a lot more of these draws into wins

[hasper57saint]

I have read EVERY post today and I can't believe how so many of 'little faith' can justify FOUR POINTS from SIX is a catastrophe of such proportions. You can see by my post name that since January 1957 I have been a Saint. I have seen sheer brilliance, lots of mediocrity and in the last few years,absolute c-rap! I'll take the six points anytime. Realistically we have a very slim chance of making the play-offs but 'hoof ball and head tennis' will not be sufficient to succeed in our task. Perhaps AP just didn't want to play on the deck last night. We got a point, a clean sheet and lifted one more place up the table. I'm not complaining. Nor should you! COYR

[Smirking_Saint]

We really missed Schneiderlin, we need quality cover in the centre of midfield, I'm not Wottons biggest fan, he does a job in a 4-5-1 but we will get no where if we play him as part of a 4-4-2. Schneiderlin is such an important player for us, as soon as we lose of our two central midfielders our performances go to pot. Where was Lloyd James?

 

Nail on head

[Smirking_Saint]

Suits me the plastics can **** right off. I watch saints becuase they're

my team win, lose or draw FFS:mad:.

 

Yup, great post, great fan.

 

Bet you've got a massive c*ck too :shock:

[derry]

Chez, saintpat and shurlock all were at the game as was Merrington. Merrington made the same point that the centre of the pitch was poor but we should play out on the touchlines.

 

Pardew has a fundamental problem. He doesn't understand that if we tuck in, play players in the wide positions that come inside on their good foot (although Puncheon looks two footed) and default to 15 yds inside the touchline we can't play the ball around.

 

Once the central midfielders/defenders get the ball, if there isn't an immediate touchline outlet on both sides, it is going to either get booted up field or passed back then booted up field. I defy anybody to try and tell me that isn't the way we play most of our games.

 

Unless we play players on their natural side and they have the necessary pace to go outside and fundamentally want to go outside, we are not going to be a decent footballing team. Cluttering up the centre of the pitch is negative, leads to hoofball and on poor pitches neuters us.

 

If Pardew doesn't sort that out he isn't going to be allowed the time to be manager next year. At the moment there is no evidence that he can do this. One off spikes and loads of draws don't cut it.

 

It is my opinion that if there isn't overwhelming evidence that we can win this league by a mile next season he will be gone at the end of the season.

[AndyNorthernSaints]

Chez, saintpat and shurlock all were at the game as was Merrington. Merrington made the same point that the centre of the pitch was poor but we should play out on the touchlines.

 

Pardew has a fundamental problem. He doesn't understand that if we tuck in, play players in the wide positions that come inside on their good foot (although Puncheon looks two footed) and default to 15 yds inside the touchline we can't play the ball around.

 

Once the central midfielders/defenders get the ball, if there isn't an immediate touchline outlet on both sides, it is going to either get booted up field or passed back then booted up field. I defy anybody to try and tell me that isn't the way we play most of our games.

 

Unless we play players on their natural side and they have the necessary pace to go outside and fundamentally want to go outside, we are not going to be a decent footballing team. Cluttering up the centre of the pitch is negative, leads to hoofball and on poor pitches neuters us.

 

If Pardew doesn't sort that out he isn't going to be allowed the time to be manager next year. At the moment there is no evidence that he can do this. One off spikes and loads of draws don't cut it.

 

It is my opinion that if there isn't overwhelming evidence that we can win this league by a mile next season he will be gone at the end of the season.

 

Just out of interest, who would you have as manager?