4 defeats in a row, no goals......!

[paris]

AP leaves and we loose all our matches since coincidence i think not ....

[egreog]

Over 6 hours without a goal in the THIRD division too!!........when was the last time THAT happened??

[shurlock]

Good to see there are a few others here who have sensible football brains and don't let the massive disappointment lead them to ridiculous knee-jerk reactions everytime something doesn't go our way.

 

This time last year the "knee-jerkers" were telling us that Lallana was not good enough to wear the shirt.....

 

All of our games this year have had the same ingredients, even Brizzle Rovers. Saints start brightly, play excellent football, pass and move, plenty of possession, running the opposition ragged, no luck/rub of the green, players heads drop, confidence drops, crowd get nervy, players start to pass their way towards goal rather than keeping the cut and thrust... need I go on?

 

Brizzle Rovers we happened to score a poor goal from a corner and managed to stick a couple of other chances away too. Otherwise, it was a very similar game to all the others.

 

We did see the 'new manager' effect last night. The team came out and played far more directly, keeping the ball down and passing and moving. We swept forward at will and the trigger was pulled far earlier than previous games. Even lambo had a dig from an unlikely angle. If any of those early chances had gone in we would have romper away, much like Brizzle. Unfortunatley, the ref and lady luck had not read the script. The linesman in the corner nearest the Saints fans was just incompetent, proven when he made the same mistakes in the second half.

 

Yes, the second half was terrible. Yes, the players loom to be unable to keep up the pace for 90 mins. Yes, our key players are not fit/performing. But, this is not the road crash that so many people seem to think!

 

NA will get them right. These players are good enough to get us promoted, this year. They need some work, both physically and mentally. AP has gone, he played a dangerous game pre-season by trying to demonstrate how shallow our skills pool is in the squad. Playing Pulis from the start against Reading? That. to me', was "doing a rednapp" in the way he crucified our youth up at Mansfield, point scoring vs the chairman.

 

NA has the psyche to get into the heads of this set of players and turn a poor start into top 2 form. We haven't been that far off in any of our games this year. It's small tweaks, not major surgery. No doubt part of the recovery will be to get some fresh blood in, just to demonstrate that no-one is guaranteed a starting place.

 

Lambo has been our worst performer so far. He has carried an injury but appears to undroppable. He needs to warm the bench on Saturday and have a 20 minute cameo. One deflected free kick and a penalty is not what we need from him.

 

Rant over. Just everyone take a 'reality' pill, watch the full 90 mins and get supporting the 11 on the pitch for 90 mins. We have our part to play in this, the fans hav not yet stepped up to the plate either.

 

+1.

[David Strover]

Good to see there are a few others here who have sensible football brains and don't let the massive disappointment lead them to ridiculous knee-jerk reactions everytime something doesn't go our way.

 

This time last year the "knee-jerkers" were telling us that Lallana was not good enough to wear the shirt.....

 

All of our games this year have had the same ingredients, even Brizzle Rovers. Saints start brightly, play excellent football, pass and move, plenty of possession, running the opposition ragged, no luck/rub of the green, players heads drop, confidence drops, crowd get nervy, players start to pass their way towards goal rather than keeping the cut and thrust... need I go on?

 

Brizzle Rovers we happened to score a poor goal from a corner and managed to stick a couple of other chances away too. Otherwise, it was a very similar game to all the others.

 

We did see the 'new manager' effect last night. The team came out and played far more directly, keeping the ball down and passing and moving. We swept forward at will and the trigger was pulled far earlier than previous games. Even lambo had a dig from an unlikely angle. If any of those early chances had gone in we would have romper away, much like Brizzle. Unfortunatley, the ref and lady luck had not read the script. The linesman in the corner nearest the Saints fans was just incompetent, proven when he made the same mistakes in the second half.

 

Yes, the second half was terrible. Yes, the players loom to be unable to keep up the pace for 90 mins. Yes, our key players are not fit/performing. But, this is not the road crash that so many people seem to think!

 

NA will get them right. These players are good enough to get us promoted, this year. They need some work, both physically and mentally. AP has gone, he played a dangerous game pre-season by trying to demonstrate how shallow our skills pool is in the squad. Playing Pulis from the start against Reading? That. to me', was "doing a rednapp" in the way he crucified our youth up at Mansfield, point scoring vs the chairman.

 

NA has the psyche to get into the heads of this set of players and turn a poor start into top 2 form. We haven't been that far off in any of our games this year. It's small tweaks, not major surgery. No doubt part of the recovery will be to get some fresh blood in, just to demonstrate that no-one is guaranteed a starting place.

 

Lambo has been our worst performer so far. He has carried an injury but appears to undroppable. He needs to warm the bench on Saturday and have a 20 minute cameo. One deflected free kick and a penalty is not what we need from him.

 

Rant over. Just everyone take a 'reality' pill, watch the full 90 mins and get supporting the 11 on the pitch for 90 mins. We have our part to play in this, the fans hav not yet stepped up to the plate either.

 

Well it's been nearly 24 hours and I'm still really f**king angry. I still am gonna take no real interest on Saturday and just avoid the telly and radio and I'm still gonna go to an ice hockey match instead and enjoy that.

 

Personally I don't agree with any of the above quote and I seem to remember similar stuff being said when we went down from the Championship - very similar in fact. I think the team will get a few results and we will end up lower-middle of the table. As Professor posted we already have to go on a sort of 25 game unbeaten run to end up in the top two and even a really, really good team would struggle to do this - we are far from a really, really good team.

 

Maybe it is knee-jerk but it still doesn't stop the fact that we are a incredibly poor football team.

 

Get ready for more disappointment than elation over the coming months.

[Dazza82]

Last season P46 L9

This season P6 L4 already.

Top two finish means we can only allow around 6 more defeats in the next 40 games. FFS

 

I keep seeing people going on about the 9 lost games last season, lets not forget we also had Minus 10 and drew 14.

Also huddersfield made it to the play offs with 12 losses and 11 draws and leeds went up with 10 losses and 11 draws.

 

As people have said this league isnt as good as last season which i agree with so i think we can afford to drop more points and we will, but it is by no means the end of our promotion push

[Saint Without a Halo]

****e ****e a fecking disgrace. When you weigh it up financially this is the league 1 equivalent of Chelsea being in the relegation zone after 6 matches.

 

totally agree! Every time Chelsea change manager you never see a dip in performance do you!

[Saint Without a Halo]

Over 6 hours without a goal in the THIRD division too!!........when was the last time THAT happened??

 

Cant think of the last time we went more than 4 matche and six hours playing time without a goal even in the top division!

[Legod Third Coming]

totally agree! Every time Chelsea change manager you never see a dip in performance do you!

 

Yes, that is why Philip Scolari was fired.

[doddisalegend]

I wonder how many of the players brought in last season were sold on the promise of promotion to the championship at the 1st attempt.

All the BS from AP last season saying it would be better to miss out on promotion to build a winning mentality this year in L1 was rubbish. IMHO Missing out on promotion last year has had an impact on the players. Just look at last years key players Fonte, Lambert, Puncheon a shadow of their former selves. Fitness might play a part but if their hearts aren't in it then NA has a hell of a job getting them motivated again, and the longer our poor form continues and the less likely promotion seems the harder that will get.

 

I'm pretty sure they've been in the business long enough to know that no one could guarntee that and if they didn't they were niave.

[darren]

I keep seeing people going on about the 9 lost games last season, lets not forget we also had Minus 10 and drew 14.

Also huddersfield made it to the play offs with 12 losses and 11 draws and leeds went up with 10 losses and 11 draws.

 

As people have said this league isnt as good as last season which i agree with so i think we can afford to drop more points and we will, but it is by no means the end of our promotion push

 

I had top two in my mind when i said that not playoffs, and i did'nt say it was the end of our promotion push far from it i still think we will do it but 7 more defeats and we will not be in top two.

Also in the last 8 seasons only 3 teams have finished in the top two with more than 10 defeats, so "this league isnt as good as last season" is a load of crap.

[Rusaldo]

in NA's interview on the OS right at the bottom he talks about getting Scunny promoted as champions after losing the first 4 games. no need to hit the panic button just yet.