Saints 4 Swindon 1 - Post Match Chat

[S-Clarke]

I'll get slaughtered for this but here goes.

 

I don't think we look like an automatic promotion team and think we will bottle it in the play offs.

 

Sure there were some good bits yesterday, but there were some bad ones as well. The only thing that got us going yesterday was the equaliser and when you consider whats at stake in each and every game we play now, that is disappointing.

 

Our movement was shocking until we had the two goal buffer and Swindon were out of it at that point.

 

I'm not complaining at a win, it's just an observation

 

Not sure on that at all, I'd agree with that observation if we'd have drawn the game.

 

But we won it - 4-1. I don't know what some of our fans expect, i really don't.

 

4-0 wins, perfection all throughout and now sloppy bits in the middle - otherwise we're not good enough.

 

Just my opinion, but i think we played well yesterday. I think we showed alot of bottle to raise our game as soon as they equalised.

 

Oppo fans must think we're a bunch of idiots with the stuff we post.

[Turkish]

Not sure on that at all, I'd agree with that observation if we'd have drawn the game.

 

But we won it - 4-1. I don't know what some of our fans expect, i really don't.

 

4-0 wins, perfection all throughout and now sloppy bits in the middle - otherwise we're not good enough.

 

Just my opinion, but i think we played well yesterday. I think we showed alot of bottle to raise our game as soon as they equalised.

 

Oppo fans must think we're a bunch of idiots with the stuff we post.

 

I really dont know what game you were watching then if you think we played well. At 1-1 did you think we were playing well? We were awful, we didn't raise our game as soon as they equalised. In fact they could have scored another and were well on top until our second goal. We kept giving the ball away, no movement, poor passing created nothing going forward. Adkins was going mental at the players, my seat was right behind the dug out. Granted, for the last 20 minutes or so we were very good, if that is because of Barnard and Schniderlin coming on i dont know, but it's easy to knock the ball around comfortably with a 2 goal cushion. Dont be fooled by the scoreline which i think a lot are, a better side, or even one with more confidence than Swindon would have gone on and won that game after their equaliser or at least got a point. I am happy with the win, but i think people need to stop being fooled by the scoreline, we beat a very average side who are going to struggle to stay up this season, this wasn't a performance like Exeter and Hudderfield where we dominated the game for 90% of it. Play like that against a better side and we will be punished.

[S-Clarke]

We started well, had a wobbly middle patch, but blew them away in the last 30.

 

It was much better than any of our previous matches anyway.

 

Swindon are an odd side - I look at their squad and it doesn't look too bad at all. Douglas and Ferry in the middle were stand-out L1 players last year, along with Mcgovern on the wing and Cuthbert at the back. So they've still got decent players in there and will still carry a threat of sorts. They'll probably finish mid-table, can't see them going down.

[fanimal]

The good news is for february we played 5, unbeaten, 11/15 points, whilst not playing anywhere near our best! The bus is moving up through the gears, but not yet in 5th...

March, 7 games, 5 away, big big month!

[Saint Charlie]

Four goals, 2 shots against the post, one goal ruled out for a tight offside, a number of good saves from Swindon goalie.

 

Davis beaten by one shot, barely made a save otherwise.

 

Seems like an ok result to me?

[Turkish]

We started well, had a wobbly middle patch, but blew them away in the last 30.

 

It was much better than any of our previous matches anyway.

 

Swindon are an odd side - I look at their squad and it doesn't look too bad at all. Douglas and Ferry in the middle were stand-out L1 players last year, along with Mcgovern on the wing and Cuthbert at the back. So they've still got decent players in there and will still carry a threat of sorts. They'll probably finish mid-table, can't see them going down.

 

You can see they massively lack confidence and have no cutting edge up front. At times they knocked it about well. I dont think they'll finish midtable, they'll struggle to stay up.

 

We did start well but after the goal we were very poor, dont let the scoreline or the last 20 minutes decieve you, it's easy to play well with a 2 goal cushion against a team on a bad run and no confidence.

[Turkish]

Four goals, 2 shots against the post, one goal ruled out for a tight offside, a number of good saves from Swindon goalie.

 

Davis beaten by one shot, barely made a save otherwise.

 

Seems like an ok result to me?

 

You obviously weren't there.

[scotty]

Its already been mentioned on the postmatch thread, but worth bearing in mind that we usually struggle against swindon. I couldnt get to the match yesterday, was working in Selsey, but well happy with those three points.

[Saint Charlie]

You obviously weren't there.

 

I was. We scored 4, hit the post twice, had a goal ruled out for offside. What do you want? We got 11/15 points in Feb, unbeaten.

[sperm_john]

the team that gets the job done week in week out will go up, we did that yesterday ..we also hit the post twice and had a goal disallowed, in league one its going to be scrappy at times and I swear people want barcelona style perfection for 90 minutes, we are going to switch off at periods, thats football, especially in league one... some of our fans need to get a grip...

[Wes Tender]

We started off well enough, looked committed and had a couple of good chances before we scored a good goal. And then until half-time, we seemed to reckon that we had done enough and should take our foot off the pedal and give them a chance to come back into it. So we sat deeper and deeper and they gradually started to represent more of a threat. It looked as if a goal from them was only a matter of time unless we bucked our ideas up and started to challenge for the loose balls and close them down. And so it proved, that shortly after the half-time break, they gained their equaliser.

 

For me, it was almost a relief, as I surmised that it might be just the kick up the backside that the team needed, a jolt to their complacency.

 

A couple of good substitutions by Adkins also freshened things up, Barnard and Schneiderlin making a very quick impact and two goals following in quick sucession gave us a good cushion, increased our self-belief and taking the wind out of Swindon's sails.

 

From then onwards, we played with the width that was so sadly lacking in the first half, stretching the midfield to allow us the space to play our passing game. We then played some exhibition football, stringing together a series of passes to frustrate Swindon, who couldn't get the ball back.

 

So why can't we play with this width from the first whistle? We have skilled and fast wingers, so surely it makes sense to keep them out wide, forcing the opposition out wide to mark them?

 

The goal from Barnard almost on full time, was a bonus and demonstrated how effective our open passing play could be when we tie up opponents in midfield and then go for their jugular with a telling defence-splitting pass.

 

At the time of their equaliser, the match could have swung their way had we not resolved to step up a gear. Certainly Schneiderlin worked well beside Hammond to anchor the midfield and raised the question of whether he and Hammond, or he and Chaplow are to be preferred to Hammond and Chaplow. Also, we can speculate on whether Barnard should have started, or whether he is a great substitute to bring on against tiring legs to shake up a defence.

 

By the end of the match, the rather dismal first half had been almost forgotten because of the superb display in the second.

[VectisSaint]

I really dont know what game you were watching then if you think we played well. At 1-1 did you think we were playing well? We were awful, we didn't raise our game as soon as they equalised. In fact they could have scored another and were well on top until our second goal. We kept giving the ball away, no movement, poor passing created nothing going forward. Adkins was going mental at the players, my seat was right behind the dug out. Granted, for the last 20 minutes or so we were very good, if that is because of Barnard and Schniderlin coming on i dont know, but it's easy to knock the ball around comfortably with a 2 goal cushion. Dont be fooled by the scoreline which i think a lot are, a better side, or even one with more confidence than Swindon would have gone on and won that game after their equaliser or at least got a point. I am happy with the win, but i think people need to stop being fooled by the scoreline, we beat a very average side who are going to struggle to stay up this season, this wasn't a performance like Exeter and Hudderfield where we dominated the game for 90% of it. Play like that against a better side and we will be punished.

Think this is spot-on. The scoreline flattered us, it made a very average performance look good. For long periods in the first half we were frankly appalling, passes going astray, players not competing or looking like they were asleep, Hammond in particular looked like he had just fallen out of bed, completely dozy. For a few minutes before and just after Swindon equalized we were rocking, our defence was all over the place and Davis was very lucky with a ball that fizzed right across the goal and only needed a feint touch to go in. Adkins pt Spiderman on (instead of Chappers, whereas I would have brought off Mr Dozy) and thinks changed quite quickly afterwards, MS took control of the midfield. Two quick goals killed the game and made it look like a walk in the park. Swindon are currently very very poor, yet they could have won it, those who think yesterday was good are kidding themselves. We won 4-1, hit the post twice and had another disallowed for offside, but in the end we really weren't very good. We played far better against Peterborough, much more pace, slick passing and threat, difference was that Posh had good players up front to punish us.

[teamsaint]

at the moment we are clearly below our best, but we are picking up points at a rate that would see us go up, probably in second.

 

The time you really don't need to lose form is in the last 10 games..

I am cautiously optimistic that we can claim second, but we do need to pick up some real form.

 

Using Barney and MS more should help.....

[Thedelldays]

Think this is spot-on. The scoreline flattered us, it made a very average performance look good. For long periods in the first half we were frankly appalling, passes going astray, players not competing or looking like they were asleep, Hammond in particular looked like he had just fallen out of bed, completely dozy. For a few minutes before and just after Swindon equalized we were rocking, our defence was all over the place and Davis was very lucky with a ball that fizzed right across the goal and only needed a feint touch to go in. Adkins pt Spiderman on (instead of Chappers, whereas I would have brought off Mr Dozy) and thinks changed quite quickly afterwards, MS took control of the midfield. Two quick goals killed the game and made it look like a walk in the park. Swindon are currently very very poor, yet they could have won it, those who think yesterday was good are kidding themselves. We won 4-1, hit the post twice and had another disallowed for offside, but in the end we really weren't very good. We played far better against Peterborough, much more pace, slick passing and threat, difference was that Posh had good players up front to punish us.

 

Swindon may be poor but they are also the 4th top scorers away from home. Of course they are going to have spells in an away game.

[Charlie Wayman]

Another balls up by Adkins on team selection redeemed only because Morgan & Barney - who should have been on from the start - decided to embarrass him by turning in superb displays whilst Chaplow proved only that he prefers to spend his time running around aimlessly watching the ball go past him this way and that. That's quite a run of stinkers from the poor fella.....

 

Poor old Kelvin, rescued by his mates once again but time to reflect on putting is feet up on a Saturday afternoon?

[Chez]

I was. We scored 4, hit the post twice, had a goal ruled out for offside. What do you want? We got 11/15 points in Feb, unbeaten.

 

that's how I saw it. Swindon had a ten minute spell before and five after their goal, but they created next to nothing in the whole game because defensively we were strong. We sat back after our goal which invited them on to us, but perhaps the experience at London Road has made them a little less gung ho?

 

The idea that we were poor for 70 minutes as Turkish suggests is rubbish. We were great for the first 20 minutes and the last half hour. Remove 15 minutes of pressure from them and that leaves by my maths 25 minutes when we were merely OK.

[Chez]

Another balls up by Adkins on team selection redeemed only because Morgan & Barney - who should have been on from the start - decided to embarrass him by turning in superb displays

 

hindsight is a wonderful thing. As I recall you predicted a 2-1 loss unless Morgan started. Shows what you know.

[S-Clarke]

Another balls up by Adkins on team selection redeemed only because Morgan & Barney - who should have been on from the start - decided to embarrass him by turning in superb displays whilst Chaplow proved only that he prefers to spend his time running around aimlessly watching the ball go past him this way and that. That's quite a run of stinkers from the poor fella.....

 

Poor old Kelvin, rescued by his mates once again but time to reflect on putting is feet up on a Saturday afternoon?

 

yawn.

 

If he'd changed the team around to include barney and Morgan from the start, and we'd lost, you'd also be moaning about that.

 

The fact remains that you don't have a clue. HTH.

[timebomb]

that's how I saw it. Swindon had a ten minute spell before and five after their goal, but they created next to nothing in the whole game because defensively we were strong. We sat back after our goal which invited them on to us, but perhaps the experience at London Road has made them a little less gung ho?

 

The idea that we were poor for 70 minutes as Turkish suggests is rubbish. We were great for the first 20 minutes and the last half hour. Remove 15 minutes of pressure from them and that leaves by my maths 25 minutes when we were merely OK.

 

This is exactly the way I saw the game.

[benjii]

I really dont know what game you were watching then if you think we played well. At 1-1 did you think we were playing well? We were awful, we didn't raise our game as soon as they equalised. In fact they could have scored another and were well on top until our second goal. We kept giving the ball away, no movement, poor passing created nothing going forward. Adkins was going mental at the players, my seat was right behind the dug out. Granted, for the last 20 minutes or so we were very good, if that is because of Barnard and Schniderlin coming on i dont know, but it's easy to knock the ball around comfortably with a 2 goal cushion. Dont be fooled by the scoreline which i think a lot are, a better side, or even one with more confidence than Swindon would have gone on and won that game after their equaliser or at least got a point. I am happy with the win, but i think people need to stop being fooled by the scoreline, we beat a very average side who are going to struggle to stay up this season, this wasn't a performance like Exeter and Hudderfield where we dominated the game for 90% of it. Play like that against a better side and we will be punished.

 

I agree with much of this although we were pretty good going forwards for the first 30 minutes and could well have been 3 up at that point. Swindon did get in some good positions between midfield and defense though.

[benjii]

that's how I saw it. Swindon had a ten minute spell before and five after their goal, but they created next to nothing in the whole game because defensively we were strong. We sat back after our goal which invited them on to us, but perhaps the experience at London Road has made them a little less gung ho?

 

The idea that we were poor for 70 minutes as Turkish suggests is rubbish. We were great for the first 20 minutes and the last half hour. Remove 15 minutes of pressure from them and that leaves by my maths 25 minutes when we were merely OK.

 

Yes, this, pretty much.

[Crispypie]

so adkins in previous matches brings on ineffective subs so he is rubbish.yesterday he brings on two subs that turn the game around so he is rubbish for not playing them from the start!

 

4 - 1will do for me

[SaintBobby]

I'm not a betting man, so not sure how the odds work, but St Bobby has us down as having a 75% chance of going up automatically. Does that mean we are 3/1 for not going up automatically???

 

If so, I'll take £50 on not going up automatically at 3/1.

 

You're right - 75% for automatic is about my shout.

 

The markets have us at 4/11 for promotion by any means (i.e. about 75% - but that includes maybe a 7-10% of promotion via the playoffs?).

 

And therefore 11/4 for us not going up at all.

 

I can get slightly better odds from the markets than I can from you, I'm afraid. That's why I said if anyone wildly disagrees with my percentages, I'd take a wager. If you don't disagree with them wildly, I may get better odds from betfair.

[Fitzhugh Fella]

You're right - 75% for automatic is about my shout.

 

The markets have us at 4/11 for promotion by any means (i.e. about 75% - but that includes maybe a 7-10% of promotion via the playoffs?).

 

And therefore 11/4 for us not going up at all.

 

I can get slightly better odds from the markets than I can from you, I'm afraid. That's why I said if anyone wildly disagrees with my percentages, I'd take a wager. If you don't disagree with them wildly, I may get better odds from betfair.

 

So my straight tenner against yours for us not going up? You have better odds.

[SaintBobby]

Lordy. So much bile and venom. I pity you, to get so outraged with someone for daring to post his opinion.

 

Alpine, I think the "outrage" (or more usually "annoyance") is not so much that you tend to be negative but that:

 

(a). as you've conceded, your negativity often isn't really within the realm of statistical reality (or even internal consistency)

(b). there is no instance - none at all that I am aware of - of you ever being even marginally optimistic side on anything Saints-related at all. For example, not a single match thread ever in which we go a goal down and you say "plenty of time to go, we should be able to pull this back". No analysis thread ever in which you say "actually, I think Brighton/Bournemouth/Huddersfield are looking a bit shaky as we reach the run in." That's pretty amazing given the many thousands of posts you've racked up. Even if you can cite a couple of counter-examples, they will amount to an absolutely tiny proportion of your colossal number of overall posts.

©. in any walk of life, people prefer to be surrounded by optimists (or at least realists) rather than relentless pessimists. Probably particularly true of football fans. When the relentless pessimist's incessant doom-saying is clearly based on a failure to maintain any consistent grip on likely or probable outcomes, people start to find the person's presence grating, irritating, annoying and possible even worry for the person's mental health.

[SaintBobby]

St Bobby

I will have a tenner with you on Saints NOT going up automatically

 

I'm happy to take that if you can confirm.

 

Although to be honest, you'd be better just to back against Saints being promoted on betfair - where you can still gets odds of 2/1. (e.g. your ten quid stake would yield a £20 return from betfair, but only a £10 return from me)

 

This does leave you exposed to Saints getting promoted via the play-offs, but that's easy to hedge. If Saints do get to the play-offs, but three or four quid on us to win them (at likely odds of 5/2)

 

Alternatively, I'll happily take your tenner bet, because I can transform it into a guaranteed profit of at least £5 with three clicks of a mouse (essentially just by following the two steps I recommend above)

[ulstersaint]

Saints were unlucky not to be more than 1 up at HT after hitting the post twice, but were no better than average. In the second half Saints started very slow and Swindon upped their game. Harding let Ritchie cut inside to scorer ather than keeping him wide then Swindon were on top and Saints looked wobbly. Two good set pieces made the game safe and shots towards the end could have made the score more emphatic. Barnard scored a good late goal and needs to start the next 2 away games. Barnard and Spider made a difference as Hammond was having a poor game.

[St_Tel49]

You can see they massively lack confidence and have no cutting edge up front. At times they knocked it about well. I dont think they'll finish midtable, they'll struggle to stay up.

 

We did start well but after the goal we were very poor, dont let the scoreline or the last 20 minutes decieve you, it's easy to play well with a 2 goal cushion against a team on a bad run and no confidence.

I fall somewhere in the middle on this one. I think it reasonably fair to say that had we scored a second goal in the first half we would probably have gone on to win by a hatful. Instead we seemed to sit back on it a bit and let them have possession which encouraged them and their confidence grew. With their growing confidence we seemed to get rattled and misplaced a lot of passes - and this leads me to share Gemmel's concern about the mental strength of the team. That may be harsh though. I do think that bringing MS on brought more cohesion to our play. He played it simple when he had to and sprayed it when it was worth doing. For all their virtues I think that it should be Hammond or Chaplow to play alongside him but not them as pairing.

[up and away]

Originally Posted by um pahars

I'm not a betting man, so not sure how the odds work, but St Bobby has us down as having a 75% chance of going up automatically. Does that mean we are 3/1 for not going up automatically???

 

If so, I'll take £50 on not going up automatically at 3/1.

You're right - 75% for automatic is about my shout.

 

The markets have us at 4/11 for promotion by any means (i.e. about 75% - but that includes maybe a 7-10% of promotion via the playoffs?).

 

And therefore 11/4 for us not going up at all.

 

I can get slightly better odds from the markets than I can from you, I'm afraid. That's why I said if anyone wildly disagrees with my percentages, I'd take a wager. If you don't disagree with them wildly, I may get better odds from betfair.

 

 

When I first looked at these odds, I thought you were being generous. Then after careful consideration of the table, they don't look so great.

 

Take Bournemouth out of the equation and we are 1 point behind second place with 2 games in hand. I know that's an if to take Bournemouth out, but no matter how brilliant they have been, I cannot see them getting an automatic place with their squad. It's going to implode sometime and I just hope they stick around for the play offs. They may do it, but I just cannot see that now.

[captainchris]

Its already been mentioned on the postmatch thread, but worth bearing in mind that we usually struggle against swindon. I couldnt get to the match yesterday, was working in Selsey, but well happy with those three points.

 

Sorry, can you explain the relevance of this post?

[VectisSaint]

Swindon may be poor but they are also the 4th top scorers away from home. Of course they are going to have spells in an away game.

They also have the 2nd worst defence, even before yesterday. Approx 1 in 3 of their away goals this season came from Austin, without his contribution they really are toothless unless the lad from Leeds does well. Comparing them now with how they were before 28 January is not really relevant. They are in free-fall and look certainties for relegation unless another 2 or 3 teams go into admin.

[Lets B Avenue]

Another balls up by Adkins on team selection redeemed only because Morgan & Barney - who should have been on from the start - decided to embarrass him by turning in superb displays whilst Chaplow proved only that he prefers to spend his time running around aimlessly watching the ball go past him this way and that. That's quite a run of stinkers from the poor fella.....

 

Poor old Kelvin, rescued by his mates once again but time to reflect on putting is feet up on a Saturday afternoon?

 

Oh well. Gooners firked up the LC Final. I'm glad you've had a really sh itty weekend.

[rooney]

After we missed our early chances and Chaplow clearly not at his best, Adkins made the right substitutions and we got well on top when MS and Barnard came on. They should both start Tuesday night.

[Thedelldays]

They also have the 2nd worst defence, even before yesterday. Approx 1 in 3 of their away goals this season came from Austin, without his contribution they really are toothless unless the lad from Leeds does well. Comparing them now with how they were before 28 January is not really relevant. They are in free-fall and look certainties for relegation unless another 2 or 3 teams go into admin.

 

Yes they are poor at the back and struggle to convert the pressure

Hence why we won 4-1 and had numerous other clear chances

[saintscottofthenortham]

We were far from our best, that much was obvious. But, to be able to turn it around from being pegged back to 1-1 and being under total pressure to then nip up the other end, bang in 2 quickfire goals then see the rest of the game out with ease shows how far we have come since last year. I have no doubts that last season we would have lost that once Swindon equalised.

 

The stats look good but everyone knows we are alot better than that and we have been a little off the boil throughout the last month yet we only dropped 2 points. That my little chums, is the sign of a top 2 team. Grinding out results when your not at your best.

[alpine_saint]

Alpine, I think the "outrage" (or more usually "annoyance") is not so much that you tend to be negative but that:

 

(a). as you've conceded, your negativity often isn't really within the realm of statistical reality (or even internal consistency)

(b). there is no instance - none at all that I am aware of - of you ever being even marginally optimistic side on anything Saints-related at all. For example, not a single match thread ever in which we go a goal down and you say "plenty of time to go, we should be able to pull this back". No analysis thread ever in which you say "actually, I think Brighton/Bournemouth/Huddersfield are looking a bit shaky as we reach the run in." That's pretty amazing given the many thousands of posts you've racked up. Even if you can cite a couple of counter-examples, they will amount to an absolutely tiny proportion of your colossal number of overall posts.

©. in any walk of life, people prefer to be surrounded by optimists (or at least realists) rather than relentless pessimists. Probably particularly true of football fans. When the relentless pessimist's incessant doom-saying is clearly based on a failure to maintain any consistent grip on likely or probable outcomes, people start to find the person's presence grating, irritating, annoying and possible even worry for the person's mental health.

 

Really, I have to wonder about people who feel the need to take the time to lecture others like this on a f**king chat site. Especially as the content of the post is actually garbage. I find the comment that realism and optimisim are different sides of the same coin very amusing, especially as this is Saints we are talking about.

[scotty]

Sorry, can you explain the relevance of this post?

 

in the two league games last season they took 6 points off us. We may not have been great on saturday, but thats 3 more points than we took off them last time round.

[West End Saint]

I would agree with you in general in patches during the game we played some quality football but first half after we scored & 2nd half until the headers went in we were gash.

 

A 4 1 win is great cant really argue with it and we did show some great patches of play lets hope we gain confidence from & keep the momentum going Walsall Tuesday is a massive game ours is the only League 1 game we need to turn games in hand into points.

[sammysaint]

we won scored 4 goals played well in patches and the table is looking promising, all we have to do is win 2/3 of the games in hand and were be in a very strong position to get 2nd by may.

[Lord Duckhunter]

It was a game of 3 thirds really. The first 3rd of the game we were good and I thought "this will be easy". Second third we fell apart a bit and they not only scored but looked like they were going to go onto win. During this period Adkins was doing his nut on the line, shouting and trying to get the players playing again. He made a Sub, bringing on MS and one of the first things he did was swing a great ball out to AC, who was fouled and we scored from the resulting free kick.We never looked like losing from then on in.All that matters now is results, so 4-1 home to anyone is a good result, particulary when Hudders blew a 2 goal lead at home to 10 men.Although it seems some people are never satisifed, if we win it's despite of Adkins or because the other team was poor, and if we lose it's down to Adkins.

[benjii]

Alpine, I think the "outrage" (or more usually "annoyance") is not so much that you tend to be negative but that:

 

(a). as you've conceded, your negativity often isn't really within the realm of statistical reality (or even internal consistency)

(b). there is no instance - none at all that I am aware of - of you ever being even marginally optimistic side on anything Saints-related at all. For example, not a single match thread ever in which we go a goal down and you say "plenty of time to go, we should be able to pull this back". No analysis thread ever in which you say "actually, I think Brighton/Bournemouth/Huddersfield are looking a bit shaky as we reach the run in." That's pretty amazing given the many thousands of posts you've racked up. Even if you can cite a couple of counter-examples, they will amount to an absolutely tiny proportion of your colossal number of overall posts.

©. in any walk of life, people prefer to be surrounded by optimists (or at least realists) rather than relentless pessimists. Probably particularly true of football fans. When the relentless pessimist's incessant doom-saying is clearly based on a failure to maintain any consistent grip on likely or probable outcomes, people start to find the person's presence grating, irritating, annoying and possible even worry for the person's mental health.

 

This is one of my favourite ever posts on this forum.

[benjii]

It was a game of 3 thirds really. The first 3rd of the game we were good and I thought "this will be easy". Second third we fell apart a bit and they not only scored but looked like they were going to go onto win. During this period Adkins was doing his nut on the line, shouting and trying to get the players playing again. He made a Sub, bringing on MS and one of the first things he did was swing a great ball out to AC, who was fouled and we scored from the resulting free kick.We never looked like losing from then on in.All that matters now is results, so 4-1 home to anyone is a good result, particulary when Hudders blew a 2 goal lead at home to 10 men.Although it seems some people are never satisifed, if we win it's despite of Adkins or because the other team was poor, and if we lose it's down to Adkins.

 

Nutshell.

[dubai_phil]

Interesting the negativity again on here because we didn't play Champagne Football.

 

For once, listening to the commentary seems to have given us an edge vs those at the game.

 

After we scored, Danny Wilson changed his shape and Tactics, DM went on about it for some time. Our midfiled got closed down more and we "stuttered badly". In fact DM went on at some length giving NA some stick for not reacting to the change.

 

Eventually the Swindon change round resulted in them scoring a goal. NA responded with a substitution and a tactical change of his own bringing more width into the game (commented on by DM and some on here)

 

 

WS

 

From then onwards, we played with the width that was so sadly lacking in the first half, stretching the midfield to allow us the space to play our passing game. We then played some exhibition football, stringing together a series of passes to frustrate Swindon, who couldn't get the ball back.

 

So why can't we play with this width from the first whistle? We have skilled and fast wingers, so surely it makes sense to keep them out wide, forcing the opposition out wide to mark them?

 

 

Perhaps, the coaching staff and manager felt that the battle for control of a packed midfield would be important from the start and so chose their tactics accordingly?

 

So, we play well enough to hit the woodwork a couple of times and score NA is then lambasted for not responding to the changes in tactics by the opposition in the first half (and it becomes dire). Makes tactical changes and we score 3 unanswered goals and have one disallowed.

 

Guys, make your minds up

 

Play tactics to beat the opposition and change things around if they don't work or go out and run around with no plan?

 

I probably wouldn't have noticed if I had been at the game, but DM sometimes manages to see things happening and explain them to us rather than simply trottinfg out what we don't wanna do's

[jam]

Interesting the negativity again on here because we didn't play Champagne Football.

 

For once, listening to the commentary seems to have given us an edge vs those at the game.

 

After we scored, Danny Wilson changed his shape and Tactics, DM went on about it for some time. Our midfiled got closed down more and we "stuttered badly". In fact DM went on at some length giving NA some stick for not reacting to the change.

 

Eventually the Swindon change round resulted in them scoring a goal. NA responded with a substitution and a tactical change of his own bringing more width into the game (commented on by DM and some on here)

 

 

 

 

Perhaps, the coaching staff and manager felt that the battle for control of a packed midfield would be important from the start and so chose their tactics accordingly?

 

So, we play well enough to hit the woodwork a couple of times and score NA is then lambasted for not responding to the changes in tactics by the opposition in the first half (and it becomes dire). Makes tactical changes and we score 3 unanswered goals and have one disallowed.

 

Guys, make your minds up

 

Play tactics to beat the opposition and change things around if they don't work or go out and run around with no plan?

 

I probably wouldn't have noticed if I had been at the game, but DM sometimes manages to see things happening and explain them to us rather than simply trottinfg out what we don't wanna do's

 

I don't think the negativity is due to a lack of champagne football, more the fact that we seemed to get knocked off our game again. Swindon may have changed their tactics but we became very disjointed and gave a lot of possession away. If we are serious about going for promotion then we need to be harder to stifle than that.

 

Just a note regarding the substitution; Adkins didn't wait until they scored to bring on Morgan, the player was briefed and getting ready to come on when the goal happened.

[alpine_saint]

This is one of my favourite ever posts on this forum.

 

Not particularly suprising; a few long words sprinkled amongst garbage always works wonders on the retarded.

[doddisalegend]

Interesting the negativity again on here because we didn't play Champagne Football.

For once, listening to the commentary seems to have given us an edge vs those at the game.

 

After we scored, Danny Wilson changed his shape and Tactics, DM went on about it for some time. Our midfiled got closed down more and we "stuttered badly". In fact DM went on at some length giving NA some stick for not reacting to the change.

 

Eventually the Swindon change round resulted in them scoring a goal. NA responded with a substitution and a tactical change of his own bringing more width into the game (commented on by DM and some on here)

 

 

 

 

Perhaps, the coaching staff and manager felt that the battle for control of a packed midfield would be important from the start and so chose their tactics accordingly?

 

So, we play well enough to hit the woodwork a couple of times and score NA is then lambasted for not responding to the changes in tactics by the opposition in the first half (and it becomes dire). Makes tactical changes and we score 3 unanswered goals and have one disallowed.

 

Guys, make your minds up

 

Play tactics to beat the opposition and change things around if they don't work or go out and run around with no plan?

 

I probably wouldn't have noticed if I had been at the game, but DM sometimes manages to see things happening and explain them to us rather than simply trottinfg out what we don't wanna do's

 

Really? Apart from the on going Alpine bashing (which seems to be a feature off every thread these days) I think most people have had this match spot on. We were great for 45 mins and pretty poor for the 45 in between. Nigel got things spot on saturday we scored four whats not to be happy about? I don't think it's negative to want the team to play like they did for the last 25mins of saturday week in week out (realistic? probably not. Negative? I don't think so).

Edited 28 February, 2011 by doddisalegend

[SaintBobby]

Really, I have to wonder about people who feel the need to take the time to lecture others like this on a f**king chat site. Especially as the content of the post is actually garbage. I find the comment that realism and optimisim are different sides of the same coin very amusing, especially as this is Saints we are talking about.

 

You may want to re-read my initial post, perhaps you didn't have the opportunity to look at it too closely the first time.

 

(a). unless I misunderstood, you said you had occasion to fail to distinguish between a 55% chance and a 0% chance.

(b). I'm not aware of any circumstance at all where the prevailing view is that "positive event X" has an Y% chance of happening, but you think it has a higher than Y% chance of happening. Feel free to tell me otherwise, but someone who has views always (or virtually always)on the downside is....how to put this gently....a bit odd.

©. who said realism and optimism are different sides of the same coin??? All I said was that people tend to prefer to be surrounded by optimists - or at least be surrounded by realists - rather than be surrounded by pessimists. Optimism and realism are very different things, but generally people prefer others who adopt one of these two approaches rather than a relentlessly pessimistic approach. That's not rational necessarily, but just a general observation.

 

I thought I was just summarising a few agreed general facts.

 

I'm really not seeking to lecture you at all.

 

I'm just worried about you.

 

But, as I said, there are some hopeful signs on this thread that you're beginning to come to terms with the problem and that's a very encouraging first step.

 

Good luck and keep it up...

[saint lard]

I'm embarrassed for you

I missed this post completely.

There really is no need,seriously there is'nt.

 

As i stated he has done nothing out of the ordinary,in fact he is crap.

As tonight once again points towards.