Colchester 0 - 2 Saints - Post Match Reaction

[benjii]

Was out last night so writing up with a few hours refelection.

 

On the game overall - Colchester are a hard working side who play to their strengths...these being they are good on set pieces...they have a L1 Delap style throw in expert and are pretty direct. We took a while (an uncomfortable while) to get our heads round this but whilst it was uncomfortable I still don't recall Kelvin doing much more than catch crosses. Their directness made it difficult for us to put a foot on the ball and though we had short spells of posession for the first half hour it was in no way fluent and the little flicked passes just weren't coming off. The goal and subsequent sending off changed the pattern...I was watching what had happened to Kelvin so didn't see the push, my lad said it wasn't particularly hard but arms raised aggressively so he had to go. I did think the original transgressor should have been booked too but the ref was generally crap for both sides and credit Adkins (I read this bit!) for pointing out that he was likely to try and even things out so we played with commendable self discipline in the second half which was better in terms of the football played.

 

It's sometimes difficult to play against ten...certainly the way Colchester play they were still a threat and we should have, in my view, played posession football to have them chasing and stretched but give them credit for making us play their game. That being said we could easily have had more...Lallana's touches that didn't quite happen bode well for future games...Ricky is still spending too much time outside the box for my liking but is feeding some beautifully paced passes through and though we could never sit back, we were in control after the second goal. Our defence does worry me though...Fonte is class but he does do a fair bit of rescuing situations of his own creation...Jaidi...hmm. I've rated the players below which will probably say more

 

Kelvin - 6 -Wasn't actually bothered other than routine shots and crosses but still worried us with his clearances

Harding - 8 - A real shift put in..his winger was pretty active but he played him well and still attacked well - if only he had a right foot as well!

Jaidi -4 - For his clearance in the air or under pressure I'd give far more but his passing to day was abysmal

Fonte -6 - Always gave the impression he could step up a gear and needed to more than once

Butters - 6 - Solid, supported well and was generally tidy. I think FR is the more creative of our RB options but hard to drop Butterfield the way he's playing

Hammond -7 - Captain's performance and good goal...was there for all his mates in the tight situations

Chappers - 7 - Got better as the game went on..broke well a couple of times and showed more of the potential scorer that's in his game

AOC -8- Keep thinking that he'll burn out but he terrorised their defence...in the right place and took his goal well, could have had another but for good saves.

Lallana -7 - Only this score because today the final pass didn't quite make it...still the classiest player on the pitch

Ricky -6- Didn't do much wrong, won a lot in the air despite the manhandling and was unlucky not to score - still playing a little deep for my liking

Barny -7 -Got a battering from the Colchester defence yet still looked likely to score...put in a tremendous amount of energy...more goals to come for sure

 

Subs

N'Guessan - 4 - Still not looking the part, I want him to do well but his first touch and indecision was not good

Richardson - 5 - Looked composed and good breaking forward - not really on for long enough to judge

 

Overall not a great game but we got a clean sheet (given the marks I gave the defenders it shows that Colchester's end product wasn't really there either), three points and Lloyd James (who had more shots in this game than I can remember hin having in all his time at St Mary's) didn't score. Your ground's too big for you was the accurate chant of the day...felt we, despite being a bit sporadic, outsung them fairly easily. Ref was awful...but for both teams and at the end of the day we won and didn't lose ground against all the others. Surely Bompey and the Bummers have got to have a bad spell soon?

 

I agree more or less with your description of the match. We did play decent possession in the second half. BBC gives us 61% possession across the match which is very high.

 

Giving Jaidi a "4" is mental though. He was a rock. It's completely unfair to remember one or two dodgy passes. I expect Lallana or Lambert made just as many.

 

And how can you say Kelvin worried you with his clearances? That just suggests to me that you have conditioned yourself to worry about them regardless of how he actually played. If Bart had been in goal yesterday and played the same you would have people knocking one off on here about how well he commanded his area and how comfortable the defence looked in front of him.

[Saint_clark]

Looking at Dronskisaints view above - "AOC -8- Keep thinking that he'll burn out but he terrorised their defence" - perhaps it was right to put him on the bench last tuesday, despite what Merrington and a fair few on here have been saying?

[Saint_clark]

You missed my point...

 

Barnard arrived in January. In January we scored 8 goals.

 

October - 17

November -14

December - 11

February - 11

March -17

 

It was almost like it took a while for Pardew to work out how to accommodate Barnard and make it work... that's what I meant with started to stop scoring so many goals. Or this might be total coincidence but for some reason in Decmber, January and February we just didn't score as many goals. In my mind this is linked to a change in formation but maybe there's another explanation??

 

Do those stats include cup games? We had a few of them january and feb, remember.

[benjii]

Looking at Dronskisaints view above - "AOC -8- Keep thinking that he'll burn out but he terrorised their defence" - perhaps it was right to put him on the bench last tuesday, despite what Merrington and a fair few on here have been saying?

 

He was very, very good.

 

I think we were very unlucky on Tuesday. The injury to Schneiderlin so early on threw a big spanner in the works.

 

The thing is, Chambo consistently gets assists and plays well yet some people on here don't seem to rate him that much. Very odd IMO. You can see exactly why the top clubs are interested in him. You could see it within about 10 minutes of his first appearance.

[Saint_clark]

He was very, very good.

 

I think we were very unlucky on Tuesday. The injury to Schneiderlin so early on threw a big spanner in the works.

 

The thing is, Chambo consistently gets assists and plays well yet some people on here don't seem to rate him that much. Very odd IMO. You can see exactly why the top clubs are interested in him. You could see it within about 10 minutes of his first appearance.

 

Agreed, but he hadn't been his usual self for a little while. Then he gets dropped tuesday, has a bit of a rest and gets back to normal yesterday. Well done to Adkins, IMO.

Honestly don't think Chamberlain would have made any difference against Walsall, as creating chances wasn't our problem.

[Chez]

Giving Jaidi a "4" is mental though. He was a rock. It's completely unfair to remember one or two dodgy passes. I expect Lallana or Lambert made just as many.

 

And how can you say Kelvin worried you with his clearances? That just suggests to me that you have conditioned yourself to worry about them regardless of how he actually played.

Spot on. So many fans judge players based on past displays instead of just marking them on what they did in the 90 minutes. Jaidi makes one poor pass (and its usually such a poor pass the whole world sees it) and all headers won and interceptions made (his job) are forgotten. Davis distribution is actually often first class, but again one poor kick or slice and its judged to be poor. I don't think some realise that there has been a change to the rules and you can't pick backpasses up. The older fans are the worst as they seem to compare the kicking of today's keepers with that of keepers before the rule change. Christ, imagine Ian Andrews playing now...

[Fitzhugh Fella]

Interested that Dronski thinks Richardson is more creative than Butterfield. I don't think I can ever remember Richardson doing anything other than hoof the ball either out of play or to an opposition player.

[dronskisaint]

In defence of the 4 for Jaidi I did say I'd give him more for exactly what you say he is good at but several times he passed to their players or to one of ours who was closely marked which nearly gave posession back to them and dangerously so when he was under no pressure. I'm a big fan but NA saw that he was knackered and misplacing simple passes so brought him off.

 

Lallana & Lamberts' misplaced passes were mostly the lay-offs and flicks that didn't quite come off but would have put players in threatening and goalscoring positions.

 

I forgot to put a mark for Aaaron Martin - was impressed with his contribution and would probably give a 6-7. On the Richardson comment it was based on the general impression rather than the brief cameo yesterday and I'd stand by it. I rate Butterfield as a good defender on the right of the defence but can remember Richardson putting in some killer crosses before he got injured and lost his place.

[benjii]

Interested that Dronski thinks Richardson is more creative than Butterfield. I don't think I can ever remember Richardson doing anything other than hoof the ball either out of play or to an opposition player.

 

Richardson does create openings with his pace sometimes. There have been a few instances of him surging forward and slipping a decent ball in. Butterfield on the other hand has a "better right foot" IMO and is a better crosser. Butterfield is better at the basics of defending but doesn't have the recovery speed of Richardson.

 

Both are probably better than any right back we have said since we were in the Premier League and are excellent options for a third tier team to have!

[shurlock]

Was out last night so writing up with a few hours refelection.

 

On the game overall - Colchester are a hard working side who play to their strengths...these being they are good on set pieces...they have a L1 Delap style throw in expert and are pretty direct. We took a while (an uncomfortable while) to get our heads round this but whilst it was uncomfortable I still don't recall Kelvin doing much more than catch crosses. Their directness made it difficult for us to put a foot on the ball and though we had short spells of posession for the first half hour it was in no way fluent and the little flicked passes just weren't coming off. The goal and subsequent sending off changed the pattern...I was watching what had happened to Kelvin so didn't see the push, my lad said it wasn't particularly hard but arms raised aggressively so he had to go. I did think the original transgressor should have been booked too but the ref was generally crap for both sides and credit Adkins (I read this bit!) for pointing out that he was likely to try and even things out so we played with commendable self discipline in the second half which was better in terms of the football played.

 

It's sometimes difficult to play against ten...certainly the way Colchester play they were still a threat and we should have, in my view, played posession football to have them chasing and stretched but give them credit for making us play their game. That being said we could easily have had more...Lallana's touches that didn't quite happen bode well for future games...Ricky is still spending too much time outside the box for my liking but is feeding some beautifully paced passes through and though we could never sit back, we were in control after the second goal. Our defence does worry me though...Fonte is class but he does do a fair bit of rescuing situations of his own creation...Jaidi...hmm. I've rated the players below which will probably say more

 

Kelvin - 6 -Wasn't actually bothered other than routine shots and crosses but still worried us with his clearances

Harding - 8 - A real shift put in..his winger was pretty active but he played him well and still attacked well - if only he had a right foot as well!

Jaidi -4 - For his clearance in the air or under pressure I'd give far more but his passing to day was abysmal

Fonte -6 - Always gave the impression he could step up a gear and needed to more than once

Butters - 6 - Solid, supported well and was generally tidy. I think FR is the more creative of our RB options but hard to drop Butterfield the way he's playing

Hammond -7 - Captain's performance and good goal...was there for all his mates in the tight situations

Chappers - 7 - Got better as the game went on..broke well a couple of times and showed more of the potential scorer that's in his game

AOC -8- Keep thinking that he'll burn out but he terrorised their defence...in the right place and took his goal well, could have had another but for good saves.

Lallana -7 - Only this score because today the final pass didn't quite make it...still the classiest player on the pitch

Ricky -6- Didn't do much wrong, won a lot in the air despite the manhandling and was unlucky not to score - still playing a little deep for my liking

Barny -7 -Got a battering from the Colchester defence yet still looked likely to score...put in a tremendous amount of energy...more goals to come for sure

 

Subs

N'Guessan - 4 - Still not looking the part, I want him to do well but his first touch and indecision was not good

Richardson - 5 - Looked composed and good breaking forward - not really on for long enough to judge

 

Overall not a great game but we got a clean sheet (given the marks I gave the defenders it shows that Colchester's end product wasn't really there either), three points and Lloyd James (who had more shots in this game than I can remember hin having in all his time at St Mary's) didn't score. Your ground's too big for you was the accurate chant of the day...felt we, despite being a bit sporadic, outsung them fairly easily. Ref was awful...but for both teams and at the end of the day we won and didn't lose ground against all the others. Surely Bompey and the Bummers have got to have a bad spell soon?

 

Don't agree with some of this: Jaidi has been our best CB in the last few matches -better than Fonte whose form has dipped by his incredibly high standards and Butterfield has been much more efficient on the ball than Richardson (memories of FR at Tranmere still linger - by contrast Butterfield's cross to Guly in the cup game???). The idea that our midfield are worth the wonderful marks you gave it is also dubious (going down to 10 men flattered them). This game was wn by the defenders withourt a shadow of a doubt.

 

AOC and AL are real threats but didn't get into the game enough because we took an eternity to switch the ball (one raking ball by Hammond to AOC in the first half apart). Nobody besides Schneiderlin can really move the ball quickly which is imperative away from home because NA's first instinct is to play AL and AOC very narrow (presumably because he fears being outfought in the middle).

 

I agree with your assessment of the forwards - Barnard leads the line very well while Lambert drops deep too often (remember he was converted from AM). At times, I think Guly and Barnard would make a much natural partnership.

Edited 6 March, 2011 by shurlock

[LGTL]

I thought Lambert was excellent yesterday. He does alot of the sh*t, unnoticed work that doesn't get much credit. I kept an eye on him yesterday and he pulls defenders all over the place, opening up situations for AOC and Lallana to exploit. I still think he is vital to this team even if he's not getting on the score sheet as regularly.

[Legod Third Coming]

Do those stats include cup games? We had a few of them january and feb, remember.

 

Those stats are all games all months - on average there were seven games in each month.

[benjii]

I thought Lambert was excellent yesterday. He does alot of the sh*t, unnoticed work that doesn't get much credit. I kept an eye on him yesterday and he pulls defenders all over the place, opening up situations for AOC and Lallana to exploit. I still think he is vital to this team even if he's not getting on the score sheet as regularly.

 

I thought he had a good day. As usual there seemed to be an edict not to give any fouls for challenges on him but he still won his fair share of headers and played a couple of good incisive passes. He retains possession superbly. If he had a bit of pace he would be playing in the Premier League.

 

He still doesn't seem to be quite the same play as last season for some reason but he did contribute much yesterday.

[Saint Charlie]

Nearly all of what Lambert does is class.

[stockportsaint]

Can I also take a moment to point out to the "Schneiderlin is the only person in the team who can pass" brigade to point that a carbon copy of the build up to the second goal at Swindon occured yesterday. I can't remember who it was but someone picked the ball up in the left hand third of the pitch and pinged a great long ball right on to Chamberlain's foot. He took it past the defender first time and ended up running into the box.

 

it was Hammond, and yes it was a fantastic pass. thought he had a great game yesterday, really controlled midfield at times.

[Freemantle Saint]

I'm not backtracking - it was nonsense, mostly.

 

As for your other point: of course going to the matches makes your opinion more interesting and worthy of being listened to. That's obvious. It's a first hand opinion (this is not a controversial concept). Your opinion is based on selecting various parts of third party reports, twisting them into a funny misanthropic charicature and then spunking them liberally about the place in an emphatic, dogmatic, laughably portentous and highly entertaining manner.

 

 

 

this...

[Charlie Wayman]

Results are all that matter now. This was winning ugly according to Radio Solent. CU will claim "We wuz robbed!" but tough cookies, you win some you lose some.

 

We're in the mix, no better than the other 5 certainly not as good as Brighton or good enough to win the league. We must beat Bournemouth now, absolutely no way back if we bottle it and sh*t I'm banking on the lads not ****ing it up on Tuesday night even before the Crunch at Dean Court. Of course it'll be a struggle next year if we make it but onwards and upwards.

 

This my friends is what supporting Saints has been like in all those years you were'nt even a glint in some blokes eye so get used to it - these are what we call the good times!

[SFC Forever]

We struggled to get going today and were under a lot of early pressure. Just as I was starting to think this was going to be another no-show from the Saints - they had a sending-off and we go 1-0 up almost straight away!

 

Adkins sent them out for the 2nd half fired-up and on 50mins, my sphincter-twitching eased with that second goal. Listening to the game - it sounded like we might score a third the way we were playing.

 

In the end though, a 2-0 win away at a tough place like Colchester was just what the doctor ordered. Everyone at the top won (bar Huddersfield), so it was vital that we stayed in touch with the rest of the chasing pack.

 

There is no stopping Brighton. They have this division sewn-up this season and good luck to them (*spit). 2nd spot is our prime aim of course - so if we can beat Yeovil at home on tuesday night & hope that Exeter can do us some kind of favour at home to the Cherries the same night - next saturday will be electric along the coast in our game at Bournemouth!

 

As always with Saints though; it depends on which team will turn up on the day!

 

Well done today though lads. can't ask for more than 3 points at a place like Colchester. Makes the weekend sweet!

 

We actually scored before the sending off. He got sent after the U's attack from the restart.

[SFC Forever]

Had to work hard to stay in the game but scored as we were starting to make more forward sorties. Sending off helped but as we were already in front may not have mattered in the end. For me this was a good morale boosting win after the calamity at Walsall.

[West End Saint]

Great result after the Walsall game cant say I was confident of getting 3 points here as it turned out we had to win with Bompey & Brighton winning again so we are still in the mix.

 

Massive week coming up for us Yeovil tomorrow just have to win to keep us in the battle then Bompey what a massive game this is I dont think any of us thought that Bournemouth away would be as important as this.Hats off to them they are having an incredible season on there budget & squad it is amazing effort to be 2nd.

 

The next 2 games will have a massive effect on our season win them both & it is still on for auto lose or draw either will consign us to the play off's COYS

[Dr Who?]

I think come next Saturday will will be above Bournemouth on goal difference, with 2 games in hand!

 

I've been blaming the Wild Mushrooms I brought back from a Polish Deli in Boscombe for my weird weekend, but have to say I'd love a pint of what you've been on.

 

Oh and if you want to make a nice little side earner, bottle some up & send to the Eastern Med, Austria & that place in the fridge where the cooking fat is kept

 

I am sorry, but just had to point this out, staying positive does work...sometimes!!

[Dr Who?]

Oh come on can you not take it. I was positive for once things turned out for us. I give up with you lot!