Charlton 1 - 1 Saints - Post Match Reaction

[Sour Mash]

What a lot of people don't realise is that although we've had a decent run of results, we haven't played well, we don't steam-roller teams like a side heading for promotion does. Apart from the Bournemouth game, most of our wins have been against vey poor sides. Charlton were rubbish, low on confidence and there for the taking. Our build up play is too slow. Our bench is far too weak. N'guessen isn't good enough, does anyone honestly believe he is? As stated by others, there were a couple of times during the game when he was in loads of room and Lambert turned away and played a less obvious pass rather than give the ball to him, not something that helps you win games of football.

 

Everyone knows that we won't win every game we play, but after years of struggling and considering the resources we're now meant to have, I don't think its too much to hope to have had a season like Brighton's, properly smashing the league and going up in style, not coughing and spluttering over the finishing line, slogging it out at the death with the likes of Peterborough, Huddersfield and MK Dons!

 

Thought D'Urso had a poor game. Lambert and Barnard get kicked all over the place and often don't get the free kicks they should away from home in particular, last night was one of those nights.

 

Excellent support from us, 3,000 all stood up, but it varied from the really loud with a few proper renditions of OWTS (though some people just can't help clapping along, oblivious to what everyone around them are doing), through to a few really quiet periods. Charlton's support was weird, back to their old Pre-Premier League days support. Don't know what all that at the Station is about, keeping away fans penned in waiting to enter the platform while the home support gather on the opposite side to bounce around, point and sing more than they did all game, bizarre.

Edited 23 March, 2011 by Sour Mash

[Sour Mash]

Oh and what a bunch of morons, some of our fans singing the Bradley Wright Philips song in the first half!

[LostBoys]

We were shocking last night. I can't remember too many times in last two years we have been worse. Nguessan was just shocking.We didn't deserve to win at all. Carry on like that and we won't go up.although we have won a lot recently, chaplow and Hammond are too similar and don't hold ball. Marks are:

 

Davis 6

butterfield 6

jaidi 7

fonte 7

Harding 7

chambo 4

chaplow 3

Hammond 7

lallana 5

lambert 7

Barnard 7

 

Nguessan 3

forte 6

we need to get someone in midfield who can pass asap

 

I could not go due to work but based on what I heard on the radio lst night and read this morning these are very generous marks except for Fonte, Butterfield and Hammond.

[Andyb1]

We were shocking last night. I can't remember too many times in last two years we have been worse. Nguessan was just shocking.We didn't deserve to win at all. Carry on like that and we won't go up.although we have won a lot recently, chaplow and Hammond are too similar and don't hold ball. Marks are:

 

Davis 6

butterfield 6

jaidi 7

fonte 7

Harding 7

chambo 4

chaplow 3

Hammond 7

lallana 5

lambert 7

Barnard 7

 

Nguessan 3

forte 6

we need to get someone in midfield who can pass asap

 

I think we're a little harsh on Nguessan. His touch is rubbish but I thought he showed a bit of promise last night.

 

My marks:

Davis 5 - Nothing to do, the one thing he did have to do he made easy for BWP to score. Stuck in no mans land.

butterfield 5 - Gave the ball away consistantly. Lack of movement probably didnt help.

jaidi 7 - Solid, great finish.

fonte 8 - Excellent, cleaned up at the back a lot.

Harding 6 - Didnt do much wrong or right.

chambo 4 - Very poor before he went off. They defended against him well but his movement was poor which meant Butterfield kept trying 60 yard passes across field.

chaplow 6 - Average, gave the ball away a bit but we were often out numbered.

Hammond 7 - Solid, seemed the only one willing to put a foot on the ball.

lallana 5 - Poor before he went off but didnt have long enough to show his class.

lambert 6 - Poor, imobile, got muscled off it a lot. Still great ball for our "winner".

Barnard 6 - Ran around, that's about it.

 

Was VERY VERY frustrating. We didn't look like letting in a goal for 80 mins and then suddenly seemed to panic.

 

Just annoyed today more than anything. .

 

Nguessan 7 - for effort + nice finish for "winner", 5 for product.

forte 6 - no time.

[saint lard]

Poor result against a poor side.

 

We remain an extremely mediocre side,which is appalling for our resources.

 

It appears our style of play has come into question oncemore......point is, we still have no style when we play,all very run of the mill stuff it remains too.

We have not moved on or up a gear for a considerable time.

This needs to be addressed,before it is too late,if it is'nt already....we have adopted mediocraty already.

The stataticians will come out and tell us all is rosey i am sure.....the stats don't put the meat on the bones.

Some quality football would not go amiss on occasions Mr Adkins.....if you are capable of extracting that out of the squad that is and was capable of doing so.

[sandwichsaint]

I thought their goal was excellent, good build up, first forward came short, sharp ball into his feet, first time cute chip that took out our CBs and GK, BWP showed great awareness to read it and run through on to the ball, solid first time finish. No blame to KD from me ... I'd like to see Saints score more goals like that!

[Griffo]

You seem to say this after every away game, but once again, on the radio the saints fans sounded fantastic. Also both sets of commentators said how fantastic the travelling support was.

 

Think you need to clear your ears out mate!

 

There was loads of quiet periods during the game. We were very good at times but poor at others.

[Saint Billy]

What a lot of people don't realise is that although we've had a decent run of results, we haven't played well, we don't steam-roller teams like a side heading for promotion does. Apart from the Bournemouth game, most of our wins have been against vey poor sides. Charlton were rubbish, low on confidence and there for the taking. Our build up play is too slow. Our bench is far too weak. N'guessen isn't good enough, does anyone honestly believe he is? As stated by others, there wee a couple of times during the game when he was in loads of room and Lambert turned away and played a less obvious pass rather than give the ball to him, not something that helps you win games of football.

 

Everyone knows that we won't win every game we play, but after years of struggling and considering the resources we're now meant to have, I don't think its too much to hope to have had a season like Brighton's, properly smashing the league and going up in style, not coughing and spluttering over the finishing like, slogging it out at the death with the likes of Peterborough, Huddersfield and MK Dons!

 

Thought D'Urso had a poor game. Lambert and Barnard get kicked all over the place and often don't get the free kicks they should away from home in particular, last night was one of those nights.

 

Excellent support from us, 3,000 all stood up, but it varied from the really loud with a few proper renditions of OWTS (though some people just can't help clapping along, oblivious to what everyone around them are doing), through to a few really quiet periods. Charlton's support was weird, back to their old Pre-Premier League days support. Don't know what all that at the Station is about, keeping away fans penned in waiting to enter the platform while the home support gather on the opposite side to bounce around, point and sing more than they did all game, bizarre.

 

In total agreement with that!

 

As my wifes says who knows very little about the game, "You should realise by now that saints never do it the easy way".

[JustMike]

They hit the bar, but the ball didn't go in. Who cares if they hit the bar, the post, whether the ball was cleared off the line several times, etc? On the other side of that particular coin, we actually scored a match winning goal which was apparently disallowed by an inept linesman who called it offside and had a good penalty appeal dismissed also.

 

That's the way it goes sometimes

 

you miss my point, we didnt play well, got a point which, yes could have been 3 or even 0 but the performance was not there, again

[Wes Tender]

you miss my point, we didnt play well, got a point which, yes could have been 3 or even 0 but the performance was not there, again

 

So we lose our main play-maker, Lallana, after only 35 minutes and subsequently our £10 million rated youngster from the other wing with 30 minutes to go, replace them with a couple of rookies who have not had enough matches to gel properly with their team-mates and consequently our performance isn't there. Quel surprise.

 

I suspect that had the N'Guessan goal been properly awarded and the three points won, then the posts on here would have been along the lines of how promotion teams grind out results regardless of how they play. Regrettably, we are not the team were without two of our most influential players and bearing in mind that Schneiderlin is also absent.

 

Thankfully, the spurious cancellation of the Plymouth game is now a blessing in disguise, as we have time to get Lallana and Chamberlain fit again, or replace them with a loan signing. And by the time that next match arrives, hopefully more circumspect observations of this match will prevail, instead of all the wrist-slashing.

[yorkie]

Held off passing more comment - but what a load of moaning minnies we have on here!

 

Firstly Adkins acknowledged the support was fantastic again.

 

He does dodge the questions - perhaps we need more cover temporarily but he is probably working very hard behind the scenes.

 

The injuries will affect any side - and yes we aren't good enough in many peoples eyes.

 

However you have chosen Saints as your team - now ****ing support them in their time of need!

[acersaint]

If that goal hadn't been disallowed then how different the posts would be. We will still finish 2nd. I have faith.

[Graffito]

Saints never do well against sides that close down quickly forcing us to play it long rather than build. I normally sit high in the stands but last night I was at the front and could see close up how our players were constantly pressured by Charlton with inevitable consequences for the quality of play. Being closer to the pitch it was clear, especially first half how, well Fonte reads the game, anticipates danger and defends. Likewise, second half it was notable how much effort Barnard puts in and also the constant fouling of Lambert which was not penalised by the officials. I'm not sure what's happened to Chaplow though, he wasn't at the races.

[saintant]

To put last night into perspective - we lost two key players through injury and some on here are claiming it's the end of the world while at the same time they are bemoaning the fact that we didn't win! Appears we had a perfectly good goal disallowed and everyone knows D'urso never gives us much - it's almost as though he blames us for the fact that he dished out three yellows to the same player at St Marys without appreciating that he should have sent him off. Last night was a point gained because had this game gone ahead on Boxing Day when Charlton were in far better form I think we'd have struggled to come away with anything.

[Appy]

Was a tough game, one of the toughest we had left.

 

I know Charlton had been on a dreadful run but this made it harder i think, with the onus being completely on us.

 

I felt we edged the game, a shame the linesman wasn't as quick as N'Guessan but that's football.

 

Credit to Charlton they made it hard for us, Lallana and Chambo are a worry, Chambo looked alot worse than Lallana from where i was.

 

These 11 days off should do us good.

 

3,000 for a midweek away game is absolutely fantastic by the way, decent noise at times.

[rick1976.4.38]

3098,dont forget those 98,bloody great turnout,coys

[Sour Mash]

So we lose our main play-maker, Lallana, after only 35 minutes and subsequently our £10 million rated youngster from the other wing with 30 minutes to go, replace them with a couple of rookies who have not had enough matches to gel properly with their team-mates and consequently our performance isn't there. Quel surprise.

 

I suspect that had the N'Guessan goal been properly awarded and the three points won, then the posts on here would have been along the lines of how promotion teams grind out results regardless of how they play. Regrettably, we are not the team were without two of our most influential players and bearing in mind that Schneiderlin is also absent.

 

Thankfully, the spurious cancellation of the Plymouth game is now a blessing in disguise, as we have time to get Lallana and Chamberlain fit again, or replace them with a loan signing. And by the time that next match arrives, hopefully more circumspect observations of this match will prevail, instead of all the wrist-slashing.

 

We haven't played particularly well for the last few weeks, even when winning. Probably since the 6-0 win at Oldham we haven't rally impressed and our results have fortunately been able to cover that due to the very poor quality of the majority of our opponents. Of course two of our better players going off isn't going to help, but that just showed up how weak our overall squad, away from the starting 11 is. Charlton's subs looked a lot more impressive than ours.

[fanimal]

Unusual for us in that we did not create any clear cut chances form open play, with the exception of the disallowed effort - but then neither did they, Kelvin had no saves to make all night! At least we are creating from set peices now, when was the last time we scored in successive games from corners!

Guly should have come on before DNG, he made things happen. Chambo had an indifferent gme I thought, not been so hot the last few matches, hitting crosses out, not beating his man (their left back was quick) mind you the rugby tackle on him in H1 was a disgrace yet again D'Urso tries to be MOTM!

From my ground level seat the first 20 minutes was like pin ball, my mate said pitch was very bobbly. I thought Chaplow did OK, and felt aggrieved for Rickie whom Dailly fouled non stop, got zilch. When LB went off , RL dropped back a bit and saw more of the ball. ironically, I think our support and noise helps the opposition as well, cretes some atmosphere!

[dellboypete]

chatting to some of the "locals" in the queue for the train afterwards, most of them seemed ecstatic with a point and all agreed (with each other) that that was the best charlton had played for ages. Until last night a lot of charlton fans seemed genuinely to fear relegation. I suspect that they will be a tough one for uddersfield in a couple of weeks.

 

I have to say in the first half I could see why they have plummeted down the table - I thought they were very poor. Lallana going off screwed up our midfield which wasn't helped by Chamberlain going as well. I didn't think we were as bad as many here here think. At times we were passing the ball really well and with a bit of luck could have carved out a lot more chances.

 

You've got to be disappointed with just a point as the win was there for the taking. We should have wrapped it up in the first half. Having said that, I'm happy with a point (he says contradicting himself)

 

A lot of the charlton fans in said queue thought that their "over the line" effort was over the line, and that we were really unlucky with the offside decision. I'll wait to see the highlights on telly, but it didn't look offside to me!

[Fan The Flames]

Losing Lallana and Oxlade is a red herring in terms of play, we have been poor of late with them. However their loss is pertinent in highlighting our shallow squad.

 

Half a league, half a league, half a league done, all into the Valley rode the shallow Saints, forward the light brigade. Hoof towards the goal NA said. Into the valley rode the shallow saints.

[Mr saint]

Saints fans werein good voice last night! Charlton fans seemed inpressed with us to one their forum:

 

Have to take my hat off to Soton fans for filling the South Stand, not seen that much lately.

 

 

great atmosphere in the away end & helps have a packed Jimmy Seed to get our fans up for it too.

 

 

special mention to NLA' favourite fans, 3k was more than impressive and prolly 10 times what we'll be bringing to them in a couple of weeks and even if positions in the table were reversed we wouldn't sniff 1500 midweek down there

 

 

[Sour Mash]

Saints fans werein good voice last night! Charlton fans seemed inpressed with us to one their forum:

 

You got a link mate?

[Mr saint]

http://charltonlife.com/forum/

 

On the post match thread.

[rooney]

I agree with Sour Mash that we have not played well since the Oldham game. We do not seem to have upped our game since then and I have come away from SMS and some away games thinking we were poor but lucky to win. If we do not improve and this luck deserts us, we shall only reach the play offs at best. We all know what can happen then when Uncle George was in charge. I cannot help feeling worried now.

[Sour Mash]

http://charltonlife.com/forum/

 

On the post match thread.

 

F**k me, they are happy with last night aren't they? Shows how badly they must have been playing recently and how low their expectations have dropped, when they're that happy with a 1-1 draw at home, which involved them time wasting in the last 5 mins, I'd be embarrassed if we ever did that in a home game.

[Jimmy_D]

So we, A LEAGUE ONE TEAM, lose £18M of talent from the pitch due to injury, and then people moan we don't have a deep enough squad when we can't replace them?

 

Bloody Hell, just those two players are valued ten times as much as some entire squads in this division. Not having better players affects EVERY team, just look at Man Utd against us for your first example.

 

Yes last nights result was disappointing, gutting even, but with our games in hand we can still get to 2nd. That point means we're now above Peterborough, that'll hit them pretty hard, especially as we have a game in hand still, we can match their results, have a slip up, and still finish above them. Huddersfield we're in an even better position against.

 

So that's 13 points from the last 15. We may have lost Lallana and Chamberlain to injury, but we now have ten days for either them to recover, or for Adkins to work out how we play without them to give ourselves the best chance. It might end up not being pretty but I don't care if we still manage to pick up points.

 

My confidence in this team has come right back up over the last couple of weeks, we might not be 'playing well' as some on here keep moaning, and it might not be the prettiest football, but the stats are always saying that Kelvin has very few saves to make compared to his opposite number, so our tactics are obviously working.

 

We're giving ourselves a good chance to win, the nature of chance is such that you don't always take those chances, but we'll be set up all over again next game, with a good chance of winning, and I'm confident we'll do a better job of trying to take that chance.

[mitch01]

First game I've seen live in a while, first thing that struck me was how good we looked defensively. Fonte was excellent, got his head on almost everything. Jaidi, Butterfield and Harding were good, too. However, the midfield, especially after the subs, looked pretty weak. I've had my doubts about Hammond, but he was easily the best player we had out there in front of the defence. Chaplow disappeared, N'Guessan looked very low on confidence, Rickie worked hard but struggled and Forte didn't make much of an impact. Not sure how BWP got clear for their goal, but it looked like a clever ball through.

 

Davis 7

Butterfield 7

Jaidi 8

Fonte 8

Harding 7

Chamberlain 6 (Guly 7)

Hammond 7.5

Chaplow 5.5

Lallana 6 (N'Guessan 5.5)

Barnard 7.5

Lambert 6

 

Still confident we can finish second, but if those injuries are bad ones then the replacements will have to step up their game. A couple of good loan signings would not go amiss.

[Wes Tender]

So we, A LEAGUE ONE TEAM, lose £18M of talent from the pitch due to injury, and then people moan we don't have a deep enough squad when we can't replace them?

 

Bloody Hell, just those two players are valued ten times as much as some entire squads in this division. Not having better players affects EVERY team, just look at Man Utd against us for your first example.

 

Yes last nights result was disappointing, gutting even, but with our games in hand we can still get to 2nd. That point means we're now above Peterborough, that'll hit them pretty hard, especially as we have a game in hand still, we can match their results, have a slip up, and still finish above them. Huddersfield we're in an even better position against.

 

So that's 13 points from the last 15. We may have lost Lallana and Chamberlain to injury, but we now have ten days for either them to recover, or for Adkins to work out how we play without them to give ourselves the best chance. It might end up not being pretty but I don't care if we still manage to pick up points.

 

My confidence in this team has come right back up over the last couple of weeks, we might not be 'playing well' as some on here keep moaning, and it might not be the prettiest football, but the stats are always saying that Kelvin has very few saves to make compared to his opposite number, so our tactics are obviously working.

 

We're giving ourselves a good chance to win, the nature of chance is such that you don't always take those chances, but we'll be set up all over again next game, with a good chance of winning, and I'm confident we'll do a better job of trying to take that chance.

 

How eminently sensible. As you say, some cannot see how losing two players of the calibre of Lallana and Chamberlain ought to affect us and point to the lack of depth in the squad. Tha lack of depth comes from now having three key midfielders out injured, including Schneiderlin. Are they suggesting that we ought to have players of equal calibre on the bench waiting for the call-up? And if we haven't played particularly well even with Lallana and Chamberlain playing (although we have been winning) perhaps that shows how influential Schneiderlin had been with his incisive passing to them.

[Appy]

I did LOL when the guy on the tannoy asked all 3000+ of us to sit down.

 

The stewards just stood by.

[Legod Third Coming]

Finally found a moment to comment. We were boody rubbish last night.

 

Not sure what else merits comment?

[saint lard]

Finally found a moment to comment. We were boody rubbish last night.

 

Not sure what else merits comment?

 

Atleast we have now got some consistancy.We have been poor for what seems an age.

[Window Cleaner]

Finally found a moment to comment. We were boody rubbish last night.

 

Not sure what else merits comment?

 

I don't really care if we were rubbish, we can be rubbish for all the rest of the season provided we get the 22/24 points we need.

The time to be un-rubbish is when we're finally out of this crap league,for the time being we just need the end to justify the means.

[Legod Third Coming]

I don't really care if we were rubbish, we can be rubbish for all the rest of the season provided we get the 22/24 points we need.

The time to be un-rubbish is when we're finally out of this crap league,for the time being we just need the end to justify the means.

 

Play like that again and you can kiss your points goodbye.

[dune]

I thought we were average and Charlton were average and a draw was a fair result although we were slightly the better side.

 

I thought our support very good given the disjointed play. I'd expect a reaction the next time we play because despite being disapointed I know that our team do normally bounce back.

[dune]

Finally found a moment to comment. We were boody rubbish last night.

 

Not sure what else merits comment?

 

Our style of play wasn't entertaining, but we were not rubbish. We were slightly the better side away from home. I realise that Charlton have been on a poor run, but we were arguably their biggest game of the season because we're Southampton so they would be trying that bit harder than usual.

[Matthew Le God]

All 90 minutes of the game now on Saints player if anyone can bare the disappointment of watching it again.

[S-Clarke]

All 90 minutes of the game now on Saints player if anyone can bare the disappointment of watching it again.

 

Just had a quick look through the main points of the game, including the ''goal''

 

Clearly onside, just a very clever run by N'Guessan.

 

Bloody annoying - also BWP's goal had a shade of offside about it.

[Matthew Le God]

N'Guessan "goal" that would have made it 2-1 to Saints in the 89th minute.

 

 

Linesman not even in line with the last defender at the time.

Edited 23 March, 2011 by Matthew Le God

[Bourno]

3098,dont forget those 98,bloody great turnout,coys

 

Spoke to a Colchester ST holder today, they had less than 3,000 last night and they were paying at home.

[benjii]

N'Guessan "goal" that would have made it 2-1 to Saints in the 89th minute.

 

 

Linesman not even in line with the last defender at the time.

 

That's annoying.

[Saints Warrior]

Gutted as it was a great turn out by Saints fans. Saints had enough of the ball on the edge of the box but failed to shoot enough. A few headers from corners went way over the top and a bit of luck could have seen the charlton back pass go in the net. The main weakness as I see it is if any of the first 11 are out then we dont have the pace or the control on the ball as with the main 11. That then changes the tactics and its often sit back and hope for a break, and the opposition then take control. To get 20/21 points out of 10 games with out Lallana, Oxo, Barnard or another key player is not impossible but not that likely

[Baj]

Quick screen grab, goal was onside

[LGTL]

It's not even close is it. Pathetic decision.

[OldNick]

we have to accept it, annoying as it is otherwise we will sound like the bloody Bompey fans who are still whining about non penalty decisions from both games lol

[Saint_Ash]

Atleast we have now got some consistancy.We have been poor for what seems an age.

 

Funny how you love coming on and complaining when we don't live up to you expectations but I notice there was nothing written from tyou about beating Sheff Weds. Funny that! Doesn't fit into your little agenda does it. If we drew or lost I'm sure you'd be on here in a flas though.

[Griffo]

http://www.vimeo.com/21389351

 

Quality little video there. Shows the goal from a good angle and you can see the celebrations. Good to see the bog roll thrown too!

[fanimal]

http://www.vimeo.com/21389351

 

Quality little video there. Shows the goal from a good angle and you can see the celebrations. Good to see the bog roll thrown too!

 

Liked that as I couldnt see the goal as I was over on the far side!

[saint lard]

Funny how you love coming on and complaining when we don't live up to you expectations but I notice there was nothing written from tyou about beating Sheff Weds. Funny that! Doesn't fit into your little agenda does it. If we drew or lost I'm sure you'd be on here in a flas though.

 

Never have you beeen so wrong.

Look at my posts,easy to do via my profile,but then that would not fit in with your agenda.

Is it wrong for me to be ****ed off when we lose?

 

Do you not agree that we have been playing poorly?

Argue the point, instead of trying to score points.

Edited 25 March, 2011 by saint lard

[simonsaints1]

We were poor the other night no doubt about it.

 

Its getting tense as we near the closing stages and i'd settle for picking up points when we play poorly-look at Brighton at our place, woeful in the first half but they got the job done.

 

Everything now hinges (IMO) on how the players who come in for AOC and AL play.

Keep the faith.

COYS