Back from the game thread

[kpturner]

Well, not quite. Gotta say though - hilarious handbags between Leon Clarke and Di Canio at full-time. Still sulking in the centre circle with the stadium all but empty.

 

Don't know what the stats are, but it has to be something like 75% in favour of Saints. Good all round display but a couple of dodgy performances from Harding and Guly.

[saintscottofthenortham]

Well, not quite. Gotta say though - hilarious handbags between Leon Clarke and Di Canio at full-time. Still sulking in the centre circle with the stadium all but empty.

 

Don't know what the stats are, but it has to be something like 75% in favour of Saints. Good all round display but a couple of dodgy performances from Harding and Guly.

 

I'm afraid I don't believe you. You can rest assured that my fingers are planted firmly in my ears so you may aswell just talk to the hand Mr!

[Give it to Ron]

hahahahah

 

SteveGrant1983 Steve Grant

by simonpeach

di Canio has lost the plot (and part of the dressing room) already, post-match row with Leon Clarke, Clarke is getting dressed pitchside!

[Winchester Red]

Sky sports showing pictures of Di Canio having fisticuffs with one of his own players in the tunnel

 

Nutter

[revolution saint]

Di Canio certainly is one mental fascist!

[kpturner]

I'm afraid I don't believe you. You can rest assured that my fingers are planted firmly in my ears so you may aswell just talk to the hand Mr!

Got nothing against either of 'em personally - just thought they were dodgy tonight.

[1976_Child]

you tube clip of dik anio having a mental strop.... anyone?

[VectisSaint]

First half was good, but 2nd half was dire, taking the **** a bit too much. Just knew they were eventually going to get one back. Still 3-1 looks OK in the end, but really not much more than a practice game at some point, Thought Holmes had a decent game, though a couple of corners later on were poor. Really not convinced by Forte, much too static, doesn't seem to have much other than pace, Guly was too casual. Cork was very good in the 1st half, almost anonymous 2nd. Martin and Seaborne looked very composed for most of the game, apart from the few minutes after Swindon scored.

 

All in all, decent night out and good practice match. Back to winning ways. Good laugh at the end with Di Canio and their striker, don't recall ever seeing a manager and player having a ruck like that before, looks like Canio has lost the dressing room already.

[S-Clarke]

you tube clip of dik anio having a mental strop.... anyone?

 

http://yfrog.com/jn2ogz

[1976_Child]

First half was good, but 2nd half was dire, taking the **** a bit too much. Just knew they were eventually going to get one back. Still 3-1 looks OK in the end, but really not much more than a practice game at some point, Thought Holmes had a decent game, though a couple of corners later on were poor. Really not convinced by Forte, much too static, doesn't seem to have much other than pace, Guly was too casual. Cork was very good in the 1st half, almost anonymous 2nd. Martin and Seaborne looked very composed for most of the game, apart from the few minutes after Swindon scored.

 

All in all, decent night out and good practice match. Back to winning ways. Good laugh at the end with Di Canio and their striker, don't recall ever seeing a manager and player having a ruck like that before, looks like Canio has lost the dressing room already.

 

certainly does. can you imagine our Nige getting pugilistic with Lambo? would never happen. Nigel is too professional. There must have been something said to kick it off.

[1976_Child]

http://yfrog.com/jn2ogz

 

ta.

[DG]

1st half - Swindon were dire, we must have ole'd a few dozen times in a row

2nd half - we didn't turn up and typically they found a way back into the game until Rickie put us out of sight.

 

Holmes impressed (in the 1st half anyway).

[Fitzhugh Fella]

Just back, We were very slick in the 1st half despite not really having an out and out forward in the team and looked to be cantering to a big score but in the 2nd we were woeful. Lots of intricate passing that went continually backwards where either Seaborne, Martin or Harding would lose it, sometimes in a dangerous position. We let Swindon come at us and hardly put them under any pressure. It was only when Lambert came on that we regained any composure and he ended the nerves with a classy finish. Lots of niggles and the Swindon player who fouled Schneiderlin just before HT should have been sent off but the ref bottled it.

I must admit I have always rated Martin but his distribution was awful tonight and he ended up getting booked when he got caught out trying to be clever. Schneiderlin also booked for showing studs. Holmes looked tidy in the first half and hit some good crosses but faded. Cork very good in 1st H but hardly saw him in the 2nd. Harding awful.

 

Strange there was not Butterfield, no Dickson and no Chaplow. All 3 need games but were not even on the bench. Anyway job done but typically we made it harder than it needed to be.

[S-Clarke]

 

Strange there was not Butterfield, no Dickson and no Chaplow. All 3 need games but were not even on the bench. Anyway job done but typically we made it harder than it needed to be.

 

Cheers for the report.

 

NA confirmed after the match that Chaplow used his 3 match ban to sort out a knee niggle he had, will be fit for the forest game.

[Lighthouse]

I'd back up what most people have already stated. First half Swindon were dreadful and we made it look easy, without ever getting out of first gear. Second half they seemed to spark into life a little and we failed to raise our game. Far too casual passing the ball around at the back and Bart received a fair few back passes he really didn't want. The midfield looked good in the first half, Morgan and Cork worked well together and Holmes was very dangerous down the right. Lallana a bit quiet, but didn't do anything wrong. Guly and Forte up front just didn't work. Neither can hold the ball up at all, it was easy to see why Nigel brought Rickie on.

 

Player ratings:

 

Bart - 7 Dealt with what came at him. One excellent save at 2-1 and could do little about the goal. A few dodgy kicks, but the defence really didn't do him any favours at times.

 

Richardson - 6 Generally steady, but was seldom troubled.

 

Martin - 6 As above

 

Seaborne - 6 As above

 

Harding - 5 Gave away possesion cheaply at times.

 

Holmes - 8 MOTM looked pretty good cutting in from the right. A couple of dodgy corners, but otherwise decent.

 

Cork - 7 Looked very good first half, quiet second half.

 

Morgan - 7 Classy on the ball, a bit sloppy second half. Had one excellent chance blocked.

 

Lallana - 7 Quiet first half, seemed to liven up in the last 15 minutes. Dubious penalty shout towards the end.

 

Guly - 5 Too casual. Effort just wasn't there. The goal was about all he did.

 

Forte - 5 Without someone to hold up play going forward, he looked a bit lost. As with Guly, his goal was pretty much the only contribution.

 

Subs:

 

Lambert came on to help things stick up front and it definitely settled things a bit after they had scored. Very well taken goal. Don't think the other two subs got a touch.

[benjii]

"typically we made it harder". Typical of what? Wake up FFS.

[Saint_lambden]

Back.

 

Fairly comfortable until we started to overplay it. Short goal kicks EVERY time had us under pressure but to be fair to Bart, he made a good save at his near post from Clarke to make it 2-2.

 

Lallana was great, probably MOTM.

 

Complete justice we got the 3rd goal as we had a blatant penalty turned down on a trip on Lallana with about 2/3 minutes to go when the awful ref was right by the incident. Plus the fact Swindon's attacker Kerrouche(?) should have been sent off right on half time. He got one booking for throwing the ball away(which the ref was very anal over) and he then consequently got angry about it and proceeded to hack down Cork and the refs solution was to blow for HT. Handbags from the 2 benches followed.

 

Di Canio has always been a knob but he demonstrated it further tonight. Not just for the incident with Clarke either, but his petty throwing of his arms and moaning on the touchline - once confronted by Adkins.

 

We made it more difficult than needed to at times but thankfully got the deserved 3rd goal from the very sharp and surprisingly quick Lambert.

 

Bring on Preston/Charlton.

[musesaint]

To be honest we looked a class or five above Swindon when we wanted to - the rest of the time we just coasted

 

Nice to go to Swindon and see us play reasonably well - the last two games we had there in the last two years rank amongst our most dire performances in ages - I felt cleansed tonight

 

Lee Holmes did indeed look quality at times - please stay fit - do a Connolly ffs!

[CFSFC]

Harding poor, fans very poor, cork class. One step closer to wembley

[yamms_schmitz]

Good first half performance, but lacked a centre forward. Guly and forte are not centre forwards. We need to sign a goal poacher who can play 90mins every week and get 25 goals in the season. Second half I thought we were poor, and the subs came too late. I am pleased with the win finally at the county ground.

[Wilko]

I thought Guly looked OK and showed some nice touches. You're all a bit harsh on our heroes. The only poor performance was from Harding. Job done. Let's move on.

[Roger]

Back.

 

Fairly comfortable until we started to overplay it. Short goal kicks EVERY time had us under pressure but to be fair to Bart, he made a good save at his near post from Clarke to make it 2-2.

 

Lallana was great, probably MOTM.

 

Im sorry but lallana was certainly not great at all tonight. Average at best. He wasnt good or bad. Dont understand that comment at all. We started well, we looked like barca first half. 2nd half we were shocking. The defense looked very poor indeed. MOM morgan by miles imo.

 

Bart 7-One very good save.

Richardson 5-Stupid foul for free kick to their goal

Seabourne 5-Dont rate him at all.

Martin 4-Distribution awful.

Harding 3-Not so good away from home was shocking.

Holmes7-Good first half second faded badly.

Morgan 8-Awesome first half, they bypassed midfield second half.MOM

Cork 7-Great first half faded second.

Guly 5-Apart from 10 mins spell first half couldnt care less.

Forte 6-Tried hard but no football brain.

 

Lambert 7-Class when he came on, looked quick for goal and great composure.

 

We definately need another big defender and striker. Jaidi for me is a class above seaborne and martin.

[The Cat]

Comfortable win. They only had us under any pressure for 15 minutes of the whole game. The rest of the time we were in control, albeit with varying degrees of success.

 

First half was pretty much a stroll in the park. We coasted the second, but got a bit ragged when they upped their game. The problem when Swindon started coming on strong was that every time we cleared the ball we lost it up front and gave possession back. Maybe Lambert should have been on 5 or 10 mins earlier to address this. They made it niggly too, their bloke that scored should definitely been sent off on the stroke of half time. Lallana's penalty shout was nailed on too, dunno what the ref was up to there.

 

Oh and fair play to whoever handed my mates ticket in at the ground after he dropped it on the way from the pub.

[kpturner]

Roger - think you need to work on "quote" technique

[Roger]

Roger - think you need to work on "quote" technique

 

Yes youre right, sory.

[sfc4prem]

Back.

 

First half was easy. We passed it around like a freaking training session, hence the chants of "we are Southampton, we're taking the p*ss". Just before the whistle went some baldy for Swindon went in studs up on one of our players ( Schneiderlin or Lallana, not sure tbh ) and as he'd been booked the ref bottled it and blew the half time whistle. Di Canio at this point was already going a bit mental, and I think that little incident may have sparked a vicious half-time speech from him, as Swindon certainly came out fired up. We, on the other hand, seemed to come out expecting a repeat of the first half (in which Swindon barely closed us down and allowed us to pass it about). Needless to say, it caused us some big problems at the back, especially with Martin who seemed to find it difficult to pick out a pass under the higher pressure from Swindon. We gave the ball away too easily for my liking, And invited even more pressure on ourselves. Never a freekick for their goal, from what I could see. Once they scored that their tails were up and they were all-out bombarding us with crosses and shots. Great save from Bart kept us ahead at 2-1 and minutes later Rickie burst through (with a surprising amount of pace), took it around the keeper and slotted it in to secure the win.

 

My view on the players:

 

Bart - 8/10 - Could've been positioned a bit better for their freekick, but punched well from crosses, dominated his area very well, and pulled out a world class save to keep us ahead at 2-1.

 

Richardson - 7/10 - Made some good runs and linked up well with Holmes. Provided some good crosses, but was done once or twice by their winger.

 

Seaborne - 7/10 - I thought he had a good game tbh. Won his fair share of headers, put in some good tackles and interceptions, and played the ball neatly along the floor. Only downside was losing a small amount of headers and a few stray long balls.

 

Martin - 5/10 - Didn't have the composure to play the ball along the ground under pressure, got caught a few times and gave the ball away a bit. Won a decent amount of headers, but he'll have better displays for sure.

 

Harding - 5/10 - Gave the ball away alot, some awful crosses. To be fair to him, he linked up well with Lallana and made a few incisive forward runs, something we lacked a bit today.

 

Holmes - 8/10 (MOTM) - made some quality pacey runs with and without the ball, put in some wicked crosses, made himself space to have a couple of shots too. Very good game from the lad.

 

Cork - 6/10 - got bullied around a bit and didn't really make too many challenges. Kept the passes neat and tidy, but we all expect that from him naturally.

 

Schneiderlin - 7/10 - dealt with their strength reasonably well, played some good balls and had a shot deflected behind that had beaten the goalie.

 

Lallana - 8/10 - some typical Lallana class on and off the ball, but didn't receive the ball as much as I would've hoped, and therefore wasn't as impacting as he previously has been. That said, he still turned their fullback inside out, put in some great crosses, and won us what should've been a penalty with a sublime piece of skill, turning the defender with one little twist and flick, before getting felled for what was a blatant peno. The ref was blind to miss that, and the whole away end went mental as we could see it was such a stonewaller.

 

Forte - 6/10 - some good runs, but didn't have any one as far forward as he was to link up with, so often ran until he was tackled. Made use of his strength a fair bit, a very well taken goal too. One downside was quite a few mis-placed passes and lay offs. Not his fault, but he didn't have anyone to link up with really.

 

Guly - 7/10 - seemed to play a little deeper than Forte which meant that Forte was a little isolated. Guly made some great tackles and won back the ball several times with his tenacity, and showed off with a fair bit of skill. Lost the ball a few times though, and could've linked up better with Jonno. Good header for the goal.

 

Subs:

 

Lambo - was quality when he came on, though he had little time to impress. Came up with the all important third, with a good burst of pace to get ahead of the chasing defender, latch onto the through ball, then he had the composure to round the keeper and calmly slot it home. (too little time to rate him out of ten)

 

Reeves - too little time and hardly touched the ball

Deano - same as Reeves.

 

Good atmosphere in patches, but I was disappointed with how many people weren't bothering to support the team they travelled to Swindon to watch. Lack of singing from a large part of the away fans annoyed me and was probably the only downside to the evening.

 

Was fun takin the p*ss out of Di Canio, and tbf to a chunk of our away support, there were some decent songs and noise (Yellloowsss!!).

 

COYS

[Crazy Diamond]

Well lads, if you were there, you've just seen Di Canio's last game in management for quite a while apparently!

[kpturner]

Well lads, if you were there, you've just seen Di Canio's last game in management for quite a while apparently!

I was there - but its a shame I missed the subsequent huge punch up in the Swindon players bar afterwards also - they closed it early as a result.

[sfc4prem]

Harding poor, fans very poor, cork class. One step closer to wembley

 

what was with the majority of the fans tonight? Most of them sat down and simply watched. No singing, encouragement, nothing. Terrible performance by alot of the fans tonight. Disappointing.

[Crazy Diamond]

I was there - but its a shame I missed the subsequent huge punch up in the Swindon players bar afterwards also - they closed it early as a result.

 

Really? Incredible. And to think, the game was postponed due to rioting... Sounds like it very much kicked off at the County Ground anyway!

[Lighthouse]

Really? Incredible. And to think, the game was postponed due to rioting... Sounds like it very much kicked off at the County Ground anyway!

 

It was only really Di Canio, who had some handbags with Clarke, Dan Harding and half our training staff at some point during the match. Everyone else was pretty well behaved.

[Crazy Diamond]

It was only really Di Canio, who had some handbags with Clarke, Dan Harding and half our training staff at some point during the match. Everyone else was pretty well behaved.

 

I've been told Clarke had an altercation with the fitness coach, and that caused the scuffle between him and Di Canio. Their fans seem to be backing Di Canio rather than Clarke and the Chairman has said Di Canio was actually trying to calm things down.

[Chris Larkin]

Goodness me, watching that game was such a lot of effort in the second half.

 

I thought Cork was the best player for us, Holmes and Schneiderlin were also good. None of the other players were especially fantastic. Harding in particular made loads of mistakes, but he was at least on the ball a lot and trying to make things happen. You could see just what Lambert brings to the table when he came on, winning long balls and linking up so well with Lallana. Before that there was hardly any bite or creativity up front.

 

Martin and Seaborne don't make a great defensive pairing for a team committed to passing along the ground - you really need someone with the ability of Fonte to bring the ball forward and give it to one of the midfielders rather than just going back and forth across the back four ad infinitum.

 

Has Bart always been that poor at kicking? I'm sure I remember him having been far better in the past. His refusal to send goal kicks long for the first 70 minutes was bizarre.

 

Nice to see Sam Hoskins get his debut, he looked lively in the minute or so two was on at the end. Hopefully one for the future.

 

Overall well done to Saints, not a vintage performance but we easily did enough. I'm actually looking forward to seeing how far we can go in this competition.

[SNSUN]

Di Canio only signed Clarke last week. Lolage.

[stkev7]

It's obvious that Leon Clarke has a massive attitude problem and the fact that he's not up to it. Hence why he's dropped down from QPR to little old Swindon.

[edprice1984]

After running for the 21:54 train back to Gloucester I wasn't really in a fit state to put down my thoughts last night...

 

I felt that we always had control of the game, although there were a few nervous moments towards the end - mainly due to Saints giving the ball away. Lallana looked awesome for much of the game but did tire and was suprised that NA didn't take him off. Jack Cork is absolute class, my first opportunity to watch him and I was impressed with his poise on the ball and his ability to disrupt and stop attacks.

 

Forte did ok, not really his best position - seemed happier playing of the shoulder of the last defender rather than holding up the ball. Spiderman linked the play well and was unlucky not to score, only a last ditch block preventing it. Bart was good, not alot to do - the freekick was in as soon as it left the blokes boot. Distribution was patchy but when Lambert came on that improved dramatically.

 

Holmes was outstanding, always worried their left back and contributed to two of the goals. Glad to see him have a good game after such a bad time with injuries etc...NA obviously rates him. Martin and Seabourne looked good to me, complemented each other (if one ballsed up, the other was there to help out...some very good blocks etc). Frazer played well - would like to see him overlap more. Harding tried hard and did look good at times, but too often gave the ball away cheapley.

 

Guly was brilliant at times, then awful the next minute. He suffered from not having Connolly or Lambert up top as Forte's running and movement was as good.

 

Support for a Carling Cup game on a Tuesday night was good, always makes me laugh when people on here have a go saying "All people wanted to do is watch the match" etc - Well yeah, I do actually. There was lots of noise throughout, some good songs "We're taking the p***, We are Southampton we're taking the p***" was very loud.

 

Finally special mention to the middle aged bloke (A swindon fan) who helped out a young saints lad (16/17) who was cornered by about 5 swindon chavs at the train station. Missed it by a couple of minutes - but they were intent on causing some harm to him before a local Swindon supporter stepped in.

[anothersaintinsouthsea]

Interesting that a few have said "Bart could do little about the goal". Watch it back on TV - the striker stuck it in the half of the goal that Bart was supposed to be guarding. Instead Bart was hiding behind the wall. Definitely his fault I'm afraid.

[VectisSaint]

Has Bart always been that poor at kicking? I'm sure I remember him having been far better in the past. His refusal to send goal kicks long for the first 70 minutes was bizarre.

Almost certainly playing to instructions. Launching it up for Guly/Forte would have been a waste of time as neither are capable of either winning or holding the ball up. Would probably have been different if RL had been up front.

 

After sleeping on it, I have to say the Forte is not up to it. There is no movement, he just stood around last night playing statues, and only moved when a ball was played into a space. he has great pace, and obviously scored, but otherwise he contributed the square root of **** all last night. Demonstrated clearly to me why we need another striker urgently.

[Raven on the wing]

Nothing wrong with the level of support or the volume. There were times in the second half where we were in cruise control and leading a LG2 team by 2-0 isnot likely to inspire fervent support. It picked up again when it needed to and NA & the players were appreciative afterwards.