Burnley 1 - 1 Saints - Post Match Reaction

[Frank's cousin]

I'm with LTC on this one... its dissapointing becuase we knwo the squad and NC will be dissapointed... because they have created a winning culture and mentality and winners are not satisfied with draws and losses and work even harder to address it. This is not a criticism of NC or the team, they ahve already doen wonders so far and i am proud of them... but, we have gotten to where we are by not accepting mediochre. Of course no one can win every game and no one is casting blame... but nor will NC and the players accept it as a 'bad day at the office' because they are winners and not whingers. They will analysewhy they did not win this and work on thsoe areas... That that is why this is a great side.

[Legod Third Coming]

Okay, now you definitely just being a drama queen.

 

No that was sarcasm which I readily accept is the lowest form of wit....

[VectisSaint]

All you people saying this was a bad result are mad !

This was a point won away from home ffs ! We have had a brilliant start and provided our home form remains strong we should have more than enough to see us through the season. We are shaping up to be a good solid NPC team capable of holding our own in this league.

Some people are never satisfied.

Has anyone actually said this was a bad result? Almost every post is saying it was a decent result. Almost the only dissenter is LTC and even he is not saying it was a bad result, only that it was poor based on form, which is a perfectly reasonable statement. It was a tad disappointing today but really to be expected, a bit like Manure only drawing at Stoke (as it was they could easily have lost), Fergie won't be celebrating but he'll know that they can't win every game. The positive for me is that NA recognised something was wrong and took decisive action to rectify it, the match thread contained some amusing comments about his decisions, one of which at least came back to bite those posters, clearly bring on Spiderman was a master stroke. Onwards and upwards. We are still seriously missing an option up front, surprised NA has not solved this problem yet.

[del boy]

the way things are going at CERN we might already be 2011 champions with the '76 Cup Final still to come!

[Dalek2003]

Has anyone actually said this was a bad result? Almost every post is saying it was a decent result. Almost the only dissenter is LTC and even he is not saying it was a bad result, only that it was poor based on form, which is a perfectly reasonable statement. It was a tad disappointing today but really to be expected, a bit like Manure only drawing at Stoke (as it was they could easily have lost), Fergie won't be celebrating but he'll know that they can't win every game. The positive for me is that NA recognised something was wrong and took decisive action to rectify it, the match thread contained some amusing comments about his decisions, one of which at least came back to bite those posters, clearly bring on Spiderman was a master stroke. Onwards and upwards. We are still seriously missing an option up front, surprised NA has not solved this problem yet.

 

Fair enough, but people shouldn't really be disappointed with a point away from home.

[LGTL]

How Lambert managed to hit the bar with his header i'll never know, and Lallana's misses weren't much better. Although he should have had a penalty in the last few seconds. A difficult game against an extremely physical team.

[Distant Supporter]

the way things are going at CERN we might already be 2011 champions with the '76 Cup Final still to come!

 

Even though it is only 60 nanoseconds - brilliant! Crank up the Tardis!

[Legod Third Coming]

Even though it is only 60 nanoseconds - brilliant! Crank up the Tardis!

 

Had this debate with my daughter - she wants to be an astro-physicist.

 

The time differential is a bit irrelevant. The point is that if the result is accurate, the whole special theory of relativity will have to be rewritten.

 

It also makes all radioactive dating inaccurate.

 

Which means the world may not be as old or older than we think...

 

I love it. It's bloody fascinating. Wish I understood it more!!!

[Griffo]

Can't decide if I'm happy or disappointed with a point today, but was a good day nonetheless.

 

However, I will moan like I usually do.. WHY TRAVEL ALL THAT WAY TO EITHER SIT THERE, OR STAND AND MAKE NO NOISE? Our support was atrocious today. Completely embarrassing.

[Distant Supporter]

Had this debate with my daughter - she wants to be an astro-physicist.

 

The time differential is a bit irrelevant. The point is that if the result is accurate, the whole special theory of relativity will have to be rewritten.

 

It also makes all radioactive dating inaccurate.

 

Which means the world may not be as old or older than we think...

 

I love it. It's bloody fascinating. Wish I understood it more!!!

 

Too many glasses of wine tonight and too long since I was at the cutting edge of physics, but it is always interesting when there is a challnge to the accepted laws of science. As far as time travel is concerned it seems to me to be a two way street - if you want to travel in time, you need to use the fast route while everyone else is using the traditional speed of light!

[SaintJackoInHurworth]

I haven't read the whole of this thread, but having been at the game, I thought it would be worth giving my perspective of the game...

 

Firstly, I disagree with a number of things that Adkins says about the game, but agree that we could have won it. In fact it could have gone either way, but we had the best chances, including the Lambert header that bounced up and hit the bar. I do not agree, however, that we started the second half brightly and that Adkins half time change did the trick. That sounds to me like Adkins putting a gloss on a change which he made, which did not work. But before I come to that, let's start at the beginning...

 

We started the game brightly and Cork looked like he was going to boss the game in the early exchanges, but then Burnley somehow managed to turn it around and they had a good spell. Then we tried to come back into it more again, but Burnley managed to crowd us out in midfield and most of the rest of the first half was a relative stalemate. What was clear, however, was that they had done their homework and worked out how to nullify our midfield threat. Key to this was their man of the match, Bartley, who was first to every ball and was quick to turn defence into attack and lead them out on the counter-attack. Nevertheless, they carried little attacking threat of their own in the final third, despite some threatening counter-attacks being built.

 

In that first half Cork had been by far our best player, with just occasional flashes of brilliance by Lallana and some good runs up the wing by both full backs especially Richardson. Defensively we had never looked all that confident though (though Hooiveld did ok) and Hammond seemed to be totally out of the game - I certainly don't recall him doing anything. Do Prado meanwhile was in and out of the game - doing some good stuff, but giving the ball away too much on other occasions. Lambert and Connolly meanwhile were mostly feeding off scraps.

 

Adkins clearly realised that something had to be done, but rather than do this with just a tactical adjustment he decided to take off Do Prado for Chaplow. At the time it struck me as a bold move and potentially the right one bearing in mind the way Burnley had bossed the midfield at times. I was less sure, though, whether taking Do Prado off was the right option. And so it proved... contrary to Adkins report on the match, Saints were all over the place at the start of the 2nd half and Burnley were all over us. We had completely lost our shpae following the changes, with no width and Lallana, Chaplow and Hammond all trying to occupy the same space in the middle. It was no surprise then when Burnley took the lead that their pressure deserved.

 

Fortunately, that served to wake up the Saints players and we started to put on some pressure and, after ten minutes, Adkins acted to sort out the midfield by replacing Hammond with Schneiderlin. That gave us more stability at the back and provided a platform for Cork to move the ball forwards. Chaplow meanwhile appeared to move out wider, helping to restore some balance to the side. There were some signs that our confidence at the back was not good and we were losing far too many balls in the midfield with Bartley continuing to dominate for Burnley.

 

But then, with ten minutes to go the goal came - a scrappy affair if truth be told - and from then on until the end we looked comfortable and if anyone was going to win it was us.

 

Credit for the draw must go to Cork, Lallana and Schneiderlin. Fonte and Hammond on the other hand had poor games, while others failed to really ever display the quality that has come to be expected this season.

 

All in all, I would say a strange match, in which a draw is a fair result, but it could also have been so much more if either Lambert's chance or one of those that Lallana had, had gone in.

[SaintJackoInHurworth]

A couple of other things I forgot to say...

 

* Connolly had a poor game today and gave away the ball too many times. I'm not sure it was his fault - I think Burnley crowded him out well. Like has been said elsewhere, I'm surprised that De Ridder did not come on to replace him towards the end.

* Chaplow had a mixed performance after coming on. He wasn't really the hard working, in your face Chaplow that can make such a difference. He helped to give the side more balance when he was eventually moved out wide, but he gave the ball away far too often. I think Guly did more for us in the first half than Chaplow did in the second.

* As has been said elsewhere, apart from the goal (which he couldn't do anything about), Davis did not have much to do, but I was very disappointed with his distribution from the back. Kelvin never used to play the short pass like that - he has only done that since Adkins has been in charge, so I think Adkins has instructed him to do this. Yet I don't think it is something that Kelvin is good at. I think Adkins has got this tactics wrong in this area - he needs to play to his players strengths.

* I didn't quite get why Lambert became a winger in the second half - surely he is better in the middle?! Again this is another reason why De Ridder should have replaced Connolly. Alternatively, if he was going to move one of them out wide, I would say Connolly is better out wide than Lambert. Of course it may have been that Lambert was the one who opted to move out wide having found the middle crowded when Lallana was moved inside. Whatever the reason it didn't work and just left our best goal scorer out of position where he could not score the goals that he is capable of.

[shurlock]

Difficult to make sense of the game - didn't think we deserved to lose the game; but didn't think we did enough over the whole game to win it, though ultimately we had the clearest opportunities.

 

The first 45 mins were very hard going as was the beginning of the 2nd half. For an area that's been so crucial to everything we do, our central midfield was threadbare today. Burnley were able to ping diagonal balls into the central midfield at will; they were first to the majority of second balls; while Cork and Hammond didn't establish any kind of foothold to offer Lallana and Guly the ball in more advanced positions. That Hammond was substituted did not surprise me - nor is it surprising that their MOTM was Bartley, a CM who was here, there and f**king everywhere. Either way, it was a shock to the system to see the centre of midfield so overrun.

 

I thought Richardson and Jos had very good games. Richardson got up and down really well and delivered a hell of a ball for Lambert who hit the bar. Jos was probably my MOTM, though I wish he was a bit meaner. For all his good play, he should not have let ROdriguez win the header that led to their goal. Fonte, by contrast, had an iffier game, though he became more assured in the 2nd half. KD also didn't particularly help by not communicating with the defence.

 

The real question mark is Fox. Thought he rode the crowd pretty well; but with Harding breathing down his neck, its a hard call who should be starting. Defensively Fox tends to position himself too close to the CBs for my liking whereas I like Harding's willingness to play man-to-man with the opposing attacker. Going forward, I thought Fox was slightly reluctant to attack the space in front of him, hitting balls from quite deep. By contrast, Harding is always willing to get to the line. But where Fox is head and shoulders above Harding is his delivery - some of the balls delivered from corners and setpieces and crossing positions (when he did get further up the pitch) were simply unplayable and are alone worth goals and points.

 

Thought NA's substitutions were good but only to a point. Chaplow steeled things up in midfield; while Schneiderlin allowed us to switch and stretch play quicker. Things opened up in the 2nd half but its worth bearing in mind that they played close to a full strength team in the cup and were pushed to the final minute (so I wouldn't attribute things just to our fitness as some of the posters above mention). More surprising is that De Ridder didn't come on.

 

On a very general level, I thought we flattered Burnley and did not sufficiently exploit their weaknesses. A common feature of Eddie Howe's teams is the tendency for full backs to play as virtual wing backs. It put us under pressure; but it also meant there were acres of space behind them - when we got runners behind the FB notably through Richardson and Chaplow, we were pretty lively. But we didn't do it nearly enough. The game was crying out for some pace - and De Ridder might have offered it. And even if De Ridder isn't the right man yet, we still need pace. Lack of pace also made it easy for the back four to play a high line and contain the likes of Connolly and Lallana who cannot be expected to work eye of a needle openings every week in the heat of a frenetic away game.

 

In the end, we got back into the game by singling out their RB and hitting diagonal long balls to Lambert on that side- the only problem is that he should have been finishing, not initiating such moves as Lallana's tame headers from very good positions showed. It was hardly total football; but showed that NA was happy to mix things up and opt for pragmatism; the return of Barney will only help us in this respect.

 

All in all, can't complain about today - we could have won it in the final minute, though its hard to see how Lallana could have struck the ball cleaner with the defender pulling on his shirt; and if he had justifiably gone down its unlikely that the ref would have rewarded anything but a yellow card. Just as cynical was Burnley's attempt to work a quick free kick while half the team had gone for refreshments only to fluff it, resulting in a decent possible break only for one of their players to go down.

 

On today's performance, Rodriguez didn't justify the hype or the £5m+ valuation - apart from a few tidy touches (largely low-risk stuff), he was well marshaled and never really threatened KD. Thought the ref was OK - could have quite easily brandished the cards out and stopped play (as players went down)- but allowed the game to flow. Our lot was OK; but like the performance was pretty subdued.

 

Anyway a point is a point and will be more than happy for the same against Cardiff.

[LGTL]

Jesus christ Lambert and Lallana's missed headers were worse then I remember!

[sfc4prem]

Just saw the highlights.

 

Oh my f*cking god.

 

How did Lambert miss the net with that? So much power behind it when all he needed to do was get it on target.

 

How did Lallana not get that header on target??

 

How did Fonte allow Austin to wrap his foot around his body to get the shot in for their goal???!?!?

 

Should've and could've won judging by that.

[Saints foreva]

Lallana should have gone down when he was pulled back.

[Colinjb]

Even in the two games we havn't won, we have made enough chances to win. That in itself is a good sign.

[sfc4prem]

Fonte... What's up with him??

[Colinjb]

Fonte... What's up with him??

 

One off game in 18 months.......

[Kingsbridge Saint]

Its an OK result if you see Saints true position as 6th - 12th. But Adkins and Cortese will be disappointed I feel. Good to have ambitious Chairman and Manager. Happy enough with where Saints are and looking forward to Cardiff.

[Professor]

Its an OK result if you see Saints true position as 6th - 12th. But Adkins and Cortese will be disappointed I feel. Good to have ambitious Chairman and Manager. Happy enough with where Saints are and looking forward to Cardiff.

Don't think Adkins and Cortese see the team's true position as 6-12 otherwise they might have carried on trying to bring in the striker and first choice CB. The start to the season may have them thinking this squad can get promotion despite the cautious words from NA. One away draw won't change that opinion, but the next few weeks are tough and some other teams are improving. If we are still in the top two in weeks time, then a 6th-12th finish would be very disappointing.

[Sour Mash]

One off game in 18 months.......

Disagree. I think he's struggled this season and hasn't stepped up like others have.

[Sour Mash]

I guess its a good sign that we can play poorly and still come away with a result. I said in the build up thread to this game not to underestimate Burnley and they played well, fast tempo, aggresive, didn't give us an inch. Hard to put my finger on why we played poorly, just weren't able to boss the midfield and play our usual passing game I guess, fair play to Burnley for that and a few of ours just didn't get going. Guly had one of his off days and Chaplow coming on made a massive difference. As with the Leicester away game, if Lallana could finish..................

[View From The Top]

One off game in 18 months.......

 

I disagree. He's had a few iffy games this season.

[Sour Mash]

Can't decide if I'm happy or disappointed with a point today, but was a good day nonetheless.

 

However, I will moan like I usually do.. WHY TRAVEL ALL THAT WAY TO EITHER SIT THERE, OR STAND AND MAKE NO NOISE? Our support was atrocious today. Completely embarrassing.

Agreed mate. Apart from the 5 mins before and after our goal (which were good), why bother making all that effort to travel up and then don't bother to get involved.

[View From The Top]

Agreed mate. Apart from the 5 mins before and after our goal (which were good), why bother making all that effort to travel up and then don't bother to get involved.

 

Choice.

[Sour Mash]

Choice.

Fair enough and each to their own. I think it makes a difference, a lot of our support up north seems to disagree with me, so I guess I'm in the minority.

[Legod Third Coming]

I disagree. He's had a few iffy games this season.

 

Bizarre isn't it because he's one of the few guys with experience at this level. Wonder what's going on? Was poor defending for the goal

[Goalie66]

Had this debate with my daughter - she wants to be an astro-physicist.

 

The time differential is a bit irrelevant. The point is that if the result is accurate, the whole special theory of relativity will have to be rewritten.

 

It also makes all radioactive dating inaccurate.

 

Which means the world may not be as old or older than we think...

 

I love it. It's bloody fascinating. Wish I understood it more!!!

 

As my daughter IS an Astro Physicist she probably would !! In the meantime yesterday was the first game we have been profligate.

[View From The Top]

Fair enough and each to their own. I think it makes a difference, a lot of our support up north seems to disagree with me, so I guess I'm in the minority.

 

It's because they are still dazed and confused from hours on the bingo bus.

[LostBoys]

I posted earlier after hearing our Dave on the radio but I have now seen the highlights on The Football League Show.

 

 

I am delighted where we are but the goal conceded was awful and the open goal misses even worse. We are never going to win every game but this really is 2 points thrown away.

[SaintNeil90]

I actually don't think that would have been a pen if Lallana had gone down. It didn't look like there was much contact, however I am basing that on TV highlights.

[Raging Bull]

One off game in 18 months.......

 

Would like to agree but cant I'm afraid, terrific player but does go to sleep a little at times, Hammond was more than justified in questioning him for that.

 

Amazed we didn't win this one by 2/3 goals.

[Window Cleaner]

Still waiting for the goals,L'Equipe TV seems to be losing interest in the NPC,used to put the goals up on Saturday evening and

publicise the live game all week. Now goals come up on Sunday evening/Monday and you have to root about in the internet TV guides to see what match it is on a Saturday.

[keithd]

Going (purely) on the BBC stats...

 

They had more possession than us

They had more shots on target than us

They had more shots off target than us

They had more corners than us

 

So I am therefore happy with a point

[hughieslastminutegoal]

I do not disagree with a thing you say. Where have I said otherwise.

But to pretend a point against a side in poor form is a good one, that I disagree with.

For the record, I haven't complained, criticised and I do not own a stanley knife so my wrists are well and truly safe...

What kind of man are you?

[david in sweden]

What kind of man are you?

 

I thought the same , "Hughie's "...

 

He probably doesn't have a Black & Decker drill either...(what is the world coming to?)

[david in sweden]

I disagree. He's had a few iffy games this season.

 

Nigel had noticed that, too ..that's why we bought Jack Cork - isn't it ?

[SaintDan]

Why oh why did we not sign Charlie Austin last season???

[Pilsmer]

Can't decide if I'm happy or disappointed with a point today, but was a good day nonetheless.

 

However, I will moan like I usually do.. WHY TRAVEL ALL THAT WAY TO EITHER SIT THERE, OR STAND AND MAKE NO NOISE? Our support was atrocious today. Completely embarrassing.

 

I thought the best example of support on Saturday was the lad who came down the front in the second half and proceeded to gesture the Burnley fans with a thumb across his throat. From where I was sitting it looked like he was making death threats to half a dozen children and a 70 year old lady. Classy.

 

As for the game, I thought Burnley closed us down well in the first half but we made it hard for ourselves with some poor passing and trying to play football in the wrong areas. Kelvin only tried to play it out short once and it nearly cost us dear.

 

We did enough to win it in the second half but it was just one of those days when the clinical finishing was missing. Its just sod's law that they play poorly when you make the effort to travel for 5 hours to see them. I fully expect us to bounce back against Cardiff and Watford this week though.

[iansums]

Why oh why did we not sign Charlie Austin last season???

 

Because we've only got a bus, not a caravan!

[arfurdent]

Fonte... What's up with him??

 

I was at the game and Fonte got a knock early on. Martin was warming up after ten minutes. Fonte struggled after that.

[arfurdent]

Why oh why did we not sign Charlie Austin last season???

 

Based on what I saw at the match on Saturday he was not worth the money

[Appy]

Why oh why did we not sign Charlie Austin last season???

 

Are we going to say this about every player who scores against us this season?

[K,Billy's supersound]

why oh why did we not sign Robert Earnshaw last season???

[Legod Third Coming]

why oh why did we not sign Robert Earnshaw last season???

 

Because he couldn't hit a cow's arse with a barn door?

[alehouseboys]

I noticed both teams wore white socks on Saturday, isn't that against the rules? If we miss out on promotion/play-offs by a couple of points come May can we demand a re-match?