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Saints 1 West Ham 0 - Post Match Reactions


St Chalet

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If you read my post in context you will see that I said that we lack a cutting edge without Lallana and/or De Ridder. That is a fact.

 

I don't think SDR comes into it as he has hardly played. I agree to an extent that AL gives us an added dimension, something different, as he is a fabulous player at this level but I also still feel we can create chances and score goals without AL always being available. The chances just come in a slightly different way. With better finishing last night and versus Derby we would not be talking about any lack of cutting edge at all and with players like Lambert, Connolly, Guly, Chaplow plus the impact guys and defenders weighing in I think we have more than enough to score goals in the absence of AL / SDR. All about different opinions I guess.

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Originally Posted by PokingFun viewpost-right.png

We don't have a lack of cutting edge, you only have to look at the goals for column to see that (27 goals in 12 games is exceptional). I thought we missed a couple of good chances and were unlucky to have the SDR goal chalked off for the foul when the ref blew up too quickly otherwise it could have been 3 against what looked like a very big, strong and well organised West Ham defence. If nothing else, Big Sam does make sure that his teams are tight defensively and they've only conceded 11 in 12 games, a record only bettered by Middlesbrough.

 

Last night was not a lack of a cutting edge, it was simply that WHU were a strong team defensively and often forced us to play back and keep possession which we actually did very well. We still created a large number of chances, some clear cut, some half-chances even though they're strength was defending and being pretty well organised for the best part.

 

If you read my post in context you will see that I said that we lack a cutting edge without Lallana and/or De Ridder. That is a fact.

 

When Lallana and the team is on form, we can score goals at will aginst anyone in this league. So when we say we are lacking a cutting edge it is by comparison to those very high standards. As last night showed, there is more than one way to skin a cat and the ability to still score the odd goal or two. We should have had two goals against a decent defensive set up. We have needed to score more than the odd goal because defensively we have been leaking, last night was a different kettle of fish with the ability to make that odd goal give us 3 points.

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Alps, you have a good point. But NA seems quite content to rotate the squad, especially in midfield. That will work to our advantage as firstly the players are kept happy and secondly they will be fresher for games. So we have: Cork, AL, DH, RC, SdR, Guly, MS, (plus Homes) plenty to choose from! DH and MS were superb in the middle last night, Chappers was excellent. De Ridder looked very sharop when he came on, Cork had a mare when he was on. Very Difficult, but maybe rest MS for Saturday for Cork and have AL on the bench if fit.

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Comment of the thread for me. It was one of those lol moments that had my colleagues asking what I was reading. :toppa:

 

That was an immense 3 points for us. Loved it.

Mom for me was Chappers, he was every where, I was disappointed/surprised he was subbed, but I guess he was knackered. Honorable mentions must go to Guly, Hoover & Kelvin, who made a couple of cracking saves & some great catches in the last 10 minutes when the pressure was on (and to think some want him "rested").

 

He shaded MOM for me as well, and I'm pretty sure he was subbed because he was on a yellow. Nigel replaced him only a minute or two after that booking, I imagine he didnt want us down to 10 men.

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He shaded MOM for me as well, and I'm pretty sure he was subbed because he was on a yellow. Nigel replaced him only a minute or two after that booking, I imagine he didnt want us down to 10 men.

 

I'm not so sure. The substitution happened straight after he was booked - pretty sure Harding was already stripped and waiting to come on when Chaplow "fouled" the West Ham player.

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We can't counter attack because we have no pace going forward. Once West Ham woke up to that in the 2nd half they realised they could throw half their team forward with little fear of being caught on the break. As withthe Derby game I thought we were set up with a lack of creativity and cutting edge. If Lallana is out, then De Ridder should play. Both West Ham and Derby were happy for us to knock it around slowly in-front of their back 4, with little threat of a cutting edge.

 

I disagree. We didnt counterattack last night because we packed the defence and midfield to counter the allardyce hoofball we all knew was coming. That meant our forwards had to hold up the ball far more than usual for support, we are normally far quicker at getting forward. WHU have descended from being a team people always liked for their free-flowing passing game into a big sam bunch of f*cking lumps hoofing it forward and hoping, its genuinely sad to see. 2nd place or not, I bet their fans arent happy.

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I'm not so sure. The substitution happened straight after he was booked - pretty sure Harding was already stripped and waiting to come on when Chaplow "fouled" the West Ham player.

 

Ok , I stand corrected, we were in kingsland corner. Seemed at the time as if Nigel didnt want Chappers sent off, must have been a lucky coincidence ;)

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WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

We win, all our nearest rivals lost or drew, Pompey lost, we ARE 5 points clear having just beat the team in 2nd... PERFECT!

 

MOTM for me was Chaplow by a long way.

 

What with the ref pulling us back after that goal, and then calling 5 mins of stoppage time and playing about 1/2 an hour after the 90, it certainly felt to me like he wanted this game to be a draw, but my perception may have been skewed :lol:

 

He actually played almost dead on 5 minutes over the 90, because I set my timer for 5 minutes when the board went up, which was just after the 90 was up, and it was still counting the last 10 seconds when he blew.

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I'm not so sure. The substitution happened straight after he was booked - pretty sure Harding was already stripped and waiting to come on when Chaplow "fouled" the West Ham player.

 

Harding had been waiting to come on for about 5 minutes by then, Cork had to wait around 10 before he got on ! And that looked like a foul to me, from the Northam you could see he slid in and barely caught the top of the ball as he went over it.

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Harding had been waiting to come on for about 5 minutes by then, Cork had to wait around 10 before he got on ! And that looked like a foul to me, from the Northam you could see he slid in and barely caught the top of the ball as he went over it.

 

From the back of the Northam, I was expecting a red card. Looked like he lunged in with 12 studs showing, over the ball. Obviously couldn't have been that bad as I've not really seen it mentioned elsewhere

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http://www.sportsclubstats.com/England/ChampionshipLeague.html

 

Odds are looking very very nice now...

 

Winning that one game last night apparently increased our chances of winning the league and going up by over 11%...

 

That was such a MASSIVE game for us to win.

 

Bizarre statistics... What are they based on? The historic data of teams in similar positions?

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We allowed McCartney to cause us problems with his delivery, he has a good left foot, he was WHU's most accurate. We gave him too much time on the ball, he needed to be pressurised more.

 

Agreed, if you and I can see this why can't NA? Almost all of their goals came from this tactical deficiency, no wonder we never keep clean sheets with clueless NA in charge.

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http://www.sportsclubstats.com/England/ChampionshipLeague.html

 

Odds are looking very very nice now...

 

Winning that one game last night apparently increased our chances of winning the league and going up by over 11%...

 

That was such a MASSIVE game for us to win.

 

Looking at it from that angle if we lose to WH away we are 11% less likely to be promoted.

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Looking at it from that angle if we lose to WH away we are 11% less likely to be promoted.

 

It'll depend on where we both are by then. That swing resulted from that match being played at this stage of the season, with our respective games remaining, with the teams in the positions, and points earned before the game.

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http://www.sportsclubstats.com/England/ChampionshipLeague.html

 

Odds are looking very very nice now...

 

Winning that one game last night apparently increased our chances of winning the league and going up by over 11%...

 

That was such a MASSIVE game for us to win.

 

A ZERO percent chance of relegation.

 

38% chance of winning the title and 64.8% chance of promotion.

 

Life right now is extremely good.

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A ZERO percent chance of relegation.

 

38% chance of winning the title and 64.8% chance of promotion.

 

Life right now is extremely good.

 

It's not quite 0, it's just less than 0.05% from their simulations so gets rounded down to 0 on the figure they show. When it's gone completely the 0 won't be displayed. (At least, that's what happened last season.)

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It's not quite 0, it's just less than 0.05% from their simulations so gets rounded down to 0 on the figure they show. When it's gone completely the 0 won't be displayed. (At least, that's what happened last season.)

 

I'll take the less then 1 in 200 chance as near as damn-it a certainty. ;)

 

I wonder what Dalek thinks of the equally 'zero' odds of us finishing 17th.

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I'm not so sure. The substitution happened straight after he was booked - pretty sure Harding was already stripped and waiting to come on when Chaplow "fouled" the West Ham player.

 

I think he was taken off as once on a booking he was not able to do his job as effectively. I.e. he can't be as tenacious in case he risked a booking. Harding was then brought on to do the same job.

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From the back of the Northam, I was expecting a red card. Looked like he lunged in with 12 studs showing, over the ball. Obviously couldn't have been that bad as I've not really seen it mentioned elsewhere

 

Didn't look great from the Chapel to be honest! On another day...etc. I think a yellow was fair though - he hadn't done anything card worthy til then.

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Strange little things you notice on Saints Player highlights, but it looks like some odd behaviour by Baldock at a Saints free kick in the second half. Having just been booked for not retreating 10 yards for a Lambert free kick, Baldock then appears to stand no more than 5 yards to Lambert's left and mimic Lambert's run-up, presumably to try to put him off?

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Strange little things you notice on Saints Player highlights, but it looks like some odd behaviour by Baldock at a Saints free kick in the second half. Having just been booked for not retreating 10 yards for a Lambert free kick, Baldock then appears to stand no more than 5 yards to Lambert's left and mimic Lambert's run-up, presumably to try to put him off?
Noticed that at the time. Never seen anyone doing that before, what a knob. He was slightly lucky not to get booked again for unsporting behaviour.
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A very big "Come on you Irons " banner behind the goal with the Marseille fans tonight also a smaller English flag with the West Ham badge on it , can someone explain ?

* I remember Millwall scarfs in the Milton and i'm not just talking death & dumb Tony's ....

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Strange little things you notice on Saints Player highlights, but it looks like some odd behaviour by Baldock at a Saints free kick in the second half. Having just been booked for not retreating 10 yards for a Lambert free kick, Baldock then appears to stand no more than 5 yards to Lambert's left and mimic Lambert's run-up, presumably to try to put him off?

 

I also noticed a West Ham player and Saints player squaring up to each other at the final whistle. Looked like they had to be seperated by one of our coaches.

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Ah, proper internet access, that's better.

 

Right, a good win, was pleased to be able to go, just a shame the traffic was soooooo bad beforehand that I had to forego my pre-match pints. I left early so I can imagine there were some disappointed people arriving late. I thought Saints were very good in the first half, we dominated the proceedings and played the better football. The goal was justified, and I was pleased we scored then as I saw so many people disappear off early for their halftime break. S******. In the second half we were under the cosh a little bit, the substitutions didn't help, we were clearly playing for the 1-0 win. Yes they worked in that respect, but I thought they could've cost us. Chaplow was brilliant for me, and yes he was booked, but he didn't deserve to go off. He was creating space for us which was enabling us to get behind the West Ham back line. Guly too was very good, he has a great eye for a pass. Towards the end of the game I was getting nervous but Kelvin made some good saves. (Which, while good, made up for a few dodgy moments he had earlier in the game.) Fonte also looked risky, he ended up on the ground a few times and missed a couple of balls. Against a sharper attack, that would have cost us.

 

One last thing though, was that when Harding came on, he played left midfield, when the obvious thing to do would be to push Fox up. Weird that, although I guess he must have had the instructions to do so.

 

For them, I thought their number 2 was quite good, and Baldock was a good acquistion for them. I actually thought Papa Bouba Diop was OK too.

 

Pleased though, a smash and grab win, but a win nonetheless. 5 points clear, who'd have thunk it.

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Strange little things you notice on Saints Player highlights, but it looks like some odd behaviour by Baldock at a Saints free kick in the second half. Having just been booked for not retreating 10 yards for a Lambert free kick, Baldock then appears to stand no more than 5 yards to Lambert's left and mimic Lambert's run-up, presumably to try to put him off?

 

Noticed that at the time. Never seen anyone doing that before, what a knob. He was slightly lucky not to get booked again for unsporting behaviour.

 

I saw it at the time as well. Prior to the bit that's on Saints Player, Baldock did an odd, flitting run across Rickie's line of sight - this was what got him booked. I was just thinking that it was one of the stupidest bookings I'd ever seen, and then he did his mimic act, as if he were desperate to get booked a second time. It was all clearly intended to distract Rickie, and the view on Saints Player shows that even more clearly. The ref had an angry word with Baldock after the free kick had been taken - hardly surprising really. I'd have píssed myself if he'd got sent off.

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Ah, proper internet access, that's better.

 

Right, a good win, was pleased to be able to go, just a shame the traffic was soooooo bad beforehand that I had to forego my pre-match pints. I left early so I can imagine there were some disappointed people arriving late. I thought Saints were very good in the first half, we dominated the proceedings and played the better football. The goal was justified, and I was pleased we scored then as I saw so many people disappear off early for their halftime break. S******. In the second half we were under the cosh a little bit, the substitutions didn't help, we were clearly playing for the 1-0 win. Yes they worked in that respect, but I thought they could've cost us. Chaplow was brilliant for me, and yes he was booked, but he didn't deserve to go off. He was creating space for us which was enabling us to get behind the West Ham back line. Guly too was very good, he has a great eye for a pass. Towards the end of the game I was getting nervous but Kelvin made some good saves. (Which, while good, made up for a few dodgy moments he had earlier in the game.) Fonte also looked risky, he ended up on the ground a few times and missed a couple of balls. Against a sharper attack, that would have cost us.

 

One last thing though, was that when Harding came on, he played left midfield, when the obvious thing to do would be to push Fox up. Weird that, although I guess he must have had the instructions to do so.For them, I thought their number 2 was quite good, and Baldock was a good acquistion for them. I actually thought Papa Bouba Diop was OK too.

 

Pleased though, a smash and grab win, but a win nonetheless. 5 points clear, who'd have thunk it.

 

Yes when Harding came on, talking to the people around me, we all thought harding would go LB and fox would move up to LM. Was a bit odd.

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Yes when Harding came on, talking to the people around me, we all thought harding would go LB and fox would move up to LM. Was a bit odd.

 

I think he didn't want to shift around the defence with only a few minutes to go... well, that was my theory as to why he didn't move Fox up and Harding to LB, anyway

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Yes when Harding came on, talking to the people around me, we all thought harding would go LB and fox would move up to LM. Was a bit odd.

 

He came on at Derby and played left mid which took me by surprise at the time. Consequently I was expecting it last night.

 

With the Cork substitution he was ready to come on at the same time as West Ham made their last sub, but then sat back down on the bench. Wondered if Adkins wanted to have a look at what Allardyce was doing with his formation before changiing it.

 

The weirdest sunstitution was De Ridder coming on when they had a free kick, legging it over to the wall and swapping places with Cork (I think). This seemed to confuse everyone and they had an effort that just went over. I thought it quite bizarre to be messing about like that at such an important moment. No harm done though!

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the ref showed he wasn't up for dishing out too many cards when he let go the first half deliberate handball blocking an attacking pass, also the West Ham player who was pulled up for a foul and responded by running at the ref and screaming in his face was let off - so Chaplow even getting booked was a bit much by those standards.

 

As for Baldock's plan to put Lambert off a free kick, I would have thought teaching your keeper to call for crosses might be time better spent - their defence was chaotic at times so whose idea was it to concentrate on a bizarre decoy run-up impression? - a ploy that has prevented exactly zero free kicks being scored in the history of football.

Oh well, their problem not ours.

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The weirdest sunstitution was De Ridder coming on when they had a free kick, legging it over to the wall and swapping places with Cork (I think). This seemed to confuse everyone and they had an effort that just went over. I thought it quite bizarre to be messing about like that at such an important moment. No harm done though!

 

Yep - that was just stupid. KD went mental at them after dealing with the free-kick.

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As for Baldock's plan to put Lambert off a free kick, I would have thought teaching your keeper to call for crosses might be time better spent - their defence was chaotic at times so whose idea was it to concentrate on a bizarre decoy run-up impression? - a ploy that has prevented exactly zero free kicks being scored in the history of football.

Oh well, their problem not ours.

 

That p*ssed me right off. Little bits of niggly gamesmanship like that should be worthy of a booking.

On that note, don't you get booked if you call "leave it" as an opponent is about to receive the ball? Surely it's a similar line of offence?

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Like most people here have probably been doing, I've read just about every report of the game I can lay my hands on. I'm thoroughly sick of reading Fat Sam's "Soft goal" comment, which implies that Jos didn't deserve his goal due to some kind of woeful defending or huge slice of luck on our part. It was a goal from a corner!! They almost ALL look like that FFS!!

 

Quit calling it a soft goal you sad, twisted lump of girly fat!!!

 

Glad I got that off my chest. :)

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Hmmm.

 

Ouch.

 

Still, must say, standing up on stage in front of about 300 people at our local Oktoberfest Tent last night singing OWTS backed by a 7 piece Oompah band was a damned fine way to finish the celebrations of B'day & 5 points clear. Well, it seemed that way at the time, really not so sure this morning though, future Mrs D_P doesn't think the "But I only had 5 beers" excuse works if they were Litres...

 

Nice thing was, some of the Germans present actually had noticed we were top of the League, that made a nice change..

 

Oh well, plenty of recovery time before the weekend, but think I may stay on the Orange Juice as we watch down the pub.

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Incredible result in one sense, but actually in another way I'm kind of expecting wins now. This team are really gelled - you can tell that there is excellent harmony throughout the squad. The only slight negative on this is De Ridder, who seems not to want to work for the team quite as much - don't get me wrong, I think he's a great player needing a start to boost his spirits - but he needs to track back more. Top of table with 5 points clear eh? Pimpley near relegation?

 

It's all good at the moment and long may it continue. Adkins is nearing legend status and hats off to NC who is leading this club back from obscurity into the big time again. I reckon there'll be some money spent in January in preparation for the Prem push.

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I think he didn't want to shift around the defence with only a few minutes to go... well, that was my theory as to why he didn't move Fox up and Harding to LB, anyway

 

Yeah that's exactly it. It would only have taken Harding to make one mistake at a time when we were starting to sit back & we could have lost 2 points. Fox played well Tuesday and read their wing play well & gave them very little.

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Can';t bothered to raed 8 pages to see if anyone else was surprise4d at how well the midfield performed without Cork or Lallana, who had seemed irreplaceable. Adkins is proving to be right when he keeps saying its not about the 11, its about the squad. When he was palying what looked like a first choice 11, the squad comments didn't seem right, but when he can choose to leave out Cork it shows there is truth in it.

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Just watched the extended highlights and spotted two tiny incidents featuring Danny Fox:

 

24:15 - when Davies spills the ball and recovers it at the very end of the match, Fox kneels before him and pats him on the head - and then he pats the ball (or KD's hand?)!? The West Ham player is either signalling for handball or for time wasting from KD

 

24:38 - 2 seconds after the final whistle Fox is having a minor scuffle with Faubert - a Saints staff member gets between them

 

Seems like he is a "highly motivated" player ;-)

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The result now has us odds-on for promotion with all the major bookies on oddschecker for the first time this season, and neck and neck with West Ham for the title. A couple even have us favourites for the title ahead of the 'ammers :D

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