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Saints 1 Cardiff 1 Post Match Reactions


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Puncheon was impressive. Imagine he was taken off because of fitness as he was having a great game.

 

Lee looked bright with good movement and first touch.

 

Shame we had no natural width in the 2nd half. Connolly didn't work in the hole really.

 

Decent point but only if we get something at Brum.

 

Also wish Fox would occassionally try and advance beyond Lallana to give a forward option.

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Let's be brutally frank here chaps. Good second half display or not , if we have aspirations to be automatic promotion contenders tonight's result is two points lost.

Sharp, and Lee when he's acclimatised, may be brilliant for us, but they cannot claw back points we ought to have gained prior to their arrival.

Still ever hopeful but too many games over the season to date seem to be in the 'should have done better' category.

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Cracking game, very impressed with Cardiff, they will certainly be challenging come the end for top 2. Could have had 3 but it wasn't to be. Superb save at the end. For me, Cork & Spiderman just couldn't get hold of the middle of the park and we lost too much in there, lucky Cardiff didn't punish us as Kenny Miller had a few chances he really Gould have done better with.

 

Good to see Lee, he looks a clever lad. Made some feet runs that when the team learn how he works will be worth a few goals.

 

Dissapointed, strangely. Just feel the ref played a massive part in that and overall deserved the win. Onwards we go, bring on Saturday.

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Let's be brutally frank here chaps. Good second half display or not , if we have aspirations to be automatic promotion contenders tonight's result is two points lost.

Sharp, and Lee when he's acclimatised, may be brilliant for us, but they cannot claw back points we ought to have gained prior to their arrival.

Still ever hopeful but too many games over the season to date seem to be in the 'should have done better' category.

 

Good god...

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Let's be brutally frank here chaps. Good second half display or not , if we have aspirations to be automatic promotion contenders tonight's result is two points lost.

Sharp, and Lee when he's acclimatised, may be brilliant for us, but they cannot claw back points we ought to have gained prior to their arrival.

Still ever hopeful but too many games over the season to date seem to be in the 'should have done better' category.

But surely that was much much better than we were just 8 days ago, where we were frankly terrible and the squad looking ultra thin. Suddenly we've got players back, new signings and more to come! Slightly disappointed we couldn't get all three points, considering Wham's result but well pleased with the improvement.
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Birmingham do seem a worry right now however two things...

 

Brum have played 39 games already this season...minimum number they will have to play by the end of the season 59

 

Brum have only played 21 players in the league this season, three no longer play for them.

 

Asking a group of 18 players to keep this form up when they've already played so many games would be a big ask for them...

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Disappointed not to get all three points. Cardiff were timewasting from the off, and the ref was bloody useless. It was a nailed on penalty for Rickie in the first half, and they were all over Kelvin for their goal.

 

Puncheon was our man of the first half - I'm guessing he came off because he's not match fit for the full 90 at the moment. Lee came on and looked energetic and dangerous - very promising!

 

Overall: frustrating first half, good second half - any other ref and we'd have won tonight.

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Kris Temple has just used the Radio Solent Twitter account to tweet:

 

"Kris here - just seen penalty shouts on video. With benefit of replays, #Saintsfc probably could've had three out of the three shouts"

 

with benefit of the ref actually being closer than 30 yards away from the action more like!

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Well that was a million times better than the Leicester game. First half very tight, but we had the most stonewall penalty I've ever seen turned down, and they score from a corner despite kelvin being assaulted!!

 

Second half we were back to our best and could easily have won. If we maintain that level of performance from now til the end of the season we will win this league.

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Obviously an improved performance, but a number of frustrating things. How many crossing opportunities including corners did Fox & Richardson have without creating anything? Someone needs to tell Lallana he doesn't need 20 touches every time he gets the ball. We move the ball too slowly going forward at times and he is particularly guilty of doing that.

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Really good game played out by two good sides. First half was very even, and we gave them a little too much space at times - especially in midfield. We did have the better chances in the first half though, and their goal was a bit dubious to say the least from where I was sat.

 

2nd half was awesome though, best we've played at home for weeks. At the start of the season when the ball was running for us that would have been 4-1 without a doubt. We battered a very good team in that 2nd half and there was only ever one team going to win it in that 2nd half.

 

Lee came on and made such a positive impact, I thought he looked excellent holding the ball up, running off the ball, and he also fought well - and showed he wasn't going to be brushed off easily at this level. Looks a little live wire and a very positive home debut.

 

Great to see Fonte and Lambo back, who were excellent IMO. Fonte lead from the back and we looked so much more assured back there, although Martin wasn't 100% comfortable on the left hand side of defense and it hindered us when playing out at times.

 

Everything in attack went via Lallana and Lambert, who held the ball up, played others in, controlled excellent etc - typical lambert, and never in doubt when he took that penality. 3rd time lucky too, because we had another 2 shouts that were stone wallers - no doubts about it.

 

One slight negative - the full backs. Both poor in position and out of possession, I imagine Richardson is still a little rusty - but his crossing was well off today.

 

Overall a very very positive display and we will win alot of games playing like that. Cardiff are no mugs either, but we made them look very limited in that 2nd half.

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Someone needs to tell Lallana he doesn't need 20 touches every time he gets the ball. We move the ball too slowly going forward at times and he is particularly guilty of doing that.

 

Adkins mentioned this in his post match interview. Said that some players (e.g. Adam) need to shoot more often.

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Happy that we pulled it back to get a result, really unlucky not to win in the second half. Ref was shocking once again, blatant foul on Lambert in the box at 0-0. Thought Punch was class, ran himself ragged tonight and was a bit gutted he came off. Lee looked bright and quick, clearly going to take a few games to understand the pace and flow of English football. Oh and when the opportunity rises could we please just ****ING SHOOT! God it's frustrating watching us try to pass it in the net at times.

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The proverbial game of two halves. But whereas Cardiff shaded the first half, we totally and utterly dominated the second half. Perhaps we were a bit nervous the first half, either that, or Cardiff wanted it more, because they closed us down, were often first to the 50/50 balls and some of our passing was a bit wayward. Frankly, with the team we had out there, I expected more, what with the team being pretty well full strength apart from Hooiveld. I had listened to glowing reports about Puncheon in the Milwall match, so was keen to make my own judgement on him tonight. Well, he had a cracking game, certainly a better player than when I last saw him play here before he went on his travels. A lot of the link up play went through him and there were several good passes and incisive through balls feeding the attack from him. I was certainly amongst his detractors, but if he carries on like this, he will carve out a place on the team sheet every week, especially bearing in mind that he is not yet at full match fitness.

 

I thought that I saw a handball just before Cardiff scored and one of our players followed the referee back to almost the centre circle to remonstrate with him. I think that we had two good penalty shouts before we got third time lucky. And Lambert showed Crystal Palace how to take a penalty.

 

Whereas we were a bit tentative and lacklustre in the first half, almost from the second half whistle, we seemed like a different team. I don't know what Adkins said to them to gee them up, but the transformation was remarkable. This was much more like the team that carved out that record breaking sequence up to Christmas. We played with the sort of verve and mobility that few teams could live with. We played with width, closed down Cardiff quickly, often robbed them of the ball with some great tackling, denied them possession and mounted wave after wave of attacks. They were hanging on with some desperate last ditch defending for most of the second half and hung on for the point. Whenever they counter-attacked, their finishing was woeful.

 

When Lee came on for Puncheon, it was good to see him play for the first time at St.Mary's. I thought that he had a great debut and could become a bit of a legend, judging by his pace, skill and commitment. The guy gave 100% and was all over the pitch, with some neat touches demonstrating some good skills. During the first half, player ratings would have been fairly low, but during the second half, I can't single out any player who put in a below par performance. Honourable mentions to the "new" boys, Puncheon ;) and Lee and although I had my doubts about Martin playing on the left CB, he really gets better every match since he was afforded the opportunity to step up.We still need another CB in my opinion, but now with Sharp giving Adkins another selection headache up front, provided that we don't have any key injuries, we now have a squad that can take this division by storm and gain automatic promotion. When we had our hiccups against the teams at the foot of the table, people looked nervously over their shoulder at West Ham catching us up and overtaking us. But now West Ham have gone down big time against another such lower placed team themselves and we close the gap on them again and keep Cardiff beneath us too. Psychologically, that is not as big a boost as we would have had from beating Cardiff and going back top, but of the three teams, I still think that we can take most from tonight's results, especially when we will have Sharp up front next match and Chaplow back soon too.

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Once Punch is back to full match practice and Lee gets to grips with English football a little, they'll dangerous players from the start or the bench. In addition to Jos, Chaplow and Guly. I think we could be turning a teams over again come March and April.

 

Lee should be given a chance to play a full 90 in the replay next Tues

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Difference between first and second half for me was Richardson was getting beyond our midfield in the second half on the overlap. Wasn't happening first half. Fox didn't do it all game.

 

Connolly was good tonight, those saying he wasn't either weren't there or were too drunk/busy abusing Cardiff fans/busy abusing the ref. He worked the channels and the hole all game long and never gave the ball away. Punch was good tonight. Lallana looked good too in brief spells. Schneiderlin ran the game second half. Cork was a bit of a passenger at times. Lee looked sharp, quick over 5-10 yards. Lambert was quality up until the goal and was then anonymous after that. Martin was class at the back. Better than Fonte I thought tonight. Davis looked dodgy..couldn't see the goal but he flapped at one second half. Overall, decent point, encouraging performance. Would prefer a bit more adventure from full backs. Fox especially.

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Absolutely....how can you make decisions when you are always 30 yards away from play the useless ****.

 

He was such a poor ref. in terms of not reading the game correctly, he got in the way of the ball on a few occasions too and actually set us away at one point.

 

A really really poor ref, had no control of that game in the first half.

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Good point, could of won it, Bit mystified why Puncheon was subbed as he was bossing the midfield in the 1st half with a free role, for me Connolly should have been taken off as a few wayward passes from him put us under pressure at times and he was a bit anonymous particularity in the 2nd half. Bonus that West Ham lost 5-1 which really made my night when i saw the result. 2 points in it now and fancy us to take all 3 off Brum on Saturday COYS!!

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Good point, could of won it, Bit mystified why Puncheon was subbed as he was bossing the midfield in the 1st half with a free role, for me Connolly should have been taken off as a few wayward passes from him put us under pressure at times and he was a bit anonymous particularity in the 2nd half. Bonus that West Ham lost 5-1 which really made my night when i saw the result. 2 points in it now and fancy us to take all 3 off Brum on Saturday COYS!!

 

Puncheon was out on his feet, you could tell. Going to take a few weeks for him to get back into the groove, as he's not had any action for the last 6 months and no proper pre-seaosn either.

 

He worked his arse off though, really positive display from the lad. Fair play to him, total turn around.

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I though Lee was really exciting, can't see Hammond playing again and Guly's going to try some to get his place back.

 

Just one thing... what was the chant for Lee? Couldn't make it out...

 

Why can't you see Hammond playing again?

 

The same thing will happen that has happened all season, the midfielders will rotate. Morgan and Hammond will play together, Cork and Hammond will play together etc.

 

He's still a massive player for us.

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Good result. Puncheon was excellent. Lallana was good, but is trying to be too clever. We need to move the ball quicker - find channels. I do hope that either Sharp or Lee are given more of a chance to shine by playing into channels rather than lumping it to Lambert all the time or passing it into the net! The ref deserves a medal from Cardiff for that performance - totally bottled two stone-wall pens...Lamberts being so obvious it was comical that the ref didn't give it.

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Difference between first and second half for me was Richardson was getting beyond our midfield in the second half on the overlap. Wasn't happening first half. Fox didn't do it all game.

 

Connolly was good tonight, those saying he wasn't either weren't there or were too drunk/busy abusing Cardiff fans/busy abusing the ref. He worked the channels and the hole all game long and never gave the ball away. Punch was good tonight. Lallana looked good too in brief spells. Schneiderlin ran the game second half. Cork was a bit of a passenger at times. Lee looked sharp, quick over 5-10 yards. Lambert was quality up until the goal and was then anonymous after that. Martin was class at the back. Better than Fonte I thought tonight. Davis looked dodgy..couldn't see the goal but he flapped at one second half. Overall, decent point, encouraging performance. Would prefer a bit more adventure from full backs. Fox especially.

 

No connolly was shocking. Should have been taken off. Id have guly and sharpe ahead of him. Lucky to be on the bench if he performs like that was v poor.

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No connolly was shocking. Should have been taken off. Id have guly and sharpe ahead of him. Lucky to be on the bench if he performs like that was v poor.

 

Connolly wasn't that bad, better than he has been in recent weeks. His touch was a bit off at times though.

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Poor first half, however second half looked a lot better. Puncheon was our best player before he was taken off. Lambert played well and Lee looked very exciting when he came on. He has a lot of pace and is intelligent on and off the ball. Thought the weak link in our side was Connolly, but now we have Sharp to come in things look good. Draw probably a fair result, we looked shakey at a few corners and long throws which Cardiff should have capitalised on, few free headers. Take a point and move on to Brum where I think we will get a result.

 

Also just to finish, Martin is growing into an excellent young centre half, very pleased with how he is playing.

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Connolly was dire in the second half, looked decent in the first half though. Would've preferred to see Lee or Guly start though.

 

I'm happy with a point tbh, puts us 2 points clear of Cardiff still and 2 points behind WHAM. Looking forward to Brum on Saturday, it's a real make-or-break game if we want to get automatic.

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Connolly was dire in the second half, looked decent in the first half though. Would've preferred to see Lee or Guly start though.

 

I'm happy with a point tbh, puts us 2 points clear of Cardiff still and 2 points behind WHAM. Looking forward to Brum on Saturday, it's a real make-or-break game if we want to get automatic.

 

Only 1 pt clear of Cardiff afaik.

 

WHU 53 - us - 51 - Cardiff 50

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I though Lee was really exciting, can't see Hammond playing again and Guly's going to try some to get his place back.

 

Just one thing... what was the chant for Lee? Couldn't make it out...

 

To the tune of 'Viva Ronaldo' (YouTube it if you don't know it already) :

 

Tadanari Lee, Tadanari Lee, Tadanari Leeeeeee, Got him on a free and he eats Sushi, Tadanari Lee

 

 

Much better than the version the Kingsland north were trying to get going which is just the 'Just can't get enough' tune that every club has decided to sing now. ZZZZZZ.

Nice to have something new instead of 'LEEEEEEEEEEEEEE' or something else dull.

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To the tune of 'Viva Ronaldo' (YouTube it if you don't know it already) :

 

Tadanari Lee, Tadanari Lee, Tadanari Leeeeeee, Got him on a free and he eats Sushi, Tadanari Lee

 

 

Much better than the version the Kingsland north were trying to get going which is just the 'Just can't get enough' tune that every club has decided to sing now. ZZZZZZ.

Nice to have something new instead of 'LEEEEEEEEEEEEEE' or something else dull.

Why wasn't it sung like Man Utd sing 'Viva Ronaldo'?
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