Points 'won' and 'lost'

[spyinthesky]

Reckon that yesterday we gained between 1-3 points which, perhaps, our performance didnt deserve

 

v Leeds 3 points

 

v Reading 1 point

 

v Blackpool 1 point

 

On the reverse:

 

'Lost' 2 points v Ipswich due to the diverted Jason Scotland shot

 

1 point v Leicester due to a great Goal keeping performance

 

Any more to consider?

 

At the moment we appear to be getting that element of 'luck' that' all successful sides need/deserve

[Lazlo78]

Home vs. Blackpool was more difficult. Went down due to Bart's mistake, but got an equaliser deep into stoppage time. Probably evens it out...

[colehillsaint]

Intresting thread, but our goal difference would suggest we are making some of our own luck.

[The9]

I can't begin to fathom what the rules of this "won"/"lost" game are.

[Rasiak-9-]

I find myself doing this sort of thing a lot recently but the reality of it is its all completely pointless, a bit like filling in a "predictor". All teams have points that they "should"/"shouldn't" have won or lost but at the end of the day the only thing that matters is the final score.

 

Furthermore its quite hard to judge where you draw the lines between luck, bad play and things "just being football".

[Saints foreva]

1 point v Leicester due to a great Goal keeping performance

 

And because of a **** poor referee who didn't see Lambert get abused by Bamba for his OG.

[SaintBobby]

We definitely didn't deserve 3 points at Millwall yesterday. I put that as a +3

[kpturner]

We definitely didn't deserve 3 points at Millwall yesterday. I put that as a +3

Do you think we deserved to lose then?

[Crab Lungs]

I think we should send a letter of thanks to the FA and the football league for all the p;)oints we have earned this season.

[CFSFC]

We had the better chances and dominated 60% of the game. So I think we deserved the 3 points yesterday.

[Frank's cousin]

Age old conudrum and the realy beauty of the game - the fact its unpredictable - gain wins you dont deserve and lose some whe you deserved to win against a side who have one shot at goal... more importantly is how you react. We seem to have some that like to have a go at the squad either way.... saying we dont have the the balls when we fail despite domintaing, yet not acknolwedging we do when we scrape through.... cant fathom them out at times.... As Adriansfc points out, overall it evens itself out and its definitely not 'luck' that has you in the top 2 for 3/4s of the season - what we need now is our fair share to keep us there until the end of April! ;-)

[SaintBobby]

Why? Millwall gave away 2 stupid pens late on. Surely that's a 'deserved to lose' circumstance? Thus we deserved to win??

 

Leeds too. Why do they deserve to win because they spend 90 minutes completely unable to take their chances? Good goalkeeping and last ditch defending are part of a good away performance. Can't dominate possession every week.

 

And blackpool were gifted a goal by bart, yet then decided not to shoot. They didn't deserve to win that one and we definitely deserved our draw. Saints have been top 2 for a whole season so far. Teams don't do that without thoroughly deserving it.

 

I'm not doubting that we deserve our overall league position. After 36+ games, the table doesn't lie.

 

I think there are two meanings of "deserve" in football terms.

 

Firstly, there's when you've been literally robbed by bad decisions - not been given a legitimate penalty or had a goal ruled out that clearly went over the line or conceded a goal that was clearly offside etc. That wasn't the case on Saturday. Both penalties were legitimate. In that narrow definition, the result was "fair".

 

A second, alternative definition is that you are the poorer team on the balance of play, carve out very few clear cut chances etc, but still go on to secure a win. The win at Leeds fits into this category pretty clearly (notwithstanding the claim for a penalty for a Fonte handball). The result is "legitimate" but not "deserved". I'd say the win on Saturday fits into this category. Despite chasing the game, I think we only managed one shot on target in the second half until we got given a penalty. As I said, both penalties were entirely legitimate but also a bit "lucky" (in that it would have been pretty easy for the ref to have given neither of them, especially away from home in the dying minutes). Fair play to the ref for that, but I'd have been wholly unsurprised (although gutted) if we had been given neither penalty or only one of them.

 

I suppose it's a question of "if we played like that, against these opponents for 100 games, how many games would we win, lose and draw?". The Millwall performance would typically result in a defeat IMHO. The Leeds performance even more so.

 

My general sense amongst Saints fans leaving the game was very much a "how the feck did we win that one?" type attitude.

 

Of course, over a season (a) these things even out and (b) it's the mark of a great team to make their opportunities count disproportionately. Saints score pretty high on (b) this season.