Blackpool 3-0 Saints Reaction

[beatlesaint]

I think the BBC commentary team had it right and that where we were playing after the other games and knowing we were 6 points clear of third we kind of took our eye off the ball and no harm was done with a defeat.

[S-Clarke]

Chance that we'll be 2nd by the time we KO against Pompey.

 

Can see me spending good Friday cheering on Leeds and Barnsley....

 

Ah yes, Reading play on friday night. Interesting.

[Micky]

Absolute dogshyte performance - we were so bad it was actually funny to watch. Nearly 70 percent of posession yet most of that was in and around our own 18 yard box - how many shots did we have? You have to hope that this was a 'one off', a bad day at the office, becuase if it's anything more - we could actully blow it, we were that bad - total dogshyte.

 

Really shouldn't pick anyone player out, because nobody covered themselves in any glory - but Billy Sharpe - really? Never looked like scoring, ever.

 

Perhaps now, we might also be able to curb some of the very premature 'going up / champions / prem league' threads that are littered all over this board.

 

A bad day, maybe - but a huge warning. Oh and from what I saw, Reading looked on fire at UP today.

[CanadaSaint]

I can handle players having poor games because it happens, even when it happens to about six at the same time.

 

What I can't handle is "the fittest team in the division" being outworked and out-hustled for the entire ninety minutes.

 

Having someone instantly up their arses just caused us to play even more square passes and backward passes in midfield than we usually do, explaining why we had lots of possession but virtually no penetration.

 

And yet if Sharp had scored the penalty and Jos had scored when he could have farted it in, the story could have been oh so different.

[beatlesaint]

Can see me spending good Friday cheering on Leeds and Barnsley....

 

Dont waste your time, they will both lose.

[ludgershallsaint]

Dont waste your time, they will both lose.

 

Sound advice.

[alpine_saint]

I think the BBC commentary team had it right and that where we were playing after the other games and knowing we were 6 points clear of third we kind of took our eye off the ball and no harm was done with a defeat.

 

Does anyone know if Rickie Lambert travelled with the squad ?

 

Assuming for a moment that the club arent covering up his real condition, I am wondering if he would have at least made the bench if West Ham had won.

[de-fence]

The sort of attitude to have at a time like this, alright it was a loss and a bad one at that. But no new injuries (as far as I'm aware), no new suspensions and players coming back from injury. New 6 match season begins on Saturday, 6 point headstart and a great goal difference to go with it. Pompey game is huge but if we play to our best against Reading and win then that's the title and promotion wrapped up in one game. Be thankful for where we are, move on and look forward to humiliating ths Skates. Love SFC! STILL love this season!

[markr27]

Adam should have taken Pen to put us two up after Guly should have scored. Then this thread would probably been alot different,

 

Agree, but Sharp was the Donny penalty taker so not really a surprise to me when he stepped up.

As others have said, 1st goal was not a penalty but we have had our fair share of those this season, and the 2nd and 3rd were human errors.

Sharp's movement was decent in patches, let down by some dodgy offside calls.

 

Butterfield worries me, several times he and De Ridder looked on different planets when they are supposed to be working the same flank.

[bpsaint]

God damn that was awful. Still, were top of the league that's all that matters. Head told me we'd lose so no biggy.

[redder freak]

Lacking confidence today in the final third of the pitch. Possibly we could have started with a more attacking formation, with Schneiderlin in a four-man midfield instead of holding him back in front of the back four and immediately behind Cork? Perhaps we showed them too much respect, knowing they're an attacking team.

 

And why was Nigel sitting so close to Ian Holloway?

 

Come on Nigel do your stuff, sort it out for the next game please!

[beatlesaint]

Does anyone know if Rickie Lambert travelled with the squad ?

 

Assuming for a moment that the club arent covering up his real condition, I am wondering if he would have at least made the bench if West Ham had won.

 

From what Adkins said in the pre match interview I doubt he travelled.

[ALWAYS_SFC]

Does anyone know if Rickie Lambert travelled with the squad ?

 

Assuming for a moment that the club arent covering up his real condition, I am wondering if he would have at least made the bench if West Ham had won.

 

Why can we not assume the club are telling the truth?....

 

You cannot survive without your negativity can you?

[Saint Without a Halo]

We had our blip last time after Lambert got sent off and missed 3 games! He does seem to be our talisman

[matt75]

Thought the whole team looked tired, they did a close up of Lallana in the pre-match chat and my misses commented he looked like he had just woken up, bleary eyed. As much a I hate Holloway he played a blinder bringing in 7 fresh players knowing they would need to keep the pressure on us and stop us playing.

That said still think we will go up, just hope its top. Reading game is the decider who goes up champions.

[captainchris]

lets hope it is a one off' date=' only concern is whenever teams get in out faces and get pace down flanks we struggle.[/quote']

 

It's a pity that NA hasn't noticed though? We are short of pace in our team for sure - both defensively and attack wise and DR will not make it in this team - ever...

[jjsaint]

I'll go for:

 

Davis 6 - Some great saves early on, but looked a bit shaky in places.

Butterfield 4 - Poor.

Fonte 4 - Worst I've seen him play.

Hooiveld 4 - See above.

Fox 5 - Best of a bad bunch in the back four. One or two decent balls.

Schneiderlin 6 - One of the least bad players on the pitch.

Cork 5 - Didn't really notice him much.

Lallana 6 - Went missing in after an excellent start.

Chaplow 5 - Not his best effort. When you're subbed for de Ridder in the half, you know it's a bad performance.

Guly 3 - Terrible match today. One of the players I think we can do without.

Sharp 2 - We would have been better off playing with 10 men. It just wasn't his day.

 

Subs:

de Ridder 5 - Chaplow, de Ridder, a disinterested toddler... wouldn't have made much difference. The OED definition of meh.

Barnard n/a - I had lost interest by the time he came on.

 

I can see us f*cking this up and coming third. I really can. (Not wrist-slitting yet, just concerned)...

[Nexstar]

Knew it would be a tough game, but I didn't think we'd be shown up quite that badly.

 

Ince and Phillips on the wings ruined us. Butterfield couldn't put a pass right and Fox didn't seem to have a clue where the position of 'Left-Back' was.

 

A few tight decisions didn't go our way and the penalty set us on a downward spiral.

 

On the plus side we're back at the fortress next week and against a team that shipped 5 at home to Burnley.

 

Blue line time.

[Dimond Geezer]

Bugger.

Poor performance from the defence. Not sure we really missed Lambert, (with the exception of the penalty), as we didn't provide anything for the forwards to feed on. Thought Guly did ok, Davis kept us in it in the first half. Jos was the worst I've seen him play.

Bring on the Skates.

[simo]

We never turned up today i'd be ****ed off if I traveled up to watch that crap! Always embarrass us on tv

[CanadaSaint]

Lacking confidence today in the final third of the pitch. Possibly we could have started with a more attacking formation, with Schneiderlin in a four-man midfield instead of holding him back in front of the back four and immediately behind Cork? Perhaps we showed them too much respect, knowing they're an attacking team.

 

That's where Schneiderlin played against Donny and IMO it's probably his best position.

 

What I think we lack is a visionary playmaker who constantly retains a mental picture of his up-front options and uses them as soon as he gets the ball.

 

The lack of that type of player causes a lot of the "sideways and back" we so often see in the middle of the park, especially today.

[Micky]

Adam should have taken Pen to put us two up after Guly should have scored. Then this thread would probably been alot different,

 

What a strange comment. None of those things happened - that's like saying if we played well we would have won. We were dogshyte and lost, deservedly.

[Saint Without a Halo]

Thought the whole team looked tired, they did a close up of Lallana in the pre-match chat and my misses commented he looked like he had just woken up, bleary eyed. As much a I hate Holloway he played a blinder bringing in 7 fresh players knowing they would need to keep the pressure on us and stop us playing.

That said still think we will go up, just hope its top. Reading game is the decider who goes up champions.

 

 

I thought we had the squad to rotate and refresh! what has happened to Puncheon and Falque surely they would have been no worse! A bit worrying given we have 3 matches in a week over Easter!

[LGTL]

Just got back to the hotel, brilliant travelling support. We were **** but could have been different if we'd had converted the 3 sitters in the first half. Move on.

[Sheaf Saint]

Adam should have taken Pen to put us two up after Guly should have scored. Then this thread would probably been alot different,

 

 

 

Would that be the same Adam Lallana that blazed over when all he had to do was wide-foot it into the net from Guly's pullback in the first half? I didn't feel confident about any of our players taking that penalty the way the game was going.

[Pugwash]

Don’t normally do knee-jerk reactions, but this was absolutely the worst performance of the season! Never threatened at all. If we play like that against Reading – or even the skates – we will get reamed.

 

Scores on the doors:

 

Davis: 7 – probably the only player to come out it with any credit, couldn’t do anything about the goals and made a few crucial saves.

 

Butterfield: 2 – Normally a fan of Danny, but this was awful, just awful. Consistently out of position, constantly burned, passes went nowhere.

 

Fonte: 4 – Shocking by his standards. Never really got a grip on the game.

 

Hooiveld: 5 – At fault for the third goal and possibly the second. Should’ve done better with the scoring opportunity.

 

Fox: 6 – Handled Ince intelligently, but could’ve got forward more.

 

Chaplow: 6 – One of our better players in first half, showed better energy and movement than most. Why subbed?

 

Schneiderlin: 6 – First half tried to carry the water and create a few passes, but out of things in the second half.

 

Cork: 5 – Headless chicken most of the time. Usually wanted three touches, telegraphed his passes. Should impose himself more.

 

Lallana: 6 – Made the running in the first half, passing well. Faded badly in second. Why can’t he get any power in his shots? So frustrating.

 

Guly: 5 – Shocking first half and should’ve been subbed at HT. Five points for a much better second half when playing deeper.

 

Sharp: 5 – Slow, lacking in confidence, no awareness. Awful penalty.

 

De Ridder: 6 – Decent when he got the ball. But Fox, Guly and Cork (twice) could’ve switched play to put him in the clear, but chose to play down blind alleys.

 

Barnard: 6 – Looked sharp and lively, but came on too late in the game. Worth a start.

 

Fans: 9 – Still singing at 3-0, came across really well on TV. Commentator had to talk over the Poopey songs to drown them out. Well done guys and gals.

 

Our Nige: 5 – Got it wrong today. Shouldn’t have taken RC off. Exactly what was that formation change in the second half? Several of the players didn’t seem to know.

 

Officials 6: - Ref was pretty fair, but Linos got a LOT of decisions wrong, including both penalties (they weren’t).

 

All in all a bad day at the office. Hopefully this is just a one-off.

[Roger]

Bugger.

Poor performance from the defence. Not sure we really missed Lambert, (with the exception of the penalty), as we didn't provide anything for the forwards to feed on. Thought Guly did ok, Davis kept us in it in the first half. Jos was the worst I've seen him play.

Bring on the Skates.

 

Not sure we missed lambert? Are u serious?

[Saint Without a Halo]

Shame we didnt get Matt Phillips when we went for him a couple of seasons ago! he looked good and we couldn't handle his pace. Showed us the pace we have missed since Oxo left.

[Deano6]

Awful performance no doubt about it.

 

Thought Guly did OK. Only player on the pitch who looked like he might score.

 

Sharp spent the whole match offside (and what a dreadful pen). Butterfield was dreadful.

 

A very tough watch. Thank god the skates game aint on TV.

 

Sharp missed the pen and wasn't very effective during the game, but to say he was offside all game was unfair. The two good chances we had where he was judged offside he wasn't. Guly made a worse error straying offside during a good break, when Sharp got fouled running on the right. Also, there were 2 if not 3 incredible last ditch tackles from Blackpool defenders without which he would have been in.

 

Not defending him too much as I agree he didn't have a good game, just trying to give some balance.

[saint_jas]

Well that was a bit awful...

Some of our strikers need to learn how not to be offside.

Defence was non existant for two of the goals.

Ref I thought had a bit of a shocker for both penalties.

Pitch was dire.

Our fans were fantastic, esp 2nd half singing all the way through.

 

_____________________________________________

 

Ah well, bring on the skates, hopefully a bit of a reaction from our players.

Still in our hands and I still think we can win the championship.

[CalneSaint]

Disappointing result, disappointing performance from the whole team.....but we're still top of the table. If someone at the start of the season had said to me that we would be top with 7 games left, I would've bitten their arm off...... this is one game....and as the old saying goes...."it aint over till the fat lady sings....and i can't hear no fat warbler yet!!!!:lol:"

[dan17]

Would that be the same Adam Lallana that blazed over when all he had to do was wide-foot it into the net from Guly's pullback in the first half? I didn't feel confident about any of our players taking that penalty the way the game was going.

 

TBF that cross hit what can only be described as a hill-ock and it was clear on the replays. Lallana did not play well at all, but it is harsh to blame him for that miss IMO

[ulstersaint]

Strange post. It's not the perfect result at all, and Sharp didn't play well at all.

 

Agree - Sharp was poor not only for missing a penalty for giving the ball away and being offside too often. And though I admire Joss H this was a poor performance by his own high standards. Need to up our game next week.

[teamsaint]

lancashire has tended to be bad for us over the years , looking way back.

 

And every away game is played on a cow patch !!

[terrasaint]

Thought the whole team looked tired, they did a close up of Lallana in the pre-match chat and my misses commented he looked like he had just woken up, bleary eyed. As much a I hate Holloway he played a blinder bringing in 7 fresh players knowing they would need to keep the pressure on us and stop us playing.

That said still think we will go up, just hope its top. Reading game is the decider who goes up champions.

 

Does it really matter whether we go up as Champions? For my money two successive promotions would be an incredible achievement first or second. First things first, lets try and get distance between us and third place.

[scotty]

Very poor game from us, but a couple of things I noticed, (only saw it on telly, and hats off to the fans who made the trip, they sounded absolutely fantastic from start to finish!! Great support.)

 

Did we seem to be slipping up/falling down all over the park? I lost count of the number of problems we seemed to lose posession through that, and it wasn't any particular individual, it was a lot of the team. And AL seemed frustrated in the 2nd half when that ball from Guly came to him in the box and it bobbled on what looked like an awful penalty area surface. No excuses, both teams had to play on the same pitch and we were well beaten, just an observation.

 

And as soon as Sharpy missed the pen, I honestly thought right there that it was game over. If we could have mugged them for the lead we'd have had the momentum, as it was it went entirely the other way. Quite a few things didn't come off for us today in our passing game that might have worked if we'd been one up and with the subsequent confidence. I also thought Guly was very good, especially in the 2nd half, and that the ref was too f*cking quick to "have a word" in the 1st, a couple of the incidents he pulled Guly up on looked like nothing at all to me.

 

Onwards then. We are still in the driving seat for auto, bring on the skates....

[Saint_lambden]

Sounds bizarre but that result will hopefully wake the players up to realise that we're nowhere near over the line yet. Shambolic defending and no imputes to go forward at all.

 

Hopefully Lambert and Tadanari are back for the derby. At least that will get rid of the gloating on here of us hammering the skates 5-0 etc, even if they did get pummeled today.

 

Good ol' Saints, never doing it easy.

[sussexsaint]

Well, glad we got that performance out of the way before next week. May not be a terrible thing in the end, no chance of complacency setting in.

 

Did bring back memories all too quickly though

[pingwing]

Sharp useless up front on his own, there is no polite way to sum up his individual performance.

 

Back 4 have set very high standards for them selves this season and have had a poor day at the office.

 

Saints have been beaten by a 3 simple things, energy on/off the ball, big dose of complacency and quite simply not doing our home work for what Blackpool where going to throw at us. First half Dobbie making runs in from the top of midfield that no one could go near cost us badly.

 

It's a shame that we haven't done well on tv this year but 6 games to go and it's still in our hands

[up and away]

That was a disappointment, a very inept performance. Bearing in mind the sheite every player had in support, I can only see Schneiderlin as being the least culpable. This was nothing to do with Lambert, except we would have scored the penalty and won a few headers in midfield. This looked more like subbueteo. This performance typified a pass and move team who had forgot the move part, combined with no pace. When a midfield pass broke down we found their entire midfield exposing our defence, causing all sorts of issues and I doubt Fonte will get much sleep for a while. We needed our midfield covering for that eventuality but without any pace up front, we were never going to make a dent in Blackpool unless our midfield exposed itself as it did. That in no way males it right though and a more tighter practical approach was required when we are that limited. Forgetting about the penalty, I thought Billy was dreadful and needs to reclaim that spot on the bench he has rightly earned. We eventually figured out it was not best to pump up long balls to all 5'8" of Billy and got it into his feet. Turn and give the defence an awkward moment on the front foot, rather than finding one of our centre backs with a 25 yard lay off. This game to me showed how lacking we are without pace that we have to try and force the issue with the midfield, only getting totally exposed when we are not up to the task as today. So many players putting in such a bad performance, such you can forget about our improvement in the second half when the game was over.

 

This was the sort of performance we put in during our slump and anyone taking consolation from the 6 point difference between us and West Ham must have over looked this means we have to play Reading in a couple of games time. Given the current forms of the two teams our prospects seem far from rosy. A draw today would have been brilliant, meaning Reading would have needed 2 results to get past us and West Ham 3, but we never gave ourselves a chance of collecting that 1 point.

[monosaint]

Absolute dogshyte performance - we were so bad it was actually funny to watch. Nearly 70 percent of posession yet most of that was in and around our own 18 yard box - how many shots did we have? You have to hope that this was a 'one off', a bad day at the office, becuase if it's anything more - we could actully blow it, we were that bad - total dogshyte.

 

Really shouldn't pick anyone player out, because nobody covered themselves in any glory - but Billy Sharpe - really? Never looked like scoring, ever.

 

Perhaps now, we might also be able to curb some of the very premature 'going up / champions / prem league' threads that are littered all over this board.

 

A bad day, maybe - but a huge warning. Oh and from what I saw, Reading looked on fire at UP today.

 

I watched the first half online at UP and apart from the last 5 minutes Reading were ****e.. One set piece and a lucky run of the ball with the second they were undeservedly ahead. Let's not believe they are unbeatable because they are..

[badgerx16]

Just got back from the game, how's the wrist slitting going ?

 

You should all think yourselves lucky, my office is full of BFC supporters - work will be hell on Monday morning. Still there is still the consolation that

 

We Are Southampton, we're top of the league

[badgerx16]

In addition, what a superb showing by the travelling fans considering it was live on the beeb.

 

Hats off to them all.

[RobM]

The most frustrating thing about today's result, is the dumb comments that we lost because we didn't have Lambert. Utter nonsense, we lost because we were poor across the field.

 

We looked like we didn't want the ball. When we did have it, everyone seemed to be standing around waiting for something to happen. Only Lallana and Barnard when he came on looked up for it.

 

Poor day at the office. But still 6-points clear of third, that's what counts. And, oddly, today wasn't a bad day to lose. We don't have many defeats in us so it's good to get that out of the way.

 

On we march...

[scotty]

The most frustrating thing about today's result, is the dumb comments that we lost because we didn't have Lambert. Utter nonsense, we lost because we were poor across the field.

 

We looked like we didn't want the ball. When we did have it, everyone seemed to be standing around waiting for something to happen. Only Lallana and Barnard when he came on looked up for it.

 

Poor day at the office. But still 6-points clear of third, that's what counts. And, oddly, today wasn't a bad day to lose. We don't have many defeats in us so it's good to get that out of the way.

 

On we march...

 

Good point, he looked well up for it. Shame he didn't have a bit more time.

[captainchris]

Don’t normally do knee-jerk reactions, but this was absolutely the worst performance of the season! Never threatened at all. If we play like that against Reading – or even the skates – we will get reamed.

 

Scores on the doors:

 

Davis: 7 – probably the only player to come out it with any credit, couldn’t do anything about the goals and made a few crucial saves.

 

Butterfield: 2 – Normally a fan of Danny, but this was awful, just awful. Consistently out of position, constantly burned, passes went nowhere.

 

Fonte: 4 – Shocking by his standards. Never really got a grip on the game.

 

Hooiveld: 5 – At fault for the third goal and possibly the second. Should’ve done better with the scoring opportunity.

 

Fox: 6 – Handled Ince intelligently, but could’ve got forward more.

 

Chaplow: 6 – One of our better players in first half, showed better energy and movement than most. Why subbed?

 

Schneiderlin: 6 – First half tried to carry the water and create a few passes, but out of things in the second half.

 

Cork: 5 – Headless chicken most of the time. Usually wanted three touches, telegraphed his passes. Should impose himself more.

 

Lallana: 6 – Made the running in the first half, passing well. Faded badly in second. Why can’t he get any power in his shots? So frustrating.

 

Guly: 5 – Shocking first half and should’ve been subbed at HT. Five points for a much better second half when playing deeper.

 

Sharp: 5 – Slow, lacking in confidence, no awareness. Awful penalty.

 

De Ridder: 6 – Decent when he got the ball. But Fox, Guly and Cork (twice) could’ve switched play to put him in the clear, but chose to play down blind alleys.

 

Barnard: 6 – Looked sharp and lively, but came on too late in the game. Worth a start.

 

Fans: 9 – Still singing at 3-0, came across really well on TV. Commentator had to talk over the Poopey songs to drown them out. Well done guys and gals.

 

Our Nige: 5 – Got it wrong today. Shouldn’t have taken RC off. Exactly what was that formation change in the second half? Several of the players didn’t seem to know.

 

Officials 6: - Ref was pretty fair, but Linos got a LOT of decisions wrong, including both penalties (they weren’t).

 

All in all a bad day at the office. Hopefully this is just a one-off.

 

Good summing up except Fox who was skinned by Ince all game and was no where to be seen a couple of times......4

DeRidder doesn't hunt the ball and hence ends up with the game passing him by......3

Chaplow along with Lallana were the only players with any energy in the whole team.....

Desperately poor perfomance and you have to say the players were not 'up for it' - perhaps our away preparation needs a good look at and I'm not basing that on one performance.....

[trousers]

@billysharp10: Poor penalty from me today apologies to all the travelling saints fans,not good enuf.I'll aim to put it right when my next chance comes.

[aintforever]

We are sh!t without Lambert, just have to hope his injury is not that bad.

[badgerx16]

We are sh!t without Lambert, just have to hope his injury is not that bad.

 

No we're not, but today Guly, Butterfield, and Fox were absolute pants, and BS missed a penalty. It was bad day at the office, and the Skates will suffer the backlash.

[Dig Dig]

Despite how poor we were, we also could have run Blackpool pretty close regardless. Penalty miss to go ahead, nearly levelled from a corner and then concede a poor goal from the goal kick....A little more clinical we probably would have at least got a point.

 

Oh well, poor display but the positive to take from it is probably a re-focus and kick up the arse...everyone needs one now and then. ... We had not lost in a long time after all.