Saints 1 Reading 3 - The Wake

[Legod Third Coming]

Just seen the interview with McDermott. He couldn't believe his luck either!!!!

[No 2 to Maybush]

We will obviously sign a few players in the summer, whatever happens, but don't expect wholesale changes. People said that half of our team couldn't do it at this level after a defeat to Wallall in L1, but in truth - they're all perfectly adequate and many have done a great job and look fine at this level, the same will happen in the premier league if we get there. I'd expect Rickie to score, he's clearly good enough, Lallana will be a threat, Morgan and Cork will be an excellent partnership in the middle.

 

The only question marks I have would be right midfield, depth at full back and potentially another striker.

 

3 or 4 top quality additions in the summer, as we did this year, will see us make a good account for ourselves if we get there.

Yep, pretty much agree with that, full back is where we are limited at the moment. Don't get me wrong, the players in those positions have done a great job for us this season, but their limitations are plain to see. Should we be lucky enough to go up, then we will need to reinforce in the areas you mention. Christ, I was disappointed tonight!

[Nexstar]

Karma for Leeds away?

[kpturner]

If we play like we did last night we will go up. Gutted that we won't win the league now but pretty much condemns West Ham to play offs. We need one draw and one win, with the hammers winning all four to come second. Just can't see us not getting at least one point in one of the away games. Peterborough won't know whats hit 'em.

Maths is not your strong point then?

[Legod Third Coming]

Reading came with a game plan that was very effective - the result shows this to be the case. I agree that we should get behind the team - we are so close with 3 games to go. However, I thought that this game just reinforced what I have seen over the season, and there is no doubt that, should we go up, we will need to make significant changes. I won't pick on individual players - there have been some very astutue observations from previous posters as to the limitations in the team which were displayed to the nation tonight. I just think if we played the same way down the left as we did last season, we would be posing a lot more questions to teams like Reading. It is a shame that Lee got injured - from the games I saw him play in, I thought we were nailed on to go up as champions, and he is sorely missed. We have no-one else with pace up front to tear teams apart, as we were tonight. Still, our fate is totally in our hands, as most of us expected it would be. There are three games to go - 9 points will definitely see us up. Over to you Nigel.

 

Sorry friend but this is cobblers.

 

We were not torn apart.

 

Goal 1 - Fox gives the ball away with a cross-field pass in NO danger. We are in possession going forward.

 

Goal 2 - Hammond gives the ball away in midfield, we are attacking in posession in no danger.

 

Goal 3 - irrelevant as we were chasing the game.

 

The only limitations exposed tonight were that people make mistakes and that we should have shot a coupel of times more often although 23 shots, 9 on target against 6 from Reading in total!

 

Sometimes in life you don't get what you deserve (as Leeds will testify).

 

That's life. It's no-one's fault unless you want to blame Fox and Hammond who, apart from an error each, played superbly.

[bender]

From the word go it was obvious both these teams are destined for the Prem. It was a Premier League game with Premier League quality. Imagine this: Wham beat Brighton, we lose to Posh, Wham beat Bristol. Even then were still above Wham with 2 to go, but clearly all those things are not gonna happen.

 

Play anything like this at Posh and Wham then need us to not beat Boro or Cov at home.

[Legod Third Coming]

From the word go it was obvious both these teams are destined for the Prem. It was a Premier League game with Premier League quality. Imagine this: Wham beat Brighton, we lose to Posh, Wham beat Bristol. Even then were still above Wham with 2 to go, but clearly all those things are not gonna happen.

 

Play anything like this at Posh and Wham then need us to not beat Boro or Cov at home.

 

Quite right. That was a sensational game of football which was won by the undeserving side. A brilliant advert for football.

[adethorne]

For a change, a fair point alpine.

 

Then you are dellusional, I'm afraid. I am far from meltdown. This defeat is, along with Blackpool, one of the easier to take, because we were beaten by a team that was hungry, energetic, well organised, and I know that we werent up to their standard on the day.

 

I go into meltdown after losing to crap like Bristol City.

[skintsaint]

Maths is not your strong point then?

 

oops....3 hours sleep does that to you. Damn 3am kick offs...

[Jesus Reigned]

I've just had to get out of bed as I couldn't sleep after that!

 

My first reaction was we were robbed; three efforts on target, three goals; but the fact is our defending simply wasn't good enough.

 

If we think tonight was a harsh lesson you just wait until we're in the Prem next season...

 

Fox was culpable twice for their first; initially with the Hollywood pass to no-one and then his ****-poor "effort" to block Kebe's cross.

 

Fonte had his pants pulled down by a Premiership has-been.

 

Despite the stats it wasn't so much smash and grab but rather a good attacking team biding their time and picking us off.

 

That said Lallana missed an absolute sitter after we equalised; all he had to do was hit the target and he'd have scored.

 

After that we didn't even really huff and puff; Reading saw it out with ease.

 

Of course West Ham will win tomorrow; if we defend like that again on Tuesday we'll lose again and could well find ourselves in third by the time we face Boroassuming West Ham's match kicks off before ours.

 

Not felt this peed off for a long time, but I'd still rather be in our position than West Ham's!!

[GAS]

I agree, this squad is worthy of winning the league and with a few additions doing ok in the prem. The right choice of full backs is intrigal to the way we are playing. Butterfield, Richardsons and Fox's crosses to Lambert are a real winner, but close them down and they are ****e. Fox gives the ball away too cheaply and they are all slow and ponderous on the ball. I find Fox the most annoying as he gives away possession so often when there is usually an easy pass through the middle. Why not play to our overall strengths that is obvious to see from this game. Lambert is not the reason why we were top his goals are the result of the way we play. COYR.

[GAS]

Agree absolutely. We made individual mistakes, they didn't. Who were the better team by a country mile? COYR.

Sorry friend but this is cobblers.

 

We were not torn apart.

 

Goal 1 - Fox gives the ball away with a cross-field pass in NO danger. We are in possession going forward.

 

Goal 2 - Hammond gives the ball away in midfield, we are attacking in posession in no danger.

 

Goal 3 - irrelevant as we were chasing the game.

 

The only limitations exposed tonight were that people make mistakes and that we should have shot a coupel of times more often although 23 shots, 9 on target against 6 from Reading in total!

 

Sometimes in life you don't get what you deserve (as Leeds will testify).

 

That's life. It's no-one's fault unless you want to blame Fox and Hammond who, apart from an error each, played superbly.

[SaintJackoInHurworth]

I got bored of reading this thread before geting to the bottom of page 1. The fact is, we are still 6 points ahead of West Ham and they have not won at home since January and are playing a team who are looking to get into the play-offs. The chances are therefore that WHam v Baha will end in a draw or a win for Baha. If Baha win then we only need one more win.

 

I still believe we could still win the Championship title though! OK, we would have to win all three of our games, but I think that is more than possible - Posh have little to play for and are more than beatable, while Boro could well find their season is over by next Saturday - especially if they lose away against Derby today. We should be capable of beating Coventry. If we were to win all three games then Reading would need to win two and draw or win the other. You would expect them to win their next two games against Forest and Palace, but their last game away against Brum could end in defeat. OK - it's fairly unlikley, but stranger things have happened!

 

If we don't win the title (and to be honest I think it unlikely!) we can be justly proud of the team's achievements this season. Who knows, we could even see a repeat of this season with the team that came second having achieved back-to-back promotions ending comfortably placed in the Premiership while the blue-and-white-hooped Championship winners have struggled against relegation!

[Nexstar]

 

Of course West Ham will win tomorrow; if we defend like that again on Tuesday we'll lose again and could well find ourselves in third by the time we face Boroassuming West Ham's match kicks off before ours.

 

Not felt this peed off for a long time, but I'd still rather be in our position than West Ham's!!

 

Thankfully they're playing on the Monday night

[Chez]

strange game where we dominated from start to finish, but just couldn't forge that unmissable chance we needed to get our noses in front. Very happy with the overall performance. Like the way we played it out from the back, showed patience and were first to the second ball throughout. Disappointed with the cutting edge up front and out wide. No keeper on the bench, yet we still don't have anyone to replace the totally ineffective Sharp. Fair play to Reading for sticking in there and then finishing the chances when they came along. The pace up front was telling and showed up exactly what we lack. Our time will come though and if we play like that we'll get the points we need. Felt worse after the skate draw.

 

Davis 7 Not a lot to do. One great save in the second half. Excellent distribution.

Butterfield 7 decent game, kept both wide players quiet, lots of excellent crosses that someone should have got on the end of. Not a fan but he did his job.

Jos 7 another solid game, won everything in the air, strong as always

Fonte 6 tough battle with Roberts who was a handful as expected. A couple of mistakes, but lessor defenders would have torn a new one by Roberts. Passed it well from the back. Went missing for their second, got caught a little for the first too although a top quality cross.

Fox 6 The good thing from this is his hollywood ball might not be his first thought. What I don't understand is how at Palace every pass is simple down the line to Adam, yet today he didn't make that pass once. Every single time it was inside - often to good effect - but Lallana didn't see the ball at all in the second half. Didn't get tight enough for their second allowing an easy cross.

Cork 9 Another outstanding display. Absolutely everywhere, great in the air, covered the ground, up and down

Hammond 7 Got caught in possession a couple of times notably leading to the second goal, but the middle was ours helped by his strong display. Not sure why we subbed him. Guly for Sharp was the move for me.

Chaplow 5 not his day today, the effort was there but it just didn't go for him unlike at Palace. If he connected with the keeper he was lucky to stay on. Taken off because of the risk of red? Pity as he'd almost scored and might have gone on from there.

Lallana 7 great first half, absolutely everywhere except wide, but needed him to score. I'm greedy and want to see him cut inside and curl into the to corner a few more times. Did nothing in the second at all. Give him the ****ing ball. Jesus.

Lambert 9 Best first half display I've ever seen from him. Amazing. Ran the game completely. Continued in the second half and obviously got his goal. Crap last five minutes when he made a few poor passes, but harsh to mark him down on those.

Sharp 4 nothing stuck, he went down easy, ran into defenders rather than genuinely jump for the ball and offered very little. He controlled the ball well for the goal but offered little threat. Went through in first half but bottled it with his left tried to get it onto his right and immediately run down by the defender. No pace, chance gone. Should have been subbed. The difference between the sides was the strikers. Lambert was quality, Sharp not good enough.

 

5 de Ridder flatters to deceive. Beat Harte once in half an hour. Too many crop circles and crosses failing to beat the first man. Just eats peoples space. Get the ball and run like the wind. Love his enthusiasm, very important tackle on Roberts, but we don't get the best from him. I thought we were better with Chaplow and he was having a poorish game.

6 Guly passed it well, kept the ball, didn't really improve us a lot, but perhaps Hammond was tiring so he maintained the intensity

Edited 13 April, 2012 by Chez

[S-Clarke]

Thankfully they're playing on the Monday night

 

away at a galvanized and playoff chasing Leicester too, IMO this is done and dusted as long as we beat P'boro as I cannot see us slipping up at home to Coventry, we will have way too much for them.

[Legod Third Coming]

strange game where we dominated from start to finish, but just couldn't forge that unmissable chance we needed to get our noses in front. Very happy with the overall performance. Lie the way we played it out from the back, showed patience and were first to the second ball throughout. Disappointed with the cutting edge up front and out wide. No keeper on the bench yet we still don't have anyone to replace the totally ineffective Sharp. Fair play t Reading for sticking in there and then finishing the chances when the came along. The pace up front was telling and showed up what we lack. Our time will come.

 

Davis 7 Not a lot to do. One great save in the second half. Excellent distribution.

Butterfield 7 decent game, kept both wide players quiet, lots of excellent crosses that someone should have got on the end of.

Jos 7 another solid game, won everything in the air, strong as always

Fonte 6 tough battle with Roberts who was a handful as expected. A couple of mistakes, but lessor defenders would have torn a new one by Roberts. Passed it well from the back. Went missing for their second, got caught a little for the first too although a top quality cross.

Fox 6 The good thing from this is his hollywood ball might not be his first thought. What I don't understand is how at Palace every pass is simple down the line to Adam, yet today he didn't make that pass once. Every single time it was inside - often to good effect - but Lallana didn't see the ball at all in the second half. Didn't get tight enough for their second allowing an easy cross.

Cork 9 Another outstanding display. Absolutely everywhere, great in the air, covered the ground, up and down

Hammond 7 Got caught in possession a couple of times notably leading to the second goal, but the middle was ours helped by his strong display. Not sure why we subbed him. Guly for Sharp was the move for me.

Chaplow 5 not his day today, the effort was there but it just didn't go for him unlike at Palace. If he connected with the keeper he was lucky to stay on. Taken off because of the risk of red? Pity as he'd almost scored and might have gone on from there.

Lallana 7 great first half, absolutely everywhere except wide, but needed him to score. I'm greedy and want to see him cut inside and curl into the to corner a few more times. Did nothing in the second at all. Give him the ****ing ball. Jesus.

Lambert 9 Best first half display I've ever seen from him. Amazing. Ran the game completely. Continued in the second half and obviously got his goal. Crap last five minutes when he made a few poor passes, but harsh to mark him down on those.

Sharp 4 nothing stuck, he went down easy, ran into defenders rather than genuinely jump for the ball and offered very little. He controlled the ball well for the goal but offered little threat. Went through in first half but bottled it with his left tried to get it onto his right and immediately run down by the defender. No pace, chance gone. Should have been subbed. The difference between the sides was the strikers. Lambert was quality, Sharp not good enough.

 

5 de Ridder flatters to deceive. Beat Harte once in half an hour. Too many crop circles and crosses failing to beat the first man. Just eats peoples space. Get the ball and run like the wind. Love his enthusiasm, very important tackle on Roberts, but we don't get the best from him.

6 Guly passed it well, kept the ball, didn't really improve us a lot, but perhaps Hammond was tiring so he maintained the intensity

 

I would agree with all that. At the time I thought Kelvin could have come for the ball for the first, but just seen it on SKY and it was a great cross which arced out and gave Roberts every chance. He should never have been allowed to cross tho...

[Saints foreva]

Did Lallana play 2nd half? Didn't really notice him....

[SaintRobbie]

Just got home after train, missed train and £35 cab fare.

 

Spent the whole journey with Reading fans who could not believe their luck.

 

3 shots 3 goals. 3 errors by Saints.

 

75% possession and totally outclassed them the whole game.

 

Gutted. These things happen in football.

 

Four more points is probably good enough. Play at 70% of tonight's performance (without the errors) and we will win the next three games comfortably.

 

I have never seen a team play so well and get nothing from the game.

 

Feel for the lads tonight. Well done Reading. Mugged.

 

Ditto that.

[Saint_clark]

MOTM poll added

[SNSUN]

Cork was my MOTM. Everything good went through him. Adam had a good first half but disappeared in the second, he's our most important player but he needs to up his game a bit more.

[harwellsaint]

and me up the saints

Ditto that.

[pingwing]

Fox with quite simply the best display on how to be a terrible left back, I don't see how a player who has to deal with Kebe for 90 mins for get after about 10 and just do nothing positive. It's been clear for some months now that he is not a prem left back and is really starting to get on my nerves.

 

Hammond out, can't pass to save his life. We miss the Morg more than anything else tonight as he can do the tackling of Hammond and the passing of Guly, without that we have to suffer with Hammond's nonsense. Same with Chaplow and being a liability.

 

Final player rant is Sharp can go back to manning a pie shop up north somewhere with his whippet. A fat, lazy, lower half champ striker who's goals are someone setting him up to smash it from a yard or a massive defensive mistake. No ability to make his own space, no ability to beat people, can't run the ball, can't out pace anyone decent, can't create a goal for anyone else, pointless player. Between Connelly and Barnard they might just stand a chance of doing something other than smash it from a yard. Could not need Lee enough.

 

 

For me Butters was one of the best players on the pitch, begging the question why did we ever play Harding at RB if Butters was an option!

 

Lambert and Lallana were really good, they had very few answers for them and their cb's were getting away with murder climbing over everyone.

 

 

To get promotion we can not play like that, we have to make the chances count (like at palace) if not we will end up 3rd and will do this league again next year, which will be entirely our own fault

[S-Clarke]

Final player rant is Sharp can go back to manning a pie shop up north somewhere with his whippet. A fat, lazy, lower half champ striker who's goals are someone setting him up to smash it from a yard or a massive defensive mistake. No ability to make his own space, no ability to beat people, can't run the ball, can't out pace anyone decent, can't create a goal for anyone else, pointless player. Between Connelly and Barnard they might just stand a chance of doing something other than smash it from a yard. Could not need Lee enough.

 

 

I have to say that is a load of rubbish. I've not been Sharp's biggest fan since he's been here, but I thought he was pretty good tonight. Put himself about well, linked up well with Lambert, made clever runs down the sides of the CB's. Oh, and got an assits for Lamberts goal - so he did create a goal for someone else. Maybe you need to watch it again.

 

To get promotion we will have to play like that, but just cutting out the mistakes. We were terrific tonight, have a re-watch of the game to see for yourself.

 

Agree with Butterfield though, thought he had a very decent game.

[John Boy Saint]

Well I had hoped to be blowing my 2000th post following a cheery night watching another great from the Saints but C'est La Vie.

 

My feeling leaving St Mary's tonight was: Jeez it's chuffin hard work being a Saints fan!

I hoped with a new brush sweeping through the building since admin and having watched some of the most mouthwatering football from my team over the last few seasons (****ing playing on TV aside: shoitebags picked the wrong bloody horse to follow with tonight and next Saturday), I hoped as the finishing line came into view we would be more like Red Rum than Devon Lock (those scratching their head put Devon Lock in Wikipedia). But the tune has changed the Dance is still the same.

 

Reading have fantastic momentum, which tonight saw 3 mistakes by us punished, previously we would have gotten away with them. And fair play to "Ben from Eastenders", who is out of a similar mould to our Nige, he has assembled a potent force who have speed to burn, which at the end of the day is what punished us.

 

I thought we played really well tonight, especially in the first half. But as the game panned out we became too laboured and predictable. There is another thread running on here started by someone not impressed by Steve de Ridder, well sat in the Chapel the amount of times he had the Ball and looking into the box the amount of times there was no bugger there was amazing, (Rickie and Billy were covered) everyone else was having a fag round the back of the dug out!

Which opens up another question, all season we have tried to score the perfect goal, strangely enough we have been doing that for quite a while, I think it's about time they had a game of England Scotland ( headers and Volleys) in training, as players like Jack Cork, who played well tonight, should be smoking absolute snorters into the back of the net from outside the box when the defender clears in his direction, rather than going " cripes the balls a bomb pass it sideways to someone else!"! We should be buying a lottery ticket when in sight of the goal, the amount of goals scored every weekend across the 4 divisions is amazing thanks to a ball rifled into the net taking a cheeky nick off a defender en route.

 

Unfortunately the Gods of fate have not dealt us the best hand in recent weeks as players like Spiderman and Lee might have put a different slant on proceedings. Billy Sharpe without doubt is a finisher and increasingly links well with Lambert, but Lee (in the games he has played) is like Willow the Whisp, one minute he is there next he has popped up somewhere else, which is a nightmare for defenders. Morgan Schneiderlin sets a fantastic tempo in midfield, that said Jack a few times tonight looked like he had been in the Joe90 machine linked up to Morgan. Hammond without a doubt is an enforcer, but in losing the ball for their second goal showed he is at the limits of his endurance. Guly who replaced him just needs wiring to the mains and there being a button in the dug out so they can give him the hurry up when he decides to go into Copacabana beach laid back mode.

 

Just as an aside, and further to another post earlier in this thread. Lallana without a doubt is a gifted player when it comes to bamboozling the opposition, but the end product is very disappointing (yes the bucket is on the otherside of the front door ready for the Dog Poo being posted through it) for such an entertaining player, someone really needs to work on his shooting power.

 

As for fans Reading's are as dull as ditchwater, no real songs, "sing when you are winning" is a hat they wear well. Whilst getting right on my Tits, their was a lad singing "we got promted at St Mary's" walking down Brittania Road, made me smile too as we must be seen as a really big team.

 

Anyway I have had my 5 penneth worth on here. We are still in with a shout, worryingly we have one more game against a team playing in Blue & White, which if you look at the results this season is where we have been given the right runaround. 2 wins is all we need. I will skip over the dream that woke me with a start on Tuesday morning, that had us finishing line in the playoffs!!!!!

 

Tonight was a kick in he Wedding vegetables, but we are still in the race. I would have liked us to win probably the best looking Trophy in English football, but if we nail 2nd we are in the big time.

 

Half a bottle of Bacardi since getting home: John Boy Saint out!!

 

COYRs!!!

[Saint137]

We will be fine. Brighton have to beat Wham in order to have any chance of playoffs and they will. This is Saints, it's never easy. If we win our last three we will go up as champions, Reading are due a wobble. We created a load of chances, just need to start taking them.

[S-Clarke]

We will be fine. Brighton have to beat Wham in order to have any chance of playoffs and they will. This is Saints, it's never easy. If we win our last three we will go up as champions, Reading are due a wobble. We created a load of chances, just need to start taking them.

 

Reading won't wobble now, trust me. They have 2 home bankers to wrap up the title.

[Graffito]

It ain't over yet.

[Red]

Well, we'll have to hope Wham mess up. I can see us finishing third

Don't you mean 17th????

 

 

This was Karma for the Leeds result! We will prevail - keep the faith!!

[Stu Man Do]

Amazing 1st half thought we should have had a clear pen with Sharp looking like he'd been tripped! Our attacking play was amazing!

 

2nd half we got the goal back and looked like we would take them apart in the next ten minutes however that didn't happen Reading rode it out and we ended up being utterly predictable! ball out right to butterfield pass forward to de ridder who dicked about with it passed it back to butterfield and punted the ball into the area to be headed away by the reading cb's. Utterly predictable!

 

Questions raised from this game;

Is fonte upto it as a upper champ/prem player? Roberts had him in his pocket 1st half

De ridder, Will he ever use his pace to beat a man rather than slowing down play? Will he learn to cross a) effectively and b) accurately

What the hell was that 2nd half? Lets just ignore one of the championships best players in Lalllana and just go through De ridder! What a load of balls!

Is Fox a half decent full back? Lets just leave a decent winger acres of space and not close him down?! excellent!

 

End of it all I expect us to end in 2nd now but it feels utterly gutting to come 2nd after this season! Should have had this wrapped up weeks ago but drawing/losing to too many of the lower rated teams has let us down. All I can say now is I hope we can hold off Spammers and I pray that Notts Forest and Palace AND brum have the games of their lives in the next few weeks and we can be the jammy team winning 1-0!

[Chap in the Chapel]

Rational thinking in intermittent supply tonight. 3-1 was incredibly flattering to Reading, making what was in reality a smash-and-grab 2-1 into something apparently more comfortable. The pressure is still on West Ham to change their poor home form though, and even then it's still in our hands...

 

The individual errors at both ends cost us tonight in a big way. Reading punished them as a Premier side would, which they in all probability will be next season. I thought we were decent in possession for long periods of the game, but disappointing finishing scuppered our chances. We should have been out of sight long before Le Fondre scored his first. The lack of a clear first-choice right midfielder must be addressed in the summer - Guly is a striker, De Ridder is bereft of any intelligence and Chaplow's form is too up and down. So good in October and November, he's been off his game for nigh on two months. Cork deserves credit tonight - I thought he was our best player by a long way.

 

We've got enough left to get over the line though. Peterborough have little to play for and I think that a 2-0 win is achievable, mirroring what happened at Palace after another tense occasion. Anyone who thinks that promotion has now gone, with a six/five/three-point gap (adjust according to when you read this) to third, is an irrational fool who does not understand the value of empirical evidence, plain and simple. After 43 games, when we've done so much right, Nigel and the team deserve for this one to have the line drawn under it quickly.

[NY Saint]

Watched this travesty with the biggest Saints following I've been with in NYC - ten of us at Legends and none of us could believe our dominance and 20+ odd shots and crosses were punished by three errors. We looked good for much of the game and the odd mistakes have taken us apart. On this showing we're still good enough to go up automatically assuming Nigel can fire them up for the run in for second place. Soul destroying but its the Southampton way. May the Telegraph article was right.

[Thedelldays]

Lallana again fluffed too many chances

[Thedelldays]

Lallana again fluffed too many chances

 

Also, they are up there with the defensive lapse that cost is goals IMO

[ThreeSixty]

Textbook counter attack from Reading.

 

Battered them in the first half. Danny Fox is a ****. Why he thinks he is the left footed David Beckham i'll never know.

 

Don't know why Lallana insists on twisting and turning 5 times before the final ball.

 

Reading's 106 chant is an embarrassment to all of football.

[Roger]

Cork was my MOTM. Everything good went through him. Adam had a good first half but disappeared in the second, he's our most important player but he needs to up his game a bit more.

 

This is just rubbish. Lambert is out most important player by miles. Lallana can't finish well enough. Lambert scored 31 goals Adam 12. Lambert made more too. Look at opts index. If rickie was missing we'd be gone. If Lallana went missing we'd have a chance still.

[Thedelldays]

This is just rubbish. Lambert is out most important player by miles. Lallana can't finish well enough. Lambert scored 31 goals Adam 12. Lambert made more too. Look at opts index. If rickie was missing we'd be gone. If Lallana went missing we'd have a chance still.

 

I agree. We are a 1 man team

[Roger]

I agree. We are a 1 man team

 

It's a bit like when we were a one man team with Matty and were rubbish without him. He can't do it on his own every time. The other players aren't good enough to step up.

[Kingsbridge Saint]

Looked good on TV for a change. Mugged by a classic away smash and grab. Same team Tuesday, defend better and I think we'll be OK. Beat Posh and West Ham can do what they like - we'll go up if we beat Cov at home. well done Reading, title is yours*

*really hope you believe that

[BadgerBadger]

3 mistakes and 3 goals, proper done over by a well drilled and motivated team. We played well but they nailed a perfect performance, nothing more was going to stop us. We do seem to bring the best out in other teams, that has to be a compliment to us but we should've won tonight and I'm gutted.

[anothersaintinsouthsea]

Some pathetic bedwetting on this thread. If I was "in the trenches" with some of you I'd shoot you before the enemy could.

 

We played well but got beat by a team who rode their luck and took their chances. We dominated possesion, we had far more corners, far more chances and far more shots on target. sometimes **** happens in football but play Reading again tomorrow and we could easily win by a few.

 

We're still in a great position and fully expect 3 points on Tuesday if we dominate Peterborough like we dominated Reading. Hopefully the Reading players, like their fans tonight, think they've already got the title in the bag. If Man U can lose to Wigan then Reading can lose any of their remaining matches.

[Chris Marsden = Genius]

Why the **** were Harding and Richardson both on the bench!

Cork can play right back so can Harding punch should have been there

 

Chaplow can't cross for ****

 

We were the better team but McDermott won the tactical battle

[theyin]

Can someone please explain what's happened to Punch? Can't help but think he could have done something more down the right.

 

As for the crowd. Last half hour it seemed all Reading from where I was sitting....12K miles away on a laptop.

 

We had it all, just couldn't find the killer blow.

 

My wife would say we should send out positive vibes all week to Billy & Lambo, she's a bit flowery like that but I will put my scepticism to one side for the next few weeks, find my chi and send out good ju ju to the lads.

 

COYR...we can do this, just got to get on the bus of belief.

[Sour Mash]

Karma for Leeds away?

Exactly this. It balances out over the course of a seasoning. & ultimately the table never lies. However,having said that, I thought at times in the first half we were genuinely brilliant Lambert-Sharp-Lallana were seriously different class at times.

[StubbSaint]

How the hell did we lose game?

[saintscottofthenortham]

I am still stunned. Now I know how Leeds fans felt after our 0-1 up there. That was never a 1-3 game but football is a funny game after all. I couldn't believe how much wrist slitting was going on from some of our "fans". I heard all sorts of shameful stuff.

 

"we are a very, very good league one side, punching above our weight."

 

"we need a all out championship goal scorer." - I had to inform this dumb c*nting c*nt that we have two of the top scorers.

 

"that Nigel Adkins just hasn't got an answer to the best sides in the league, we will get stuffed week in week out if we go up."

 

There were plenty more that just made me cringe. And if you were one of the thousands that left after the third goal, shame on you. Those of us who stayed behind, rightly applauded the players for a fantastic effort and deserved acknowledgement for running themselves into the ground last night.

 

Reading done exactly the same last night as they did at Brighton on Tuesday, fair play to em. But that won't work in the prem. they will get ripped up week in week out. If we go up and play like we did last night, we'll be fine. Ok ok... Less of the defensive slip ups, but you catch my drift.

[saintscottofthenortham]

Why the **** were Harding and Richardson both on the bench!

Cork can play right back so can Harding punch should have been there

 

Chaplow can't cross for ****

 

We were the better team but McDermott won the tactical battle

 

I was screaming for Frazor to come on. Butterfield slowed us down every single time e got the ball. We would be zipping it about, creating space, pass to Butters... Everything stops. Reading close us down and we are back to square one, he loops a hopeless ball to far post... Reading have possession.

[alpine_saint]

@joshooiveld20: Played well, werent as good in the finishing as Reading tonight! Heads up, we're going again on tuesday!

 

Come on Jos, how can you say that so blase ?

 

Is this really what NA told them ?

[alpine_saint]

Christ, we've got some arrogant bad losers in our fan base.

 

Calling Reading "plastic c*nts" and describing us as "mugged" - really poor.

[The Kraken]

Christ, we've got some arrogant bad losers in our fan base.

 

Calling Reading "plastic c*nts" and describing us as "mugged" - really poor.

 

Was the neutral BBC reporter a bad loser too, when he said that "Saints were robbed"?