Chelski 2- Saints 0

[Ohio Saint]

Personally, I didn't think we did so bad at all.

[striker]

Funny, even though we were outscored 2-0 I thought the 2nd half was a lot better for us than the 1st half

[Heisenberg]

Referee cost us again

 

 

:hunt::hunt:

[Dalek2003]

Not the worst result. 4 games and 4 wins would see us safe I think.

[Saints foreva]

Imagine applauding that ****e off. Plenty of ****s who did.

 

Deservedly lost. Can't wait for the Championship clear out. We are Sunderland next season.

[badgerx16]

So many more people around the world have now had an opportunity to see how sh!te we've been this season.

[simo]

I can take losing I can't take blatant goals not being given at Wembley for 2 years running !

[LGTL]

All a bit pointless really, we were never ever winning that.

[stknowle]

Thought it was flat and uninspiring throughout. 1 star yet again.

[BotleySaint]

Yeah not as bad as feared but ultimately we just aren't good enough.

[modern matron]

That was absolute rubbish. Poor from Hughes (who can jog on) with more negative tactics. We deserve to go down after that spineless performance. Rid of the mercenaries and rebuild.

[cloggy saint]

Unlucky, we just came up against a superior team. Errr, I mean pathetic, clueless, disgraceful, we'll be non-league in 4 years.

[Saint_clark]

So should that goal have been ruled out? In the ground it looked like Austin just stood in a single position and it was Caballeros fault that he dropped it.

 

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[Colinjb]

Glad we are continuing to try and go forward (At least after Tadic and Redmond came on.) Makes the inevitable defeats slightly less tedious.

[striker]

So should that goal have been ruled out? In the ground it looked like Austin just stood in a single position and it was Caballeros fault that he dropped it.

 

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Pretty much everyone (commentators too) think it should have been a goal. Austin didn't do anything wrong really.

[Colinjb]

So should that goal have been ruled out? In the ground it looked like Austin just stood in a single position and it was Caballeros fault that he dropped it.

 

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Graham Poll on BT Sport insisted that any contact with the keeper in the air is a foul. So it should have been dissallowed based on the rules of the game.

 

Charlie didn't do anything wrong though, just stood there. I simply cannot understand how it was a foul, unless football has suddenly become a non-contact sport.

[Batman]

So should that goal have been ruled out? In the ground it looked like Austin just stood in a single position and it was Caballeros fault that he dropped it.

 

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Austin didn’t do anything wrong. The keeper messed up

[badgerx16]

So should that goal have been ruled out? In the ground it looked like Austin just stood in a single position and it was Caballeros fault that he dropped it.

You'll never be a Premier League ref, you see things the way they actually are !

[modern matron]

Says it all when Redmond was probably MOTM for us!

[Batman]

Oh and Shane long. Mate, WTF!!!!

[OttawaSaint]

I can take losing I can't take blatant goals not being given at Wembley for 2 years running !

 

Yep. It’s so utterly futile thinking we might one day win something.

[cloggy saint]

Yep. It’s so utterly futile thinking we might one day win something.

 

Yep, us and 95% of all football clubs.

[ALWAYS_SFC]

I can take losing I can't take blatant goals not being given at Wembley for 2 years running !

 

Yep.... Joke big team refs

[GarrettIvo]

Pretty crap really. Don't think any of them could claim to have been above poor for the most part.

 

We can point to the non-goal and their keeper making some saves, but the selection was all a bit dodgy. PEH, OR, and ML was overkill, and they weren't able to link up with Shane or Charlie I thought.

 

Our defence.... ugh. Have to say the more I see of Bednarek the more I wonder why we signed Hoedt instead of a genuine CB. The Polish lad has more grit and more desire.

 

City now turning over Swansea merely keeps alive our futile hope of league survival, but what's the point.

[Wade Garrett]

Shane Long is a guaranteed 100%er but has the touch of a horse-rapist.

[JRM]

Graham Poll on BT Sport insisted that any contact with the keeper in the air is a foul. So it should have been dissallowed based on the rules of the game.

 

Charlie didn't do anything wrong though, just stood there. I simply cannot understand how it was a foul, unless football has suddenly become a non-contact sport.

 

******** so if the keeper is “in the air” but jumps into you it’s a foul? Nonsense decision protecting the big teams as usual.

[bangkoksaint]

Love some of the bleating on here. We were not good enough, period. We haven’t been all season and we wore for the rest of it. Those that think we’ll win enough games to stay up are frankly deluded. I’m personally looking forward to the championship. At least we might look at games with a view to having a go and trying to win.........oh and we may see a goal or two.

[Saint Billy]

Oh well, back to the real world............relegation!.

[DT]

Love some of the bleating on here. We were not good enough, period. We haven’t been all season and we wore for the rest of it. Those that think we’ll win enough games to stay up are frankly deluded. I’m personally looking forward to the championship. At least we might look at games with a view to having a go and trying to win.........oh and we may see a goal or two.

 

Without systemic change, doing a Sunderland feels a possibility

 

 

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[obelisk]

Is that right then? According to Graham Poll all a 'keeper has to do is jump on top of an opponent and it's a foul against the attacker? That can't be right can it?

 

It might have been interesting if Long had any sort of killer instinct when through on goal but Saints were 2nd best for much of the game. Should have made Giroud a Saint. Let's see how we shape up against Bournemouth - much more important.

[Red]

Referee cost us again

 

 

:hunt::hunt:

 

Yep, agree with that! So much for VAR - doesn't help the small teams. Ref constantly gave decisions in Chelsea's favor - not saying we would have won, but come on. How was the disallowed goal a foul on the keeper by Austin?? Other way round and a cert goal for the top elite side. Just goes to show our rotten luck this season - and one of many reasons why we are going down.

[Heisenberg]

Yep, agree with that! So much for VAR - doesn't help the small teams. Ref constantly gave decisions in Chelsea's favor - not saying we would have won, but come on. How was the disallowed goal a foul on the keeper by Austin?? Other way round and a cert goal for the top elite side. Just goes to show our rotten luck this season - and one of many reasons why we are going down.

 

Refs have a top 6 bias. It's disgusting

[Dark Munster]

I don't understand why some are calling our performance rubbish. Yes we parked the bus in the first half. But it worked, we kept it to 0-0 at half time as planned. I'm sure MH's plan was to try to hold them off for about 60-70 minutes and then bring on Tadic/Gabbi to try and nick it. Unfortunately Giroud did it to us again just after half time.

 

We had a legitimate goal disallowed, Austin hit the post, their GK somehow managed to keep that Redmond shot out, and Long messed up when clear on goal. Chelsea were of course the better team, but we weren't rubbish. With a bit of luck and better refereeing we could've got a result against a superior squad.

[Dark Munster]

Oh and Hazard looked very fresh. Nice he could be rested on Thursday for their meaningless match, but we did not have that luxury in our "played on the same day to be fair" match

[BARCELONASAINT]

That was an awful performance from a shocking team that will deservedly be relegated. First half was full off missed passes, no support for our two strikers.....whats the point off playing two up front if the plan is to park the bus for the entire 45 minutes??

Second half slightly better but lets face it it couldn't have been much worse.

They totally deserved to win it and we can have no complaints.

Will be so glad when we are eventually put out of our misery....it's the hope that kills!

[egg]

Played ok. Keeper decent. Bednarek good, marshalled the defence and looked comfortable. Bertrand got forward well but crossing poor. Yoshida decent but looked all over the place for the second. Hoedt and Cedric not good. Romeu and Lemina did well after a shaky start, but Hoj faded and largely anonymous. Long was shlte, terrible touch. Austin shouldn't have started, you don't play a centre forward who can't run against a back 3. First 2 subs sensible although not sure why Bednarek went off. Can only assume it was cos Pedro on and Bertrand couldn't get up the pitch and we needed another forward to give the width. Whatever the intention, it killed us and cost us t second goal.

 

Our goal looked like a foul on the keeper but I was up in the gods so couldn't see clearly.

 

Fans were quiet throughout and why people boo players for keeping possession, then shout for a long ball, then moan when it leads to nothing I'll never understand.

[badgerx16]

Is that right then? According to Graham Poll all a 'keeper has to do is jump on top of an opponent and it's a foul against the attacker? That can't be right can it?.

Poll is an equally crap ref who once gave a Croatian player 3 yellow cards in one match.

[suewhistle]

I watched the game with another saints fan (don't even know his name) in a village east of Portsmouth pub. We both agreed how good Hazard (and Willian) was. The game plan went OK until half time but the early second half goal was a killer. If you have to chase the game against Chelsea they have such quality on the break, but at least attacking we showed a lot more in the second half.

 

Hoedt continues to disappoint and make silly and costly mistakes but I'm really warming to Bednarek and I suspect he was only chosen to come off due to lack of match fitness. Hojberg's ideas continue to be better than his execution in this fast, physical league, Long continues to show he's not a striker, Cedric continues to take the momentum out of any attack down the right.

 

A special mention to the side my team were meant to be playing today as they called the game off only yesterday. I committed to playing as it was my birthday so was utterly, utterly hacked off. The only upside is that they saved me £100+ on a day out in the smoke, and the way I've been feeling taken for granted generally as a fan and as a Saints fan in particular that was no bad thing. They'd better be very careful with their season ticket prices next year..

[Supersubpuckett]

terrible first half, better 2nd - unfortunately the players are bereft of confidence in themselves and each other. Puel and Pelligrino take a bow.....

[sadoldgit]

After their first goal I thought we looked like a decent team. Cant really fault the second half performance. The difference is that they had Giroud (and what a quality finish that was) and we have Long. I dont understand how people are saying that we were ****e. We also don't have much luck.

[djg]

Thought we looked totally devoid of all confidence first half, misplaced passes and no real threat with two strikers on the pitch. Second half we actually played a bit better but Shane Long, for all his running is just truly awful. I'm not even sure he's championship standard, in fact he's not even a forward.

 

Poor referee again, thought we had a decent penalty shout too but haven't seen it yet on TV. Last 15 minutes we were half decent going forward.

[Baird of the land]

Both goals were disappointing. More evidence of us being unable to deal with aerial balls.

Disallowed goal was frustrating. Not too much wrong with it & wonder if ref would have been so lenient on our keeper.

Thought Redmond looked better when he came on. If only we could bottle that direct play and use it regularly.

Long, frustrating. Clearly causes teams all sorts of problems but just won’t shoot when 2 decent opportunities arose.

[Forester]

I don't understand why some are calling our performance rubbish. Yes we parked the bus in the first half. But it worked, we kept it to 0-0 at half time as planned. I'm sure MH's plan was to try to hold them off for about 60-70 minutes and then bring on Tadic/Gabbi to try and nick it. Unfortunately Giroud did it to us again just after half time.

 

We had a legitimate goal disallowed, Austin hit the post, their GK somehow managed to keep that Redmond shot out, and Long messed up when clear on goal. Chelsea were of course the better team, but we weren't rubbish. With a bit of luck and better refereeing we could've got a result against a superior squad.

I agree with this. Really don't know what some expect against the champions. We could easily have scored three goals today. Chelsea opener was class, but really pathetic effort (again) from Hoedt who is just way below required standard. Not a bad performance and sensible game management from Hughes. Swap Giroud for Long and Saints win that match.

[ChiefScummer]

wtf was that defending on Girouds goal. Dropping like flies.

[Ohio Saint]

wtf was that defending on Girouds goal. Dropping like flies.

 

It was a fustercluck. I saw a lot of effort from our defence.

[tobes8]

Well that was a load of ********. We never turned in the first half and seemed like the team just couldn’t be bothered. Second half was an improvement after the subs. But the defending for their goals was laughable and hoedt shouldn’t play again this season. Abject defending.

The atmosphere at the stadium summed up our season. Flat.

[Ohio Saint]

Check out @SouthamptonFC’s Tweet:

[the wedge]

A few thoughts from the game, FWIW.

 

Seemed to set up to not concede for 120 minutes and try, fleetingly, to break on a swift counter whenever we could. We seemed to be a bit more direct, Long and Austin won a fair share of headers up top but with no one from midfield following the path of the ball, Chelsea were picking up every loose ball. Seemed to be a training exercise in attacking scenarios from their point of view.

 

That said, I thought we defended really solidly in the first half. Yoshi made a blinding tackle in our box which sticks out. Plenty of bodies blocking efforts as well. The effort was there, but we were just not getting forward quickly or often enough.

 

Lemina is an absolute show pony, however. I'd honestly forgotten he was on the field in the first half.

 

Despite the disciplined back line, you knew we couldn't keep it up for 120 minutes and the only surprise was that it took 46 minutes for them to score. I think it was the best thing to happen to us. We woke up, players started giving a **** and we came out of our shells. We took risks, got bodies forward and but for Long's touch and the keeper's non save from Redmond, we'd have got back on level terms.

 

Baffled as to why Højbjerg was taken off ahead of Lemina, particularly as he was on a yellow. Pierre was everywhere, chasing, tackling and doing the jobs of two men. Redmond looked lively and I'd start him against Bournemouth.

 

And the only thing captain about Bertrand is the armband. Give it to Højbjerg, or to Maya, who clearly leave nothing left on the pitch when they're done.

 

Not surprised at the result, but still left with a feeling of real deflation. Need something to go our way. Badly.

[DuncanRG]

That was absolute rubbish. Poor from Hughes (who can jog on) with more negative tactics. We deserve to go down after that spineless performance. Rid of the mercenaries and rebuild.

 

Nothing says 'negative' like starting with two strikers!

 

We never looked like winning that game but it could have been a lot worse. Lemina shouldn't play again this season.

[beatlesaint]

Just got back and I’m amazed at some of the comments on here. First half was dreadful, the number of mistakes and misplaced passes, the side to side then backward passing only to give the ball away cheaply.

 

Second half was much better but of course we were chasing the game. Hasn’t done my mood any good to see that the Austin goal was good.....fkin refs.......but to me our players never looked like they were playing in a semi final, nobody wanted to bust a gut. I do wonder how much the Chelsea comeback last week affected our players mentally. Did they believe they could win ? Didn’t look like it to me.