Saints 3-3 Bournemouth - Reaction

[woodsaint]

With some of the pessimists on here there must be some kind of ridiculous scenario where relegation is still possible. Ineligible player? Going into admin? Disappointing to concede another late equaliser but under RH we've shown for a while now that we were staying up. Looking forward to a whole season with him in charge

[Shroppie]

My God. We really have some serious sulking from the usual non-supporter suspects.

 

We stayed up, which was highly unlikely in November.

 

On the form since then, with two or three additions (there will not be a major overhaul, neither is one needed), prospects are good. Celebrate. And look forward. Next season will be fun.

 

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[saints-til-i-die]

What a brilliant day! I was pessimistic and thought Cardiff would pull off surprising results but that’s just me! I love it when I’m wrong. Well done Saints!

[benjii]

So is it tactics or players, defensively. And is it just the defenders who are at fault, or also our midfielders?

 

We need to ship out a few, for sure, including Stephens(!)

 

Ultimately I feel we need to bring in a strong defensive midfielder to give Romeu a contest and ultimately try and edge him out. We also need a reliable centre back! Our centre backs have some brilliant positives about them, but are far too prone to lapses in concentration; a seriously problematic trait in their role!!

 

Don't even get me started on our strikers! Long is so hot and cold he beggars belief and Ings isn't up to much. Austin runs in treacle and Gallagher isn't doing enough to earn even a few minutes on the pitch....

 

I really hope we see some determined action in the summer as our squad is bereft of quality

 

It's a simple lack of quality.

 

Who in our squad is a clear, no questions, top-half quality player? Who would the bigger clubs potentially be interested in?

 

Bertrand

Lemina on top form

.... that's it.

 

Maybe Ings if he wasn't always injured.

Maybe Gunn and Valery one day.

[doddisalegend]

Strange game first twenty we where dominant they looked like a cat in headlights then they get a goal out of nothing and we just fall apart. Second half was more even but having gone in front we shoot ourselves in the foot again. Our game management when winning really needs addressing. I think today showed why we need to stick with a back three unless new defenders are brought in this summer.

 

Long started well and faded, Ings tried but was ineffective everyone else was blowing hot and cold all game. Thought Gunn should have done better with their second and Armstrong really ****ed up for the third.

 

I was amused by how delicate Bournemouth's players where going down at the faintest of touches

 

Bless the Bournemouth lot at the end of the game. They had everyone out celebrating with their fans like they'd won the league. I think they even got the Kit man, coach driver and tea lady out there celebrating their greatest away draw ever.

 

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[Roger]

Just back.

 

Assume Yoshi was ill as not in the match day squad.

 

RH mentioned on the radio we were 5 points below Cardiff after we lost there, we are now 7 above them.

 

With an RH pre season and a few new players hopefully we can leave all these mistakes behind and have a mid table season with a cup run, just like before Puel arrived and killed the spirit.

 

Did a bit better than mid table mate. 8th 7th and 6th lol.

[Jonnyboy]

Did a bit better than mid table mate. 8th 7th and 6th lol.

 

Pretty sure there was some sort of cup run involved too.

[benjii]

Did a bit better than mid table mate. 8th 7th and 6th lol.

 

If 8th and 7th aren't mid-table what are they?

[doddisalegend]

My God. We really have some serious sulking from the usual non-supporter suspects.

 

We stayed up, which was highly unlikely in November.

 

On the form since then, with two or three additions (there will not be a major overhaul, neither is one needed), prospects are good. Celebrate. And look forward. Next season will be fun.

 

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Can't agree about the overhaul.We've done well under Ralph but despite getting better the lack of quality in the squad keeps getting highlighted game after game.

 

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[doddisalegend]

If 8th and 7th aren't mid-table what are they?

It's the modern PL where finishing fourth is an achievement of epic proportions and finishing 7th is considered more important than winning the FA cup..

 

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[Jonnyboy]

Can't agree about the overhaul.We've done well under Ralph but despite getting better the lack of quality in the squad keeps getting highlighted game after game.

 

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Surely it's all about the contracts. If someone like Stephens has three years left he going to want to stay.

[Delmary]

Amazed by the negativity. To have stayed up with two games to spare given where we were is magnificent. We’ve secured some huge wins along the way. At times we attack like a top half team. A decent pre season and some shrewd recruitment and we can concentrate on looking upwards.

 

Spot on. Ralph’s done brilliantly to save us from relegation. Time to celebrate[emoji123]

[Appy]

Bournemouth fans are a funny bunch, having a go at us for celebrating a draw, but set smoke bombs off with both equalisers.

[SaintBobby]

Great achievement. When RH came in and for his first (non-game) we lost at Cardiff, I feared we were doomed. In the final reckoning, we have turned the corner after the total disaster of last season and the horrific start to this one.

 

An especially amazing performance given the January window, which means the cost of the squad since then has fallen a lot, while the results have improved a lot.

[beatlesaint]

Bournemouth fans are a funny bunch, having a go at us for celebrating a draw, but set smoke bombs off with both equalisers.

 

Thats because they have an inbuilt inferiority complex.

[OldNick]

I dont get the phew's and well done fulham. It would have taken some weird results for us to go down. We were safe after the Watford game or even before that.

I suggest we wont be letting lots of late goals next season

[simo]

Disappointed not to win , glad we never lost it at the end.

Howe changed it up and gave them a kick up the arse , Ralph did the same at half time . Saw it kicking off quite a bit in town after the game , Poor old Bompey fans don't like not beating us do they !

[Sidney Fudpucker the 3rd]

Made hard work of things again. Another lead thrown away, twice, and had to rely on other results going in our favour, but at least it's all over now. We can breath a sigh of relief and look forward to seeing what Ralph can build for next season. A bit of dead wood to clear out and 3 or 4 signings and we'll hopefully be back on track.

[CB Fry]

I dont get the phew's and well done fulham. It would have taken some weird results for us to go down. We were safe after the Watford game or even before that.

I suggest we wont be letting lots of late goals next season

Indeed. It was obvious we were safe then, I said so at the time. In fairness only a few freaks and special little chaps kept going on about us being in a relegation battle.

[saintant]

Ralph arrived and took on a squad that was disgracefully unfit and totally lacking in confidence. To achieve the points haul he did is nothing short of a miracle. I do not include his first match away to Cardiff as he was merely an innocent bystander but since then he has averaged 1.45 points per game. Over the 36 played so far this season this would have had us sitting in 8th position on 52 points. Remarkable considering that most of us would admit that our squad is not over blessed with natural talent. Hats off to you Ralph and I'm looking forward to seeing what you can achieve with a full pre-season and maybe some additions to the squad in place of the dead wood.

[beatlesaint]

Can we just not have to play Jack Stephens again. Absolute fkin nightmare of a defender. He’s no Ollie Lancashire I’ll grant you but he’s no Premier League defender either.

[OldNick]

Indeed. It was obvious we were safe then, I said so at the time. In fairness only a few freaks and special little chaps kept going on about us being in a relegation battle.

Yep, I worry as most as most but the over the top comments as though we have got safe by the skin of our teeth is madness. Obviously you can never take football for granted but for both Cardiff and Brighton to overtake us before today !!!!

[Cabrone]

Considering that when Hughes left we looked like we would be down by Jan Ralph has performed miracles to keep us up. We were a barely twitching corpse

 

Ralph should be given a healthy budget next season, he's earned it.

[tajjuk]

It's a simple lack of quality.

 

Who in our squad is a clear, no questions, top-half quality player? Who would the bigger clubs potentially be interested in?

 

Bertrand

Lemina on top form

.... that's it.

 

Maybe Ings if he wasn't always injured.

Maybe Gunn and Valery one day.

 

Very harsh IMO.

 

You have seen some of the other top half sides yeh? You know we have beaten a lot of them recently or at least competed with them. We've beaten Wolves, drawn with Watford, beaten Leicester, and beaten Everton under Ralph, those are the 4 teams currently going for 7th.

 

Under Ralph none of them have shown they are any better than us, our form has easily been top 10.

 

We are nowhere near a top 6 side, but no one else is, Everton, Wolves, West Ham all spent massively but have been horribly inconsistent, all have big quality gaps in their squad. Bournemouth have been lauded all year and we are 4 points behind them despite the Hughes impact and should have beaten them today having outplayed them for long periods.

 

But I think you are doing a massive disservice to our team.

 

Now they are being properly managed, its very clear a lot of them are good premiership players. What is also good is that we have a core of players who are not that old and I think will definitely improve under the manager. Redmond, Ward-Prowse, Valery, Bednerak, Gunn and Hojberg all 24 or under, with the likes of Ings, Vestergaard, Lemina are only about 25-26 as well.

 

We need to add some key quality no doubt, something we have failed to do the last 2-3 summer (though last years summer window was hardly a disaster, only Elynoussi has been a flop).

 

If we do that then I think we can easily compete in that top 10.

 

JWP, Redmond, Romeu, Bednerak, Gunn, Valery, and Hojberg I think have all shown they are top half PL players over the last 6 months.

[Heisenberg]

We are safe with 2 games to play and honestly if you'd offered me that during the final weeks of Hughes tenure or at the end of the January transfer window I'd have snapped your hand off.

 

We can now just enjoy WHU (A) and Huddersfield (H) without worry

 

Ralph :adore:

[Lord Duckhunter]

Our whole season summed up in 90 mins. Some great attaching vibrancy, decent possession but missed chances, together with some horrific defending from transition and a late goal against.

 

Clearly we’re moving in the right direction and to be mathematically safe 2 games out with what he inherited shows the touch of a really good manager.

 

Draw a fair result, bearing in mind Wilson should have won it at the end.

 

 

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[Raging Bull]

Provided Ralph gets some decent funds I’m really excited about next season.

 

Calling any ITK’s to this thread for an extra Saturday night cheer up!

[simo]

Oh and what was the running into the corner with 5 mins left to play all about , We should have been trying to win it

[Dark Munster]

Indeed. Kudos to Hassenhuttl for putting his faith in Valery and shipping out Cedric, amidst some angst from a few on here...

You mean putting his faith in Valery not getting injured. What if Valery had got a serious injury? The club got lucky he didn't (look at the awful game against Newcastle when he was missing for one match). They gambled by shipping Cedric off to save a bit in wages and got away with it.

 

A goal scoring front man and a RB should be topping this summer's shopping list.

[Dark Munster]

 

With an RH pre season and a few new players hopefully we can leave all these mistakes behind and have a mid table season with a cup run, just like before Puel arrived and killed the spirit.

[doddisalegend]

Oh and what was the running into the corner with 5 mins left to play all about , We should have been trying to win it

 

It was a bit embarrassing but the players knew a point was enough for safety and given our defending it was probably a good move. Normally you only want to see that if you are winning with minutes to go.

[DT]

We seriously need a big, commanding CB so we never have to use Stephens again. We also need a striker, and someone to teach Redmond how to shoot. Ings isn’t worth it if we can wriggle out of the transfer. Big shout to Gunn for that save at 3-3, but why he didn’t bring on Lemina instead of Armstrong, who cost us that third, is beyond me. Good that Ralph changed up the back line, but Howe seemed ahead of him tactically. At least we’re safe, but we need a good pre -season, transfers, and to hold on to Valery, who was excellent. Can almost hear the vultures swooping already. Ps my daughter daisy collected 20 of those clacker things, so it wasn’t a disaster...[emoji4]

 

 

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[Batman]

Very harsh IMO.

 

You have seen some of the other top half sides yeh? You know we have beaten a lot of them recently or at least competed with them. We've beaten Wolves, drawn with Watford, beaten Leicester, and beaten Everton under Ralph, those are the 4 teams currently going for 7th.

 

Under Ralph none of them have shown they are any better than us, our form has easily been top 10.

 

We are nowhere near a top 6 side, but no one else is, Everton, Wolves, West Ham all spent massively but have been horribly inconsistent, all have big quality gaps in their squad. Bournemouth have been lauded all year and we are 4 points behind them despite the Hughes impact and should have beaten them today having outplayed them for long periods.

 

But I think you are doing a massive disservice to our team.

 

Now they are being properly managed, its very clear a lot of them are good premiership players. What is also good is that we have a core of players who are not that old and I think will definitely improve under the manager. Redmond, Ward-Prowse, Valery, Bednerak, Gunn and Hojberg all 24 or under, with the likes of Ings, Vestergaard, Lemina are only about 25-26 as well.

 

We need to add some key quality no doubt, something we have failed to do the last 2-3 summer (though last years summer window was hardly a disaster, only Elynoussi has been a flop).

 

If we do that then I think we can easily compete in that top 10.

 

JWP, Redmond, Romeu, Bednerak, Gunn, Valery, and Hojberg I think have all shown they are top half PL players over the last 6 months.

 

ralph said the other day to maintain the form since he has been here over a full season with this team would be too hard

He just said (post Bournemouth) that we need to rebuild the team and that works starts tomorrow.

 

kind of a weird view to take if we are already a top 10 side (which we clearly are not)

 

on another note - https://bournemouth-forum.vitalfootball.co.uk/threads/well-done-southampton.8924/

They will be fighting for their premier league lives soon enough and of course, it wont be tinpot etc etc

Edited 27 April, 2019 by Batman

[shurlock]

Very harsh IMO.

 

You have seen some of the other top half sides yeh? You know we have beaten a lot of them recently or at least competed with them. We've beaten Wolves, drawn with Watford, beaten Leicester, and beaten Everton under Ralph, those are the 4 teams currently going for 7th.

 

Under Ralph none of them have shown they are any better than us, our form has easily been top 10.

 

We are nowhere near a top 6 side, but no one else is, Everton, Wolves, West Ham all spent massively but have been horribly inconsistent, all have big quality gaps in their squad. Bournemouth have been lauded all year and we are 4 points behind them despite the Hughes impact and should have beaten them today having outplayed them for long periods.

 

But I think you are doing a massive disservice to our team.

 

Now they are being properly managed, its very clear a lot of them are good premiership players. What is also good is that we have a core of players who are not that old and I think will definitely improve under the manager. Redmond, Ward-Prowse, Valery, Bednerak, Gunn and Hojberg all 24 or under, with the likes of Ings, Vestergaard, Lemina are only about 25-26 as well.

 

We need to add some key quality no doubt, something we have failed to do the last 2-3 summer (though last years summer window was hardly a disaster, only Elynoussi has been a flop).

 

If we do that then I think we can easily compete in that top 10.

 

JWP, Redmond, Romeu, Bednerak, Gunn, Valery, and Hojberg I think have all shown they are top half PL players over the last 6 months.

 

 

Lay off the glue pal. Tad early to proclaim half of those players as top 10 players.

[shurlock]

All eyes on you now Goa.

[Lord Duckhunter]

Oh and what was the running into the corner with 5 mins left to play all about , We should have been trying to win it

 

Pony.

 

The only thing that matters is staying up. Job done.

 

Had we gone for it given the ball away, lost and therefore still needed something from West Ham or Huddersfield I’m sure you’d be the first moaning

 

 

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[davefizzy14]

Ralph is an absolute genius with what he has a achieved in such a short space of time. He has single handily turned our whole club around. Now we are safe I hope the board back him in the summer with regards to transfer targets.

 

The game today was thoroughly enjoyable. Like Ralph said we got the point we needed to be mathematically safe so that all that matters. Some very good performances from JWP, Long, Valery and Redmond. Ings played well too. I thought Jack had a good game too, people will say otherwise but hes still young and still learning. Instead of getting on his back get behind him!!

[Jonnyboy]

All eyes on you now Goa.

 

Is that where the players are going for post season holidays?

[simo]

ralph said the other day to maintain the form since he has been here over a full season with this team would be too hard

He just said (post Bournemouth) that we need to rebuild the team and that works starts tomorrow.

 

kind of a weird view to take if we are already a top 10 side (which we clearly are not)

 

on another note - https://bournemouth-forum.vitalfootball.co.uk/threads/well-done-southampton.8924/

They will be fighting for their premier league lives soon enough and of course, it wont be tinpot etc etc

 

I really hope they lose their last 2 games and we win ours to finish above them!

[beatlesaint]

I really hope they lose their last 2 games and we win ours to finish above them!

 

their forum......what the **** ? Are they for real ?

[Lighthouse]

their forum......what the **** ? Are they for real ?

 

An odd bunch but whatever I guess.

 

Will be interesting to see if bigger teams come in for the likes of Brooks, Fraser and Wilson and if so, how well they replace them.

[beatlesaint]

An odd bunch but whatever I guess.

 

Will be interesting to see if bigger teams come in for the likes of Brooks, Fraser and Wilson and if so, how well they replace them.

 

they do realise they have beaten us just the once since they came up don’t they ? I mean fkin hell

[jawillwill]

Blimey, I've never had a problem with them, they do seem a bit odd on that forum (even by SWF standards).

 

Apparently it is hilariously tinpot to occasionally show videos of the FA Cup winning goal. No doubt if they ever got anywhere near winning silverware, they'd just play it cool and never even mention it.

[stknowle]

If 8th and 7th aren't mid-table what are they?[/QUOT

[saint1977]

Been effectively safe for a while and it is mathematically confirmed now. Good game, some good attacking movement but dreadful defending by both sides. Fans were starved of entertainment by the previous 3 managers so we deserved a bit of that.

 

Great job so far by RH after a pathetic 9 points from the first 14 games. Looking forward to RH getting the players through his pre season programme, Ings etc may get some sharpness back that he had when first joined, and hopefully Redmond, JWP, Valery and PEH keep improving.

 

Ross needs to get working on starting Monday, there are at least a dozen players he needs to start moving on. Busy summer ahead.

[trousers]

on another note - https://bournemouth-forum.vitalfootball.co.uk/threads/well-done-southampton.8924/

 

 

 

[shurlock]

To be fair, our lovable little bumpkin cousins have a point -we were pretty tinpot today.

 

Still, Charlie Austin could have spent 90mins in the corner and it sill wouldn’t have beaten their que sera sera, we’re going to st.marys chant in the tinpottery stakes. Cretins.

[Wrensup]

ralph said the other day to maintain the form since he has been here over a full season with this team would be too hard

He just said (post Bournemouth) that we need to rebuild the team and that works starts tomorrow.

 

kind of a weird view to take if we are already a top 10 side (which we clearly are not)

 

on another note - https://bournemouth-forum.vitalfootball.co.uk/threads/well-done-southampton.8924/

They will be fighting for their premier league lives soon enough and of course, it wont be tinpot etc etc

They really don’t like us do they!

And to think they barely register with us

[striker]

It was a bit embarrassing but the players knew a point was enough for safety and given our defending it was probably a good move. Normally you only want to see that if you are winning with minutes to go.

 

Ha ha. I think you are right. Ralph pretty much told Austin our defence sucks, so get everyone to waste time in the corner. I probably would have done the same thing if I was Ralph.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

You have seen some of the other top half sides yeh? You know we have beaten a lot of them recently or at least competed with them. We've beaten Wolves, drawn with Watford, beaten Leicester, and beaten Everton under Ralph, those are the 4 teams currently going for 7th.

 

Ralph is a better manager than the managers at any of those clubs, and if he was managing those clubs they would be playing significantly better than we are now