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Saints v Sheffield Utd build-up


Shroppie
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And so to the last game, with the luxury of it hardly mattering. Who'd have thought it after 12 games (was it 8 or 9 points?) or after a certain Friday evening in October? 

I'll admit to having been slightly nervous on the restart to get to safety, with 40 maybe the target, but now 50 is totally possible and I hope we get there, not only for the total but to finish the season on a 7 match unbeaten run and carry the positivity and momentum into next season.

I hope Bednarek is fit so we can finish with a full strength team, but no point in taking risks. I'd lean towards Adams to start too, ahead of Long, but not unhappy with either.

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Every season when the fixtures are released, I find myself looking at the last game to see how winnable it is, should it come down to another relegation decider. Thankfully this is a relative non-event although it’d be nice to finish above Everton and their half a billion quid’s worth of dross.

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18 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Every season when the fixtures are released, I find myself looking at the last game to see how winnable it is, should it come down to another relegation decider. Thankfully this is a relative non-event although it’d be nice to finish above Everton and their half a billion quid’s worth of dross.

I had been looking forward to this as an end of season fixture hoping we'd be safe, and the prospect of a warm reception and 'thank you' to Billy Sharp.

As it is, just hope we can win the race for 11th, and go into the next season having won at home once more.

Would also be good to see Ferry or Jancewitz getting on the pitch as well.

Edited by Badger
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Would be borderline "madness" if we finished 11th, however count me in for a dash of an almost bonkers finish to the season :)

4-1 to Saints; Ings hattrick to share the golden boot with Vardy

Edited by trousers
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30 minutes ago, Manuel said:

Get 11th, finish above Smegerton, get 50+ points, remain unbeaten since lockdown, end the season on a high.

And the golden boot isn't completely out of reach yet...(probably is for Long)

We lost to Arsenal since lock-down. But I agree.

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37 minutes ago, suewhistle said:

Right, so who's going on the pitch at the end. Obviously a bit more of a challenge this year...

With the exception of our promotion seasons they've not really been the same since we left The Dell, although I think they were discouraged from the mid 80's.

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When the fixtures were announced I was looking forward to this game and giving Billy Sharp the send off he deserved, shame we’ve been robbed of that opportunity.

We know what a well organised side United are, and with their mixed form since lockdown it could go either way. A win would be great for momentum but I’d settle for a draw and cement 11th place for the little extra bit of prize money. 

 

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1 hour ago, Badger said:

With the exception of our promotion seasons they've not really been the same since we left The Dell, although I think they were discouraged from the mid 80's.

Funnily enough the best one was actually against Sheffield United in the season we avoided relegation from the championship on the last day. The sheer outpouring of relief that day led to an unstoppable tide flooding the pitch. 

 

As for this game, I said two games ago that finishing on 50 points should be the target and we only need a draw to achieve that. To finish on 52 points in 11th would be an excellent season from where we started, and the best part is with a reduced pre season we should be able to carry this momentum on. I'd actually like to see the players train right through - possibly one week off - in recognition of the time away from "work" in lockdown. 

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One disappointment is that, in normal times I imagine this would have been an opportunity to say goodbye to Maya Yoshida. He had his ups and downs but was a great loyal servant to Saints, who will now vanish without any send-off.

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3 minutes ago, Shroppie said:

One disappointment is that, in normal times I imagine this would have been an opportunity to say goodbye to Maya Yoshida. He had his ups and downs but was a great loyal servant to Saints, who will now vanish without any send-off.

I'd guess when crowds return we may see Yoshida at St Mary's at some point in the future when he is available. Just seems the type of thing he'd do.

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21 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

I'd guess when crowds return we may see Yoshida at St Mary's at some point in the future when he is available. Just seems the type of thing he'd do.

I'll never forget Maya's shame and humility after the 0-9. I was (as a birthday treat) in hospitality and Maya was the nominated player to meet us after the game. In view of the circumstances he was told he was excused, but insisted on doing it. He was devastated.

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The way they play should suit us, playing out from the back. Wonder if they'll go full on 2010 Stoke like Bompey did.

Would love to get a win to finish off a very successful season, despite a dreadful first third of it...!

Same team (why change), but would be good if we can get a few of the youngens off the bench for this one.

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11 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

Funnily enough the best one was actually against Sheffield United in the season we avoided relegation from the championship on the last day. The sheer outpouring of relief that day led to an unstoppable tide flooding the pitch.

Even though it only postponed our relegation by a year and lots of great stuff has happened since, that game has remained one of my favourite memories at St Marys.  What a rollercoaster match that was.

Edited by mikec
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Any news on tv coverage for the final day yet?  Everything I've seen says TBC...  Are they waiting for Tuesday's games to finish to see if there's any relegation battles worth covering?

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3 hours ago, Shroppie said:

One disappointment is that, in normal times I imagine this would have been an opportunity to say goodbye to Maya Yoshida. He had his ups and downs but was a great loyal servant to Saints, who will now vanish without any send-off.

In normal circumstances, Yoshi would have been playing for Sampdoria, as he is at the moment. Along with Gaston and Gabbi they have helped them get out of relegation danger.

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4 hours ago, Shroppie said:

I'll never forget Maya's shame and humility after the 0-9. I was (as a birthday treat) in hospitality and Maya was the nominated player to meet us after the game. In view of the circumstances he was told he was excused, but insisted on doing it. He was devastated.

We should now be congratulating him for the 0-9 drubbing in hindsight....  if it had been a more routine 1 or 2 goal defeat then, who knows, without that wake-up call / kick up the arse, we may never have achieved the committment levels that have resulted in us being the 5th or 6th best team during the last two thirds of the season. Fate is indeed a fickle mistress...

Edited by trousers
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23 minutes ago, trousers said:

We should now be congratulating him for the 0-9 drubbing in hindsight....  if it had been a more routine 1 or 2 goal defeat then, who knows, without that wake-up call we may never have achieved the committment levels that have resulted in us being the 5th best team during the last two thirds of the season. Fate is indeed a fickle mistress...

Something that I have come to conclude as well.  Nobody wants to be on the end of a 0 - 9 and there is a lot of pain and soul searching that has to take place when it happens.  But on reflection, I tend to agree with you.  At the time, Leicester were flying and second in the league I believe, so after the sending off, had we lost 5, even 6 nil, perhaps it would've been put down to a 'bad day at the office' , file 13 and move on.

But because the score was so embarrassingly bad it forced us to have to take a long hard look and reflect on how we needed to change things.  I was at the game 3 days later at the Etihad and you could see that there was no confidence whatsoever and nobody really wanted the ball, we needed a complete rebuild in that regard.  Let's face it though, we were never a 9 nil team, yes we were bad, but not that bad...!  The 9 nil, did two things, it set the bar really low, and meant that realistically we could only get better - it was the almighty kick up the 'arse that we needed this season.  Don't want to experience it again - but the club, manager and players took a massive negative and turned it into a positive over the remaining course of the season.

Edited by Micky
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17 hours ago, trousers said:

Would be borderline "madness" if we finished 11th, however count me in for a dash of an almost bonkers finish to the season :)

4-1 to Saints; Ings hattrick to share the golden boot with Vardy

Not quite top half though. Mind you folks at the early season fans forum said they would be happy if we ended up 13th. Going to be a tough act to match this next season.

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4 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Not quite top half though. Mind you folks at the early season fans forum said they would be happy if we ended up 13th. Going to be a tough act to match this next season.

Should be looking to improve on it, not simply match it. Imagine if we played like we have since November for the whole season!? Only 3 more wins in the beginning of the season when we weren't playing 4222 would have seen us competing for a European place.

Edited by Matthew Le God
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7 minutes ago, Manuel said:

We're going to end the season with a goal difference of -9 aren't we.  

I can imagine the comentators and pundits orgasming over that one if it does happen (apologies for the mental imagary there folks)

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20 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Not quite top half though. 

To my eternal shame, I'll always be known as "that mad chap on Saintsweb that suggested we had a squad capable of finishing in the top half of the table in 2020". In retrospect, it was indeed complete and utter madness.

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I hope it will be a competitive game and Danny gets his hat trick. Let’s give Billy Sharp a very warm Saints welcome back to St.Marys. He did a job for us when he was here and for that we should applaud him. Three more points on Sunday then it’s off to the Costa del Calshot for a well earned break! 

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42 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

No fans at the stadium makes that difficult.

We did that at Bramall Lane in September - sang his song when he was on the touchline warming up, and he came over and applauded us for it.
Then he did us a massive favour by inexplicably getting himself sent off late in the game. He's still a Saint at heart.

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