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Watford 1-1 Saints - Match Thread

The Cat

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NewYorkSaint

NewYorkSaint

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, saintant said:

You see this is what happens when somebody describes our keeper as world class. Inevitable.

Fair. I apologise.   He aint' perfect. I still think I spoke truth.  But it's a question that will take another couple of years to answer for sure....

Edited by NewYorkSaint
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Sheaf Saint

Sheaf Saint

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Posted
1 minute ago, Bad Wolf said:

Nothing to do with the dreadful defending when our player (whoever it was) got outjumped for the knock on?

No, not nothing to do with it. That allowed the shot, of course, but that shot was poor and should be keeper's ball ten times out of ten.

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S-Clarke

S-Clarke

Posted
Posted (edited)

Needed to win that with the other results, it extends the run sure, but that pretty much puts the final nail in any automatic promotion hopes - however slight they were at the start of the day, and that for me will always be such a huge sickener for me this season given the players we have. We need to at least keep the momentum going so we head into the playoffs as the best in there.

Bazunu had a great game in so many aspects, without him that was probably a defeat so seeing him being dived on at FT is a bit weird but somewhat not surprising.

Onto Wednesday, need to win that - open up as big as a gap as we can from 7th.

Edited by S-Clarke
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macca155

macca155

Posted
Posted

4th in the table and I reckon that's about our place at the moment.

We're good no need to panic but at the moment Saints can't finish teams off.

Football karma showing itself today. Last minute equalisers can be exquisite or excruciating.

Long season still to go, January window will be crucial.

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saintant

saintant

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Posted
1 minute ago, Saint86 said:

Blame absolutely on the mananger for another poor performance. The goal is automatic promotion, and be expects to win every game 1-0 with a perfect defence where the opposition never score. Has to be pushing on and getting a 2nd... We just aren't doing enough and a these dropped points will cost us. 

Automatic promotion was long gone before this game. Let's be realistic here. It's a decent point towards the play-offs which is our level.

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Lighthouse

Lighthouse

Posted
Posted

The goal difference of the top 5

+26

+18

+16

+4

+10

I think that probably illustrates our problem better than anything else. We’re marginally better than most of the teams we play, but just not good enough to win convincingly. That’s Huddersfield and today where we’ve been mugged off at the end. You can blame individual mistakes if you like but if we’d been 3-0 up that goal wouldn’t have mattered.

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Bad Wolf

Bad Wolf

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Just now, Sheaf Saint said:

No, not nothing to do with it. That allowed the shot, of course, but that shot was poor and should be keeper's ball ten times out of ten.

Nothing to do with that? So we're just letting him get away with it? Christ our fans really do hate Bazunu. I can't wait for him to be poached by a bigger club and it'll be "BUT WE STUCK BY HIM AND GAVE HIM A CHANCE!!! THERE'S NO LOYALTY IN FOOTBALL ANYMORE!!!!"

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S-Clarke

S-Clarke

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, macca155 said:

4th in the table and I reckon that's about our place at the moment.

We're good no need to panic but at the moment Saints can't finish teams off.

Football karma showing itself today. Last minute equalisers can be exquisite or excruciating.

Long season still to go, January window will be crucial.

Oh for sure, we've had some great last min times this season so far - it was always going to bite us on the other end at some point, at least it wasn't a defeat. 

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Ekelund

Ekelund

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Posted
6 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

LOL Bazunu seriously being blamed for that?! Nothing to do with the CB who got outjumped without even trying then...

Have a break ffs. Centre halves can lose headers but letting that in is unforgivable so yeah, he’s at fault.

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washsaint

washsaint

Posted
Posted

Unfortunately. 2 mistakes from 2 young players: Harwood-Bellis really should have cleared that and Bazunu absolutely has to save that.  Another game unbeaten and this seems to be a freak year in the Championship in terms of the top 4 winning all the time.

Still rather this than the Prem with that absolute joke of a VAR decision in the Palace game - nearly 2 minutes after the incident they give a penalty.

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RedArmy

RedArmy

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

Nothing to do with the dreadful defending when our player (whoever it was) got outjumped for the knock on?

I don’t think anybody that watched the game could completely blame Baz for us not winning today. He made some big saves, including the one just before we took the lead. 
But that is a very, very poor goal to concede. It’s practically down the middle and it’s not a rocket of a shot. That’s a routine save that you’d expect your keeper to make 99/100. 

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EssEffCee

EssEffCee

Posted
Posted

Just went I thought we'd seen it through a goal out of nothing. Bit of a shit goal to concede for Gav and feel for him a bit as he was excellent other than that. Bednarek my MOTM.

Kind of feel we only have ourselves to blame for that. Spent the last ten minutes of normal time fucking about with it which led to lengthy stoppage time.

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Sheaf Saint

Sheaf Saint

Posted
Posted
Just now, Bad Wolf said:

Nothing to do with that? So we're just letting him get away with it? Christ our fans really do hate Bazunu. I can't wait for him to be poached by a bigger club and it'll be "BUT WE STUCK BY HIM AND GAVE HIM A CHANCE!!! THERE'S NO LOYALTY IN FOOTBALL ANYMORE!!!!"

Whatever mate. I don't hate Bazunu at all. He's been much better recently and made a couple of good saves today, but if you can't see that was an obvious howler on his part then I can't help you.

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saintant

saintant

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Posted
2 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Needed to win that with the other results, it extends the run sure, but that pretty much puts the final nail in any automatic promotion hopes - however slight they were at the start of the day, and that for me will always be such a huge sickener for me this season given the players we have. We need to at least keep the momentum going so we head into the playoffs as the best in there.

Bazunu had a great game in so many aspects, without him that was probably a defeat so seeing him being dived on at FT is a bit weird but somewhat not surprising.

Onto Wednesday, need to win that - open up as big as a gap as we can from 7th.

Irrespective of how good people think our players are the stark reality is that Leicester and Ipswich are teams who are far better than us. It's a shame because in other seasons our current points tally would put us right up there but these two teams are relentless.

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davefizzy14

davefizzy14

Posted
Posted (edited)
20 minutes ago, saintant said:

Irrespective of how good people think our players are the stark reality is that Leicester and Ipswich are teams who are far better than us. It's a shame because in other seasons our current points tally would put us right up there but these two teams are relentless.

You say that but we are around the top of the form guide. We've kept our unbeaten run going and got a point. Both of them will have a dip at somepoint and then we can take advantage. Long way to go.

Edited by davefizzy14
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EssEffCee

EssEffCee

Posted
Posted (edited)
12 minutes ago, Edmonton Saint said:

The Russell Martin way. Despite 12 unbeaten or whatever it is, I struggle to remember a game we’ve actually dominated and created lots of chances and clearly shown we’re the better team. Winning the possession stat won’t ultimately get us enough points for automatic promotion.

 

Umm last week? I thought my memory was bad...

Edited by EssEffCee
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S-Clarke

S-Clarke

Posted
Posted
Just now, Block41 Saint said:

I just don't have confidence in Bazunu to save shots if I'm honest. I know he's made a decent save at the start of that second half but his shot stopping has been abysmal since he joined us. This is another to add to the list of goals that shouldn't have gone in past him. 

He's had a great 6 weeks, stepped up to the mark. He has let one in at the end, but why go OTT over it? Without him today that is a defeat 9/10 as Watford deserved that. It was only because of him we went into the 95th min 1-0 up.

I have full confidence in Bazunu and I felt he was starting to really build a rapport with the fans. He's not perfect, he's still got to improve in aspects, but he has been getting better and no one can deny that.

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bpsaint

bpsaint

Posted
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10 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

LOL Bazunu seriously being blamed for that?! Nothing to do with the CB who got outjumped without even trying then...

A tame shot from that far out, and Baz somehow manages to dive over the top of it. Sorry Bad Wolf but that is a keeper error. Nevertheless Baz had a very good afternoon and his save before Che scored was as good as a goal. 
 

The blame of not winning today lies at the feet of a coaching team that set us up to try and sneak a 1=0 win rather than going for it like the top 3 manage to.

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eurosaint

eurosaint

Posted
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6 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Needed to win that with the other results, it extends the run sure, but that pretty much puts the final nail in any automatic promotion hopes - however slight they were at the start of the day, and that for me will always be such a huge sickener for me this season given the players we have. We need to at least keep the momentum going so we head into the playoffs as the best in there.

Bazunu had a great game in so many aspects, without him that was probably a defeat so seeing him being dived on at FT is a bit weird but somewhat not surprising.

Onto Wednesday, need to win that - open up as big as a gap as we can from 7th.

26 matches to go so it’s a setback but hardly the ‘final nail in the coffin’ 🤷‍♂️

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Bad Wolf

Bad Wolf

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Whatever mate. I don't hate Bazunu at all. He's been much better recently and made a couple of good saves today, but if you can't see that was an obvious howler on his part then I can't help you.

It's not that I can't see it was a howler but if you think that was NOTHING to do with the defending and 100% on Baz then it isn't me who needs help.

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Holmes_and_Watson

Holmes_and_Watson

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According to the beeb, we had 60% of the possession. We only managed 6 shots and 3 of those were on target.

Our usual issue of not being able to put games to bed drops us points again. We simply didn't create enough to get 2 goals ahead. The passing game, off the back of our possession, had some moemnets, but we weren't really worrying them consistently.

By contrast, they looked the most likely at half time as Baz was the keeper under most pressure.

SR and Martin's set up means that our promotion hinges on getting more out of the possession we have. Martin has said as much. Today, we tried a number of longer, riskier through balls that didn't work, giving them possession and pressure. Our shorter passing was occassionally disjointed too. We simply didn;t have too many end products from our play. Our goal was well worked, and Fraser made an impact. But we don;t drive on from a lead. We allow teams to reset for a repeat, rahter than press an advantage. Partly, because we've one way of playing really.

Should Baz have stopped it. I think so. Should Bednarek have madea  better challenge for the ball? I think so? But both had really good games up until then. At this level, with our quality, Martin has to be able to get us working as a unit at the other end of the park. The more we allow teams back into games, the more we'll end up with situations like this. And the less likely our promotion will be. Unfortunately, Mara's introduction robbed us oof Adams' more phsyical abilityies. With Aribo also off, we didn;t ahve anyone to hold things up. And that didn't help us. We also missed Downes today too. 

There were positives today. But the big let down casts a big shadow over them

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saintant

saintant

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, davefizzy14 said:

You say that but we are around the top of the form guide. Both of then will have a dip at somepoint and then we can take advantage. Long way to go.

We aren't quite good enough and today underlined that - just my take on it.

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S-Clarke

S-Clarke

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 minutes ago, eurosaint said:

26 matches to go so it’s a setback but hardly the ‘final nail in the coffin’ 🤷‍♂️

I see it as a 2 horse between Leeds, Ipswich for 2nd place. 1st is done so that's not even worth debating about now, Leicester will be home and hosed by March.

I think it illustrates how hard it's going to be to overhaul them above - we've won 8 in 12, unbeaten in 12, and we're still 10 points behind Ipswich. 

Edited by S-Clarke
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Baz Fl

Baz Fl

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Posted

Not fair to blame Baz, he also made some great saves. If anything the club not getting a proper striker (AGAIN) has effectively stopped us scoring enough goals to be a top side, playoffs not a disaster  but definitely a worry.

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saintant

saintant

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

I'd question that to be honest, player for player we have better. Martin is holding this squad back as it stands by not playing to their potential. 

Interesting angle on it and I do agree that the Ipswich manager is getting a lot out of what is perhaps marginally an inferior squad to ours so fair play to him.

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S-Clarke

S-Clarke

Posted
Posted
Just now, Baz Fl said:

Not fair to blame Baz, he also made some great saves. If anything the club not getting a proper striker (AGAIN) has effectively stopped us scoring enough goals to be a top side, playoffs not a disaster  but definitely a worry.

I don't think it's as simple as that really, we have strikers who will score buckets of goals at this level - but we don't play to score buckets of goals, as illustrated by our goal difference. We don't go for the kill and that has been what has hamstrung us and why our GD, for a team in the top 4, is pretty horrendous. 

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FarehamSaintJames

FarehamSaintJames

Posted
Posted

Russell Martin’s interview will be interesting… Naa I’m kidding, it’ll be boring as anything, like our football.

One day, we will get a 3-0 or 4-0 but it won’t be for a while. Take a couple of key players (Downes etc) out our team and we’re pretty weak, and in our rightful remit of play off hopefuls.

Not too two.

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LuckyNumber7

LuckyNumber7

Posted
Posted

Well that's a sickener. Feel a bit for Baz, it's a bad mistake but he made some excellent saves before that so not gonna be too harsh on him. Bednarek MOTM for me, also thought Aribo had a good game.

The main problem again is our inability to finish teams off, with a one goal lead we're always walking a tightrope. 

Still having a good season on the whole but Leicester, Ipswich and Leeds are just relentless. Have to win every game just to stay in touch. Still a long way to go but even at this early stage we look almost nailed on for the playoffs.

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saintstowin

saintstowin

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Posted

I feel odd. Yes gutted about a late, late goal. But we're on a good run. Maybe because of that, plus how likely it looks to be play offs at best anyway, plus we're definitely still in credit as far as late, late goals go this season. 

And then there's the fact I'm not missing the division above our one at all. 

I've felt much, much worse about conceding at the death. 

A point today. A win next time. 

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Lee On Solent Saint

Lee On Solent Saint

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, saintant said:

Interesting angle on it and I do agree that the Ipswich manager is getting a lot out of what is perhaps marginally an inferior squad to ours so fair play to him.

Vastly inferior. I'd wager they've not had too many injurires or suspensions either to this point. Also, a fair bulk of that squad were playing League One football last season, the vast majority of ours, Premier League. 

Edited by Lee On Solent Saint
missing word
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