Swansea 1-3 Record-Breaking Saints

[The Kraken]

Just now, CanadaSaint said:

I was super-happy to see Flynn Downes' goal. He's a cracking player but I've always thought that he's not great around the "D" on the edge of each penalty box - really key areas. He doesn't always defend it well at our end (and goals have resulted) and he doesn't always attack it well at their end (and chances have been lost).

Today he really attacked it well for his goal. It's not somewhere to be taking a control touch because a defensive cavalry is coming out at you - just hit it first time. If it gets through, great, or it may get a lucky deflection. Flynn did exactly that today and I really hope we see more of it.

Not sure if Rusty agrees with you! In his presser he joked that, when he saw Flynn lining one up, the manager and coaches were just thinking “don’t”.

[CanadaSaint]

1 minute ago, The Kraken said:

Not sure if Rusty agrees with you! In his presser he joked that, when he saw Flynn lining one up, the manager and coaches were just thinking “don’t”.

😂 Perhaps they've seen him doing it at Staplewood and it's cleared the Marchwood Bypass, but there are goalscoring chances around the D in every game.

[Fan The Flames]

Personally I wouldn't get to over excited about the first half or too down about the second half.

Swansea were way too open in the first half and made it easy for us and we ultimately dealt them in the second half.

It felt uncomfortable at the back end of the second half at times, but both teams were profligate with chances, so 3-1 remains a fair result. Fans put more value on the chances the opposition misses than the chances we miss.

[Saint_clark]

9 minutes ago, Fan The Flames said:

Personally I wouldn't get to over excited about the first half or too down about the second half.

Swansea were way too open in the first half and made it easy for us and we ultimately dealt them in the second half.

It felt uncomfortable at the back end of the second half at times, but both teams were profligate with chances, so 3-1 remains a fair result. Fans put more value on the chances the opposition misses than the chances we miss.

What was interesting about today is both us and Swansea want to play a similar way and both sides showed when it does and doesn't work.

First half we passed with forward attacking intent and Swansea passed for safety, we looked dangerous.

Second half we reverted to passing for safety (like at the start of the season) and Swansea had nothing to lose so passed with forward attacking intent, and then we struggled. 

[6ft8saint]

2 hours ago, JRM said:

I think it's lazy to blame Stephens for the last 20 mins, whole side fell apart, passing got sloppy, we stopped attacking and invited trouble, Rothwell looked like he wasn't sure where he should be. 

First half was excellent, nice to win away again, just need to keep the momentum going 

I think you were watching another game the other players were forced to mop up Stephens errors were lucky bazunu is more capable than at start of the season

[Fabrice29]

44 minutes ago, Give it to Ron said:

Think was dodgy first ten but after that I thought had good game tbh.

Tracked well and good passes for KWP to run onto, he got around the pitch well today linking well with Flyn didn’t really give it away as much as others.

 

39 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Used the ball well once he settled into the game, was one of the main reasons we were so free flowing in that first half. He was pulling them all over and using the ball well.

Good player, he's had a couple of good games on the bounce now for me.

 

I think he's excellent and looking forward to hopefully seeing him test himself next year in the PL and I also agree he played well today. But he did quite literally give the ball away more than most today.

[gio1saints]

1 hour ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Yes we all support the same team, but holy fuck we are all allowed to have different opinions on players. I don't hate Stephens. He's a good pro and back up to the first 11. What I have a problem with is this ridiculous idea that Martin wants to get him on the pitch. There is absolutely no need to change your centre back pairing when you are 3-1 up in a match, barring an injury. 

Have your opinions on players is fine. But a guy calls YOU an arsehole idiot and clown - repeatedly - for sticking up for your captain and your team and you give it a pass do you? No I call it. 

[Middlewordie]

On 14/01/2024 at 09:39, trousers said:

Would be very "Saintsy" for our unbeaten run to end at our manager's former club, but I'm sticking with my newly formed hunch that we'll now go unbeaten for the rest of the season... so, 1-3 to the mighty Saints! COYR

Good guess!

[Nolan]

First away game where we scored more than two, this season.

Both goals scored, and goals against currently more favourable numbers than Ipswich.

Great position to be in.

It's almost a shame to have to have a break to play a cup match.

[Whitey Grandad]

2 hours ago, CanadaSaint said:

Overall a brilliant performance but with some important takeaways. Martin has shown that he's committed but not stubborn, so I hope he's reflecting on some areas for improvement.

The Swansea goal that undeservedly got them back into the game when they were being pummelled came (again) from poor play by Manning - getting caught too high. My suspicion is that the apparent improvement in Manning's game recently has come not because he's playing better but because he has Fraser ahead of him; Fraser is such a threat that sides can't pressure our Manning side as easily. He remains a major defensive weakness.

Jack Stephens is a great guy, and clearly well regarded in the dressing room, but he doesn't have a quick enough brain to fit into our "play it out from the back" style. In fact, it's frightening to see him trying to participate in it. With hindsight, Martin might have left THB out there for another 20 minutes and trusted him to avoid a second yellow.

And, as committed as we are to playing that style, and as good as it is to watch, there is nothing to be gained and lots to be lost from overplaying at the back when we're 3-1 up but under pressure in the last 10 minutes - especially when THB isn't out there.

It seems ridiculous to say that we dodged a bullet today, but we probably did.

ThB will probably be rested against Watford anyway so a second yellow wouldn't have mattered.

[Greedyfly]

Bloody brilliant showing, now what do we all want for Monday?

 

For balance, I hated watching us 2 months ago. I genuinely enjoy it now, we play forward thinking, possession football, not laborious possession hunting for stats. A credit to Martin because I don't actually mind much who's in the team at the moment and I only think a few are absolute requirements (THB, AA, Downes, KWP). 

 

To that point, I thought the substitute of THB let them back into the game somewhat, though I don't think we were fully in danger at any point... That said Bazunu made a couple of important saves, both from Stephens's errors, who was, for me a weak link today even with the limited time he had. 

 

I Think Smallbone deserved his MOTM as well though you could make an argument for a few. That said he's making the 'late run from midfield' a bit of a thing which is great to see. Notable turnaround in form from Manning as well though he's still the weakest of the back 4 by some margin. 

 

Either way, lovely job. Let's not lose again and win the league. Yeah fuck it, I said it 😁

[Give it to Ron]

20 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

Have your opinions on players is fine. But a guy calls YOU an arsehole idiot and clown - repeatedly - for sticking up for your captain and your team and you give it a pass do you? No I call it. 

To be clear I called you a clown I said opinions are like arseholes not you are one get it right!
Go back to your first post attacking Saints fans for commenting on how he played today calling them haters.

I may have called you an idiot which I apologise for but you saying fans hate him is wrong I posted my option on his performance today and I stand by that it’s not hate at all I certainly praise when he does well like all players 

Edited January 20 by Give it to Ron

[gio1saints]

1 minute ago, Whitey Grandad said:

ThB will probably be rested against Watford anyway so a second yellow wouldn't have mattered.

Unless Swansea scored twice or even thrice when we were down to ten men. Which was rather the point. 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

3 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

Have your opinions on players is fine. But a guy calls YOU an arsehole idiot and clown - repeatedly - for sticking up for your captain and your team and you give it a pass do you? No I call it. 

But that was his opinion. He doesn't rate Stephens, you obviously do. And that's your right to have an opinion as much as his. You need a thicker skin on here sometimes to post. It's just playground shit, being called a bed wetting clown is hardly earth shattering.

[The Cat]

Overall a good performance. Phenomenal first half really, some of the best passing and movement of all season.

Swansea clearly changed things at half time, tightened up and blocked a lot of our passing lines which meant we ended up being less positive going forward.

Nice to see Bazunu play his part in the win with a couple of important saves.

[Fabrice29]

31 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

ThB will probably be rested against Watford anyway so a second yellow wouldn't have mattered.

Suspect he starts alongside Stephens like he did in the previous round tbh. Not Stephen's biggest fan but don't see the issue with his sub today. We were comfortable at that time, defender is on a yellow, another defender on the bench who needs game time, makes sense. Just so happened he played badly, that happens, keeper stepped up and we got through it. No issues.

Edited January 20 by Fabrice29

[saintant]

38 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

ThB will probably be rested against Watford anyway so a second yellow wouldn't have mattered.

Aside from the fact that we'd have been down to 10 men 🙂

[Osvaldorama]

Superb, absolutely superb. 
 

Thank you Martin for giving us a club to be proud of again. 

[coalman]

Shite though the second half was it may help us. Teams will look at that and think we're weak against a high press and park the bus less.

[Harry_SFC]

12 minutes ago, saintant said:

Aside from the fact that we'd have been down to 10 men 🙂

Felt like we had 10 men for the last 20 mins anyway tbf 

[Give it to Ron]

Based on the 2 games I have seen him this season not getting Nathan Wood (strongly rumoured) was just as well. Ok in the air but was shocking on the floor today panicked loads. Grimes was ok when had space to pick  a pass but not good enough for us.

[Cabrone]

Great 3 points and turns the screw on the teams around us. Even the Leicester fans are starting to notice us in their rear view now.

Leicester\Ipswich IMO is going to be a draw so we'll still be 3rd by only 1 point come the end of Monday.

How long can we keep this run going?

[fanimal]

Funny old game first half as good as last Saturday then a final 30 minutes as bad as some of those early cringing defeats! However when the team run out to St Mary’s on February 10th after 3 away games they should get the loudest longest reception ever!!

[washsaint]

I cannot remember the last time I got so much enjoyment from watching a Saints side (probably the MLT era under Bally).  Watching the first half from here in the US my mouth was agape at the sheer beauty of the play and 5-0 at HT would have been fair.

2nd half was a pretty poor performance - but we kept a clean sheet thanks to Baz who made a couple of great saves.  Stephens is getting a lot of flak (and he was very poor with his passing) but the whole team played poorly in the second half.  KWP looks brilliant going forward but we leave gaping holes his side that lets the opposition in.

21 unbeaten and 11 unbeaten away - an incredible achievement in a league as competitive as this where anyone can beat anyone else on a given day.

Tougher tests lay ahead but we have given ourselves a real chance of automatic promotion and even finishing as champions.

For the first time in a long time, it's a great time to be a Saints fan.

 

[JRM]

1 hour ago, 6ft8saint said:

I think you were watching another game the other players were forced to mop up Stephens errors were lucky bazunu is more capable than at start of the season

If you think last 20 mins where we were poor right across the pitch and the defence were put under a lot of pressure was just down to Stephens coming on then I think you're just looking for a scapegoat . 

[JRM]

1 hour ago, Whitey Grandad said:

ThB will probably be rested against Watford anyway so a second yellow wouldn't have mattered.

Aren't suspensions relating to bookings competition specific? 

[Galway saint]

thought stephens looked tentative in the pass and he obviously suffers in comparison to THB.

the way we play you’ve got to be on your game around the 18 year box otherwise it’s calamity time and Stephen’s wasn’t quite on it

thought it was the wrong move to break up the CB partnership. we got away with it today and hopefully lessons learnt

first half was superb and RM has us playing some great stuff . come a long way in 12 months 

[austsaint]

7 hours ago, aintforever said:

I was thinking the same, going forward he could be improved on. Probably shouldn’t undervalue the defensive work he does though.

I might of been too harsh on WS yesterday.    He played his part and had a good second half.    Against the likes of Leicester, Ipswich, Leeds etc, Downes may need a bit more help in the holding role - whether it's WS or Rothwell, when he gets up to speed, will be interesting.  At the moment, young Charles is probably not ready.

[austsaint]

3 hours ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Good call chum! Smallbone MotM!!!!!!!!!!!!

I accept I was harsh on Smallbone at half-time, chum!     He had a good second half, and played his role.   I'm surprised he got the man-of-the-match nod though - but well done him.

[S-Clarke]

26 minutes ago, austsaint said:

I accept I was harsh on Smallbone at half-time, chum!     He had a good second half, and played his role.   I'm surprised he got the man-of-the-match nod though - but well done him.

I'm not sure how anyone could be harsh about any player off the back of that 1st half, every single one of our players were head and shoulders above the opposition. Not a single bad performance in that first half from anyone.

Edited January 20 by S-Clarke

[Turkish]

3 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I'm not sure how anyone could be harsh about any player off the back of that 1st half, every single one of our players were head and shoulders above the opposition. Not a single bad performance in that first half from anyone.

Actually Their keeper was better than Bazunu in the first half 

[austsaint]

24 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I'm not sure how anyone could be harsh about any player off the back of that 1st half, every single one of our players were head and shoulders above the opposition. Not a single bad performance in that first half from anyone.

Yeah, fair enough.   It was a brilliant first half team performance, and Smallbone played his part.    There's also no doubt that he's played well the last two games.   Maybe I'm nitpicking, but if you look at the first half again, WS made several untidy passes under no pressure, and it is characteristic of his game.    I think it was Holmes and Watson who made the interesting point that Smallbone is often being asked to play several roles ranging from attacking wide, attacking central and defensive midfield, and his mobility and energy allows him to do it.       It's working against lesser teams - will the same strategy work against better opposition.

 

[Andrew Watson]

Could have scored 6 goals and more in the first half,when we were excellent,we need to take all our chances against the other teams in the top six away from home. I doubt that we will create that many chances at WBA,Leicester,Ipswich and Leeds. For the record Don Goodman did say Swansea were the better team in the 2nd half,but he also said that Saints first half performance was the best he had seen from any club this season.

[SW11_Saint]

8 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

He's past it. Came on in the other game against us. 

There's a reason he's on the bench for them and not starting.

I guess. Though he woke them up a bit today! 

[Tommy Mulgrew]

26 minutes ago, Andrew Watson said:

Could have scored 6 goals and more in the first half,when we were excellent,we need to take all our chances against the other teams in the top six away from home. I doubt that we will create that many chances at WBA,Leicester,Ipswich and Leeds. For the record Don Goodman did say Swansea were the better team in the 2nd half,but he also said that Saints first half performance was the best he had seen from any club this season.

Agreed.  We should have been out of sight at half time; we were a pleasure to watch but should have made our superiority count even more.  One goal should have been disallowed, as should theirs.  In the second half we created few good chances and Swansea should really have scored three times.  So, strange to say, we were lucky not to lose!  Against better sides, we would have done.  We are riding the crest of a beautiful wave but, look more closely, and we could easily be brought crashing down.  Let’s hope RM learns some lessons (aired above in this thread) from this game and keeps us on our record run.

[SaintBobby]

Let's be honest, we were fucking brilliant. Ok, shoddy last ten mins, but we utterly minced them until that point. Could have been 5-0 at halftime.

What a time to be alive!

 

[rooney]

What a first half performance. If we had been wearing yellow shirts it could have been Brazil at their best. Agree with others that the second half was a bit hairy at times but cannot complain with what we are seeing at the  moment.

[SWLondonSaint]

Normally not a fan of bringing Stephens on but this THB actually had quite a poor game. Martin visibly frustrated with him a number of times before he came off.

As has been said a game of two halves, but you’re never gonna see me moan after a 3-1 away win.

COYR

 

[Chez]

28 minutes ago, SWLondonSaint said:

Normally not a fan of bringing Stephens on but this THB actually had quite a poor game. Martin visibly frustrated with him a number of times before he came off.

That's interesting.

Personally, I was fine with the substitution. We were cruising and realistically the only thing that would stop us winning was a red card, so RM was protecting the win. He's done it a couple of times recently. It's a smart move if you have confidence in your squad players and it can pay off if you get an injury to a first choice as the second choice are not completely rusty. At this level, Stephens is OK. Good enough to do a job, which he has so far this season. Obviously he dropped an absolute clanger, which we haven't seen from our CBs in quite a while. But I don't think he was the cause our second half issues though. We made lots of subs and none had a positive impact, plus Swansea improved. 

[eurosaint]

I came on here this morning expecting the post match analysis to be all about the sensational performance for two thirds of the game only to read a lot of negativity about poor substitutions and how atrocious our captain was 😵 (clearly not everybody but quite a few!). Someone said that the second half was a 'disaster' even although we actually kept a clean sheet!

I guess that I should not really be surprised as many of those posters actually wanted the manager gone after the first 8 games of the season!

Whilst I realise that it's a forum and all about opinions it does seem that it's almost impossible for some to enjoy the good moments without introducing caveats all the time...

True, our performance level dropped towards the end of yesterday's match but the management team will reflect on that, no doubt see lessons to be learnt and react in a calm and considered way which is exactly how it should be!

For me, I'm enjoying watching Saints this season more than for ages and will leave the moaning to others....

COYS 😇

 

[trousers]

3 minutes ago, eurosaint said:

I came on here this morning expecting the post match analysis to be all about the sensational performance for two thirds of the game only to read a lot of negativity about poor substitutions and how atrocious our captain was 😵 (clearly not everybody but quite a few!). Someone said that the second half was a 'disaster' even although we actually kept a clean sheet!

I guess that I should not really be surprised as many of those posters actually wanted the manager gone after the first 8 games of the season!

Whilst I realise that it's a forum and all about opinions it does seem that it's almost impossible for some to enjoy the good moments without introducing caveats all the time...

True, our performance level dropped towards the end of yesterday's match but the management team will reflect on that, no doubt see lessons to be learnt and react in a calm and considered way which is exactly how it should be!

For me, I'm enjoying watching Saints this season more than for ages and will leave the moaning to others....

COYS 😇

 

Stop moaning about people moaning FFS! 

[The Cat]

10 hours ago, Tommy Mulgrew said:

Agreed.  We should have been out of sight at half time; we were a pleasure to watch but should have made our superiority count even more.  One goal should have been disallowed, as should theirs.  In the second half we created few good chances and Swansea should really have scored three times.  So, strange to say, we were lucky not to lose!  Against better sides, we would have done.  We are riding the crest of a beautiful wave but, look more closely, and we could easily be brought crashing down.  Let’s hope RM learns some lessons (aired above in this thread) from this game and keeps us on our record run

We were lucky not to lose?

I've read some mental stuff on here over the years but that's up there.

If you watch the post match press conference Martin knows we dropped off at the end and said there's room for improvement in that area.

[gio1saints]

Swans have to play Leicester away, Leeds ant hone and Ipswich at home yet. 
If they can harness the confidence From the second half of yesterdays match and avoid being dominated like they were first half v Saints it’s not out the question they may take a point or more from those three matches, unlikely, but a draw v Leeds or Ipswich at home for them if they play like second half does not sound a crazy result. 

[Harry_SFC]

17 minutes ago, The Cat said:

We were lucky not to lose?

I've read some mental stuff on here over the years but that's up there.

If you watch the post match press conference Martin knows we dropped off at the end and said there's room for improvement in that area.

Agreed. Apart from that 20 minute spell we were the better team by far for 70 minutes. Just because they finished the stronger team doesn't mean they deserved to win. Overall a 6-3 win would've been fair! 

[The Cat]

3 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

Agreed. Apart from that 20 minute spell we were the better team by far for 70 minutes. Just because they finished the stronger team doesn't mean they deserved to win. Overall a 6-3 win would've been fair! 

It's probably the same with a lot of fans but people put far too much emphasis on chances the other team miss than they do on the ones their team do.

Our player misses a shot = he's crap

Their player misses a shot = we were lucky

As you say something like 6-3 would have been a perfectly reasonable result based on chances during the game.

[saintant]

Having slept on it I've concluded that the way we finished the game was more of a brain fart on the day than something that will become the norm. Sometimes even the great sides like Man City have a sticky period in a match where they suddenly stop doing the things that make them so good and their opponents swarm all over them. It is always a temporary blip and I think we'll be the same. I and others may have been a little harsh on Stephens and although I still think the ball across our box was inexcusable I should cut him a little slack in general. I say that because he is back from a long term injury so has not had the benefit of regular training and game time. If we go back to when he first got injured none of our players were anywhere near the level they are now and the system was a work in progress. RM will have taken a lot from the game and we can be sure he and his team will be working on the positives and the few negatives this week.

Edited January 21 by saintant

[Doctoroncall]

19 hours ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

After nine games (our lowest ranking), thirteen games (biggest gap from the leaders), to now. 👍🏻

If Leicester win their game in hand, we have only gained one point  on them since game 9!

[badgerx16]

47 minutes ago, Doctoroncall said:

If Leicester win their game in hand, we have only gained one point  on them since game 9!

If Leicester win their game in hand Ipswich will have lost their game in hand.

[Saint Gifford]

Reminds me of the Reading / Saints season to get back. Look where Reading are now!!!!!!!!!

More than happy with 2nd and automatic. Couldn’t give a F(;k 1st or 2nd whatever, as long as we haven’t got to go through the play offs. 
 

 

[derry]

I've read some of the criticism of Stephens. To be fair he has messed up in about three games now. His back pass to Bazunu who messed up was poor, the next game he opted not to make a safe pass to THB who was  wide open, instead passed to Manning who hit a hospital ball to Fraser on the congested side which ended up us losing the ball and conceding a goal. Yesterday he messed up several passes giving the ball to Swansea on the edge of our box. He was playing on the left side, in the first game as he replaced Bednarek but when he replaced THB yesterday Bednarek moved left to right and the predominantly right sided Stephens took the left side. That made no sense to me. He doesn't look comfortable on the left maybe having to cover because Manning's regularly going missing on that side.

It was a lovely display in the first half and until we made the substitutions we were comfortable. Rothwell looked all at sea trying to fit in, give him time. It's obvious we are trying to give time to those players on the edge of the team to integrate them and improve them but I think as in the case of Stephens we shouldn't make life difficult for him, unnecessarily putting him on the left. Manning on the other hand defensively is poor. We are crying out for a good class left back.