Saints 1-1 Palace - Match Thread

[Toussaint]

12 hours ago, Andy Hill said:

A Palace goal was inevitable with a back 3 including Stephens and Bednarek.

Bednarek was brilliant and Stephens was fine. If there was any inevitability in the equaliser it was because palace are a very dangerous attacking team and we have less than zero belief we can win a game. 

[Oldandtired]

3 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

Bednarek was brilliant and Stephens was fine. If there was any inevitability in the equaliser it was because palace are a very dangerous attacking team and we have less than zero belief we can win a game. 

Agree about Bednarek, forgot to give him a mention in despatches  in my post.

[leesaint88]

11 hours ago, Mixedkebab said:

Absolute scum pricks, had it in the palm of their hands but too weak to see it out.

the likes of Dibling are a disgrace to the city. Been going since early 80s and never been so ashamed of supporting this wanky club

fuck off saints you pathetic cunts, disgusting how these maggots get away with taking the piss out of the locals.

This bunch of freaks who run the club and play for it are the biggest disgrace to the city in history, whether they pass 11 points or not, every cunt on here needs to remember that. 
Remember every gimpy name who played for this pathetic shithouse team

U ok hun?

[Mr X]

11 hours ago, Mixedkebab said:

Absolute scum pricks, had it in the palm of their hands but too weak to see it out.

the likes of Dibling are a disgrace to the city. Been going since early 80s and never been so ashamed of supporting this wanky club

fuck off saints you pathetic cunts, disgusting how these maggots get away with taking the piss out of the locals.

This bunch of freaks who run the club and play for it are the biggest disgrace to the city in history, whether they pass 11 points or not, every cunt on here needs to remember that. 
Remember every gimpy name who played for this pathetic shithouse team

Beautiful poetic prose sir a grande job! 

[Baird of the land]

1 hour ago, Toussaint said:

Bednarek was brilliant and Stephens was fine. If there was any inevitability in the equaliser it was because palace are a very dangerous attacking team and we have less than zero belief we can win a game. 

Bednarek did play a lovely through ball for Nketiah.

[Fabrice29]

1 hour ago, Toussaint said:

Bednarek was brilliant and Stephens was fine. If there was any inevitability in the equaliser it was because palace are a very dangerous attacking team and we have less than zero belief we can win a game. 

Think Bednarek and Stephens being considered brilliant and fine is part of the problem why we have less than zero belief we can win a game to be fair. 

[Midfield_General]

Stephens was OK by his own low standards but was still directly at fault for the equaliser. Not just him - as THB had two chances to do a proper clearing header and messed them both up, and Ramsdale should have saved the shot - but he totally lost his man for the goal. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

Upgrade on the last few games, from disgraceful up to bang average. 
 

Some ok performances, Downes, Manning, Tall Paul, big Les. 
 

MF & KWP excellent. 
 

Dublin, Archer & Suly were wank. 

Should have won, but shite sides with weak mentality find a way not to. 

[St Louis]

2 hours ago, Oldandtired said:

Cons were TD.. I almost think we might see him here next season…surely no one would want to buy a seemingly petulant youngster who can’t be arsed anymore…

 

 

Why are people (it's not just yourself I've heard saying it) assuming that Dibling's being petulant and has given up!? There could be several more likely reasons for his drop in form, it doesn't always have to be that the kid is being petulant and throwing the toys out. It's funny how as soon as we assume he's leaving, everyone starts to throw the mud. If he had stated categorically that he was staying, but was still having this drop in form, I'm sure we wouldnt say that he cant be arsed, we would think he maybe needs a breather.

He's a 19 year old kid, and he's played 31 games in total for us this season, after only 5 first team games last seasons (mostly late subs), he's probably exhausted (mentally and physically)!
19 year olds arent usually the saviour in a relegation fight, its normally the hardened journeymen that handle this type of situation better. Plus the media have put an unbelievable amount of pressure on his shoulders in the last 5-6 months, constantly talking him up and which 'big' club he will be off to. And according to Martin, he's also had his agent in his ear in recent months, advising him not to sign the contract with us, etc.

Give him a bit of a break, let's not assume its just that 'he cant be arsed anymore'.

[Challenger]

13 hours ago, Mixedkebab said:

Absolute scum pricks, had it in the palm of their hands but too weak to see it out.

the likes of Dibling are a disgrace to the city. Been going since early 80s and never been so ashamed of supporting this wanky club

fuck off saints you pathetic cunts, disgusting how these maggots get away with taking the piss out of the locals.

This bunch of freaks who run the club and play for it are the biggest disgrace to the city in history, whether they pass 11 points or not, every cunt on here needs to remember that. 
Remember every gimpy name who played for this pathetic shithouse team

Refering to them as gimpy has given me an idea. Make them play in gimp suits last home game of the season, we might get a bit of entertainment for once and they can all slope off at the end without anyone knowing who they are.

[Chez]

1 hour ago, St Louis said:

Why are people (it's not just yourself I've heard saying it) assuming that Dibling's being petulant and has given up!? There could be several more likely reasons for his drop in form, it doesn't always have to be that the kid is being petulant and throwing the toys out. It's funny how as soon as we assume he's leaving, everyone starts to throw the mud. If he had stated categorically that he was staying, but was still having this drop in form, I'm sure we wouldnt say that he cant be arsed, we would think he maybe needs a breather.

He's a 19 year old kid, and he's played 31 games in total for us this season, after only 5 first team games last seasons (mostly late subs), he's probably exhausted (mentally and physically)!
19 year olds arent usually the saviour in a relegation fight, its normally the hardened journeymen that handle this type of situation better. Plus the media have put an unbelievable amount of pressure on his shoulders in the last 5-6 months, constantly talking him up and which 'big' club he will be off to. And according to Martin, he's also had his agent in his ear in recent months, advising him not to sign the contract with us, etc.

Give him a bit of a break, let's not assume its just that 'he cant be arsed anymore'.

I'm a big fan, but he came on and was far too casual, gave the ball away a couple of times cheaply and looked laboured - when we need him to get hold of the ball and help see out the game. I am not buying that he is exhausted. He's just not playing his best right now. besides, he had just come on. No reason not to be as bright as a button.

I can see why some might be frustrated/annoyed at that cameo last night and when combined with lots of media stuff linking him elsewhere (not to mention the shiteness of the side this season) you will get some moans. But I don't think for one minute that he has downed his tools or thrown his toys out of the pram.  Whenever players or teams play badly the 'can't be arsed' gets thrown at them. It's rare that players can't be arsed. Usually they are just bad/playing badly. Heads do go down, especially when you are a few goals behind.

[Whitey Grandad]

4 minutes ago, Chez said:

I'm a big fan, but he came on and was far too casual, gave the ball away a couple of times cheaply and looked laboured - when we need him to get hold of the ball and help see out the game. I am not buying that he is exhausted. He's just not playing his best right now. besides, he had just come on. No reason not to be as bright as a button.

I can see why some might be frustrated/annoyed at that cameo last night and when combined with lots of media stuff linking him elsewhere (not to mention the shiteness of the side this season) you will get some moans. But I don't think for one minute that he has downed his tools or thrown his toys out of the pram.  Whenever players or teams play badly the 'can't be arsed' gets thrown at them. It's rare that players can't be arsed. Usually they are just bad/playing badly. Heads do go down, especially when you are a few goals behind.

Indeed, but when he came on we were actually a goal ahead.

[Badger]

16 hours ago, HarvSFC said:

Since the introduction of five subs, I've been beating the same drum every week. You don't need to make five substitutions because they're available. We've all seen friendly matches since we started watching football where after the subs, the match become disjointed. You're changing half the outfield team and we keep turning to the squad players when our first eleven is bad, let alone the squad players. Happened against United and it happened again tonight. I'll always draw the comparison with Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal as well. The three best teams in the country of the last few years, who barely ever make all five of their subs. Arsenal made three last night, and one was forced in the first half with Gabriel. Liverpool made two in the 90 minutes and Manchester City made two in the 90 minutes. While, we're making all five and those three have bigger and much better squads. If a player can't last the 90 after three weeks off then they shouldn't be here.

Agree with this. Several times last season I felt we lost momentum due to substitution, although on occasion they proved match winners (Fraser at Hull and possibly Millwall). All in all it often disrupted us and we became disjointed.

Have to wonder if sometimes it’s done to keep players getting game time ! 
 

Annoyingly opponents make late substitutions to slow the game down at the end. We make some of ours in 89th and 80th minute like last night, and still concede. That though might also reflect the crap that Juric has available to him. 

[spyinthesky]

Anyone know what the 'official' attendance was for the game compared to the actual number 'Marching Onwards' through the turnstiles?

[kitch]

19 hours ago, Midfield_General said:

They didn’t rob us, we handed it to them. 

Shit substitutions that handed them the midfield. Shit headers from THB. Stephens lost his man. Ramsdale should have stopped it. 

All self-inflicted, as per usual. Palace were poor, but knew they just needed to keep playing and plodding on, doing the basics because they knew we’d shoot ourselves in the foot eventually. And we did. 

Bit harsh on Ramsdale, I think. Stephens let his man get infront of him (quelle surprise) but Ramsdale was miles from it. I think the fact he got a hand to it actually made it look worse for him, whereas most keepers wouldn't have even got a touch as it went past.

[davefizzy14]

That was a decent performance last night from us. Much better than the pervious home game. Onuachu, Downes (my MOTM), KWP, Fernandes, Ugochukwu, Bednarek, Stephens and Ramsdale all excellent. Loved our goal from Onuachu 😊 such a good free flowing move in the lead up to it. A lovely cross from Fernandes and a real powerful header from Onuachu 😊

[Harry_SFC]

24 minutes ago, kitch said:

Bit harsh on Ramsdale, I think. Stephens let his man get infront of him (quelle surprise) but Ramsdale was miles from it. I think the fact he got a hand to it actually made it look worse for him, whereas most keepers wouldn't have even got a touch as it went past.

I'm certainly no fan of Stephens but he had two players to mark. Yes he sort of ended up marking neither one but it should've been dealt with by THB a lot better. Then Ramsdale has to save it. 

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

4 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Upgrade on the last few games, from disgraceful up to bang average. 
 

Some ok performances, Downes, Manning, Tall Paul, big Les. 
 

MF & KWP excellent. 
 

Dublin, Archer & Suly were wank. 

Should have won, but shite sides with weak mentality find a way not to. 

Agree with last night's player assessments but particularly the last sentence.

What's in players' heads is so important. How many matches do you see when a game turns on its head? Same players. One minute they're under the cosh and the next they're world beaters. I went to Woking Rochdale the night before and the first half was all Rochdale and the second all Woking. It wasn't substitutions, it was just a change of attitude.

We know our squad isn't the strongest but a motivational manager and a positive mental attitude (for 90+ minutes) could have kept us up. Downes played yesterday like he had something to prove; Big Les was solid and with a functional midfield we looked so much better. Add a target man in the penalty area and we were better than them. Still think 4-4-2 is the formation and we should cross more when we have a beanpole in the centre but build that resilience. It counts for so much.

 

[kitch]

6 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

I'm certainly no fan of Stephens but he had two players to mark. Yes he sort of ended up marking neither one but it should've been dealt with by THB a lot better. Then Ramsdale has to save it. 

I dunno, maybe I need to see it again. Was too busy punching the sofa, but it looked to me like Ramsdale would have needed to pull off (another) worldy to stop it.

[Whitey Grandad]

5 hours ago, Harry_SFC said:

I'm certainly no fan of Stephens but he had two players to mark. Yes he sort of ended up marking neither one but it should've been dealt with by THB a lot better. Then Ramsdale has to save it. 

The cross seemed to catch Stephens by surprise.

[Charlie Wayman]

23 hours ago, Sarnia Cherie said:

Asking to come off???  He is a professional footballer earning thousands a week and has just had 10 days without a match and cannot manage 90+ minutes of football?  We have the most unfit team in the Premier League and that has certainly not helped us this season. I hope we start next season with a John Eustace type manager who will get the players we have left into a cohesive unit with a winning mentality and fitness to match.

The modern game is not like that. Rather than pace themselves for 90 minutes it seems players are coached to go flat out for 60 minutes knowing that they will burn out and be replaced by a fresh battery at that point. No different to a 100m sprinter v 400m sprinter really. Horses for courses. However it only works as a strategy if the replacement player is as good as the starter.

[gio1saints]

It might be said that our “ optimal “  starting eleven ( players playing in mainly preferred roles) was good enough to be beating a team at home that’s in FA cup semifinal and is safely mid table. 

When we put the subs on our quality dropped. Despite our big squad one of the most obvious conclusions one can draw from this season is that our quality depth is crap. 

If we could maintain the quality for the full match it would not have been such a foregone conclusion we are relegated. Instead of retaining/recruiting fifteen -twenty championship level players for the squad we should have gone for five -ten EPL quality. 
 

Hindsight’s a great thing. But our recruitment has been pretty rubbish let’s not pretend otherwise and a big if not the biggest factor in this failure of a season. 

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, Charlie Wayman said:

The modern game is not like that. Rather than pace themselves for 90 minutes it seems players are coached to go flat out for 60 minutes knowing that they will burn out and be replaced by a fresh battery at that point. No different to a 100m sprinter v 400m sprinter really. Horses for courses. However it only works as a strategy if the replacement player is as good as the starter.

And as a consequence the bigger clubs gain an advantage over the poorer.

[Charlie Wayman]

3 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

And as a consequence the bigger clubs gain an advantage over the poorer.

Whether by accident or design every change seems to work in their favour and against the interests of smaller clubs.