Saint86

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68857595 Maresca making more excuses for his side to drop points in advance... what is he playing at. Its a must win game for them?1?!?!

Lately, and Watford was a great example, we've used Baz, che, and other runners to go long repeatedly after drawing the oppo on to us, and to really good effect. That is off the cards with Lumley and Macca's kicking/throwing. People might find our football boring or ineffective, but it works - and being forced to change it now is a risk with respect to how it will impact the side. If we wind up in a situation where Leeds or Leicester don't need the win, or where teams are pushing up on us with a high line etc. the other two keepers just don't have the distribution to get us out effectively - and without that ability to mix it up we may well struggle. Not to mention our defence are going to expect to be able to pass it back and around very nearly at the back.. I don't know how the rest of you feel about Macca and Lumley, but their touch and positional play is no where near as good as Baz's, and Macca is as likely to find the touchline as our own players if kicking to the halfway line 😅.

Has banana skin written all over it. Hopefully we can get an early goal to settle the nerves - but failing that we simply have to just get the job done no matter how scrappy it ends up being.

I mean, we had posters who were blaming him for the watford goals and who are utterly oblivious to how good his distribution is and how important it is to our play. Anyone who thinks its a good thing going into 3 must win games (and likely play offs) without our first choice (and frankly only keeper that suits our style of play) is absolutely deluded in my opinion - this weakens the team unquestionably. We are going to go into must win games at Leicester and Leeds, as well as play off knock out matches with either Macca or Lumley. The former is a liability with the ball at his feet and anything at his near post, the latter is just a poor keeper although at least he can do the sweeper role to a degree. The only silver lining i can see is that it might actually introduce some concentration in our defence who seem to constantly switch off for fatal 5-10min periods in games... If it puts an end to the casual play consistently evidenced by our defenders (which is frankly the overwhelming reason we concede goals) maybe we'll get away with it...

That's interesting. The people around us in the ground didn't see it on the weekend, but he took a huge swing at one of the watford defenders who went down all off the ball. I looked at the ref (who didn't see it), then at the linesman (who didn't) - I couldn't believe he'd got away with it. No idea if he made contact, but assume he did from the reaction (although who knows these days with players being dishonest)... regardless, he was silly to take the swing and we're bloody lucky he didn't get caught in the game!

In my defence, i was in the process of marking up drawings: But we was robbed i tells ya! Now imagine if we miss out on promotion on goal difference (by say 1...) to Ipswich. Which is very plausible (if you assume we catch them on points) as we'll close up the current points gap and we've scored more per game than them.

He isn't offside Whitey! He's not in front of the ball.

Laughable to blame Stephens for that... The goal was caused by a long ball (which went clear over the top of Stephens and which he would never have got), then Downes (who badly missed a header an took himself out of the move and left a yawning gap), and then THB who just ran away from Kone and at no point was ever in any danger of stepping out to narrow the angle, challenge, or limit shooting chances - ultimately a free shot on goal. So unless you wanted Stephens to foul him, possibly conceding a penalty, i don't know why you're laying the blame at his feet. Reads like bias / scapegoating to blame stephens i'm afraid. Conversely, saints scored 2 goals with Stephens in midfield... (albeit the incorrect offside call chalked one of them off). Similarly, before this game, Stephens had 2 assist in 2 games.

Haha, yes agreed. I thought our chances were better when i started writing it... and then i just adopted a "i've started so i'll finish" mentality by the end 😂

I thought i'd post this now (in my hubirs before watford crush any slither of a chance)... I wanted to see just what the chances were of a Saints automatic promotion. The answer, i think, is bloody unlikely.... 😄 May be of interest - https://www.worldfootball.net/table_calculator/eng-championship/ So, the following begins with one very large premise / "if" statement... and then continues down that path.... That Premise, or "if" statement, is that Martin is about to morph into the 2nd coming of Guardiola and we somehow manage to win every game.... Then we'd get to 96 points!!! Woop woop!! promotion is on the cards right?!?! Sadly probably not.., although i think almost certainly secure 3rd regardless, which does perhaps give us benefits in the playoff draw? But anyway, in that perfect run in scenario, our rivals for automatics would likely only be Leeds and Leicester. I'm dismissing Ipswich right now for a few reasons (i think they're shitter than the table suggests, am bitter that they got 2 wins against us, and think they'll drop points... there i said it...) But fair play if they can get through some fairly tough fixtures to keep pace with the other 2 as well... Will make the playoff final even sweeter when we send them packing! So then, for what i assume will be the top 2 - how many points will we really need to catch them>>> (For the sake of argument, the following all also include Saints beating Leicester and Leeds). Leicester (Plymouth (a), WBA (a), Saints (h), Preston (a), Blackburn (h). Of note perhaps, is that WBA to Preston is 10day period with 3 reasonably tricky games - and yes, i know our run is worse! Scenarios: Leicester finish above us - very likely (see below) Leicester with an additional loss (lets say WBA away) hit 97points and finish above us - Irrelevant, but may happen i guess. Alternatively, Leicester with two draws 96 points and a significantly better GD - We still aren't catching them... Leicester with one loss and and a draw (you're looking for Preston (A) or Blackburn (H - final day) for that draw mind...) would hit 95points and we could catch them... again, i think this could maybe happen, but very unlikely... Leeds (Blackburn(H), Boro(A), QPR (A) Leeds with an additional loss (lets say Boro away) hit 93points and we can catch them - I can't see this at all. Leeds with an additional draw (lets also say Boro away) hit 95points - Could happen but i still can't really see this. It would also supercharge the last game and make it very hard to get that win at Elland Road (imagine the late night fireworks etc). In this scenario we can catch them and get 2nd though. Yay, party! Leeds win every game bar saints, they hit 96points and finish above us due to their vastly superior goal difference - I see this as a pretty likely outcome for those matches lets be honest. All in all, we have to go on a crazy run with no real evidence that we're capable of it, and we need the other teams to do pretty poorly (by their standards this season)... sadly just one set of dropped points out of the boro, ipswich, and blackburn results would have made the difference...

Looks like a sell out tbh. Left it quite late to book tickets and most blocks are down to only a smattering of single seats available. Should be a good atmosphere. Personally think we'll win this one. Dream to be well and truly on, or dashed, vs Leicester i reckon. If we win every game we've got every chance of getting 2nd even now... Although we would need someone like West Brom to beat leciester.

Stranger things have happened. If Ipswich and Leeds (which is possible) continue to fluff their lines then that final game of the season at Elland Road could be seriously intense. If we did somehow manage to win every single game from here on out then it would be a serious achievement.

#WifeyForLifey....

Barbed wire to stop the players from leaving?

Uh huh... right... and how did Koeman's Everton get on in the SPL? 😉 Selles' record at Reading is of note in comparing to Martin's - particularly as they have somewhat similar possession orientated styles. Similarly, Jones' record at Luton in the championship is relevant when comparing to how Martin has performed at Swansea and Saints - albeit with an allowance for their very differing styles 🤷‍♀️.