Vancouver Saint

Going for the most deluded trophy here trying to laugh instead of cry. Given the footballing gods are toying with us, we will lose the next four games and still get promoted. Called it first...

Well was there a single person on this forum that didn't call that at half-time after that incredible display of inept finishing? Our inability to get a clinical finisher (or even a half-competent one) once we knew Ross Stewart was out is unforgivable. I don't blame RM for that, but I do for his lineup and tactical management. RM has to get some kind of special award for finding ways to not only not win crucial matches we should easily have won, but to LOSE them! Incredible display of incompetent in-game management. Smallbone starting instead of Downes? Unless Downes is 'proper injured' that is just a crazy omission. Then Che obviously having another Che-day...but keep him on and take off Adam Armstrong? WTF? Then Sulemana and Edozie ahead of Fraser (I was watching second half without sound so may have missed this...but Fraser...one of the few who does actually know how to score a goal, should have been on instead of Brooks before Cardiff equalised). Sulemana who never scores and whose immediate contribution was two fouls. Then Aribo off? Possibly our best midfielder still showing running and bite. Then leaving Stuart Armstrong on (yes he was playing well) but to cap it all, looks like a bad injury and out of the play-offs. You know I doff my hat to you RM...a greater show of in-game tactical mismanagement I don't think I've ever seen. Anyway, we've been handed so many opportunities to control our own destiny and f-cked it up, we don't deserve automatic promotion. And we all know our chances in the playoffs. So Championship for another few seasons it is as we will lose all our best players if (when) we don't get promoted. Unbelievable. Ah well, taken the excitement out of the leicester game at least - thanks for that.

Managed to catch the last 30 mins of the game with no sound from a coffee shop - looked like we totally dominated and should have scored far more. As comfortable as I've seen us this season...passing looked good...everyone running off the ball to make the easy pass available...good switching the play. Saw us have at least two very presentable chances to score a fourth but not complaining... Now to gub Cardiff...

Unbelievable. Kinda makes up for that late goal we conceded at Ipswich. We were lucky. Aribo off instead of Smallbone? And goodness - keep waiting for Bazunu to make a match-winning save.

Posting before reading anyone else's. i am quite calm. After totally dominating a brilliant first half in which the only thing we didn't do was score the third, I asked myself - how do we contrive to lose this game from here? Well we managed it. Honestly, we played really well, but you just knew the script didn't you? So that's the excitement of any chance for the automatics gone. For those of you who prefer the Championship, unfortunately I believe, you will get your wish (and for several years to come now) because you just know we're not going to win the playoffs. For this game, if the result wasn't just so crucial for us, you'd be magnanimous enough to say it was a wonderful game of football that we should have put to bed earlier and didn't. Aribo and Stuart Armstrong so much better than Smallbone and Rothwell. Our subs made us weaker, Ipswich's made them stronger. Thought Brees sending off was harsh - Stephens was covering - and it did kill our chances of a comeback. The big difference for me is the goalkeepers. Why do the opposition's goalkeepers seem to make game-winning saves every match against us and our goalkeeper just never does? I thought he had to save that first goal, no matter how well it was hit - a top goalkeeper doesn't let that in. He seems to give up on his dives too. Bazunu's just not that good is he? We always have that calamity goal to concede in us. We always need at least a two-goal cushion before we can breathe and we never get that. If we don't get promoted this season...it's like a drinking game...it gets harder every season. I just don't get those who want us to stay in the Championship. It took us seven years to get back to the Premier League last time...looks like we're heading for history repeating itself.

Trying to be as calm and balanced as I can after that incredibly predictable concession of a late goal to lose two invaluable points that will probably cost us promotion. It will take a miracle now to get into the top two and like many on here I don't rate our chances in the playoffs. i ask myself what would I have done differently if I was manager. I wondered why Bednarak wasn't playing, then the commentator kindly explained the 9 yellow cards and fear of suspension - so I forgive RM that. Jack Stephens actually played really well. Smallbone, not a fan. I would have put Aribo or even Rothwell in ahead of him, or some other combo to leave him out. Piss poor passing, no finish, no fight or grit in midfield. Bree in - yes - and he played well. Adam Armstrong played well. Che Adams through the middle to start, fair enough - honestly, we all know Che is a terrible finisher if it involves engaging his brain - even I could have scored that chance from 7 yards. At some point the blame needs to lay squarely on the player's shoulder for not capitalising on chances created. Surprisingly, I would have kept Che on even though he was having a nightmare...it was just one of those games where you felt he was going to redeem himself at the death with a goal. Mara did nothing to suggest he should have been picked ahead of Adams, although he didn't have much time to prove himself. The mistake was in not buying a proper finisher in January after Ross Stewart was ruled out for the season. Ipswich invested in Moore...wassisname the Brazilian striker from Liverpool went to Hull instead of us - why? Bazunu is a consistent calamity. He gives me no confidence in goal. We were lucky not to concede earlier after a fluffed easy catch. No doubt he will blossom when he leaves us! I can see the logic behind starting with Sulemana...and he made our goal. But I'd have started with Brooks...maybe he was resting him after the international game? Whatever...Brooks was not effective as a sub. THB and Downes are class. Shame they're not ours and we won't be able to keep them if we don't get promoted this season. KWP is always good going forward, always vulnerable defending deep at the back post. My big gripe with RM is his tactics are way too predictable...too easy to manage against...he doesn't mix up Russball with enough direct long-ball, incisive passing. But today, oddly enough I didn't feel that - thought we were sending long diagonals and passes over the top. Bottom line...we should have won comfortably (again) but didn't because we didn't finish the multiple excellent chances we created. At 1-0 up with 10 minutes to go, the commentator said this was Middlesborough's season on the line - if they took nothing from the game their chances of a playoff position were effectively over. What he should have said was it was Saints season on the line to not concede. That goal, I fear has cost us automatic promotion and therefore promotion. If all the results go our way later and we beat Ipswich on Monday, I'd be happy to eat my words. I haven't completely given up hope of an automatic promotion - but today's result makes it highly improbable. Maybe we will win all our remaining games...🤭

Why don't we stop crosses coming in? Seriously, it looks like it's coached into them to back off.

Wolfsburg my new German team. (Was Dortmund based on their great strip)...fickle...moi?! Thought highly of Ralph and our time since his departure has shown just how good a manager he was.

Four goals in 32 games is more a reflection of how poor our midfield have been contributing goals so far this season than Smallbone's excellence. He's not even in the top 50 for assists in the league - and that's in a top-four team with supposedly the strongest squad bar Leicester.

There's assists and there's technical assists...granted, his cross for Adams was good I'd give him that...but Brook's goal was entirely Brooks. My issue with Smallbone is he's not a creative playmaker in midfield (he lacks pace and vision for the ace pass and he doesn't score enough goals) nor is he a defensive midfielder (certainly not an enforcer type stopper, but not a ball-winning tackler either, nor is he an energetic dynamo). Not taking away from his attitude, but at this level, he's a weak link in the team for me and I don't understand why he gets the shirt ahead of others. Rothwell not the answer either.

Thank goodness for that. Aribo the saviour. Could be a huge momentum-turner. I was so close to a 'that's it we're in the Championship for at least another season post'... So what did we learn (again)? 1. The mandate to play everything out of the back is suicidal obstinacy by RM. It makes us 100% predictable and every opposition manager knows to high press as we'll invariably concede more dangerous possession in our area than we will exploit goal-scoring opportunity breakaways. To not mix it up with the quick long-ball breakaway occasionally (as they did to score their second) is idiocy. 2. Manning and Smallbone are not up to it. Bazunu is still a question mark for me...not that the goals were his fault today but he is just not the commanding presence I think you need in goal. 3. Brooks is class, as is Flynn Downes. Jack Stephens played well to be fair. Anyway, let's hope this is the beginning of another long undefeated run...

Where's the sexy nuns when we need them?

Astonishingly poor result. So that's it folks - for those of you who want us to stay in the Championship you've got your wish because we aren't winning any playoff.

Soooo predictable Leeds should beat Leicester. They are undoubtedly the form team now and we probably need a mindset to go on a run like them (9 wins in a row now?) to stand a chance of an automatic promotion spot. So nothing but a convincing win here will do. Anything is possible of course, but it appears that of the top four, we're the ones wobbling. Can't afford a draw let alone another loss.

Got what we deserved after a first half display like that - nothing. RM tactically outclassed by his counterpart. We should have started with the eleven we finished with. We cannot keep playing suicide tortoise football like we did first half - never want to see that again. Manning is crap, Smallbone is just not up to it (90% backwards-passing), Rothwell suggesting his brilliant performance against Huddersfield was a flash in the pan. Fraser, Brooks and Aribo showed their class when they came on...and if this was ever the game for Sulemana against a team playing man-on-man, this was it. So we gave up our home record and second place with a whimper. That was pathetic, inept tactics.