saintstowin

Fully deserved defeat. Any missed pen and wrong goal discussion will simply detract from looking properly at how bad that was and what to do about it. Awful, awful performance.

Anders Svensson had a decent time with us but I recall I always hoped he'd kick on a bit more in terms of attacking threat and running games - like he seemed to do for his country. His output was defensive midfielder but his style wasn't.

I haven't checked my Tessem stats but my recollection is that he brought energy and versatility to the team and played several positions from defence to attack. I liked him.

Asking less good players who don't play as much to come on and be composed and creative, and keep the ball for periods of time when the team is generally in defend mode will rarely work. In some games it has felt like two different teams out there. The second half team has the feel of a weakened cup team. In the front positions. We'll need to find the balance between our best XI and what happens next. I hope it will often include keeping more of the best XI on for longer. It's the number of games, the intensity of the first hour etc, but I also feel the number of substitutions is now expected to be 4/5 rather than 2/3, and this is disruptive.

He's been great and I'm really pleased for him. And playing to his strengths is key. He was unsurprisingly ineffective with balls in the air and took unfair flak. I always hoped he could make it work in the middle because for a while he was taking up a space out wide. And although he did well there in the last championship season, we needed Fellows to come good this time. AA is a striker so it's brilliant for us and him that he's coming good, again.

OR's first comeback yellow I think. And very unlucky getting it for having his head smashed into. I thought Downes' foul directly after it was the cynical yellow card type foul.

Some of that 2nd half was inept. I would have preferred the change to be put on hold when they got their first. I think we need to get the ball to Scienza more at the start of second halves. I don't see how taking off the four most effective players is a good plan. And hats off to how we dealt with that low cross near the end. I've not seen defending like that in many years. How many players missed it?! This is not to ignore the lovely play we did manage.

Some pretty underwhelming ties overall, but we should progress. Fletcher and McCoist not quite as polished as Mark Chapman.

The 3rd round draw still holds its magic as does the weekend (week?) of the matches. FA and bigger clubs have tried to balls it up but I still love it.

I hope Tonda can change how open we are when we don't have the ball. So many crosses, many that could be stopped I think, and we're not good enough to defend them. Invited pressure and couldn't cope. Total agreement about Aribo. No way he's first sub (or any sub unless he ups his level). Tough one for OR to come on for. And on the ball we just didn't have enough sustained possession in their half. I think we would have won if we did because we did look dangerous at times.

From what I saw we deserved to lose. No control of that game. Fortunate not to concede the winner before it happened, with a couple of good off the line clearances. I think that's an own goal not that it matters. Millwall are having a good season and we weren't good enough to match them. Frustrating.

Saints won. Downs touched the ball. Alex McCarthy got man of the match (according to Sky cameras).

This may have been asked and answered but when did we last/ever score 5 in a half away from home?

If anyone cannot go please let me know.

Very, very good. Really liked the width including the CBs meaning we didn't become slow at the back. Wing backs could pretty much play as wingers due to our dominance but even so they were high up from the start which was good to see. I loved the passing into space that found a teammate having lost his man. Some really skillful, intuitive football that took the ball up the pitch in seconds. Pace was great on the ball. The only thing I didn't like was the continuation of the NJ chant leaving the ground when coming into contact with home fans who had just been hammered. The '....shit football team' line seemed a little much. But I'm old and I guess the young ones were carried away with the win.

That was an interesting game to be in with the home fans. Crikey those 8 minutes and 4 goals. Didn't know what to do but somehow kept calm. Fair play to the home lot around me, was next to the Saints fans so a pretty quiet part of the ground but they took it well enough.

Yes, nostalgia alert! I'm sure I kept mine. Bought it at a signing at, I think, Oxford St HMV where there were a fair few Saints and others fans even though in London. Well excited to meet him that day.

He's struggling to settle, it seems. Certainly in terms of playing regularly. It was a real shame that his first longish run of games came in that awful season, which because it was a PL season immediately increased his value and got clubs interested. At a time when we were open to cashing in. Finding his feet this year with us would have been much better for everyone.

I've definitely thought neurodiversity when I've seen TD in the past. No idea if that's the case. And yes, to an extent it's nobody's business. But I think it's ok to think about this, especially if the thoughts are about how it might affect someone, and what support might help. I haven't seen anyone just saying it for saying's sake.

I think it's John Williams the film composer, he's bound to score.

I think fans will probably be able to get over G O'N if he does well. Or just have to. I don't know if there's so many who couldn't get past it to make it harder for him to succeed from day one. I hope they can should he be appointed. The fact that someone who is connected to them is coming to us isn't unprecedented. We need someone experienced who makes decent football decisions. The field isn't wonderful given who we'd be interested in and who would come. Similar to the signings we make we're at a different level now. Someone with PL experience is a pretty good option.

I remembered this! Not many players do this.

I think RM's room reading is, wow this room is now so much better with me in it. He'll have to be ruled out by us because I'm pretty sure he'd accept it, and feel we're all the better for having him back.

I think O'Neil read the room about a Wolves return. I didn't hear anything positive from fans, quite the opposite. I know if you work in football you need thick skin but maybe there's a limit.

I think the positives are we had to stop the rot and somehow did. Great goals. Scienza has something that's for sure. Even with the deflection I liked Robinson's move to the right to get the shot away and he's always looking to drive, even if he therefore messes up it is giving defenders something to think about. I'm not sure what else was good. I really hope we don't dwell on this 'success'. So much to work on. You can't hoof the football that often to nobody and expect to win many games. We've got to work out a way to have control of games. I'd suggest another midfielder if that's not too shocking. Defence last night. Lots of last ditch stuff which serves a purpose. But see above about the need to avoid that happening. And even when under pressure there are better ways at coping than just waiting in numbers for the cross. So many missed chances to stop the cross in the first place. We reverted to that style way too easily end early. I didn't like Stephens moaning (like Manning does) about a decision while the ball is in play. That's selfish. We won and have to take that into the next match. I liked the co-comm. Actually had thought about us and where we are now rather than being surprised at how rubbish we are at the moment.