OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

Charles didn't look too bad when he last came on. Agree, he has to be on the bench.

That's the point. There's nothing wrong with the long ball and sometimes it's necessary. It also starts to make the opponents second guess what we're going to do. There's nothing wrong with playing from the back, but once you break the press, you have to go forward quickly. Our problem is we break the press then look for the sideways/backwards pass and lose all momentum.

Great scenes in our bit of the Northam at the end but on reflection, we won in spite of RM and not because of him. Why we were fannying around for practically all the second half when the players must have known only a win would do, is beyond understanding. Shout out to Manning when he came on. Rest of subs made little impact. And what has Edozie got to do to get game time?

Is he a possible for the play-offs? A Loch Ness Drogba on one leg could be a better bet than Che up front.

What does RM say in his half time team talks? I reckon it goes along the lines of: "The game's won lads, just walk around for the next 45 minutes!" Seriously, how many times have we bossed the first half then started to fold in the second? Could say we even got lucky today. And I used to like his substitutions. His most recent one have been quite baffling.

That first half was really good. Amazing what happens when players play in the positions they're used to. Solid Back 4. None of this roving JS nonsense. Even AA looked good again. Can't work out if Mara is incompetent or lazy. That bit when he was caught from behind as he slowly dribbled the ball out was comical. His hair is so massive he can't see behind him! And what was he doing on the wing anyway? RM being too clever again, or genuinely confused by the haircuts and thought he was sending on Edozie.

My son and I were at both these games and the atmosphere is dictated by the play of the pitch. W.Brom was full of confidence and more direct. Last Saturday was dull, boring and negative. And Jack played in both so we can't blame him! I agree Ale House. Mix it up. Against Ipswich after we went 1-0 down, we went more direct, looked for the forward pass and bish bash bosh, we went 2-1 up in a matter on minutes. Then we sat back. Personally I'm not a possession football fan. In fact, with our speed, I reckon we'd probably be a better counter attacking side.

You're right, I keep forgetting the 20k ceiling then after that, it's up to the club how many tickets they offer above 2,000. But the principle is still there. Offer 10% of capacity and get a good atmosphere going. But if Leeds fuck us over and only offer the 2k minimum, we need to think of seriously good ways to get our own back. Quip pro quo and all that.

Great analysis. Yes, where has this 10% thing gone? Last year, clubs like Arsenal were taking the take the mickey and only giving out some 2,000 tickets to away supporters despite their 60k capacity. And Newcastle are a disgrace where they put away fans. Nowadays clubs blame logistical and segregation difficulties which is a convenient excuse, and I get them in the premiership giving out smaller allocations when there's a £30 cap on away tickets, but not in the championship. In an ideal world, Leeds should be offering us 3,800 tickets and then it's up to our club to decide how many to take and make up any shortfall for unsold tickets. If Leeds ever come our way again, I'd hope we reciprocate by offering them a minimal allocation at inflated prices, or better still, make a statement and ban them altogether.

Interesting you should say this. On a couple of occasions, THS rifled a pass to Aribo which even Usain Bolt wouldn't have got to, and when Aribo didn't reach the pass, THB waved his arms in despair. Perhaps you're right. Aribo has no anticipation or not on the same wave length as his teammates.

Exactly - and the score will be irrelevant!

Just seen the 1 minute highlights on Sky. AA just had to score. Also Baz saved a couple low down. He was practising those before the match! Their top scorer went down after 15 minutes holding his leg and didn't seem so quick after that.

And did Russ really say that AA had been pestering him to play as Centre Forward so he thought he'd give him another go? Sounds like Under 8's football when kids 'bagsy' positions. While I wasn't one of those booing Russ when he came over at the end, I certainly wasn't going to clap him either. That was a long schlep for one of the most uninspired performances of the season.

Rather like the Twitter poster who responded to the official Saints message "See You Next Tuesday" with: Yeah, C U Next Tuesday, Russ! Inject some urgency in to our players, Russ, then we'll be more behind you. At the moment, you're losing a lot of that grace you'd built up with our unbeaten run.

After a game, it's interesting to look at the comments on the team selection before the match. Captainchris and a lot of us know that AA is ineffective as a CF. Play him in the role where he scores all his goals. We all know it. Why can't Russ see it? JS in the Stones type role doesn't work either. Once again, really annoyed at the lack of urgency. Blackburn were shit yet we only had one/two proper shots on goal. Only Edozie looked like creating something.

Not sure he does understand, Pip. It's all about possession stats. Le Tiss tells the story himself that the nearby McDonalds was told that if he came in pre match on a Saturday afternoon, he was only allowed one Big Mac. Makes you think, doesn't it? 😉

Did he honestly say "we were so brave at Ipswich"? Same old guff. He needs to be a lot more positive. The play-offs are only a lottery if you make them a lottery. We have the best team in the league, we have the most exciting players, we get in to great winning positions and from now on we'll show other teams that when we take the lead, we will be looking to extend our lead. He needs to get this team believing in themselves...yes, there may be better individuals in this league (eg. Dewesbury-Hall, Gnonto), but I genuinely think we can put out the best overall team.

I've always liked Baz. Russball relies on a goalkeeper who is confident on the ball and has good distribution - which Baz has. Problem is he's a truly useless goalkeeper and like you and many other, Galway, I've seen nothing to suggest he's going to get better. Problem is, I don't think now is the time to bring in Lumley. This guy sounds like Captain Calamity, and while I've only seen him play twice in a Saints shirt and in one he did ok, that Youtube compilation for his fails doesn't help his cause.

After watching McCarthy stuck on his line and his crap distribution, initially I thought Baz's distribution was a real plus and he would get better at shot stopping. But he hasn't. He doesn't save anything which is really depressing. And he in recent games, he seems to be flapping more and spilling simple crosses which can't help the defence's confidence. Problem is, is this really the time to bring in Lumley? I don't think so.

Baz was in the side when we went on our unbeaten run and kept a few clean sheets. Not only introducing JS but then trying him in different roles to see where he could fit has been the biggest destabiliser and our biggest problem and yet RM persists on doing it. We had a pretty stable starting 11 before then. And leaving out KWP for the Ipswich match was nonsense. I'm off to Blackburn on Saturday and what could have been a real moral booster has turned in to a dead rubber. And I'd also pick Edozie over Sulemana anyday.

What exactly is Russball? I'm sure he doesn't want us to pass 100 times, get to the opponents penalty area then pass our way back to Baz. It's almost like Russball is defined as a sideways pass or backwards. Personally, I agree with Toussaint. Can't stand his smugness and how he's almost trying to be too clever. He needs to get his head out of his arse, stop blaming players for defeat and get this team motivated to look for more goals once we've taken the lead. I genuinely think we've got the best squad of players in this division and our best 11 should beat any team.

I'm not so sure he's such a big loss. He naturally had the link with Man City and we exploited that to the fore. I'd imagine we'll still have that link if we want to use it, and given where he's gone, we can still use that connection. But who else did he bring in? He can fuck off and we can find someone else with different connections.

He comes on. Does a crap free kick in to their penalty area which is so far off, it creates a break. He jogs back on other occasions. Definitely a wasted substitution

We lost that when we sat back after going 2-1 up. How often do we do that?

Heard they're worried about Moore and want someone more physical in defence to mark the lump. Not too sure about that, but apparently that's the theory.