obelisk

The Everton marking was worse than Saints.

No pressure on the Everton players at all. They just stroll into our penalty area without any problem at all.

One way traffic.

Defending corners and free kicks launched into the penalty area will be moments of worry with that line up. Maybe we simply plan to outscore them.

Ings looked lively and seemed up for it. Denied a clear penalty at the death. Let's just forget about the first hour or so shall we?

Saints defence worries me. Standing off opponents and allowing them to easily get balls into the box is never a good plan. Also giving away too many silly free kicks which just allows Burnley the chance to stick one in the area. Lucky to be at 0-0.

Saints an absolute shambles. Lucky to still be in this.

Saints lucky to get the offside decision there.

Saints hardly had a kick yet.

Well BM gave us a chance towards the end which allowed us to witness the same old poor finishing that we're so used to.

I think I understand the plan. It must be to lull Burnley into a false sense of superiority.

Saints tackling particular poor. Every 50/50 being lost. Maybe friendly in the sunshine syndrome.

Saints defence easily opened up there. 0-1.

Cliff was part of the team when I started watching Saints in the early 60s. Good man. RIP

Just got in to discover the result. I guess a 3-0 defeat is pretty depressing but I'm of the school where it's better to get this sort of result out of the system before the season begins. Easy pre-season wins against inferior opposition often hide weaknesses. I suspect Hughes will have learned a lot today.

England have at least beaten the teams that they should expect to beat in this World Cup. Trouble is they've lost to the teams that they needed to compete with. All pretty average really but I suppose that's an improvement on losing to Iceland.

Bertrand must be looking at the England left wing backs and wonder what Southgate was thinking.

We knew the England defence was suspect from the start of the tournament and this time Pickford couldn't rescue them against a stronger Croatia side. If the plan was just to outscore them that failed on a string of missed first half chances. Normal expectations can now hopefully resume.

England just stopped playing after about 30 minutes. The defence was always a liability so trying to protect a 1-0 win was crazy. Let's face it England not quite as good as we hoped.

Rose on for Young. Should have happened 30 minutes ago.

Think I'd be pressing for a winner in the last minute too if I was knackered and 30 minutes extra time was looming.

When I was his age I was looking to get as far away from family as possible.

Full stops are your friend but you make some interest points nevertheless. However when you say "Reed is perceptive enough" I think you'll find that the evidence points in the opposite direction. The last two years have seen a decline right across the board. In my opinion, if you're happy to take a large wedge to be the man at the top then you should also be prepared to take the hit when things go badly. If Les Reed isn't considering his position then why not?

That would be a reasonable thought.

A lot of corporate ass-covering waffle that basically boils down to an ongoing lack of ambition. Maybe that's all a team like Saints can hope for but I'd rather he was honest. Wonder what Hughes thinks of it.