Sheaf Saint

Our form and average points per game since RH took over would have us in the top half over a full season. This is clearly not our first choice team playing today.

Hard to tell watching from a televised stream if it's our shape or if it's just lack of quality in possession, but we just don't seem to be making any kind of mark on this game. It's far too easy for West Ham's defence at the moment.

Very poor giveaway from Valery to set that up. Then it was just too easy. Stephens caught in no mans land as usual.

Terrible play from him. There was a first time forward pass to Armstrong on the right that he could easily have taken but he just kept delaying and delaying. He's such a liability.

The ball from Ings could have been better given the time he had. Armstrong had to motor to get there ahead of the defender in the end.

Overall he didn't have too much impact, due to his obvious lack of fitness. But he did very well to win the ball and lay it off to JWP in the build up to the 3rd goal, and twice in the first 15 minutes (when we were heavily on top) he played Redmond in with a perfect through-ball, of the type we used to see Tadic play to Pelle. Despite his fitness issues, he still makes a far better contribution than Austin is capable of.

Me too. Just not against us, obviously.

Even if Utd lose at Stoke on the final day, there's not a chance in hell that Leeds are going to manage a +13 GD swing in their final two games.

Not this close to town we don't.

Drive? I take it you're not familiar with Sheffield then!

I can hear the celebrations from here. They're still going strong.

Sheff Utd 2-0 up and cruising. Look forward to watching Saints at the Lane next season. It's walking distance from my house.

Does he? I find that the biggest problem is he is too casual at times. Spends too much time watching the ball and not enough actually defending for me.

It was announced he would be leaving, but he hasn't yet.

So since Stephens has come back into the starting lineup, that's 3 games in a row where we have conceded after 85 mins. Coincidence? An entertaining game that should have been put to bed early on, but Shane Long's miss to make it 2-0 was just shocking. And I just hate the way he always smiles when he f*cks up like that as well. Bournemouth deservedly got ahead after their tactical switch, and then we rightly did the same after HT, so it's very disappointing to once again throw away a win in the last few minutes. That is the biggest problem that Ralph needs to address in the summer IMO. Never mind the fact that our strikers are generally crap at scoring, it's our p*ss-poor defending and inability to hold onto a lead that has cost us so badly. I make that 27 points lost from a winning position now - that's atrocious for any club.

And it finishes 1-0 at Craven Cottage. Safe at last.

Was Hoj really trying to score there? Strange decision.

Keep trying. It works on the 4th or 5th click.

https://exprestream.com/stream/2/

For all the criticism he has got today, Ings did really well to keep the ball there and set up the second phase of the attack.

Targett on target!

Did Ings have time to control that before shooting?

It's really not that simple. Since they made their tactical change we have really struggled to get a foothold in midfield, so the chances just aren't coming as easily as they did in the early stages. Our only hope is if we can make a tactical switch of our own to get back on top. But looking at our bench options I really don't see how that's going to happen. At the very least, I would swap JWP for Lemina. He looked very good in the second half at Newcastle last week and is a far better option to give us some mobility in the middle and link the attack.

Just watching the highlights of the Spurs v WHU game. West Ham looked decent. I seriously doubt we will get anything up there next weekend, so we need to turn things around at HT and get something from this game to avoid having to get a result on the last day.

He looks to be a long way off full fitness still. Apart from the goal, Long has been dreadful. That miss is just unforgivable. JWP been pretty anonymous in midfield. Hook him off for Lemina at HT. Stephens is just too casual. Just standing there playing two oppo players onside when the initial shot came in before there 2nd goal. Totally unacceptable. Bednarek can't do it all on his own. It's very worrying how Howe managed to identify where things were going wrong and change it immediately, but we have no answer to it.