alpine_saint

If we snatch an unconvincing hard-slog of a win, I would say that the real metric is how the team respond in the NEXT game to having felt that winning feeling. If we then go and get a more convincing second win, there is nothing to discuss, the course is set. If however we play sh*te through overconfidence or start making the usual mistakes of sitting back when in the lead, such a win has proven nor improved anything and the problem remains.

Great post.

Its a good result if you have little ambition when considering the changes on paper that have taken place at this club over the past 2 months......... We should thump Yeovil 4-0, but we will all consider ourselves fortunate if we scrape a 1-0 win, with the eternal optimists like yourselves going on about it being the first win and something to build on ( until we draw or lose the follwoing week, of course...)

IT was an example. I didnt say every other manager not employed at Saints, nor did I say he could do it every match. But that match was a classic example of timely and correct reading of a game and changing it by a manager. Something we seem never to be able to do. Why must you respond with flippant and obtuse comments ?

Is it hell.

Ahhh. The Legendary Saints Drag Factor rears its ugly head again...

Yup, couldnt remember the name. The game changed immeidately.

I know what you are saying. But look at Fabio Capello and England. He plays his in-form players, to the system he wants, appears to have no favourites, and he has turned England from being a bunch of attention-seeking prima-donnas into the most consistent and highest-scoring national team in Europe. Playing favourites (and it is clear he is in luuuurve with Lallana) doesnt get the best results.

Other managers seem able to make changes and win games. I will never forget what Billy Davies did during the play-off season in the league game at SMS against Derby. We were mullering them in the first half; after 30mins he made a substitution that silenced our main creative outlet, and Derby went on to snatch the win.

Bizarre. Gillet isnt showing him enough but the likes of Melis is ??

You have no right to dismiss my "complaint" as meaningless, since I feel we could have got more out of that game. AP got the first half right - his preparation for the game was spot on. But Charlton responded in the second half, and AP had nothing in the cupboard to respond back with. That is worrying for me. Why do we always get stuck with one-dimensional one-speed teams ? Burley's teams were notorious for it. Saturday was disapointing because AP had the personnel available to change it around.

I dont understand why people dont get this. Its the same with Burley. Certain people like yer man at Hull have the ability to polish turds. They are good managers. Then there are certain people like George Burley with the reverse Midas touch (everything turns to sh*t). They are crap managers. There are managers in-between. Why can we be nearer the good manager end of the scale, just for once ?

Wow...hoping to win a game for the first time since Easter is apparently demanding "instant results"

Sorry, isnt there a contradiction about harping on about finishing the game stronger on the basis of those substitutions and trying to extrapolate that we would have conceeded if they had been made any earlier ?

This is what I absolutley detest about this site. Twisting facts to set an agenda. I was dead against the appointment of Woodward, because of celebrity baggage issues and the suspicion the club was being used and that he was being groomed as some sort of successor to Redknapp simply because he agreed with Lowe. I was NEVER against sports psychology per se, and I made that point clear on COUNTLESS occasions. But that doesnt suit your window of opportunity to have a dig, does it ?

So, there was no chance whatsoever of us winning the game and getting all three on the basis of that last 5 minutes if it had taken place 10mins earlier, was there ? Sorry, I cannot agree with you here.

I would answer that by saying if we cannot score our share of goals from set-pieces such as corner kicks, unlike the teams around us, then we are in REAL trouble.

And another thing. Our players are slogging their guts out to create scoring opportunities at the moment. And it IS a real slog. So how does it affect them if we get a hard-won corner to see it WASTED EVERY TIME by poor delivery ?

COMPLETELY unfair. I have made the point about a sports psychologist SEVERAL times. I cant help if certain individuals like you rubbish or ignore our posts and every point in them by default

QED...

Wow, a highly original point there from St. Marco....

I am wondering if some of you have read the full article. Indeed, it starts off by criticising the fans calling for APs head, but at the end there are some subtle warnings about excuses are running thin and the Yeovil match represents a benchmark for the season.

I still feel that the general direction is correct, but I like many others I am sure, am starting to feel an impatience at the inability to shake off the defeat/failure culture at the club. I dont consider it a change of direction, nor changing with the wind. It is simply an update on my thoughts and (indirect) observations.

Erm, no. I cant speak for anyone else, but I reserve the right to call things as I see them. This is a discussion site about SFC - what would you suggest you talk about otherwise ? I find your call faintly disturbing, to be honest. In both matches I attended so far this season, I was 100% right behind the team. But suggesting we stop people criticising performances, because the little luvs cannae take it, is daft.

I havent suggested he leave or be fired at all. I have however suggested some of the post-match comments have a banal Burley-esque ring about them, and that maybe team personnel changes havent gone far enough. I do not rate a couple of the players who seem to be amongst the first names on the team sheet. I also think his substitution strategy against Charlton was utter sh*te. I still think he can do the business for us, but that a real reflection of how the season will pan out will come this Saturday. It's a real shame about this site at the moment (and as it was last season at the start of the Dutch Golden Age) that a considered opinion gets met with a cacophony of abuse and p*ssing contents about how certain people's opinion is more valid than others as a direct relation of attendance.