Saints 1-0 Man City... No, Seriously

[Guided Missile]

A further upside to this result is that getting rid of our owner must be far more likely. What are we worth today? 

[eurosaint]

The fact that it was live on the BBC meant that my phone was pinging all night !

Strangely, the few Skates that I know have disappeared 😉!

Still reeling from the euphoria, deep joy, deep joy......

COYS❤️

[benjii]

Great performance. Shows how managers are on a hiding to nothing though. If we set up like that in the second half and conceded two, which we easily could have, this place would be full of people saying we were too negative and one goal was never enough etc... 

But anyway, fair play to the team for pulling that grit and effort off after we hit the 40 points. 

JWP, Armstrong, Ings and Redmond are really well suited to Ralph’s tactics. If we can add some competition at the back (really we need a RB, LB - unless Vokins is good enough - and CB) and a bit more quality in centre mid we’ve got a decent squad. 

It’s a shame we had such a shite start to the season as this is a “Europe opportunity” year with the Man City ban and Arse and Spurs not being great.

[John D]

1 hour ago, hypochondriac said:

Think you need to have attended the majority of games over the last two seasons. There's been a load of games where we looked like we had just given up and were going through the motions. Let's not let an amazing result airbrush history, fans were getting absolutely fed up for a reason. 

I disagree.  Whilst home form has been abysmal the performances away from home clearly showed that the players had the ability and the desire.  The challenge was how to translate that into home performances rather than a question mark over their attitude 

[JRM]

Brilliant result and an amazing game, it suited us to play like the away team, we'll have to find a new way of playing when we host Brighton and Sheffield United. 

Despite 3 wins in 4 since the restart we've not really made any progress climbing the table just going up one place above Palace, still in touching distance of the top half, would be good to aim for that. 

[hypochondriac]

8 minutes ago, John D said:

I disagree.  Whilst home form has been abysmal the performances away from home clearly showed that the players had the ability and the desire.  The challenge was how to translate that into home performances rather than a question mark over their attitude 

I don't agree. Load sof home performances that were awful and looked like training games. Admittedly some of them were under previous managers but it was the same group of players. Thankfully Ralph seems to have been able to get through to some of them and the system we now have is paying dividends. 

[Batman]

amazing to think this was almost the same set of players the Clown and Hughes had at their disposal

hughes was crap but did the required job.

the Clown though - my christ!!!

[Wurzel]

BBC 1 on a Sunday night - usually CountryFile and Antiquers RoadShow.  Can't be many in the country who didn't find last night's viewing a tad more exciting 🤣

I was so engrossed it was only when we got past the 80 minute mark I remembered I'd placed my first football bet this year, only a £5 on us to win @ 8/1 but it made those last 10/15 minutes even more tense.

Liking that we have Everton and Man Utd next, we can play the same type of game against those 2. Then adapt our game again for Brighton, B'mouth and Sheff Utd who will all play a different sort of game against us.

Probably a game or two too far, or relying on a couple of "collapses" above us, but definitely looking at the table with one eye on Europe now

 

[miserableoldgit]

[lickierambert]

1 hour ago, benjii said:

Great performance. Shows how managers are on a hiding to nothing though. If we set up like that in the second half and conceded two, which we easily could have, this place would be full of people saying we were too negative and one goal was never enough etc... 

But anyway, fair play to the team for pulling that grit and effort off after we hit the 40 points. 

JWP, Armstrong, Ings and Redmond are really well suited to Ralph’s tactics. If we can add some competition at the back (really we need a RB, LB - unless Vokins is good enough - and CB) and a bit more quality in centre mid we’ve got a decent squad. 

It’s a shame we had such a shite start to the season as this is a “Europe opportunity” year with the Man City ban and Arse and Spurs not being great.

Turns out we only needed to be mildly competent in the Autumn to be in the European shakeup. 

Might not be the worst season to miss it though. Not sure we’ll have fans allowed to travel by the time the group stages come around, which is half the fun. 

[Shroppie]

2 minutes ago, lickierambert said:

Turns out we only needed to be mildly competent in the Autumn to be in the European shakeup. 

Might not be the worst season to miss it though. Not sure we’ll have fans allowed to travel by the time the group stages come around, which is half the fun. 

My thoughts too. This squad is beginning to come together well. They're playing for each other with commitment, doing what Ralph wants and looking better every game.

Rather than putting the squad under the pressure of coping with Europa, especially as I doubt fans will be able to travel/go to games, I'd rather see us have a solid top eight or better season and get into Europe when we're ready.

[Lighthouse]

1 hour ago, benjii said:

Great performance. Shows how managers are on a hiding to nothing though. If we set up like that in the second half and conceded two, which we easily could have, this place would be full of people saying we were too negative and one goal was never enough etc... 

I don't think so, not against Man City. The problem is that this has so often been the case against much, much worse teams at St Mary's. Even a team as sh*t as Villa could have equalised in injury time, after all the missed chances and only having a 1-0 lead and we were desperately hanging on for the last 20 mins against Norwich.

[sadoldgit]

1 hour ago, John D said:

I disagree.  Whilst home form has been abysmal the performances away from home clearly showed that the players had the ability and the desire.  The challenge was how to translate that into home performances rather than a question mark over their attitude 

Playing on the counter suits our players/style. We struggle when teams sit back and we have to break them down and we have conceded so many ourselves on the counter. This explains our very poor home form and Ralph needs to find a way of dealing with that at home because not every team is going to come at us like City did at St.Marys.

I thought we looked good on the break in the first half and the game suited us as City looked like the home side. The second half was pretty much all one way traffic and I wouldn’t want to watch that every week, but fair play. It was an heroic effort and a very hard won 3 points.

Hopefully now that Adams has broken his duck more goals will follow. If it hasn’t taken too much out of him I would start him again against Everton.

KWP has grown in confidence and looks like there is more to come. 

There is still lots of work to be done as the Arsenal match showed but you can’t turn your nose up at 3 wins out of 4 and things are looking better for next season.

 

 

 

[DT]

Fantastic result and performance showing real team spirit and togetherness. This is the team I'd like to see. No Valery (not good enough/liability), Hojberg (mind elsewhere), or Obafemi (so overrated), and they gelled nicely. CBs magnificent. Please sign Walker Phillips, Ings workrate extraordinary, Che - so happy he's silencing the naysayers, Ward Prowse a huge influence, Redders the only one I thought was a bit wasteful, Armstrong so key with his energy, McCarthy some incredible stops (heart still in mouth when he has it at his feet tho!)

All in all, a superb performance that made me very proud to be a Saints fan. Well done Ralph (though maybe use a few subs as tactical game-slow-downs, mate) and all the team. Onwards and upwards...

[DT]

PS wonder if we had held on if the crowd had been there, transmitting their apprehension to the players? Will never know, but maybe the players preferred it without them yesterday

[SNSUN]

2 hours ago, Wes Tender said:

Why shouldn't we get a result at the other Manchester club? Are they better than City?

Presently they are in better form, in fact they are top of the form table, and still have something to play for, and will most likely put out their best team, so yes currently. Their front 3 and Fernandes have clicked and look awesome and will be real challengers next season. We played City at the right time, a lot of their posters on Bluemoon say it was a dead rubber and they were looking forward to other competitions. No taking the shine of a wonderful defensive performance from us though against City, and we will be tough opposition for United and could get something, but they will be a different proposition than City.

 

Everton will be a tough proposition too but our good away form and current team spirit coupled with our superb fitness levels since the end of lockdown means we go there as equals and I’m more confident than usual of a result at Goodison.

[stevegrant]

This is a league table comprised of matches since the November international break (i.e. post-Everton defeat).

Fairly incredible how terrible Bournemouth have been in that period, even worse than Norwich

[Nolan]

Form table means nothing. Two of Man U's games were Bournemouth and Brighton.

Man U's box was open against Bournemouth and any team with strikers who get into better areas would have scored 5 against them rather than Bournemouths two.

 

 

[Lighthouse]

35 minutes ago, stevegrant said:

This is a league table comprised of matches since the November international break (i.e. post-Everton defeat).

.....

Fairly incredible how terrible Bournemouth have been in that period, even worse than Norwich

Interestingly, that form extrapolated over 38 games gives us 63 points, which is exactly the same as Koeman in his second season here. We need 8 points from our last 5 games to maintain that form.

[simo]

Well I did call 1 nil on Thursday, unfortunately my money went on city to win by a margin. Well pleased for Che, defending has been our weak point at home and last night showed we can do it when we want to . Shame the season finishes is a few more games as I think we could go on a run .

[Viking Saint]

13 hours ago, Jimmy_D said:

Finishing above both Spurs and Everton would make this an incredible season!

Should let Hojbjerg go to either of them and then look really stupid when we sneak a spot in Europe without him

[itchen]

I think from Stephens' interview on Saturday,  and other snippets on the official website, that it is obvious that there is a real camaraderie in this squad and that can only be a good thing. Look how pleased Ings was to see Adams get his first goal. Ralph has built something special here and it can only contribute to how we play on the pitch. I just hope we don't disrupt this by selling the wrong person or bringing in someone who doesn't gel with the others.

[itchen]

Another stat: only the top 5 have won more games than us.

[stevegrant]

7 minutes ago, itchen said:

Another stat: only the top 5 have won more games than us.

Quite surprising that other sides in the bottom half of the table haven't cottoned onto the idea of actually trying to win games at the risk of losing some. Sounds weird, obviously, but the raw numbers make it seem so bloody obvious - one win and one loss still earns you more points than two draws.

[the colonel]

37 minutes ago, itchen said:

Another stat: only the top 5 have won more games than us.

And only the bottom 5 have lost more games than us.Quote

[Lighthouse]

Four draws is quite an unusual stat really and one of them was a 96th minute Arsenal equaliser.

[Tom & Gerry]

Might have to revise my opinion of Adams. I have to say I was surprised that so many people have rated him when they haven't always backed what I considered more talented players. So well done for sticking by him.

[Fan The Flames]

5 hours ago, benjii said:

Great performance. Shows how managers are on a hiding to nothing though. If we set up like that in the second half and conceded two, which we easily could have, this place would be full of people saying we were too negative and one goal was never enough etc... 

But anyway, fair play to the team for pulling that grit and effort off after we hit the 40 points. 

JWP, Armstrong, Ings and Redmond are really well suited to Ralph’s tactics. If we can add some competition at the back (really we need a RB, LB - unless Vokins is good enough - and CB) and a bit more quality in centre mid we’ve got a decent squad. 

It’s a shame we had such a shite start to the season as this is a “Europe opportunity” year with the Man City ban and Arse and Spurs not being great.

Would people have moaned if Man C has equalised, we were all waiting for it really. We beat them for effort, that and a little bit of luck (they were very wasteful) was enough to beat their superior quality this time. Also if Armstrong had taken that chance in the second half, which in my opinion he should have, then things would have worked out more nicely then they did.

[Supersubpuckett]

we were VERY lucky, I was waiting for City to score but it just wasn't going for them. For us it was a battling and committed performance from a real team the likes of which we haven't seen in years, however we need to seriously upgrade in certain positions as they were tearing us to pieces at times. 

[Teddeer]

Bournemouth rock bottom of current form over a long period yet some dope on their forum claiming they have a better squad than us. Deluded!

[OttawaSaint]

6 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

We have 43 points and the most that any of the bottom three can get is 42.

It’s a long time since we’ve been safe with five games left to play. Relax and enjoy!

I was being sarcastic. 

[stevegrant]

4 minutes ago, Supersubpuckett said:

we were VERY lucky, I was waiting for City to score but it just wasn't going for them. For us it was a battling and committed performance from a real team the likes of which we haven't seen in years, however we need to seriously upgrade in certain positions as they were tearing us to pieces at times. 

There's always an element of luck involved in a game like this, but we loaded a lot of the cards in our favour with the way we set ourselves up - with City's lineup, we knew we had the aerial advantage, so the idea was to pack the space the width of the penalty area and force City into wide areas to cross the ball into the box where the probability of us being able to defend it competently were far greater than if we let them thread passes through us.

Given the way we've defended in recent years, that seems counterintuitive because we've been shit at defending crosses, but City are a completely different team to anyone else we face in the PL. They don't have much height, their attacking ability is based around supreme technical ability and pace, and the ability to marry the two together in tight spaces. Pep taking Sterling and Mahrez off in the second half actually played into our hands in the end, IMO, as De Bruyne and Foden want to operate in the central areas of the pitch, and we had loads of defensive coverage there.

Their biggest chances came from wide areas in the first half (Mahrez shot saved by McCarthy, Silva header from a cross - now that would have been embarrassing, to let him outjump our defence - and Sterling's subsequent shot wide), it was only really Silva's chance early in the second half which was created as a direct result of an incredible first touch that would have beaten most defenders in the world that came as a result of them threading the eye of the needle through the middle of us.

[waylander]

If we'd been really lucky Armstrong's shinned shot in the 2nd half would have trickled in the corner.

[Teddeer]

What made the game so intriguing was that City obviously dominated possession yet I always felt we looked dangerous on the break and capable of scoring a second. Ok, we didn't have loads of clear cut chances but there were a few times when we almost won back the ball high up or else just failed to pick out a decent pass to set up an opportunity. Redmond could have done better on a couple of occasions, we know Ings is capable of converting chances like the one KWP provided, I thought Adams could have reached the dodgy back-pass and Armstrong probably should have slotted his chance. We did ride our luck but I think we were overdue a break against City.

[BallBoy]

I feel very smug this morning. This one ticked all the boxes to make me happy:

1) Che's first goal. And a beauty.

2) Beating the multi million pound City.

3) Safety guaranteed.

4) Live on prime time TV for all to see.

5) Great performances from every player.

6) Highly encouraging displays from KWP and Che Adams.

I will bask in this for a few more days.  

[igsey]

Most watched Premier League match ever according to the beeb! 5.7m viewers.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53312221

[OttawaSaint]

9 minutes ago, igsey said:

Most watched Premier League match ever according to the beeb! 5.7m viewers.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53312221

Noice!

[Saint Keef]

A very smug and satisfied feeling today........mates who are non Saints fans have called & emailed me saying they were actually cheering Saints as they watched it, something they've never done before. One mate, a Spurs fan (I know....he can't help it) said he punched the air and cheered at the final whistle. Don't worry, I won't reciprocate if they beat Everton tonight, although a couple of Everton injuries to key players tonight and I might raise a discreet smile.

[S-Clarke]

Yeah, people are saying to me that they were on the edge of their seats in the last few mins - one of them doesn't even really follow football, others aren't fans of Southampton.

I think we got ourselves a big neutral fan base after yesterday! We've certainly been one of the best teams to watch since the return, IMO.

[Batman]

2 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Yeah, people are saying to me that they were on the edge of their seats in the last few mins - one of them doesn't even really follow football, others aren't fans of Southampton.

I think we got ourselves a big neutral fan base after yesterday! We've certainly been one of the best teams to watch since the return, IMO.

People I knew were whatsapp'ing in the groups I am in, praying we held out...

come one, who else thought that KdB freekick on 95 mins was going in?

That was an incredible defensive display....

[S-Clarke]

11 minutes ago, Batman said:

People I knew were whatsapp'ing in the groups I am in, praying we held out...

come one, who else thought that KdB freekick on 95 mins was going in?

That was an incredible defensive display....

I wasn't as worried as I thought I'd be, it was one of those nights. I thought it was a bit too close if I'm honest, maybe 5-10 yards further out and it could have been different. 

It really was reminiscent of Leeds away in the Champ, but this was against one of the best tika-taka teams in the world.

[Batman]

https://twitter.com/OWTSaintspod/status/1279846450189475840?s=20

[fez]

30 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I wasn't as worried as I thought I'd be, it was one of those nights. I thought it was a bit too close if I'm honest, maybe 5-10 yards further out and it could have been different. 

It really was reminiscent of Leeds away in the Champ, but this was against one of the best tika-taka teams in the world.

JWP would have put it in from there

[FairWeather]

[Ohio Saint]

20 hours ago, stevegrant said:

 

The only PL teams still without a post-lockdown win are the bottom 4, who have amassed a frankly pathetic 3 points between them in 17 games

WOW! .....Just wow!

[bpsaint]

There was a thread on this forum before the swap over entitled “How ready will we be for the restart” or something to that effect. Very ready is the answer to the question! 9 points from a possible 12 is definitely a better return than I expected, and with a bit of shrewdness in the window and a short wait until the new season maybe we can finally have a season where relegation doesn’t even look remotely possible for us.

[vectraman]

We were absolutely brilliant last night. Defended like our lives depended on it, rode our luck (against City you’ll have to) and played on the break brilliantly.

Every single player put 100% effort in. Fantastic. I thought Stephens was superb, showed he can do it!

Now we need to play like the away team at home all the time!

 

[OttawaSaint]

1 hour ago, Ohio Saint said:

WOW! .....Just wow!

But but but...the forum experts said four teams would suddenly go on a run and we'd plummet.

[Mr Brightside]

This and the Skates losing in the play-offs, what a brilliant 24 hours. 

[Whitey Grandad]

2 hours ago, FairWeather said:

Does the match fee depend on the amount of viewers?