Fulham 0-0 Saints - Reaction

[obelisk]

Another 2 points dropped.

[hackedoff]

All they deserved

[Secret Site Agent]

Just giving Shane first dibs in the shower. It takes him 4 minutes to inflate his arm bands

K

[DT]

Decent point. But terrible team management. 

[BotleySaint]

Neither team deserved to win but we did score twice. So on another day.. 

[Saint Matty 76]

Awful first half. Better in the second with 2 slightly offside goals and what should've been a penalty. 

Going to need to be better with West Ham, but the front four can't play much worse.

[wadesmith]

Happy with that.

[Toadhall Saint]

Just now, wadesmith said:

Happy with that.

👍

[Plastic]

scored twice and 2 pens not given, very poor day. Subs were needed but got on far too late.

[Dusic]

Fair enough score. Unlucky with the Adams offside, but not Long's as most of his runs leave him offside.

Didnt play our best of course and missing key players, so a point hardly a disaster.

[Disco Stu]

The lack of subs was unforgivable. Cost us the game I believe. Starting Long was a mistake as well which we all already knew.

Fulham deserved their point.

[OttawaSaint]

That was awful. On to the next one, our bi-annual shit show vs WHU...

[Hawkswood]

Wow, that was a tough watch, but I suppose to be expected with the spine of our team out. I really wanted Diallo to have a better game but he looked a bit lost and a bit swallowed up today. Long feels like an empty shirt. I expect a better West Ham team to take full advantage of our threadbare squad.

[Jimmy_D]

Bad game, terrible commentary, worse officiating, but all in all a half decent point.

[washsaint]

Better 2nd half and fantastic block from Stephens right at the death.

Armstrong and Long were utter passengers and Theo showed his lack of football brain for most of the match.

Did not look like conceding but also did not look dangerous.  Long should have learned the offside rules by now.

Decent enough result but should have been more

[DT]

Decent point. Stephens and Diallo were pretty good. Walcott was awful. Bit of luck and we’d have won. Ref was hopeless. And VAR did us no favours (cancelling out the ones we have had before)

oh well. Didn’t lose with three of our best players out. Will take that. 

[wrinklysaint]

Your easily pleased we played for the draw  who starts with Lobg and Arstong and makes no subs until injury time.

[Saint Fan CaM]

Garbage up top. Diallo had a good game as did Stephens. Ref and VAR utterly shocking as we should be been awarded a certain pen for an obvious handball and KWP fouled just outside box would have been a definite JWP chance. Can’t be happy with 0-0, but clearly better than loss. Dread to think how we’ll fair against a better team.

[Turkish]

Awful game, worst performance for a while. Didn’t deserve to win but 2 goals (rightly) ruled out by 6 inches, hit the woodwork,  and a pen not given and you could argue we were very unlucky in the end. 

[Baird of the land]

It’s a point I guess. 

didn’t really get going. Ralph was very negative. Refusing to make any changes other than to waste time in added time.

diallo wasn’t terrible but nor good. Definitely not threatening romeu’s Place currently. Attack looked disjointed. Depressing seeing long starting.

[Micky]

To be fair, there was no lack of effort or endeavour,  just a great big hole in our quality.  Given the players out its hardly surprising.  The amount of times that Long was offside,  in wide positions was criminal,  offered very little threat.  Didn't do enough, quality wise to get the 3 points. 

[InvictaSaint]

Shout out to Jack Stephens for that last second block. Heroic. Was waiting for it to hit the net...

[Maya's Dad]

what was the point of starting long? what is the point of making subs after 90mins??????

[washsaint]

RH should be questioned for his meaningless subs with no time left.  What was that all about?

[madge]

Not sure what half of you expect? And a reality check I think. It’s obvious our squad isn’t deep enough to sustain us in the top six. We are good, very good at present and it’s a well earned point, could have been three. When you get upset about that game maybe think back to life under puel and pellegrino.. honestly some of you need your head examined.

[davefizzy14]

A quite brilliant block from Jack Stephens in the last few seconds ensured we got a clean sheet today

Edited 26 December, 2020 by davefizzy14

[SNSUN]

Just now, Turkish said:

Awful game, worst performance for a while. Didn’t deserve to win but 2 goals (rightly) ruled out by 6 inches, hit the woodwork,  and a pen not given and you could argue we were very unlucky in the end. 

Yeah this, was our worst performance for ages but with us missing our spine, we still had two disallowed goals, a definite penalty for handball not given, and we hit the bar and missed an open goal. We could have won that despite being poor. Subs needed to be earlier.

 

A point was fair, but we are slowly slipping away from the title fight!

[Manuel]

Thought Diallo was quiet first half.  Struggled to find space and get into the game.  Much improved second half though.  Seems very composed, calm, unhurried.  Played some good passes forward, much more involved and showed quality.  Not fussed about the air-shot....ball hit a bobble if you ask me

KWP / JWP men of the match

[saintwbu]

We played shit, but we still scored twice, had a blatant penalty turned down (yet again), hit the bar and missed an open goal from 2 yards out. We definitely deserved to win. Not bad for a team missing its three best players this season. 

[OttawaSaint]

2 minutes ago, washsaint said:

RH should be questioned for his meaningless subs with no time left.  What was that all about?

Must really annoy the subs too. Djenepo got ~30 seconds. Why?

[sad saints fan]

2 minutes ago, washsaint said:

RH should be questioned for his meaningless subs with no time left.  What was that all about?

I think the point is that realistically our main objective should be to reach 40 points as soon as possible and that is one more point closer.

[ecurnew02]

Disappointed in a draw but I do not think anyone individually played bad. RH needs to make subs sooner, Shane Long should not be playing a full 90' and what's even the point in throwing on Djenepo with 30 seconds left. Have to put that result behind us and hope Ings is fit for the next match (and at least Romeu is back too). 

 

EDIT: Also Diallo and Stephens played well. 

Edited 26 December, 2020 by ecurnew02

[VictiAbNonem]

I thought KWP was fouled, but probably outside the box. And I'd have backed JWP to curl the freekick into the top right corner from there.

The lateness of the subs was bizarre. No idea what Ralph was thinking.

I reckon Stephens might have saved us with that huge block in the final seconds. That was some seriously brave defending.

Oh, and hello all! Been meaning to sign up here for ages and finally got round to it when I came up with my username - which is my suggestion for a new club motto

[Teddeer]

Game lacked quality and we clearly missed Ings, Vestergaard and Romeu (although Diallo did well). Shout out to Stephens for the late block and he was certainly more solid second half. Shame about the two offside goals - correct but small margins. Penalty was nailed on for me and should have been given. Not sure how anyone can argue against such a clear handball in the box. Overall we deserved to win as Fulham hardly troubled us and I cant remember any saves from McCarthy.

Edited 26 December, 2020 by Teddeer

[Maya's Dad]

2 minutes ago, madge said:

Not sure what half of you expect? And a reality check I think. It’s obvious our squad isn’t deep enough to sustain us in the top six. We are good, very good at present and it’s a well earned point, could have been three. When you get upset about that game maybe think back to life under puel and pellegrino.. honestly some of you need your head examined.

why should we be content with a draw against one of the weakest sides in the league. newly promoted, havent scored many goals, while our away form has been excellent not just this seaosn but since restart

[qwertyell]

Poor. Didn't deserve any better. Game management from the manager was a pisstake too - two subs after the 90 minute mark when we were playing so badly. Rubbish.

Diallo was a positive - air shot aside - and a great block from Stephens preserved a point at the end there.

Not a lot else to take from the game. If that's as good as we've got with a couple of injuries, we're going to be in for a rough month or so where we'll be glad we banked 25 points early doors.

Officiating was pretty awful, but that's to be expected. To be honest, I wouldn't have been happy if the penalty shout we had was given against us. Bednarek might have gotten away with a similar handball in the first half.

Where are we going to get goals from moving forward?

 

[Saint_clark]

Making subs in the way he did demands Ralph being questioned about them. No reason to make those subs other than to waste time to cling onto a 0-0 draw against one of the worst teams in the league. 

[Shroppie]

They had their moments and at least we didn't lose. But I just don't understand how VAR didn't give the handball pen. The ref bottled the freekick on the edge as he didn't know whether it was in or out, so unlucky on both counts. JWP's free kick was so nearly in and a shame Che misjudged the rebound. Plus two narrow offsides and all in all, with Ings, Redmond, Vestergaard and Romeu out, we were unlucky. Take the point and move on.

Edited 26 December, 2020 by Shroppie

[Ivan Katalinic's 'tache]

Disappointing result but felt we concentrated on being solid rather than positive with 4 players out. 2 goals rightly ruled out for offside but no idea why the penalty wasn't given when he was clearly leaning into the ball with an arm away from his body. Subs utterly pointless at the end. Maybe Ralph's way of highlighting little depth in the squad when we do have absentees. Despite an excellent finish ruled out by VAR, I have no idea what Long gives any more. Hopefully N'Lundulu will get a chance Vs West Ham.

[tajjuk]

1 minute ago, Saint_clark said:

Making subs in the way he did demands Ralph being questioned about them. No reason to make those subs other than to waste time to cling onto a 0-0 draw against one of the worst teams in the league. 

They are not one of the worst teams in the league on recent form, they deserved to beat and fully outplayed Liverpool recently.  

I think with the players out and still probably a little unlucky not to win even if the performance wasn't great, a point and a clean sheet is an ok result. 

[Uncle Albert]

We got what we deserved, ‘nuff said

[saint lard]

The last few games it looks like we’ve settled for a point from 75 mins onwards. 
we just don’t up the tempo and take the occasional risk of late. 
All a bit stale since wolves or Man United. 

[Yozzman]

7 minutes ago, madge said:

Not sure what half of you expect? And a reality check I think. It’s obvious our squad isn’t deep enough to sustain us in the top six. We are good, very good at present and it’s a well earned point, could have been three. When you get upset about that game maybe think back to life under puel and pellegrino.. honestly some of you need your head examined.

This.

[Maya's Dad]

2 minutes ago, sad saints fan said:

I think the point is that realistically our main objective should be to reach 40 points as soon as possible and that is one more point closer.

that im sorry should most definitely not be our main objective. our form since the start of the season has shown that we can compete at the top half of the table. the oppportuity was there to move up the table and we didnt take it. ralph contributed to that if you ask me

[bpsaint]

Pretty disappointed with that not gonna lie. Not sure what Ralph was thinking of with the late subs, an earlier change could have swung things in our favour - unless it was just to run the clock down at one of the worst teams in the league which is poor.

The early promise of achieving something this season is slowly slipping away.

[woodsaint1]

Well that was meh. Inches off stealing a 1-0 win. I know Ralph doesnt make subs for the sake of it, but says alot about his trust in his bench when he waits until the 90th minute to do them

[itchen]

We never really got going. None of our usual one touch passing and building from the back. That performance would have asked a lot even of our first-choice strikers.  I thought the ref was poor (for both sides), many fouls unpunished. We may have had a penalty on another day but we may have had one against us as well. I just hope Ralph has seen where we went wrong and can put it right for the next game.  I don't think trying to find one or two scapegoats is helpful. It was a poor performance all round.

[John Boy Saint]

Mrs JBS fell asleep infront of the woodburner watch that, didn’t have the heart to wake her up and take the whatsit, or make her watch more.

They were hell bent on not losing that primarily which is the time of team Ralph’s game plan stumbles against. I would give young Dan a spin out from the off v West Ham as despite being green Long didn’t really keep the oppos on their toes like the Ings combo does N’Lundalu will move about much more. Diallo got a good education into the Premier League.

3 changes probably affected the dynamic a bit, still we managed to set a new club record of 7 aways without defeat. The kind of ball Saints are good to drop cheaply, against a side like Fulham. 

 

[Disco Stu]

Starting to creep down the table. I suppose that's what separates us from the teams around us. We can't win the games we should be winning.

Edited 26 December, 2020 by Disco Stu

[Saint Pete]

7 minutes ago, washsaint said:

RH should be questioned for his meaningless subs with no time left.  What was that all about?

It's a fair question to ask today why Ralph didn't make subs much earlier. Pretty baffling given we weren't playing well and are in the busiest period of the season. I think I heard Ralph saying recently he was in favour of allowing 5 subs, very odd given he seems so reluctant to use the 3 he is allowed!

Great manager on the whole, but his attitude towards subs has been strange on occasions.