Preston 2-2 Saints - Match Thread

[SNSUN]

Now the dust has settled - when we went 2-1 down I couldn't see us getting back into it so I would have taken a draw. We were pretty crap tonight, too many passengers and not enough quality. My GOD do we need to see Stewart on the pitch at some point soon. 

Papering over the cracks is definitely the expression I would use after that. A very undeserved point.

[Master Bates]

2 minutes ago, stknowle said:

MB is your TV screen all cracked up?

No, it didn't find it funny at all.

[Convict Colony]

1 minute ago, Master Bates said:

I have another tablet, just cant get the sky app working properly on it.

I can tell those are impact marks from you punching the screen so much this season 🤣

[stknowle]

Just now, Master Bates said:

No, it didn't find it funny at all.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!! I saw your answer to Batman so all good. 

[lambtiss]

Have we found Bazunu's best position? 

[saintant]

2 minutes ago, obelisk said:

Rejoice at scraping a draw at Preston? Right-ho.🤨

It's where we are at the moment. It baffles me that we are meant to be playing possession football but see none of its traits like moving off the ball, creating good angles, pass and move, getting between the lines and fizzing passes around. It's all walking, lazy, lethargic passing and zero intelligent movement. The coaches at this club including RM are trying to implement a style they don't know how to play. Nuts.

[CB Fry]

I can't wait to see this team when they have completed all of their learning of the system. It's going to be immense 🤩😍🤩😍

[Saint_clark]

1 minute ago, lambtiss said:

Have we found Bazunu's best position? 

As far away from our goal as possible it seems.

[Patrick Bateman]

Boring.  Slow.  Ponderous.  Error prone.  No finishing.  Dicking around in front of their defence.  Poor crossing.  Weak tackling.  Team of 'nice boys'.  Preston deserved to win that one. 

[Badger]

7 minutes ago, madge said:

RM getting out of jail again.. fecking terrible performance.. dreadful watch.  RM is a smarmy cunt. Can’t stand the bloke.. shite player in his time and very limited manager. How we’ve amassed as many points as we have amazes me.. we’ve rapid players but play crab football.  

But he “aligns” or something..  

[Captain Jack]

37 minutes ago, sambosa75 said:

It would just be nice to have a keeper that digs us out of trouble every so often.  Can’t say he was at fault for either goal but I’d argue he could have done better with both.  I’d expect a competent keeper to have kept at least one of them out.

Looks like he 'dug us out of trouble' there then!

[davefizzy14]

Bazunu really fought for the equaliser for us there. Good corner from Fraser too

So good to get a point. We do need to be more quicker in our transition of play.

Edited 25 October, 2023 by davefizzy14

[hasper57saint]

When you complete a game with 71% possession it proves we continue to play Crab Football. For three successive managers to implement this shite just goes to show how far we have gone backwards since RK. I await the change but ain’t got much hope. 

[Micky]

Other than KWP's goal we were garbage. We got a lucky point that we patently didn't deserve. Awful football, really lucky result.

[ally_uk]

I thought we were shite got lucky with a draw.

[beatlesaint]

Sooner Stewart is fit and we don’t have to put up with Adams the better. And to think some were having a breakdown at the thought of him going !!

[Zorba]

Happy to get a point after a terrible 2nd half. What RM says to them at half time I don’t know. They came out a different team. Subs were back to RM’s usual standard. Bree is a shit left back. Che Adams was garbage again. Mara is a waste of skin. I hope Ross is all he’s hyped up to be so I don’t have to see those two up front for us again.

Another two points dropped against play-off rivals.

All a bit too predictable.

 

[Saint Fan CaM]

Just now, davefizzy14 said:

Bazunu really fought for the equaliser for us there. Good corner from Fraser too

I have to say even though it was an own goal, Bazunu did what NONE of our strikers do and that’s run onto the ball and beat the marker. He did everything right as a striker and frankly should be awarded the goal on that fact alone.

[Vancouver Saint]

OMG - quickly changing my end of game whinge about us needing a goalkeeper (I thought a good goalie would have saved both their goals...first one especially, but even the second you come out and make yourself big)...but the footballing gods clearly telling me to hold back with that yet-again get out of jail free card - what a laugh! Couldn't see from my stream if he actually headed that or the defender but good on him.

We don't have enough threat up front to win the games we must to get promoted IMHO. We are still way too slow in the build-up, with no clinical striker up front. Even with speedy, tricky wingers to get to the byeline they cut back to nobody. We don't mix up slow build-up with fast long-ball diagonals to keep defences guessing. And our play out of the back with mistake-prone defenders like Holgate is going to cost us more than it gains.

Oh, and why is it Edozie last man back on the left trying to stop their attacker (and being all too easily shrugged off)? Did I miss something?

On the whole a draw a fair result, and I'm relieved we got a point - but it feels like we stole it rather than won it.

[Golac's Cunning Stunts]

russell martin is not  going to get us promoted is he?

[The Curse of St Mary's]

There's no masking that performance other than the fact we got an unbelievably lucky point. That was just pitiful especially second half. The fringe players were totally inept. We created bugger all really in terms of presentable chances which was criminal given how much possession we had. Mara looks so out of his depth it's unreal. Holgate individually wasn't at fault for goals but clearly he weakens us on the whole. Charles was awful. Taking Downes off instead of him was ridiculous unless it was for Charles "heading threat" from set pieces. 

[sambosa75]

2 minutes ago, Captain Jack said:

Looks like he 'dug us out of trouble' there then!

Pleased for him.  Hope it gives him some confidence to carry out his main duties a bit better.  Call me old fashioned but I’d rather he just saved a few shots rather than us relying on him scoring/assisting goals for us mind you!

[LGTL]

Bazunu a better striker then goalkeeper 

Charles suffering with Martin dropping him for no particular reason

Stu Armstrong needs to play every game

Can’t keep relying on last minute goals

No patterns of play. We just knock it about in front of the defence. No surprise we look so utterly toothless. 

Martin is a fraud. No chance of anything under him. He’s lucky he’s got better players at his disposal then Swansea yet still manages to have one of the worse goals conceded in the entire league. 

[Oh no Mick Mills]

Crap performance but 3 wins and 2 draws in the last 5 games. 

We're a playoff team . 

 

[obelisk]

Any chance Baz could lend some of his goalscoring expertise to Saints' strikers?

[Southner]

 

3 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

Sooner Stewart is fit and we don’t have to put up with Adams the better. And to think some were having a breakdown at the thought of him going !!

Stewart's looking forward to watching our possession football in midfield. 

[Sheaf Saint]

On the positive side, we've had two away games up north in 4 days and come away with 4 points despite not playing too well and having a patched up defence for one of those games. Taken at face value, we can't grumble too much and I would have happily taken that beforehand.

However, there's no escaping just how poor we were tonight. Despite KWP's excellent goal, we created nothing of any quality whatsoever. The difference between us and Preston when it came to attacking was stark. Our build up play is just so ponderous and easy to defend against, it's pathetic.

We have some quick players but we never play to their strength by actually attacking at pace and stretching teams. It's so fucking obvious that we should be trying to do that more, but the deliberate passing around the back instead is just painful to watch.

[AlexLaw76]

3 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

Sooner Stewart is fit and we don’t have to put up with Adams the better. And to think some were having a breakdown at the thought of him going !!

our style is largely the issue

[Roo1976]

9 minutes ago, woodsaint1 said:

Fuck sake just rejoice in the last minute equaliser lol

but slow turgid football is such a balls ache of a watch...............point great but performance lacking. We seem so............... whats the word im looking for, slow to put teams under pressure .I think as fans, i think we put ourselves under pressure for the team to do well,just because Leicester are running riot atm and were just passing the ball around and loosing  stupid games and sloppy goals. 2 points dropped, have a safe journey home to all that went up there.

[Lord Duckhunter]

How the fuck are we 5th 🤪

[Give it to Ron]

Just now, AlexLaw76 said:

our style is largely the issue

The female commentator had it spot in so slow and safe passing no threat until be upped the tempo.

Teams can stroll back behind the ball by the time we pass it ten times between goalie and defence and midfield.

[beatlesaint]

3 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

our style is largely the issue

No, he’s shite.

[Winnersaint]

8 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

On the positive side, we've had two away games up north in 4 days and come away with 4 points despite not playing too well and having a patched up defence for one of those games. Taken at face value, we can't grumble too much and I would have happily taken that beforehand.

However, there's no escaping just how poor we were tonight. Despite KWP's excellent goal, we created nothing of any quality whatsoever. The difference between us and Preston when it came to attacking was stark. Our build up play is just so ponderous and easy to defend against, it's pathetic.

We have some quick players but we never play to their strength by actually attacking at pace and stretching teams. It's so fucking obvious that we should be trying to do that more, but the deliberate passing around the back instead is just painful to watch.

Too sensible for most on here. Imagine if we’d lost. Is it me or is there so much disrespect for other Championship clubs amongst our fans at times. I mean Preston do have professional footballers playing for them. Not like they’re  park amateurs. Oh and Rotherham had a team of pros as well.

Edited 25 October, 2023 by Winnersaint

[Roo1976]

2 minutes ago, Southner said:

 

Stewart's looking forward to watching our possession football in midfield. 

your right are we going to be smart enough for him to get into positions where we can create enough for him to thrive from?......................oh shit forgot smallbones the answer.....................

[hypochondriac]

Harwood bellis 

Sulemana 

Stuart Armstrong 

Alcaraz 

Manning 

Back in for Birmingham please. 

[sambosa75]

Jesus we are a painful watch.  I thought this tippy tappy passing shit was meant to be pleasing on the eye?  

[bpsaint]

Proof that all that possession makes fuck all difference really. Near identical stats, more corners than us suggests maybe they were even more attacking.

I’d love to see what we could actually achieve with the attacking mindset we have of Leicester for example, who are already an incredible 14 points clear in the automatic promotion race.

[obelisk]

2 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

How the fuck are we 5th 🤪

We were 9th in the 94th minute. It's basically all mid-table from 3rd down to 20th.

[Block41 Saint]

I think the autos have pretty much gone now. We're effectively 11 points off Ipswich with our GD and they've got a game in hand. How disappointing. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

Another late goal, this time for a point.

Nearly another game where we'd look back at some familiar issues.

We're always going to be susceptible to goals like their second. I had hoped we'd have learned to have enough cover. But if teams are direct enough, quick enough, and they are mostly stronger anyway, they get a run on goal.

We're supposed to be offsetting that with possession, pinning teams back and creating chances so they can't organise and get out. But we don't. We no longer create enough useful chances to take ourselves clear either.

After their lead, we struggled to break them down. They closed down the space, and we couldn't link up well enough. We saw some coordination from AA, KWP and later Stu. But just not together or far enough up. Martin is right that the final third has to develop. Che and Mara did little. But a lot of that continues to be that they are not given much to do.

There were some changes tonight. There were some unforced errors first half. The opening seconds of the second gave the home fans a lift. Baz remained unruffled, having accumulated more scar tissue than most. We made decisions to not move into space instead settling for a safer sideways pass on occasion. Not for any greater advantage. That changes the dynamic of the game. We constantly allow resets. Setting ourselves up to unsettle teams would really help. Something that Tella did for us. Offering a direct outlet to compliment the passing. It changed in the period when we upped the tempo. We got a glimpse of it clicking. But it didn't last.

We did keep going right to the last again though. We didn't give up. And again we got a reward for it.

There were some positives. KWP is being developed even more. Good things from Stu, AA, Downes and Smallbone. The latter having to cover a lot of situations, some he needs work in as you'd expect. I don't know if he would be expected to stop their goals,but Baz got a lot of our moves started. His work in that department should be used better by the others.

Just the usual frustrations, that more work and confidence will help with. RM's half time team talks need some work though.

 

[woodsaint1]

Poor performance, but dug something out late on (again) to get a point and deny a fellow playoff contender the points.

Positives

At least theres some fight and resilience in the team which has been seriously lacking the last few years.

Thought Downes and the two CBs did well. Yes Bednareks poor pass led to the 2nd goal but he made a good last ditch tackle to keep us alive. Holgate had a few shaky moments but put some good tackles in and looked a bit more assured on the ball.

Leeds losing away to Stoke just shows how mad this league can be at times. Might look back in a few months a view this as a good point despite the piss performance.

Negatives

Based on that showing, Preston arent a great side, just more self inflicted mistakes and lack of concentration costing us. 

So many players off it tonight. Charles had a shocker, and the likes of Bree, AA, Adams, Edozie and Smallbone offered very little.

Outside of Stu, the subs had no impact at all. If I dont see Mara in a saints shirt again then I'll be happy. Outside of a good finish against City last season, he has been woefully bad for us.

Too much side to side nonsense with no creativity or penetration. All this talk of Stewart coming in, but he'll be feeding off scraps the way we're playing in the final third. 

[egg]

1 minute ago, obelisk said:

We were 9th in the 94th minute. It's basically all mid-table from 3rd down to 20th.

Yep...7 points between us and 21st place. 

[Saint Keef]

Tippy Tappy Bollocks. Obviously delighted to steal a point, but hardly deserved.

Okay Lego Head, where to now? Can I suggest the door might be your first option.

I received an email from Saints today, telling me I had a "present" awaiting me. I opened the email to find they are offering me £5 off my ticket for the Birmingham game on Saturday and that my ticket, which would normally cost £20 will now cost me only £15. So as I understand it, my "present" is basically me giving them £15 to go and watch this turgid shit. Thanks, but no thanks. 

[pimpin4rizeal]

Tbh I’m alright with this result .. was a pretty weakened side from us .. no sula and Alcatraz .. long away trip to a tricky side like Preston.. 

4 wins and two draws in last 6.. is decent form and plenty of improvement still possible.. 

only slight gripe i guess is that we maybe should of been going full strength in such a tricky fixture ..

[SaintBobby]

I’m finding this season rather testing.

If it wasn’t for stoppage time, I’d be finding it wrist-slitting.

[SNSUN]

3 minutes ago, obelisk said:

We were 9th in the 94th minute. It's basically all mid-table from 3rd down to 20th.

The League so far

Top 2

-

-

-

-

-

-

 

Everyone else

-

-

-

-

Bottom 3.

 

Fair play to Ipswich, they don't seem to be slowing down. Ultimately it is an 19 way fight for play-off positions right now which is madness.

Edited 25 October, 2023 by SNSUN

[Fabrice29]

12 minutes ago, hasper57saint said:

When you complete a game with 71% possession it proves we continue to play Crab Football. For three successive managers to implement this shite just goes to show how far we have gone backwards since RK. I await the change but ain’t got much hope. 

We don’t have any attackers who have consistently scored or created goals for us in the squad. I think that’s a much bigger problem than the manager. But yeh, let’s change to another one with the same garbage up front.

[SaintNewForest]

4 lucky points in the last few days. 2 piss poor performances

Papering over the cracks?

[notnowcato]

So bloody slow in progressing through the middle third made it a very hard watch. Think some of that is having an anonymous striker, some due to being hesitant in taking a risk. 
Thought Bree did ok, surprised he lasted the 90. Holgate was alright but not enough to break the Bednarek THB partnership. 
Simply didn’t create enough good chances. 

[Fabrice29]

4 minutes ago, Block41 Saint said:

I think the autos have pretty much gone now. We're effectively 11 points off Ipswich with our GD and they've got a game in hand. How disappointing. 

It’s not even out of October yet. If they are still there at the end of Feb and the manager hasn’t jumped ship to the league above then we can start assuming they are up.