Saints 1-0 Bristol City - Match Thread

[Fabrice29]

2 minutes ago, saintant said:

I take your point about grinding out wins but I'm sure most of us would prefer to see some wins that are not ground but achieved with long periods of exciting football and more goals.

He says so brazenly like it’s a choice that Martin is actively holding us back from.

[Challenger]

1 hour ago, The Cat said:

Keep reading we could have been 2 down at half time, but we really should have been 1-0 up before that when Sulemana got through and shot weakly straight at the keeper.

If that goes in the whole game is different, but as normal his shooting was abysmal. This guy should be tearing up this league but is unbelievably frustrating to watch.

You get the same every time with him, absolutely zero end product , however he possesses " vision and ball mastery" apparently.

[saintant]

1 hour ago, Saint Billy said:

Good result but another underwhelming performance. I just wish we would go at these sides and attack straight from kick off instead of this laborious slow build up style which doesn't seem to frighten the opposition at all, in fact imo it does the opposite as it really does not offer much threat at all.

This is it for me as well. I hate to see us come out and play walking football from kick-off as it rarely sets the right tone. Come out all guns blazing, lay down a marker and put your opponents under pressure from the off is always best in my opinion and nothing I've seen from RM's teams will change that even though we are on a good unbeaten run.

[Saint Marky]

Anyone else really worried about keeping hold of Kyle in January, he is absolutely superb!

[austsaint]

8 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Clearly it is not a question! What you are missing is that in the sequence that you have quoted it is exactly as I said above, Adam giving his opinion rather than letting Martin answer the question without being told how to answer it. Talking across people like that is unacceptable. Keunsberg is the same.

Give me the slightly robust questioning style of Blackmore over the lap dog who conducts the Club interviews any day.        Martin was petulant and grouchy from the off.    He also has a disturbing habit of rarely acknowledging he got something wrong - in that respect there is a resemblance to our old Welsh manager friend.   A good interviewer should be asking some tough questions about our style of play,  quality of performance, team selection and substitutions etc, and the Manager should be able to give open and honest answers without resorting to a sulky, defensive reply.

[saintant]

1 hour ago, Saint Billy said:

Good result but another underwhelming performance. I just wish we would go at these sides and attack straight from kick off instead of this laborious slow build up style which doesn't seem to frighten the opposition at all, in fact imo it does the opposite as it really does not offer much threat at all.

This is it for me as well. I hate to see us come out and play walking football from kick-off as it rarely sets the right tone. Come out all guns blazing, lay down a marker and put your opponents under pressure from the off is always best in my opinion and nothing I've seen from RM's teams will change that even though we are on a good unbeaten run.

 

1 hour ago, The Cat said:

Keep reading we could have been 2 down at half time, but we really should have been 1-0 up before that when Sulemana got through and shot weakly straight at the keeper.

If that goes in the whole game is different, but as normal his shooting was abysmal. This guy should be tearing up this league but is unbelievably frustrating to watch.

Because of our style of play we will rarely see Sulemana able to utilise his searing pace. Time and again he receives the ball in tight areas on the touchline and has to make something happen from a standing start. Give him some balls over the top to run onto and he'll create havoc.

[suewhistle]

It's not often I agree with Charlie Wayman, but as quoted above Blackmore made an obvious leading question ("I thought") which isn't particularly professional.

'Well done on the clean sheet, how did you read the game' perhaps?

It was a hard watch, and in the first half there were times that all the outfield players were in their half, which seems to be standard MO for most teams playing against us, and we find difficult to cope with. As it opened up in the second half after KWP's goal we played better football and some good interplay, but will nobody shoot or take responsibility please?

At least the trains were operating and I was able to have a few drinks. Incidentally, The Junction in St Denys has reopened and it now looks like the new owners have decent standards including hygiene: I know someone who did some work there for the previous tenants and they would have struggled to get 0 stars!

[saintant]

24 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

He thinks they only had one effort any good in the first half but I clearly remember Bazunu saving us at least twice in that boring first half.  The whole interview is shite, Blackmore states what everyone else saw, Martin is all chippy cos he didnt see that version. To call that second half great is ridiculous.

1 hour ago, Saint Billy said:

Good result but another underwhelming performance. I just wish we would go at these sides and attack straight from kick off instead of this laborious slow build up style which doesn't seem to frighten the opposition at all, in fact imo it does the opposite as it really does not offer much threat at all.

This is it for me as well. I hate to see us come out and play walking football from kick-off as it rarely sets the right tone. Come out all guns blazing, lay down a marker and put your opponents under pressure from the off is always best in my opinion and nothing I've seen from RM's teams will change that even though we are on a good unbeaten run.

 

1 hour ago, The Cat said:

Keep reading we could have been 2 down at half time, but we really should have been 1-0 up before that when Sulemana got through and shot weakly straight at the keeper.

If that goes in the whole game is different, but as normal his shooting was abysmal. This guy should be tearing up this league but is unbelievably frustrating to watch.

Because of our style of play we will rarely see Sulemana able to utilise his searing pace. Time and again he receives the ball in tight areas on the touchline and has to make something happen from a standing start. Give him some balls over the top to run onto and he'll create havoc.

[Mr Nimbus]

I really felt for A Armstrong in the first half. He made at least 6 runs in behind, on every occasion we took that extra touch or pass in CM and his run is wasted.

We were much better when we increased our urgency.

Positives are its another win, clean sheet and 10 unbeaten. If we can beat Cardiff on Saturday its a decent week.

 

[Pamplemousse]

The attitude was so much better once we scored. We actively looked for the second goal and as a result we weren't sustained to any periods of pressure from Bristol City like we were at Huddersfield. We didn't get the second goal which would have killed the game but the intent was there.

[JRM]

21 minutes ago, austsaint said:

Give me the slightly robust questioning style of Blackmore over the lap dog who conducts the Club interviews any day.        Martin was petulant and grouchy from the off.    He also has a disturbing habit of rarely acknowledging he got something wrong - in that respect there is a resemblance to our old Welsh manager friend.   A good interviewer should be asking some tough questions about our style of play,  quality of performance, team selection and substitutions etc, and the Manager should be able to give open and honest answers without resorting to a sulky, defensive reply.

Asking tough questions is different to the interviewer giving their own opinion. You can ask a tough question without expressing your own opinion to the interviewee. Blackmores opinion is irrelevant in this scenario, if he wants the managers thoughts on the game just ask him. 

[Saint Billy]

11 minutes ago, Mr Nimbus said:

I really felt for A Armstrong in the first half. He made at least 6 runs in behind, on every occasion we took that extra touch or pass in CM and his run is wasted.

We were much better when we increased our urgency.

Positives are its another win, clean sheet and 10 unbeaten. If we can beat Cardiff on Saturday its a decent week.

 

Here lies the problem with our entire front line. The build up is so slow that the opposition have bags of time to organise and cover leaving our front men feeding off scraps and constantly marshalled.

[Fabrice29]

21 minutes ago, saintant said:

This is it for me as well. I hate to see us come out and play walking football from kick-off as it rarely sets the right tone. Come out all guns blazing, lay down a marker and put your opponents under pressure from the off is always best in my opinion and nothing I've seen from RM's teams will change that even though we are on a good unbeaten run.

 

Because of our style of play we will rarely see Sulemana able to utilise his searing pace. Time and again he receives the ball in tight areas on the touchline and has to make something happen from a standing start. Give him some balls over the top to run onto and he'll create havoc.

Martin said exactly this about Sulemana on Tuesday. He also implied he was partly subbed off Saturday because he was not actively looking to do that and he’s spoken to him many times about making those runs more. But hey, yeah, it’s Martins fault not the player himself.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

2 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

What a bell-end

If you take that quote in isolation, it almost seems as if doesn't want goals like that being scored. The fact that we hadn't passed it amongst ourselves about 90 times seems like the only type of goals he is happy with. I've not heard the interview, but I hope he did find the time to say what a fantastic effort it was from KWP. It was the only true moment of quality in a otherwise uninspiring performance.

[benjii]

Couldn't watch the game, just saw the highlights. Seems like they had 3 or 4 clear cut chances and we had none. Fortunate not to lose?

[beatlesaint]

4 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

If you take that quote in isolation, it almost seems as if doesn't want goals like that being scored. The fact that we hadn't passed it amongst ourselves about 90 times seems like the only type of goals he is happy with. I've not heard the interview, but I hope he did find the time to say what a fantastic effort it was from KWP. It was the only true moment of quality in a otherwise uninspiring performance.

You must be mistaken, the manager said they second half was "great" !! 🤣

[captainchris]

1 hour ago, trousers said:

Am I the only one not seeing anything contentious/provocative about Adam Blackmore's opening question?

Word-for-word:

"Russell, first of all, well done on the clean sheet, but I thought the second half turnaround, stopping them getting near the penalty area and creating the chances they created in the first half was probably the difference in the game?"

What am I missing? What would have been a better opening question?

Blackmore is irritating in that he makes an obvious statement and seeks an obvious agreement from the interviewee.

Blackmore should ask questions which  are not prequalified. The question should have been thus:

How did you see the difference between the first second halves Russel? Or even better: What was your view of how the game unfolded Russel?

Blackmore is not there to offer his implied answer to the question first which he most often does….

[Jack]

Much needed win against a mediocre side from a bit of brilliance from a player who’ll probably be off in January. 
 

Shit football, shit interview from the manager. We’ll drop loads more points against teams we really should be beating IMO

[fanimal]

Who flaming well cares!!??

That was our FIFTH home win in the League so far which keeps 99.9% of Saints fans happy unlike the 0.1% stay at home keyboard fanatics 

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, JibMcdo said:

I’m in the minority it seems. I like watching us dominate, it does take balls from the management and players to play that way and over the long term that is the style that wins games and trophies these days. We play it well currently and will only get better.

I think Martin should get great credit for the switch to a diamond for the second half as well. It occupied Bristol City’s back 5 (7 at times) and we looked good. Think the injury to Kamaldeen may be a blessing in disguise.

Re the interview, we’ve just won a game against a team that had zero intention of committing more than 2 players forward at a time, played well second half, 10 unbeaten, and Blackmore’s focus literally 3 seconds into the interview is about the fact they had 2 chances in the first half? Teams are allowed to have a shot, a counter attack - Blackmore’s expecting a perfect 3-0 game every time with total domination and literally zero shots against? It seems to be dominating interviews and press conferences at the moment and I understand why his opening question may have irked Martin.

Literally not true.

[Pamplemousse]

20 minutes ago, benjii said:

Couldn't watch the game, just saw the highlights. Seems like they had 3 or 4 clear cut chances and we had none. Fortunate not to lose?

First half was pretty even, second half we were well on top. Deserved the win imo.

[Whitey Grandad]

4 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

First half was pretty even, second half we were well on top. Deserved the win imo.

Too close for comfort though. Any team can fluke a goal at any time and one unlucky bounce can cost you a win. 
 

But the more important point is that there is no need for it to be like this. Being ‘well on top’ does not mean passing the ball around in your own half just trying to be too clever. I lost count of the number of times that we carelessly lost possession inside our own half. A better team would have punished us.

[Totton Saint]

I thought  that Alcaraz had a superb game. Apologies if anyone has said the same before

[Totton Saint]

1 hour ago, saintant said:

This is it for me as well. I hate to see us come out and play walking football from kick-off as it rarely sets the right tone. Come out all guns blazing, lay down a marker and put your opponents under pressure from the off is always best in my opinion and nothing I've seen from RM's teams will change that even though we are on a good unbeaten run.

 

Because of our style of play we will rarely see Sulemana able to utilise his searing pace. Time and again he receives the ball in tight areas on the touchline and has to make something happen from a standing start. Give him some balls over the top to run onto and he'll create havoc.

good point

[Whitey Grandad]

3 minutes ago, Totton Saint said:

I thought  that Alcaraz had a superb game. Apologies if anyone has said the same before

Much improved in the second half.

[Totton Saint]

21 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Literally not true.

I agree with Grandad

[WALK DMC]

5 minutes ago, fanimal said:

Who flaming well cares!!??

That was our FIFTH home win in the League so far which keeps 99.9% of Saints fans happy unlike the 0.1% stay at home keyboard fanatics 

As a season ticket holder who was there last night and travels 200 miles every home game I don't think that I qualify as a "home keyboard fanatic".   

Judging from the people around me at the game, my personal WhatsApp groups and even this magnificent forum I can honestly say that the vast majority in this cross section of supporters are not happy with performances at the moment.  Of course, I was delighted we got the win last night, but the worry for many of us is: 

• We cannot rely on individual pieces of brilliance to win every game 
• Other than the Leeds game and possibly Birmingham there have not been any truly satisfying performances 
• There is a feeling that RM isn't getting the most out of the quality at his disposal
• Winning by a single goal each match will not sustain you through a season, see Huddersfield game as an example when we try to rely on a single goal
• If we cannot easily beat lower to mid table Championship teams, how are we going to make the leap to Premier survival next season without incredible amounts of investment ?

And for the above I "flaming well care" because this is such an important season, as if we fail to get promoted many of the best starters from last night will not be with us next season. 

So yes, I think that we need to look further than the 90 minutes last night and until we have a run of satisfying performances with 2 or 3 goal victories many of us will doubt whether we can sustain the push for promotion. 

 

[Toussaint]

The tetchy interview is nothing to do with Adam Blackmore's interview technique but everything to do with Martin's defensiveness of his football philosophy, he seems unable to comprehend the footballing world at large aren't blown away by his brand.

[hasper57saint]

When is RM going to leave someone in our half of the centre circle when we defend our corners. Someone with a bit of pace ie AA and it also commits two of the opponents defenders to stay away from our goal. A quick lob over the top into the opps half and with AAs pace has only the keeper to beat.Last night on at least three occasions our clearance fell to their defenders who were camped in our half. 

[Whitey Grandad]

8 minutes ago, hasper57saint said:

When is RM going to leave someone in our half of the centre circle when we defend our corners. Someone with a bit of pace ie AA and it also commits two of the opponents defenders to stay away from our goal. A quick lob over the top into the opps half and with AAs pace has only the keeper to beat.Last night on at least three occasions our clearance fell to their defenders who were camped in our half. 

Ivan Golac used to be a close neighbour and we had many chats about football. He said that he always like to keep three up front when defending corners as it meant that the opposition had to have at least four players to cover them.

[Badger]

12 hours ago, davefizzy14 said:

We ground out another victory tonight. The one thing I like to see is us become more ruthless and score more. The win and clean sheet is the most important.

I think we all would, probably RM as well.

I think that’s part of the supporter frustration, we dominate but don’t t make it count. Score 2 or 3 and give ourselves a bit of a cushion, then most wouldn’t be so agitated by a tippy tappy second half seeing the game out.

Despite the frustration with RM style of play, I don’t think he takes the blame for the lack of goals. That rests with those responsible for the signings, who have failed for a few seasons now on that front. 

[LuckyNumber7]

12 hours ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Like a lot of home games this season, the reaction at half time from the crowd said it all. First half was yet again slow and ponderous with little to get exicited about. The goal came from absolutely nothing and was truly the only bit of quality all game. I don't know if it was the half time reaction that got Martin wound up, but we are on a 10 game unbeaten run, yet it feels like pulling teeth watching us right now.

The booing at half time was aimed at the referee.

Jeez, another win and 10 games unbeaten, yet reading this thread you'd think we'd lost. I agree the style of play isn't the most exciting but after the last few seasons it's nice just to be winning games again. If you keep winning by one goal it's not a fluke.

FWIW I had a quick look at the Leicester forum earlier and their fans are saying exactly the same things about Maresca and their style of play. Football fans can be hard to please!

[Miltonaggro]

13 minutes ago, Badger said:

I think we all would, probably RM as well.

I think that’s part of the supporter frustration, we dominate but don’t t make it count. Score 2 or 3 and give ourselves a bit of a cushion, then most wouldn’t be so agitated by a tippy tappy second half seeing the game out.

Despite the frustration with RM style of play, I don’t think he takes the blame for the lack of goals. That rests with those responsible for the signings, who have failed for a few seasons now on that front. 

Good post.  There have probably been two halves of football this season where we've genuinely dominated / shut out the opposition, it's good news that one of these was against Leeds as it suggests that this developmental goal is attainable.  As you say Martin is clearly aware of this and it's now about scoring goals, the old cliche of 'goals change games' is a cliche because it's true - if Stewart isn't firing by January the Serbian chequebook will need to come out. Fan frustration currently is that we can see that our beloved club is very close to being consistently competitive, for first time in years.    

[Raging Bull]

I wasn’t there so can’t really comment too much, but the biggest positive for me was watching KWP’s reaction after he scored. 
 

Im not really 1 for all this badge thumping/kissing cobblers, but I have to admit it’s nice to see him of all people do it. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

Manning was fucking pony. 

[revolution saint]

I thought last night was OK.  Bit boring 1st half and Baz saved us a couple of times, second half was much more comfortable and I'm not going to criticise a win - they did what they needed to.

Very bizarre interview with RM though.  Whatever wound up RM was probably nothing to do with that interview - he was off hand right from the start so I'm guessing something had pissed him off.

[gio1saints]

I disagree with RM (for once) in that it was not an OK first half - all the mistakes of the match Rotherham resurrected themselves. That we went in 0-0 was about the only “ok” thing about it.

I was especially disappointed by KS, for whom I had still have sone but they’re dwindling, high hopes. 

In his defence he was too often given the ball too late and in almost impossible positions to do anything other than pass it back or attempt some crazy magic ( which almost came off once) but which usually loses possession.
 

I could literally see his morale dropping and his “ injury” looked as much a mental “get me out of here “ as actual physical. I get that he’s meant to stay wide but for such a speedy instinct player seeing him stationary so often was like we were playing with ten men. All Che had to do to improve us was literally run around a bit. It was 10v12 if you count the useless ref first half in that regard. 
 

Other than that the most obvious shortfall for me was the failure to switch play when we had players in Space or relatively isolated with one defender. The radius of our passing circle was too limited, too often. I do nt need twenty Hollywood passes every game but they are not out of the skill set of some of our players and I’d hope to see a little more. Especially silly when youve got arguably fastest player in the league waiting on it. 
 

Second half shape changed showed RM adapted and Bristol began to get tired and run ragged increasingly themselves resorting to big hoofs upfield which THB and Jan dealt with comfortably. 

One piece of quality from our best player settled it. 
 

positives: 

Gav has just got better and better. So proud of him. 

Ryan made one bad pass but showed we have three decent full backs - despite the prejudice shown to him - he had a decent match, 

I thought Shea was solid and impressed me. 
 

THB and Jan are very strong - but with Mason and Jack to come we must surely have best 4 squad cbs in this league? 
 

AA worked hard as usual. 
Charlie had one of his best games this season. 
Stu gave his standard 7/10 ever reliable effort and performance including a decent shot first half. 
Flynn - worked hard as usual. 

Like RM said- 10 games unbeaten is not luck. If we can do this yet so many are unhappy with him and style of play who knows what we can do as we get better and into the latter part of season with our much stronger than average in this league squad. 
 

Coys!😇
 

 

 

[Fitzhugh Fella]

1 hour ago, WALK DMC said:

As a season ticket holder who was there last night and travels 200 miles every home game I don't think that I qualify as a "home keyboard fanatic".   

Judging from the people around me at the game, my personal WhatsApp groups and even this magnificent forum I can honestly say that the vast majority in this cross section of supporters are not happy with performances at the moment.  Of course, I was delighted we got the win last night, but the worry for many of us is: 

• We cannot rely on individual pieces of brilliance to win every game 
• Other than the Leeds game and possibly Birmingham there have not been any truly satisfying performances 
• There is a feeling that RM isn't getting the most out of the quality at his disposal
• Winning by a single goal each match will not sustain you through a season, see Huddersfield game as an example when we try to rely on a single goal
• If we cannot easily beat lower to mid table Championship teams, how are we going to make the leap to Premier survival next season without incredible amounts of investment ?

And for the above I "flaming well care" because this is such an important season, as if we fail to get promoted many of the best starters from last night will not be with us next season. 

So yes, I think that we need to look further than the 90 minutes last night and until we have a run of satisfying performances with 2 or 3 goal victories many of us will doubt whether we can sustain the push for promotion. 

 

Well said. A lot of fans think if we win then there's no point talking about the performance. While we all know, ultimately, the three points is the most important part of any game, our performances remain unconvincing at best and sooner or later we will be found out. I caught a lot of the Ipswich game last night and they are different class to us. 

I am yet to be persuaded Martin has what it takes - despite a 10 match unbeaten run n- and I know a lot of fans are not enthused about the football we play and they all go to every game and many away.

[derry]

Firstly the minuses.

Why the hell is Martin still putting Adams in the squad. Anybody watching him with a view to buying would have their minds made up. With his displays we couldn't give him away. My conspiritorial mind smells a rat. He gave us nothing last night except loads of sprints always five yards too late or stood on his heels watching from the edge of the box. He was hopeless. Secondly Manning, his defending is a liability, worse he gave the ball away last night with several direct passes to the opposition in dire positions for us, only the prompt intervention of others saved our bacon. I was relieved when Bree came on when we were trying to close out the game.

We are not getting the best out of Sulemana. This bloody mania of taking twenty passes to end up where we started is stupidity. Being able to keep possession is an asset however we take it to such an extreme that we have turned it into a spectator sport for the opposition who have all day to drop into solid defence. Fast forwards need two things, space to run into and the ball passed in there, alternatively given the ball quickly in front of them well into their own half with the room to attack the last defenders. Either way twenty plus passes doesn't cut it, furthermore very few of our goals come as a result of it. 

The biggest positive, we won, especially with another speculative bent inswinger from KWP's weaker foot. We are playing far too slowly and suffering the consequences in attack. It's comfort zone crap. The closer to the opponents goal the tighter it gets and ends up mostly one of two ways we either recycle and start again or lose the ball and get hit on the break. Bazunu saved us, the style neutered us. As far as I could see all the other players had a decent game and deserve better in playing tactics. A run of ten games undefeated is not to be sniffed at but pardon me for thinking that it's in spite of the tactics not because of it.

 

Edited 30 November, 2023 by derry

[saintant]

4 minutes ago, derry said:

Firstly the minuses.

Why the hell is Martin still putting Adams in the squad. Anybody watching him with a view to buying would have their minds made up. With his displays we couldn't give him away. My conspiritorial mind smells a rat. He gave us nothing last night except loads of sprints always five yards too late or stood on his heels watching from the edge of the box. He was hopeless. Secondly Manning, his defending is a liability, worse he gave the ball away last night with several direct passes to the opposition in dire positions for us, only the prompt intervention of others saved our bacon. I was relieved when Bree came on when we were trying to close out the game.

We are not getting the best out of Sulemana. This bloody mania of taking twenty passes to end up where we started is stupidity. Being able to keep possession is an asset however we take it to such an extreme that we have turned it into a spectator sport for the opposition who have all day to drop into solid defence. Fast forwards need two things, space to run into and the ball passed in there, alternatively given the ball quickly in front of them well into their own half with the room to attack the last defenders. Either way twenty plus passes doesn't cut it, furthermore very few of our goals come as a result of it. 

The biggest positive, we won, especially with another speculative bent inswinger from KWP's weaker foot. We are playing far too slowly and suffering the consequences in attack. It's comfort zone crap. The closer to the opponents goal the tighter it gets and ends up mostly one of two ways we either recycle and start again or lose the ball and get hit on the break. Bazunu saved us, the style neutered us. As far as I could see all the other players had a decent game and deserve better in playing tactics. A run of ten games undefeated is not to be sniffed at but pardon me for thinking yhat it's in spite of the tactics not because of it.

 

A lot for me to agree with here.

[Channons Windmill]

We’re going to see plenty more games like that this season, especially if voluntarily go down to ten men in the first half. The tactic against us is clearly to sit a bank of four in front of a back five to make us play continuous pretty triangles. Wait for us to lose possession and hit us on the break - thinking of Bazunu’s excellent one on one stop when he suddenly appeared twenty feet wide and Downes incredible track back near the end after Manning’s woeful pass. If we can’t get through a tightly compressed back nine then we’re really going to struggle to score….and always be under pressure from quick counters. 

[beatlesaint]

Strangely the clubs own 2 min highlights clip on You Tube includes two instances first half where Bazunu saved us, and it doesnt include the free header they missed so this one chance bullshit from RM.....well even the club have made him look a mug on that one ! 

Edited 30 November, 2023 by beatlesaint

[saint francis]

5 hours ago, Saint Marky said:

Anyone else really worried about keeping hold of Kyle in January, he is absolutely superb!

A very similar goal from his first this season against Bristol.  Were not exactly goal heavy at the moment, I wouldn't mind him having a go from this position every game.  Another string to the bow...

[wild-saint]

Whats all the Martin grief today? So what he was in a shyte mood and gave the echo guy a hard time. yes they had 3 chances but if we had let them in no doubt everyone on here would be calling out the keeper yet again.  

We were shyte first half but much better second. The difference i felt was Stuey and Charlie taking the ball with their backs to goal  and turning their man into space rather than push it back into our own half as per the norm. 

[Fitzhugh Fella]

1 hour ago, derry said:

Firstly the minuses.

Why the hell is Martin still putting Adams in the squad. Anybody watching him with a view to buying would have their minds made up. With his displays we couldn't give him away. My conspiritorial mind smells a rat. He gave us nothing last night except loads of sprints always five yards too late or stood on his heels watching from the edge of the box. He was hopeless. Secondly Manning, his defending is a liability, worse he gave the ball away last night with several direct passes to the opposition in dire positions for us, only the prompt intervention of others saved our bacon. I was relieved when Bree came on when we were trying to close out the game.

We are not getting the best out of Sulemana. This bloody mania of taking twenty passes to end up where we started is stupidity. Being able to keep possession is an asset however we take it to such an extreme that we have turned it into a spectator sport for the opposition who have all day to drop into solid defence. Fast forwards need two things, space to run into and the ball passed in there, alternatively given the ball quickly in front of them well into their own half with the room to attack the last defenders. Either way twenty plus passes doesn't cut it, furthermore very few of our goals come as a result of it. 

The biggest positive, we won, especially with another speculative bent inswinger from KWP's weaker foot. We are playing far too slowly and suffering the consequences in attack. It's comfort zone crap. The closer to the opponents goal the tighter it gets and ends up mostly one of two ways we either recycle and start again or lose the ball and get hit on the break. Bazunu saved us, the style neutered us. As far as I could see all the other players had a decent game and deserve better in playing tactics. A run of ten games undefeated is not to be sniffed at but pardon me for thinking that it's in spite of the tactics not because of it.

 

"Comfort zone crap". - I like that

[Harry_SFC]

7 minutes ago, wild-saint said:

Whats all the Martin grief today? So what he was in a shyte mood and gave the echo guy a hard time. yes they had 3 chances but if we had let them in no doubt everyone on here would be calling out the keeper yet again.  

We were shyte first half but much better second. The difference i felt was Stuey and Charlie taking the ball with their backs to goal  and turning their man into space rather than push it back into our own half as per the norm. 

Alcaraz is very good on the turn in that space in front of their centre backs, they couldn't get close to him in that second half. Shame his final ball was largely terrible.

[Convict Colony]

7 hours ago, St Louis said:

Personally I prefer having a manager who shows emotion and passion, rather than a lot of the robotic cliche managers who are out there. 

You must of loved Jones rheny

[Sheaf Saint]

Just seen this on the BBC report. I don't know who watched the game for them but they are obviously very easily pleased.

[Chewy]

Belated post-match thoughts FWIW.

Satisfied is probably my over-riding sentiment. I know there’s been some negativity and it was obviously far from perfect but I thought it was ok. On another day we might have conceded from the couple of chances we surrendered, but on another day Huddersfield and Rotherham might not have scored. At no point did we look under any sort of concerted pressure, especially once we went ahead which is acceptable against any level of opposition.

That said, praise for Bazunu for a quality save. And Bednarek for the blatant push that wasn’t spotted. 
Tactically we played two attacking full-backs so countered that with a second holding midfielder, so I’m pleased Russ is showing adaptability in this regard. He got this very wrong earlier in the season and defensively we looked a lot better for it last night despite Manning’s return. 
Unfortunately with an exciting looking front 4 in theory, we just didn’t click. Opposition were very well organised and aside from doubling up on Kamaldeen, loaded everyone else into the centre. Very difficult to breakdown a low and narrow block. 
Kamaldeen looked disinterested. I understand why Russ thought a different type of player might help when replacing him, but Che was poor. I thought Charlie played well in parts, but had little space. I also thought Shea and Downes were good. KWP deservedly motm, probably even without the goal.

Understood the subs in the circumstances - hard to balance trying to get a second without over committing and once 80 mins is up, taking control of possession and holding the lead is the pragmatic thing to do (which I assume is what was intended).

Overall we could have been better but still don’t have the forward we need and were playing against a well organised unit intent on defending and hoping to get lucky on the counter or with a set piece (their corners were excellent). We rarely looked susceptible to the counter despite the attacking full-backs and largely controlled it but it was a pretty dull watch.  
Unfortately, the longer we remain unbeaten, the more we’ll have to endure that sort of game at home. We aren’t good enough in the final third to destroy teams who defend all game - we simply don’t have the players, so I’ll happily take a win and move on. I suspect the entertaining 4-4 games are gone, so just enjoy the result because the opposition are going to make it a poor spectacle when combined with our style.

 

All imho of course 

[St Louis]

3 hours ago, Convict Colony said:

You must of loved Jones rheny

Yeah, because that’s how it works