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Saints 1-1 Boro - Match Thread


goodymatt
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1 minute ago, The Cat said:

Enough chances to win at a canter.

The 10 minutes of the ginger steward and the blokes banging the hoardings in the Kingsland Northern corner was a non footballing highlight of the season. Absolutely hilarious.

Definitely should have won it, but we were pretty sloppy I thought. Let them back into it so many times, very open on the break (as we have been all season tbf).

We've won lots of games this season in the death, it feels like the inventible reverse is going to bite us in the arse in the coming weeks. Not that it really matters now!

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With there being only small variations on Plan A, you kind of know what you’ll get from us. Dominating possession, patiently looking to create chances, and hope we put enough of them away while our defence hold out at the other end. Some flaws are inbuilt, like the gaps the inverted players leave. Some are areas you’d hope we’d develop. Like being able to up the tempo to force more chances when we’re passing it around the middle.  

Today was no exception. 62% possession. We struggled to create for large spells in the first half. But we certainly created enough good ones to have finished ‘Boro off. They hit the post in the first half, as they pressed our automatic passing shape. Later, Stephens did really well to stop a one on one. Their other real chance was their goal. We looked organised enough to stop everything else they had.

In the first half Sule was involved in a lot of the play. He offers pace and can pin back defences. He doesn’t offer a link to our passing game or a finish though. It’s not the only reason it wasn’t clicking, but was more disruptive when he switched flanks. That lack of creativity from the middle to the final third meant Che had a quiet half too.

In the second half Che was getting opportunities when everyone remembered how well AA, KWP and Will paly when they link up. Stu was the outlet for those moves, and Che fed on those. It was working well. Sure, Che will be frustrated with the misses. Bringing Fraser and Brooks on, meant we had no one really in the middle to offer any physical presence. We were looking for dribbling runs and cut backs. We did create opportunities, but none quite as clear cut. Will put one well over.

After they equalised, we looked disjointed and a little desperate. Martin still has to solve the issues that have dogged us all season. How to use that possession to move defences and create good chances. How to do that at a pace that stops their defence resetting to stop those chances being converted. How to adapt to seeing out games if we’re struggling to create with a narrow lead.

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1 minute ago, Baird of the land said:

A club that blows 8M on an injured striker isn't one i have much faith to replace with better than adams

I reckon Ross Stewart with only one leg would have scored one of those today

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8 minutes ago, IOWSaintDaz said:

Che deserves to be dropped from the rest of the season on that piss poor showing, terrible showing in front of goal today from him and a few others too, just makes you wonder what Martin has had them doing in the time we had

You cant really coach a 27 year old striker how to finish, and that is what cost us today.

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2 minutes ago, The Cat said:

One point gained on Leicester. Just need Ipswich and Leeds to lose now and it will have been a positive day.

That's stretching it :D 

I don't know how I'd feel if Ipswich and Leeds drop points later, probably frustration more than anything because it won't mean anything given what we just did. Need to mentally prepare myself for the playoffs.

Edited by S-Clarke
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26 minutes ago, Saint NL said:

What happened to Maras hair during the break? 😱

Something was going off in the stands at the end when the crowd were singing "You're getting sacked in the morning". 

Then they started with "You don't know what you're going", but I guess that was geared towards Mara's barber!

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8 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

If we don't get in the top two he hasn't achieved the bare minimum for me.

I'd say winning the play-offs was bare minimum but even that looks unlikely when we can't finish teams off. Either way we needed to get promoted this season and it's looking more and more like we won't. 

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So we can add Middlesbrough home to the ever growing list of points thrown away.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again it isn’t our September form that’s cost us automatic promotion it’s our inability to see of games we should be winning comfortably  there are loads of them Now

Edited by Turkish
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3 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Definitely should have won it, but we were pretty sloppy I thought. Let them back into it so many times, very open on the break (as we have been all season tbf).

We've won lots of games this season in the death, it feels like the inventible reverse is going to bite us in the arse in the coming weeks. Not that it really matters now!

Oh yeah we did get a bit sloppy. It happens to most teams in all games but the real top teams get through it and bang in a second when they are on top.

Agree about Brooks. The guy is some player but doesn't always look like a part of the team. He had 2 chances to put Fraser in with quite easy passes but messed both of them up.

 

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1 minute ago, SNSUN said:

I'd say winning the play-offs was bare minimum but even that looks unlikely when we can't finish teams off. Either way we needed to get promoted this season and it's looking more and more like we won't. 

Given where we were last season, I'd have said getting into the playoffs was a decent enough season. You have to bare in mind we were hopeless and starting from scratch. I'd also be prepared to give Martin some slack for two reasons:

  1. For some reason we decided the solution to our very obvious, glaring striker shortage was to take a punt on someone who'd been injured for a year. As such we're still trying to get goals out of the useless Adams and Mara.
  2. The form of the top three really has been crazy and we could well post a score which would sometimes win the league but only earns a distant fourth.
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In an uncharacteristic moment of sincere introspection, Martin needs to contemplate the fact that he may well be the easiest manager to manage against in the Championship.

Until he instills a second and much more direct element to our game plan - occasional early balls through or over the D, we'll just keep over-elaborating our brains out and falling victim to opposition comebacks. Mind-numbingly frustrating.

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There was a lot of poor passing today, Smallbone,  Armstrong s , Adams and Brooks in particular.  I was a shit Sunday League substitute,  but I would back myself to find Fraser in all that space. 

That last miss by Adams was truly bad. Normally he puts every shot down the middle of the goal. All he had to do was toe poke it on target .

I have been resigned to the playoffs since we lost at Bristol,  but now the maths are backing it up. 

 

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Just now, Saint_clark said:

If we don't get in the top two he hasn't achieved the bare minimum for me.

So you expected someone to come in and get our bunch of relegated mediocre players with a long history of being mentally and sometimes physically weak promoted at the very first attempt? 

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10 minutes ago, OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint said:

Something was going off in the stands at the end when the crowd were singing "You're getting sacked in the morning". 

Then they started with "You don't know what you're going", but I guess that was geared towards Mara's barber!

Nah, a couple of Saints fans were booted out for trying to create an atmosphere by banging the advertising boards. 

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34 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

Was that saints fans singing "you don't know what you're doing" when Mara came on?

Embarrassing if so.

It was being sung at the stewards in the Kingsland Northam corner after an altercation with fans banging the hoarding.

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5 minutes ago, Mr X said:

So you expected someone to come in and get our bunch of relegated mediocre players with a long history of being mentally and sometimes physically weak promoted at the very first attempt? 

Yes, such is the gulf between prem and championship. This squad is good enough for top two, second only to Leeds and that is debatable. 

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We’ve had SIX 1-1 draws this season, we were leading in 5 of them and the better side in all of them. Even with the stupid/unexpected defeats, that’s the difference between autos and playoffs 

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24 minutes ago, niceandfriendly said:

Let's look on the bright side. The way Martin plays + Bazunu would have been utterly destroyed in the Premier League. At least next season we get to beat the fishy few twice.

Should we go up then you’d hope for some squad improvements.

As for the skates, I wouldn’t take beating them as a given, if we still have Bazunu in goal, and Martin in charge. 

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9 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Given where we were last season, I'd have said getting into the playoffs was a decent enough season. You have to bare in mind we were hopeless and starting from scratch. I'd also be prepared to give Martin some slack for two reasons:

  1. For some reason we decided the solution to our very obvious, glaring striker shortage was to take a punt on someone who'd been injured for a year. As such we're still trying to get goals out of the useless Adams and Mara.
  2. The form of the top three really has been crazy and we could well post a score which would sometimes win the league but only earns a distant fourth.

It really is a crazy Top 3 this year, their form has set a bar. What's really, really frustrated me though is that we caught them (Ipswich especially), hunted them down all winter and hauled them in. We went on this 26 game unbeaten historical, never seen before run, which will now ultimately mean diddly squat and will be one of those pointless records we hold. ''How to go unbeaten for half a season and not achieve anything''.

It seems as if we were fine playing catchup, but as soon as we were in the position of being chased we completely died a death. Our form since Feb has been atrocious and it's made that unbeaten run entirely null and void.

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Just now, S-Clarke said:

It really is a crazy Top 3 this year, their form has set a bar. What's really, really frustrated me though is that we caught them (Ipswich especially), hunted them down all winter and hauled them in. We went on this 26 game unbeaten historical, never seen before run, which will now ultimately mean diddly squat and will be one of those pointless records we hold. ''How to go unbeaten for half a season and not achieve anything''.

It seems as if we were fine playing catchup, but as soon as we were in the position of being chased we completely died a death. Our form since Feb has been atrocious and it's made that unbeaten run entirely null and void.

Far too many shit 1-1 draws in that run, which was overrated because of that. Kind run in too. 

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10 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Given where we were last season, I'd have said getting into the playoffs was a decent enough season. You have to bare in mind we were hopeless and starting from scratch. 

9 of today’s starting lineup were existing Saints players from last season, albeit a couple were out on loan. The team today was enhanced by a decent signing from the Premier League in Flynn Downes, and THB who is proven quality at this level who was signed once Stephens was crocked. It’s almost the opposite of starting from scratch.

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Same people saying we won’t make playoffs this Summer saying we’ve failed for not getting automatics zzz

Felt it coming after Che’s mental miss, right after his other mental miss. Too many Rotherham parallels

Moronic stewards in the Northam bottom corner need sacked as well

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30 minutes ago, The Cat said:

Enough chances to win at a canter.

The 10 minutes of the ginger steward and the blokes banging the hoardings in the Kingsland Northern corner was a non footballing highlight of the season. Absolutely hilarious.

To be honest you could hear the crowd distracted by something and it was doing my head in watching the stream, not a single chant in support of the team for about 15 minutes as that "hilarity" ensued and I'm sure it distracted the players as they wondered what the fuck was going on, especially with the timing of the "don't know what you're doing" chants as Mara was subbed on. 

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9 minutes ago, Jack said:

We’ve had SIX 1-1 draws this season, we were leading in 5 of them and the better side in all of them. Even with the stupid/unexpected defeats, that’s the difference between autos and playoffs 

Quick maths? 

 

We'd be 12 points better off IF we'd kept our lead.

Shoulda,  coulda,  woulda.

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Not much to say on the match itself, not a great performance but had enough chances to win it. We were never comfortable though and desperately needed that second goal. Auto's are gone now, very frustrating.

As for the stewards in the Northam/Kingsland corner and especially that ginger woman, you're a fucking disgrace. Same goes for the useless cops who seemingly have nothing better to do than boot out a couple of harmless loyal fans. Pathetic cowards the lot of you, shame on the club.

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A few things I'll take from that game. We still are looking for the perfect goal rather than shooting at goal. We seem to have a habit of letting teams reset even though we are on the break so we then have to battle 10 players. Silly balls across the box just in front of the opposition. We need to score more goals

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32 minutes ago, OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint said:

Something was going off in the stands at the end when the crowd were singing "You're getting sacked in the morning". 

Then they started with "You don't know what you're going", but I guess that was geared towards Mara's barber!

 No the wanker stewards throwing 2 blokes out for banging the hoardings trying to get flat atmosphere going

Edited by Give it to Ron
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15 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

This is why I'm worried about the play-offs. Can't kill a game.

I'm concerned because we will either have to beat one of the top 3, or else beat the team that beats them.

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12 minutes ago, Katalinic said:

This is not a side or manager equipped to cope with the tension of the play-offs.

Said the same pretty much all season.  Our game is based around possession, and little else which seems bizarre to me.  We've had very large chunks of games, but done nothing with them.  I reckon some team will break into the playoffs and win them, leaving us and Leicester looking over our shoulders wondering what happened.  Far too much ball, not enough intent. 

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The players and manager coming out with all that 'let them write us off, they'll see' nonsense and then immediately turning in a performance like that is just embarrassing. Doubt it will filter through to Russell though, he seems to live in cloud cuckoo land.

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5 minutes ago, Saint Billy said:

Today really was inevitable. It's not just the hope that kills you but it is also the expectation of watching the same old game plan time and time again that was sussed by our opponents long ago.

I don't really buy that, Fraser had a clear chance - should have scored, Armstrong had two efforts he needed a cleaner hit on - no idea how they both stayed out.

Adams, I mean what can you say. You just have to score of those if you're a professional level player, 1 if you're having a bad day - but to miss both I just can't quite fathom. None of that is because of the style or patterns of play or tactics, we just never sorted out a proper number 9.

The way we played enabled those opportunities for Adams, but he's just shit.

Edited by S-Clarke
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