Saints 0-0 Man City - Match Thread

[Whitey Grandad]

I wasn’t impressed with City. Ponderous and unimaginative. Their one tactic seemed to be to walk the ball about a bit then get it out to the right wing and try a hopeful cross to the far post.

The first half was a turgid tedium but the second brightened up a bit once we started to get stuck in more.

Make no mistake though, play like that every game and we will score nothing and nine times out of ten we’ll concede a late goal or three. We rode our luck.

[the boy from saints]

2 hours ago, Micky said:

I have no idea what happened, I've been avoiding the game all day and have only just found out the score.  Not going to go overboard about getting a point at home, or 'beating' the record.  Whichever way you cut it, this season has been a complete car crash and this club is still going to take a lot of turning around.  Some very important manager and player decisions need to be made to get us in any shape for next season.  So, no, no 'well dones' from me at all. 

Do you go to many games? Once again the support was immense - really important for next season to have that positivity! A point at home against that entitled opposition after such a terrible season means a huge amount for the home fans! 

[Micky]

2 minutes ago, the boy from saints said:

Do you go to many games? Once again the support was immense - really important for next season to have that positivity! A point at home against that entitled opposition after such a terrible season means a huge amount for the home fans! 

I don't go to any games, I don't live in the country.  I have nothing but admiration for the fans and have stated nothing to the contrary.  But I can't get too excited about getting 12 points in a season, or the fact we got a point at home. I get why people are upbeat that we won't get 'the record' but in the cold light of day that has been nothing but a disasterous season.

[vectraman]

Ruben Dias meltdown because we didn’t want to play properly - what an absolute 🤡. 
 

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/15ppTExzXu/?mibextid=wwXIfr

 

Hope they lose next week to Palace and end the season with nothing. Entitled nob jockeys. 
 

Plus a relegation to league 2 for fiddling the books for years. 
 

 

[The Kraken]

4 minutes ago, Micky said:

I don't go to any games, I don't live in the country.  I have nothing but admiration for the fans and have stated nothing to the contrary.  But I can't get too excited about getting 12 points in a season, or the fact we got a point at home. I get why people are upbeat that we won't get 'the record' but in the cold light of day that has been nothing but a disasterous season.

I don’t think anyone would disagree that it’s been a disaster of a season. But nothing wrong at all with the fans having a knees up (with some gallows humour) about not quite being the worst team in premier league history. Nobody is upbeat about our season, but enjoying a rare decent result is fine.

[E_H_Saints]

Took my daughter to the game and we both were relying on our lunch to be the best part of our day but actually we left the game with a sense of pride.  It wasn't pretty by any means and listening to people shout "go forward" clearly haven't been following the Saints all year but the players showed they care.  Clearly the plan was to support one another, don't leave anyone hanging and stay focused from start to finish which I believe they did.  If we would have played how Pep and Dias wanted us to, we would have chased every ball up to the halfway line, got exhausted by the 20th minute and they would have score by the 30th minute and we would all be thinking here comes the rugby score.  If we can't organise ourselves to go forward and yet defend against a teach such as Leicester how the hell would we do it against Man City.  Anyway, thank you Saints for putting it all on the line for us today and making it a good day out.  

[BarberSaint]

30 minutes ago, Nordic Saint said:

Pep went on the pitch after the game and patted Jack Stephens and a few other Saints players on the back. That was good sportsmanship from him.

?

A la Nathan Redmond?

[Micky]

17 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

I don’t think anyone would disagree that it’s been a disaster of a season. But nothing wrong at all with the fans having a knees up (with some gallows humour) about not quite being the worst team in premier league history. Nobody is upbeat about our season, but enjoying a rare decent result is fine.

Agreed. I've said nothing contrary to that..! The fans are great, the club don't deserve them.  To be clear, my beef this season is solely with the club. 

[hypochondriac]

All you ever want from your team is to give everything and to set themselves up to give themselves the best chance of points. We did that 100% today and so we can be proud of them for one week at least. Let's hope the ones who stay can take that same sort of mindset into next year. 

Edited Saturday at 20:06 by hypochondriac

[Maggie May]

Tough Rusk crumbles Pep. 

[The Kraken]

Poor old Ruben and his salty tears. Apparently it was far too difficult for Man City to score today because the pitch was too dry because of the sun (right at the end of his crybaby rambling). Pillock.

 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

3 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

Poor old Ruben and his salty tears. Apparently it was far too difficult for Man City to score today because the pitch was too dry because of the sun (right at the end of his crybaby rambling). Pillock.

 

I think I saw Stephens winding the big baby up too, at one point.

[John Boy Saint]

1 hour ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

I think I saw Stephens winding the big baby up too, at one point.

That is something he IS very good at. 
The League Cup Final he was giving Ibrahimovic a bit of chirp, which was entertaining to watch. Zlatans face was “you’ve got some minerals”. 

[Colinjb]

A 0-0 draw second on match of the day. That's quite hilarious. 

Yes, it's in the context of the only thing left to play for, European qualification. But I still find it funny.

Edited Saturday at 21:49 by Colinjb

[Whitey Grandad]

34 minutes ago, John Boy Saint said:

That is something he IS very good at. 
The League Cup Final he was giving Ibrahimovic a bit of chirp, which was entertaining to watch. Zlatans face was “you’ve got some minerals”. 

Yeah that worked well.

[John Boy Saint]

2 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Yeah that worked well.

I know - I knew I’d prime someone 😀

[Football Special]

3 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

I wasn’t impressed with City. Ponderous and unimaginative. Their one tactic seemed to be to walk the ball about a bit then get it out to the right wing and try a hopeful cross to the far post.

The first half was a turgid tedium but the second brightened up a bit once we started to get stuck in more.

Make no mistake though, play like that every game and we will score nothing and nine times out of ten we’ll concede a late goal or three. We rode our luck.

I do agree that Manchester City's slow approach play was much better suited for us. We struggle against high energy teams who have intensity, I think Pep had been consulting Russ on how to play against us 

Edited Saturday at 22:41 by Football Special

[HKsaint]

7 hours ago, Give it to Ron said:

Exactly right Wellington(Bertrand’s double) was my MOTM and have to say Bree defended really well to . Doku is so hard to play against and considering neither full back have played much did brilliant.

Agree. If it were Walker Peter, I think he would have been outplayed by Doku for his poor positioning. 

Edited yesterday at 00:29 by HKsaint

[austsaint]

8 hours ago, Give it to Ron said:

Exactly right Wellington(Bertrand’s double) was my MOTM and have to say Bree defended really well to . Doku is so hard to play against and considering neither full back have played much did brilliant.

Wellington is a good LB, and like Downes, is exactly the sort of player we need in the Championship.  Will be In the top bracket of players lining up in the division.  Manning would be ok backup, no more…..Wellington is by far the more gifted player.

[SteveGc]

6 hours ago, BarberSaint said:

A la Nathan Redmond?

He’s generally like that and pretty respectful that way even in interviews. Does seem like a nice guy, suppose it’s a lot easier with money they spend though

[Wade Garrett]

Fantastic that everyone left the ground with a smile on their faces.  We deserved that.

Brilliant rearguard action from the team as well.  

[Tom & Gerry]

Any time, any place, any where, in any situation a point against City is a good result.  I understand why people didn't go but they can't know how enjoyable that was. Of course it in no may makes up for a disastrous season but don't begrudge us a sliver of happiness.Going home felt so much better.

[LeBizzier69]

Somehow, that was one of the best afternoons at a saints game in a long time. Felt like a promotion party at the end. We really do have a decent fan base.

[ErwinK1961]

11 hours ago, The Kraken said:

Poor old Ruben and his salty tears. Apparently it was far too difficult for Man City to score today because the pitch was too dry because of the sun (right at the end of his crybaby rambling). Pillock.

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19DBcNYBxd/?mibextid=wwXIfr
 

😂😂😂

[Football Special]

Just now, LeBizzier69 said:

Somehow, that was one of the best afternoons at a saints game in a long time. Felt like a promotion party at the end. We really do have a decent fan base.

Honestly think the fan base deserves huge credit , been truly awful season, ground was full and really positive support yesterday, great scenes at the end , fans singing walking back into town , get those season tickets on sale before the feelgood factor wears off ha 

[macca155]

12 hours ago, Fabrice29 said:

If City had scored at any stage, this forum would be full of similar quotes, just as most of the ground was for an hour before people started buying into it.

Up until 70 minutes we all thought the same. Survived so far, good defending, but the goal is coming.

Within a 5 min period we had Stephens brilliant goal line clearance, a Ramsdale save, and a Wellington tackle that mugged 2 City players. That lifted the crowd, and you could feel the belief starting to seep into the ground.

The Saints subs for once didn't weaken the team, that was important. Once Stewart was on, Saints had a decent outlet, and City had to be wary of conceding a late goal.

Do not underestimate how important a decent end to the season is. It will be vital going into the summer and next season.

[Wade Garrett]

Funny that Pep didn’t praise us after failing to beat us.  Phoney wanker, can’t stand the bloke.

[beatlesaint]

I assume the club PR machine are posting all these things and celebrating with a large dose of irony aren't they?

Surely?

 

[suewhistle]

40 minutes ago, macca155 said:

Up until 70 minutes we all thought the same. Survived so far, good defending, but the goal is coming.

Oh gawd, absolutely! Gradually the belief set in. Earlier I'd worried about the lack of an outlet player for our hacks clear, but how we could have done with some of those hacks clear to a distance earlier in the season! No faulting the discipline or effort and both full backs played well. Good point about subs too, and that hasn't often been the case this season as our subs often don't seem to get in to games well. Starting Dibling helped in that respect, and he worked well for the team too. What was that foul against him for BTW?

I really hope we can spoil the party at Goodison next week..

[coalman]

19 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

Funny that Pep didn’t praise us after failing to beat us.  Phoney wanker, can’t stand the bloke.

That might have been because we weren't doing Russell Martin's poundshop City tribute act.

[Fabrice29]

29 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

Funny that Pep didn’t praise us after failing to beat us.  Phoney wanker, can’t stand the bloke.

We didn’t do anything he would consider worthy of praise did we? 🤣

[Wade Garrett]

1 minute ago, Fabrice29 said:

We didn’t do anything he would consider worthy of praise did we? 🤣

😂the phoney prick only blows smoke up arseholes when he wins.

[Fabrice29]

4 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

😂the phoney prick only blows smoke up arseholes when he wins.

I think like most managers he’s a bad loser so yeah you’re probably right. But there was barely anyone in the ground praising us for the first hour yesterday, so the idea the manager of the opposition is going to come out singing our praises is absurd. I think he did quite well to say ‘they can do what they like’ tbh

[Lord Duckhunter]

First proper performance for god knows how long. Set up correctly and defended properly. The only issue was Suly was pretty ineffective at getting us up the pitch & using his pace, Stewart looked a lot better for the short time he was on…..looked like a team, were strong physically and mentally, and the manager didn’t even start crying afterwards…

[SaintsLoyal]

[Fabrice29]

9 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

First proper performance for god knows how long. Set up correctly and defended properly. The only issue was Suly was pretty ineffective at getting us up the pitch & using his pace, Stewart looked a lot better for the short time he was on…..looked like a team, were strong physically and mentally, and the manager didn’t even start crying afterwards…

Just out of interest if City had scored yesterday and we lost would you still be calling that a proper performance? And will you still be calling it a proper performance if we concede 26 shots against Everton next week? 

[lambtiss]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJfO0ftsRpC/?igsh=aXI2b2FxNDF5Znhx

[CB Fry]

16 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

Just out of interest if City had scored yesterday and we lost would you still be calling that a proper performance? And will you still be calling it a proper performance if we concede 26 shots against Everton next week? 

Some people still coming to terms with Russell Martin not coming back, then.

[Saint NL]

 

Lovely stuff

[Fabrice29]

5 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Some people still coming to terms with Russell Martin not coming back, then.

🤣 It’s nothing to do with that.

It’s just an odd situation to me that if City had scored yesterday we’d have ridiculed those tactics ourselves, just like people were for the majority of the game. The difference between the ball hitting the bar yesterday and going just under the bar is mad. But the outcome is king I suppose. 

[hypochondriac]

3 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

🤣 It’s nothing to do with that.

It’s just an odd situation to me that if City had scored yesterday we’d have ridiculed those tactics ourselves, just like people were for the majority of the game. The difference between the ball hitting the bar yesterday and going just under the bar is mad. But the outcome is king I suppose. 

Given the amount of times this year we have played quite well with possession and had chances only to lose because we get knackered and can't sustain the mindless possession football, I'd take a defensive, negative, battling point over that any day. 

[Saint Billy]

1 hour ago, Football Special said:

Honestly think the fan base deserves huge credit , been truly awful season, ground was full and really positive support yesterday, great scenes at the end , fans singing walking back into town , get those season tickets on sale before the feelgood factor wears off ha 

Hats off to the fans as that bunch deserved no support at all. They decided to show some spirit in the second to last home game of the season as opposed  to the rest of the season when some of them looked like they didn't give a toss.

Not all their fault I know as they have had a couple of dire managers at the helm,  but still, the torture they have dished up deserves no send off at the end of the season.

 

[gio1saints]

Considering how many tourists were there I thought it was easily Saints fans best home singing performance of the season. 
 

The team acknowledging that at the end was NOT celebrating a point like that tosser Sutton  said calling them and us “Losers “ but rather it was the team saying “Thank You” to the fans who made so much noise encouraging and supporting them through near 100 minutes DESPITE  them being atrocious all season . 

All the players did what they had to do so MOTM for me was every Saints fan singing all match there on Saturday 🙌

[Fabrice29]

1 minute ago, hypochondriac said:

Given the amount of times this year we have played quite well with possession and had chances only to lose because we get knackered and can't sustain the mindless possession football, I'd take a defensive, negative, battling point over that any day. 

Yeah you’d take the point. But what if it doesn’t lead to a point. What if we lose. How many days are you taking it then? That’s my point. The novelty of getting a result yesterday was wonderful but the actual performance? Let’s not pretend people enjoyed that because I was sat around a lot of people who clearly weren’t enjoying it. 

I’m not even arguing that we shouldn’t be playing like that. I agree with Rusk that any other tactic would lead us to getting beat. But I’m also not going to pretend it was enjoyable, ‘our first proper performance of the season’ or that if we play like that next week and lose I’ll be satisfied 

[hypochondriac]

2 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

Yeah you’d take the point. But what if it doesn’t lead to a point. What if we lose. How many days are you taking it then? That’s my point. The novelty of getting a result yesterday was wonderful but the actual performance? Let’s not pretend people enjoyed that because I was sat around a lot of people who clearly weren’t enjoying it. 

I’m not even arguing that we shouldn’t be playing like that. I agree with Rusk that any other tactic would lead us to getting beat. But I’m also not going to pretend it was enjoyable, ‘our first proper performance of the season’ or that if we play like that next week and lose I’ll be satisfied 

I don't think there's any indication that we will be playing like that forever. You can't imagine us playing like that next year and then if we do get promoted the hope would be that we would have the players to play an all action closing down style so we wouldn't have to be so negative and defensive all the time. Given the players we have, the opposition and our form it was the most sensible thing to do. Blame the premier league for how uneven it now is and how little chance we have of getting points without doing this. 

[Matthew Le God]

32 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

Considering how many tourists were there I thought it was easily Saints fans best home singing performance of the season. 

How have you worked that out?

[Whitey Grandad]

2 hours ago, suewhistle said:

Oh gawd, absolutely! Gradually the belief set in. Earlier I'd worried about the lack of an outlet player for our hacks clear, but how we could have done with some of those hacks clear to a distance earlier in the season! No faulting the discipline or effort and both full backs played well. Good point about subs too, and that hasn't often been the case this season as our subs often don't seem to get in to games well. Starting Dibling helped in that respect, and he worked well for the team too. What was that foul against him for BTW?

I really hope we can spoil the party at Goodison next week..

Shirt tug I assumed. I think the assistant flagged for it. Other side of the pitch to me and on my blind side.

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, lambtiss said:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJfO0ftsRpC/?igsh=aXI2b2FxNDF5Znhx

Instagram innit. 

[gio1saints]

25 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

How have you worked that out?

1. I attend every home match and keep a tally of how many half and half scarves ( for me, this is a definitive recognisable criteria of a tourist visitor) I see in a little note pad, in pencil in case I need update it. I also add those who do not know where they are going in places i know are ST seats. This, to me, is also a recognisable criteria. 
2. One qualification I personally have aside from my scientific approach - albeit in a variable data sample - is my attending every home match and generally doing a stroll around ground before shuffling along to Northam.  I feel this gives me something of an advantage than if I were, say, to sit in The Unity until 7 mins before kick off then half jog up to the ground. 
3. My third way of working it out is good old people watching. That, and a high degree of intuition of who is and who is not a first timer to St. Mary’s. My observational abilities are professional in that regard. 
4. Occasionally, I will act as a Tour guide to seemingly lost St Mary’s visitors. I approach them casually like and kindly offer directions. I usually send them to the Cruise ships and The Titanic exhibition. Never get any complaints. 
 

Other than that @Matthew Le God I guess it’s just a personal opinion. 😁
 

Edited 16 hours ago by gio1saints
Sp

[Whitey Grandad]

38 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

How have you worked that out?

Very noticeable. Paper tickets at the turnstiles and people not knowing where they were going. Plenty of unknown faces around me and taking photos during the game is a big giveaway. 

Some poor lad outside the ground had a half and half scarf that his dad had bought him. Isn't that child abuse?

Edited 15 hours ago by Whitey Grandad