Saints 2-1 Wrexham - Match Thread

[Farmer Saint]

1 hour ago, Fabrice29 said:

 

Some very odd takes on here. We were dominant throughout and add some creativity and crisp passes/quality/shots in the final third and it would have been a lot easier.

And we still should have scored 4 or 5 and had 2 penalties.

[SWLondon Saint]

11 minutes ago, lhammondo said:

I enjoyed Quarshie giving a shoulder to whichever Wrexham player tried to pull his shirt off when the penalty wasn't given. Some needed aggression 

There was a through ball at some point and Quarshie just overtook the guy and took the ball easily, looked totally dominant. Something we've lacked the last however long.

Worried about who gets the assignment to fight with Hirst next week at Ipswich. Probably shouldn't be Edwards on today's evidence.

[Fitzhugh Fella]

6 hours ago, SNSUN said:

The willingness for this club to stick with Stephens will be our downfall. When he got injured early in our promotion season and THB partnered Jan - that was when we started to get the results. I hope he has a good season - but we've had years of seeing what he can do.

This aged well

[whelk]

1 hour ago, BranfootsLoveChild said:

Just heard Parkinson on Talkshite. He reckons the ref got a few decisions wrong for them. Fuck off, he was against us all game. Jason Cundy has just said Edwards should have been sent off for a foul on K Moore. The Wrexham love in is in full effect now.

Top tip: don’t tune in to Talksport, it rots your brain

[Cabrone]

Hopefully that has broken any hangover from last season, it must be nice for the players to feel a win at last.

Fair dues to Still, when he saw we were toothless up front he made some positive attacking subs and got the win.

Momentum is key in this division, now let's get really moving.

Armstrong should not be centre forward, he needs to go wide.

[Wiggles31]

That was more entertaining that the entirety of last season. 
 

I thought we absolutely battered them. Totally deserved to win. The referee was dreadful. Charles was the best player on the pitch until Manning came on. Also Stewart looked a real handful when he came on. The play and tactics were so much more enjoyable. 

[Polegategavin243]

4 hours ago, qwertyell said:

Did he, though? QPR conceded more goals per game after Edwards joined them. 

I just don't see what his defensive qualities are. He's slow and no good in the air. Being half decent on the ball might impress the fans of the team that finished 15th in the Championship, but it's not actual defending. 

It is odd that Edwards is getting so much blame from today’s game. Yes, he conceded the penalty due to a daft decision to push Moore, but he was put in the position of having to chase him back thanks to poor decision making and play by team-mates in the lead up to the situation.

He actually spent a lot of time acting as the axis to move the ball from side to side and advancing with the ball to get us up the pitch.

He also won his fair share of aerial duals with Moore, who targeted him due to Quarshie’s height and size, yet for the remainder of the game did not allow Wrexham to get through the defence via Moore.

He then provided a focal point on the far edge of Wrexham’s penalty area 3 or 4 times to be found with long passes and headed the ball back into the penalty area.

Unfortunately, Sagawara and Quarshie had weaker games with poor passes and decisions, including Sugawara’s nothing throw in that lad to the penalty.

I feel, some fans see a player make a mistake and then look for reasons to determine that player is rubbish thereafter.

Fans have done this in the past with Bazunu, Stephen’s and Manning amongst others and look what happened today.

A more balanced assessment of players over a number of games is always better than a snap decision on them after a frustrating mistake.

We need to support all our players this season and moving forward to enable them to play with confidence and for the supporters to become the “twelfth man” often referred to.

[Football Special]

Thought the fans were decent today considering we were losing for most of the match. New banner unveiled over the Northam wall pre,-match looked decent,  some big flags waved in the Chapel as the players came out, assume that was organised by the club? 

[stknowle]

2 hours ago, BarberSaint said:

Back from the game.

First half we were nothing.  A better team but no desire, invention, anything.

Second half better and glad we got the win. Deserved overall. They were nothing with Moore on and less with him off.  He is quite canny and very dirty. We were a poor side until MF came on though.

Baz. Still doesn't hold himself like a goalie but the fingertip save was excellent. 5

Suga   - oh well. A generous 4.

Edwards.  In some ways good, did cope with KM quite well apart from being about 18 inches shorter than him and very slow - why didn't Quarshie take him? 5 (just)

JS - couple of moments where you could see the farts forming. Same old. Good for the goal. 5

Quarshie. Ok at this level. Didn't see the electric pace. Thought nothing of the long throws. Can't see him stepping up. Falls asleep a bit too. Not especially convincing defensively. 5

Welington - looked alright. Continuously ignored when he went on the overlap. 5

Downes. Ok. Not much of anything. Did nobble one of their players which was nice. 5

Charles. Ok. Very right footed, doesn't look like he'll score many in his career. 5 - maybe  5.5.

Fraser. Busy. Not much use really, even at the end when he did get crosses in. I'd use him as a sub. 4.

Robinson. His first touch is a second touch, no power, head down.  Quite unimpressive despite what people here are saying. Did try to and occasionally did make things happen though so he was effective. Don't see him as a PL player ever though. 5

AA - same as, but less busy.

Subs:

MF - lifted everyone and the team played better. 

Manning. Did well. Is quite slow at getting his head up; most of us are.

RS - looks very frail and fragile. Might develop into a footballer, but based on that he was poor.

DD - looked quite good and made a couple of good, clever runs that were missed.

CA - didn't do much. 

Can't see Wrexham doing anything other than struggling based on that.

Fuck me and there was me thinking I was glass half full. 

Edited August 9 by stknowle

[stknowle]

26 minutes ago, stknowle said:

……… whassapenin’

Edited August 9 by stknowle

[StrangelyBrown]

Pleasantly surprised. We did things today that we didn't see last year: we attacked a lot, we showed real character to deal with adversity, substitutions were all positive and most importantly we didn't just sit back and accept it wasn't our day or even accept a draw.

Focusing on the positives - Charles and Downes are going to boss most games this year, Robinson is looking already like he will develop into a serious player and Baz pulled off one of the best saves I've seen in a while.

Well done Saints!

[Jack]

Was concerned by what I saw in pre season but I’m pretty happy with what I saw implemented from Will Still today. Referee had no interest in us winning but we made positive subs and piled on the pressure when we were behind, all or nothing attitude which got us the win. 
 

Up the fucking Saints, welcome to the Championship you Hollywood cunts 

[SaintBobby]

Obviously a great way to win. But that whole 3 at the back thing...wtf?

In the closing stages, we finally seemed to go 4-2-3-1 which worked with Fraser at RB (although it might have been closer to 4-2-4 by the final minutes).

[Smirking_Saint]

4 hours ago, BarberSaint said:

Back from the game.

First half we were nothing.  A better team but no desire, invention, anything.

Second half better and glad we got the win. Deserved overall. They were nothing with Moore on and less with him off.  He is quite canny and very dirty. We were a poor side until MF came on though.

Baz. Still doesn't hold himself like a goalie but the fingertip save was excellent. 5

Suga   - oh well. A generous 4.

Edwards.  In some ways good, did cope with KM quite well apart from being about 18 inches shorter than him and very slow - why didn't Quarshie take him? 5 (just)

JS - couple of moments where you could see the farts forming. Same old. Good for the goal. 5

Quarshie. Ok at this level. Didn't see the electric pace. Thought nothing of the long throws. Can't see him stepping up. Falls asleep a bit too. Not especially convincing defensively. 5

Welington - looked alright. Continuously ignored when he went on the overlap. 5

Downes. Ok. Not much of anything. Did nobble one of their players which was nice. 5

Charles. Ok. Very right footed, doesn't look like he'll score many in his career. 5 - maybe  5.5.

Fraser. Busy. Not much use really, even at the end when he did get crosses in. I'd use him as a sub. 4.

Robinson. His first touch is a second touch, no power, head down.  Quite unimpressive despite what people here are saying. Did try to and occasionally did make things happen though so he was effective. Don't see him as a PL player ever though. 5

AA - same as, but less busy.

Subs:

MF - lifted everyone and the team played better. 

Manning. Did well. Is quite slow at getting his head up; most of us are.

RS - looks very frail and fragile. Might develop into a footballer, but based on that he was poor.

DD - looked quite good and made a couple of good, clever runs that were missed.

CA - didn't do much. 

Can't see Wrexham doing anything other than struggling based on that.

Cheers Mr Reynolds

[Suhari]

3 hours ago, whelk said:

Top tip: don’t tune in to Talksport, it rots your brain

Fuck me. If Wrexham ever play Liverpool there's gonna be such a media love-in-whirlpool, it's likely we'll end up with a Sky TV induced black hole.

Fucking Carragher talking about the bestestest-ever singularities as we're all sucked to our doom.

Edited August 9 by Suhari

[saintant]

4 hours ago, Football Special said:

Agree, we did have some good chances first half and really should have scored , but overall we were far too easy to defend against 

Not so sure I agree. Wrexham rode their luck at times - Robinson could have had a couple of goals, he hit the post and their keeper also made an instinctive save that he knew little about. After Robinson hit the post AA had two bites at the cherry and was unfortunate that both were blocked. Fraser had a shot that literally hit their keeper with him knowing little about it. We had two massive shouts for penalties and I feel both should have been given - one a blatant handball and the other a shirt pull when their player held on to Quarshie's shirt for quite a few seconds. Robinson and AA both had stabbed shots that they didn't make the most of and there was a header from maybe Charles that went straight at their keeper. Add in the two goals we scored and also a look at the game stats will show that Wrexham struggled to keep us at bay. We weren't as bad as a lot have made out. Lots to improve on and I'm confident Will Still will study the game and learn a great deal from it.

[saintant]

4 hours ago, BarberSaint said:

Nope, but I'd 've thought so after the first half.  We weren't very good and I'm not going to be over-elated because we won in extra time (Fucking get in there! Well deserved!) because we really weren't very good and were playing a 'team' that were plainly awful.   There are many, much better teams and we'll have to do better to get promoted automatically and we'll have to be consistent and have a much more potent attack. There is clearly a huge lack of creativity in the side and if we had a few players who could 'make things happen' it would change that side of the game immensely.  I looked at the game as a whole and we were often outright pedestrian. 

It was the first game of the season so I expected a certain amount of ring rust. A look at other results and performances tells me we are not alone although I watched Bristol City and they were superb. We will get stronger, we will get better and we will bring in new players including creative ones. Any sort of win on the opening day is a big bonus especially for us because we are notoriously slow starters. My biggest take was the increase in our fitness levels and that helped get us over the line against a tiring Wrexham.

[saintant]

4 hours ago, Golac's Cunning Stunts said:

Will have to watch that again. Haven’t really watched him being interviewed before but he seemed tired and low energy?

If you've seen the clip of his moment of unbridled joy on the pitch after the game that should tell you more than seeing him answering the usual mundane questions from a journalist.

[Football Special]

25 minutes ago, saintant said:

Not so sure I agree. Wrexham rode their luck at times - Robinson could have had a couple of goals, he hit the post and their keeper also made an instinctive save that he knew little about. After Robinson hit the post AA had two bites at the cherry and was unfortunate that both were blocked. Fraser had a shot that literally hit their keeper with him knowing little about it. We had two massive shouts for penalties and I feel both should have been given - one a blatant handball and the other a shirt pull when their player held on to Quarshie's shirt for quite a few seconds. Robinson and AA both had stabbed shots that they didn't make the most of and there was a header from maybe Charles that went straight at their keeper. Add in the two goals we scored and also a look at the game stats will show that Wrexham struggled to keep us at bay. We weren't as bad as a lot have made out. Lots to improve on and I'm confident Will Still will study the game and learn a great deal from it.

Just watched the itv highlights, how AA doesn't score from that post rebound I'll never know. 

At times our build up play was frustrating though , needed more movement off the ball

There were chances though, could have been 5-4 as a fair scoreline. 

Another comment on the highlights, out of 31,000 why does the camera always find that bald bloke doing his dance moves 🙄

Edited August 9 by Football Special

[SouSaint]

Great win but my word we looked woeful defensively. Quarshie and Edwards were all over the place. 

[suewhistle]

I think somebody should confiscate Barbersaint's cutthroat razor, for his own good..

[saintant]

7 minutes ago, suewhistle said:

I think somebody should confiscate Barbersaint's cutthroat razor, for his own good..

Yeah, imagine if we'd lost 🙂

[Matthew Le God]

BBC Radio Solent's Adam Blackmore commentary

Wrexham commentary

 

Edited August 9 by Matthew Le God

[BARCELONASAINT]

6 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

I think we have other areas that need attention more to be honest.

 

6 hours ago, Chez said:

 

A new right back would be nice, but unlikely.

watch this space, i believe a new RB is incoming on loan with an option to buy!

[HnycS]

11 hours ago, benjii said:

But, it was us that injured him, so well done us (specifically Charles, I think).

No Wellington actually in a very firm but fair challenge on the edge of the box. TV showed it back in slow-mo for some reason, they seemed to have a strong Wrexham bias and were looking for it to be some kind of foul play that caused the injury, it wasn't.

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

10 hours ago, Football Special said:

Thought the fans were decent today considering we were losing for most of the match. New banner unveiled over the Northam wall pre,-match looked decent,  some big flags waved in the Chapel as the players came out, assume that was organised by the club? 

The Northam was decent but (as a famous Taff once said, it’s not unusual) the rest of the ground only woke up once we equalised. OK at the start but as you’d expect, once they went ahead it lifted them and knocked ours back.

They’ve had a right pop at our support on their forum, they were getting nothing from the fans either side of them and tbf it looked pretty much dead down there from the Northam.

Edit: "Humpty Dumpty giving it large" 😃

 

Edited Sunday at 06:43 by TheAlehouseBrawlers
Humpty Dumpty

[Convict Colony]

Reading the match comments is even more hilarious when you know the outcome, good job lads.

 

[Tamesaint]

6 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

BBC Radio Solent's Adam Blackmore commentary

Wrexham commentary

 

Its quite amusing to watch these 2 different summaries and commentaries of the same match. 

[Convict Colony]

7 hours ago, saintant said:

It was the first game of the season so I expected a certain amount of ring rust. A look at other results and performances tells me we are not alone although I watched Bristol City and they were superb. We will get stronger, we will get better and we will bring in new players including creative ones. Any sort of win on the opening day is a big bonus especially for us because we are notoriously slow starters. My biggest take was the increase in our fitness levels and that helped get us over the line against a tiring Wrexham.

100000% this.

[Harry_SFC]

10 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

100000% this.

Definitely not a coincidence with the Brighton come back as well. Wrexham looked dead on their feet compared to us. Certainly stands us in good stead going forwards. 

Edited Sunday at 05:42 by Harry_SFC

[benjii]

We really need to work on our defensive line. Several times one of them would be several yards out of line with the others. Against a better team we would get punished more.

But, that can be coached. Quarshie is clearly a hell of an athlete and I think he'll be a good signing. Let's assume Edwards is much better than he showed yesterday. 

A decent right back (although Fraser was good yesterday), another attacking midfielder and we're nicely set. 

 

 

[Smirking_Saint]

Having slept on it Im quietly impressed with yesterday, especially when you look at it in the same prism as Brighton… very early days but Southampton sides of old had a real tendancy to roll over and die with any level of pressure levelled against them.. against both Brighton and Wrexham we dug in, turned the screws and did what needed to be done.. some of that I think was down to Will’s positive substitutions, that has to install belief, instead of a Russell Martin, or even Ralf tendancy to ask for more of plan A

Match thoughts;

Started slowly, I wasn’t a huge fan of how we tried to attack Wrexham but it’s clear AA isn’t a No.9, if it wasn’t already, we really struggled to maintain possession in key areas and felt like a battle of the counter attacks

Keifer Moore had a good game for them, a real focal point, Edwards wasn’t as bad as many made out, he was constantly available as a pivot between defence and midfield but defensively had a bad time against Moore, understandable to a degree with KMs height and physicality but id of liked to see Quarshie or Stephens take over

Fraser had a great game, full of work and availability, he really does have a good footballing brain snd a lot of his good passes just weren’t seen by his teammates 

Robinson looks a talent but he’s not there yet, Id say he’s on the same level as Dibling though, possibly why we aren’t as worried to let TD leave. More of a winger than TD, but he’s has a great touch, good feet and his direct play is exactly what we need

Charles looks a class above, clear why he was Wednesdays POTS, strong, good on the ball, accountable… hopefully we can keep hold of him

Quarshie looks an inspired signing, reminds me of VVD so far, although not at the same level of course, but tall, strong, quick and he has that way of defending where he retreats before committing

A lot of credit needs to go to Baz too, thought he was great at what he needed to do, seems more mature now, talking to his backline, as always good on the ball and the 1 on 1 save effectively won us the game

Downs and Fernandes dissapointed me a tad, just couldn’t get into the swing of the game, I like the look of DD though, he seems to have some excellent attributes, may take him a while to get going.. MF just didn’t get into the game at all yesterday, clearly wanted the ball but he’s was just a bit off

Final thoughts - Definitely gives me hope for this season, the squad depth is ridiculous and talent in key areas, especially in regards to opposition is definitely there. Will Still seems to be a manager we’ve all wanted for a while, with a dynamic tactical playbook, we won’t keep hold of him unfortunately. I think we need one or two signings to be really effective. A right back is looking more and more needed, then obviously a creative 10 and probably another winger.. not sure what we do with our depth of talent in the front line though… BBD, AA, CA, RS, DD is just too many options

[gio1saints]

One of the most telling stats on that match was regarding Cameron Archer. He came on for 25 minutes when we desperately needed a goal in that critical first match of the season a goal down. And he touched the ball just twice. 
That story of Cam invisibly being on the pitch as a goal scoring forward has gone on and on. It must be the case that the rest of the team are not good enough to find his runs otherwise how come he gets on the pitch? What’s the point of playing him if you don’t totally focus on giving the ball to the one guy who is supposed to be there to finish? 

Noticing same with Damion Downs. Nobody ( please don’t bore with the manning assist/cross or JR’s assist- other than that he hardly gets a touch) was head up thinking where is Damion let’s give him the ball see if he can score. 

First half AA barely a sniff also. 
 

I swear with my degree in football knowledge that if the rest of the team gives the ball to the forwards quicker and more often we will score more. I don’t mean always long I mean cut out 50% of the sideways stuff and put it vertically to feet or to channels for the forwards to show why they are on the big bucks. 

 

Edited Sunday at 06:51 by gio1saints

[lambtiss]

11 hours ago, Polegategavin243 said:

It is odd that Edwards is getting so much blame from today’s game. Yes, he conceded the penalty due to a daft decision to push Moore, but he was put in the position of having to chase him back thanks to poor decision making and play by team-mates in the lead up to the situation.

He actually spent a lot of time acting as the axis to move the ball from side to side and advancing with the ball to get us up the pitch.

He also won his fair share of aerial duals with Moore, who targeted him due to Quarshie’s height and size, yet for the remainder of the game did not allow Wrexham to get through the defence via Moore.

He then provided a focal point on the far edge of Wrexham’s penalty area 3 or 4 times to be found with long passes and headed the ball back into the penalty area.

Unfortunately, Sagawara and Quarshie had weaker games with poor passes and decisions, including Sugawara’s nothing throw in that lad to the penalty.

I feel, some fans see a player make a mistake and then look for reasons to determine that player is rubbish thereafter.

Fans have done this in the past with Bazunu, Stephen’s and Manning amongst others and look what happened today.

A more balanced assessment of players over a number of games is always better than a snap decision on them after a frustrating mistake.

We need to support all our players this season and moving forward to enable them to play with confidence and for the supporters to become the “twelfth man” often referred to.

Always surprises me how people can come away from the same match with different impressions.

 

I thought Edwards had a poor match and Quarshie, while raw, added power and pace to the defence.

Personally, I haven't heard anyone turning against Edwards just some opinions that he misplaced quite a few passes which was a surprise when we had high expectations of his ballplaying ability and high praise for his QPR performances.

 

Add that to a naieve push which led to the penalty, he just didn't have the best of matches.

[Sheaf Saint]

2 minutes ago, lambtiss said:

Always surprises me how people can come away from the same match with different impressions.

 

I thought Edwards had a poor match and Quarshie, while raw, added power and pace to the defence.

Personally, I haven't heard anyone turning against Edwards just some opinions that he misplaced quite a few passes which was a surprise when we had high expectations of his ballplaying ability and high praise for his QPR performances.

 

Add that to a naieve push which led to the penalty, he just didn't have the best of matches.

For the Wrexham chance where they were  in behind but Stephens got back and made a last ditch tackle, Edwards made a total hash of controlling a simple ball, which let the attacker in, and looked like he was wearing concrete boots when he tried to chase back. That was just one of numerous facepalm moments I saw from him.

I certainly don't want to make him a scapegoat, but he's gonna need to vastly improve on yesterday's performance if he wants to become a first team regular for us.

[AlexLaw76]

3 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

For the Wrexham chance where they were  in behind but Stephens got back and made a last ditch tackle, Edwards made a total hash of controlling a simple ball, which let the attacker in, and looked like he was wearing concrete boots when he tried to chase back. That was just one of numerous facepalm moments I saw from him.

I certainly don't want to make him a scapegoat, but he's gonna need to vastly improve on yesterday's performance if he wants to become a first team regular for us.

agree, especially when THB is not far off from being fit

[Farmer Saint]

20 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

One of the most telling stats on that match was regarding Cameron Archer. He came on for 25 minutes when we desperately needed a goal in that critical first match of the season a goal down. And he touched the ball just twice. 
That story of Cam invisibly being on the pitch as a goal scoring forward has gone on and on. It must be the case that the rest of the team are not good enough to find his runs otherwise how come he gets on the pitch? What’s the point of playing him if you don’t totally focus on giving the ball to the one guy who is supposed to be there to finish? 

Noticing same with Damion Downs. Nobody ( please don’t bore with the manning assist/cross or JR’s assist- other than that he hardly gets a touch) was head up thinking where is Damion let’s give him the ball see if he can score. 

First half AA barely a sniff also. 
 

I swear with my degree in football knowledge that if the rest of the team gives the ball to the forwards quicker and more often we will score more. I don’t mean always long I mean cut out 50% of the sideways stuff and put it vertically to feet or to channels for the forwards to show why they are on the big bucks. 

 

Cam Archer plays off the last man. In a situation like yesterday when we were camped in their half, he's literally there for knock-downs and rebounds. That's why he didn't touch the ball much.

Downs just wasn't found with any crosses.

[Crab Lungs]

Not long watched it back. 
 

Whilst still no discernible patterns of play, one thing I do like about Still is he threw the kitchen sink at it. No trying to be clever, let’s just bombard the box and go on the law of averages - love it.

Also - and I do understand the game dynamics and that we were chasing the game but he clearly recognised the starting fullbacks were not up to it defensively and hooked them.

I think we’ll see a lot more of Bree and Manning at away games. 
 

Oh… and Sugawara’s defending for the Windass shot on the bar. Minging.

 

[SoberSaint]

13 hours ago, BarberSaint said:

Back from the game.

First half we were nothing.  A better team but no desire, invention, anything.

Second half better and glad we got the win. Deserved overall. They were nothing with Moore on and less with him off.  He is quite canny and very dirty. We were a poor side until MF came on though.

Baz. Still doesn't hold himself like a goalie but the fingertip save was excellent. 5

Suga   - oh well. A generous 4.

Edwards.  In some ways good, did cope with KM quite well apart from being about 18 inches shorter than him and very slow - why didn't Quarshie take him? 5 (just)

JS - couple of moments where you could see the farts forming. Same old. Good for the goal. 5

Quarshie. Ok at this level. Didn't see the electric pace. Thought nothing of the long throws. Can't see him stepping up. Falls asleep a bit too. Not especially convincing defensively. 5

Welington - looked alright. Continuously ignored when he went on the overlap. 5

Downes. Ok. Not much of anything. Did nobble one of their players which was nice. 5

Charles. Ok. Very right footed, doesn't look like he'll score many in his career. 5 - maybe  5.5.

Fraser. Busy. Not much use really, even at the end when he did get crosses in. I'd use him as a sub. 4.

Robinson. His first touch is a second touch, no power, head down.  Quite unimpressive despite what people here are saying. Did try to and occasionally did make things happen though so he was effective. Don't see him as a PL player ever though. 5

AA - same as, but less busy.

Subs:

MF - lifted everyone and the team played better. 

Manning. Did well. Is quite slow at getting his head up; most of us are.

RS - looks very frail and fragile. Might develop into a footballer, but based on that he was poor.

DD - looked quite good and made a couple of good, clever runs that were missed.

CA - didn't do much. 

Can't see Wrexham doing anything other than struggling based on that.

Talk about glass half empty!

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, Crab Lungs said:

Not long watched it back. 
 

Whilst still no discernible patterns of play, one thing I do like about Still is he threw the kitchen sink at it. No trying to be clever, let’s just bombard the box and go on the law of averages - love it.

Also - and I do understand the game dynamics and that we were chasing the game but he clearly recognised the starting fullbacks were not up to it defensively and hooked them.

I think we’ll see a lot more of Bree and Manning at away games. 
 

Oh… and Sugawara’s defending for the Windass shot on the bar. Minging.

 

Sugaware is terrible. Amazing people claimed he 'would be fine' at this level

If Still mentioned their goal started from a rubbish throw from us. Guess who took the throw

[Smirking_Saint]

4 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Sugaware is terrible. Amazing people claimed he 'would be fine' at this level

If Still mentioned their goal started from a rubbish throw from us. Guess who took the throw

Yeah I thought he’d be ok, I was also ok with him being more defensively fragile because I assumed, wrongly, he could have KWP levels of creativity and drive down that right flank

Unfortunately was very wrong, he is just a bit of a nothing player really

[Farmer Saint]

 By the way, was very interested in what was said by Still about Stephens and the fact that he is clearly such a good guy to be around and massively respected in the dressing room. It does explain why all our Managers for the last few years have continued to have him in and around the first team squad. Also interesting to hear that he is aware of the criticism that he has got in the past. From a purely human level, it really must take some fortitude to overcome that.

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, Smirking_Saint said:

Yeah I thought he’d be ok, I was also ok with him being more defensively fragile because I assumed, wrongly, he could have KWP levels of creativity and drive down that right flank

Unfortunately was very wrong, he is just a bit of a nothing player really

I think Wellington is decent. Lots of energy, but not quite as good on the ball as Manning. But he seems better defensively than manning...lots of yellows for him I reckon.

When is James Bree back.?

[Thripp87]

Well more entertainment in 1 game than the entirety of last season, a great end result and nice to see some decent celebrations at St Mary’s coming from us for a change. I’d happily win the league and refuse the prize of Premier league football. 

I am not a fan of 3 at the back, especially at home to inferior opposition, also my understanding of this system is the fullbacks provide width and overlap etc. With the exception of Manning they didn’t, Sugawara is a complete joke, and always has been.
 

Massive moment from Baz at 0-1 and nice to see some redemption for Stephens, credit to Still who wasn’t afraid to make changes and showed adaptability. 

 

[eurosaint]

13 hours ago, Sir Ralph said:

Love the guy. It’s not by chance we scored 2 goals in the last few minutes- that’s winning mentality. I would want to play under him cause he is an authentic human being

The ginger messiah 😀

[Football Special]

2 hours ago, TheAlehouseBrawlers said:

The Northam was decent but (as a famous Taff once said, it’s not unusual) the rest of the ground only woke up once we equalised. OK at the start but as you’d expect, once they went ahead it lifted them and knocked ours back.

They’ve had a right pop at our support on their forum, they were getting nothing from the fans either side of them and tbf it looked pretty much dead down there from the Northam.

Edit: "Humpty Dumpty giving it large" 😃

 

Ha that's given me a good laugh this morning,  poor old Humpty Dumpty, we've all been there though after conceding a late winner away and goaded by home fans. 

You are right, general buzz about the place was good yesterday but Chapel end particularly was quiet when it came to singing which is what the away fans will notice most, hopefully as a one off it will improve for the Skates game 

[Football Special]

37 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

For the Wrexham chance where they were  in behind but Stephens got back and made a last ditch tackle, Edwards made a total hash of controlling a simple ball, which let the attacker in, and looked like he was wearing concrete boots when he tried to chase back. That was just one of numerous facepalm moments I saw from him.

I certainly don't want to make him a scapegoat, but he's gonna need to vastly improve on yesterday's performance if he wants to become a first team regular for us.

Edwards did have a shorter pre season than others due to u21s Euros, maybe we should play him.at Northampton as well to build up sharpness 

[gio1saints]

1 hour ago, Farmer Saint said:

Cam Archer plays off the last man. In a situation like yesterday when we were camped in their half, he's literally there for knock-downs and rebounds. That's why he didn't touch the ball much.

Downs just wasn't found with any crosses.

Fair. Yes he’s meant to play off last man and it’s way harder when opposition camped in own half. But - the likelihood is that this is how most teams will play at SMS this season.
 

Logically - Still would be wise to start home matches with at least one out of DD or RS up front. Ability to hold the ball in a crowded last third when there’s no space becomes a high value skill. I can see both playing together against the more obdurately defensive teams. 

I think general point - that I’d prefer the forwards get to touch the ball more often per match - is valid though and something that Still is and should continue to be looking to achieve. 
 

PS: Moore gave us a perfect example of how a seemingly limited player but with that specific skill set of being able to retain possession well in the final third can cause problems to any team even one with three decent CB’s. He will ruin the careers of some of the Championship CB’s he plays against if stays fit on that performance. 

Edited Sunday at 08:13 by gio1saints

[saintstowin]

At the match and having only seen brief highlights since, I thought we fully deserved to win. We were dominant with some nervous mistakes at the back making it harder than it should have been. 

I thought at times the 3 CBs were surplus and therefore unsure who should take responsibility. First league game, possibly first ever game together. This led to their main chances.

When we eventually took over in the second half I wanted us to play through them centrally more often. We were able to cross whenever we wanted and that option was chosen almost every time. 

I thought Charles came into it more and played really well when Downes went off and his responsibilities increased. Like the defence, they too are only beginning to form a partnership. And I just noted it was Charles who played the pass to Manning for the winner. That was great.

What a wonderful end to the game. 

And the whole day felt optimistic, like the Norwich first home game last time in the Champ. The stuff around the ground is a really good change.

Lots to improve yes. But we've got a lot of quality for this league.

[Gloucester Saint]

3 hours ago, TheAlehouseBrawlers said:

The Northam was decent but (as a famous Taff once said, it’s not unusual) the rest of the ground only woke up once we equalised. OK at the start but as you’d expect, once they went ahead it lifted them and knocked ours back.

They’ve had a right pop at our support on their forum, they were getting nothing from the fans either side of them and tbf it looked pretty much dead down there from the Northam.

Edit: "Humpty Dumpty giving it large" 😃

 

If he’d fallen off that railing, all of the King’s Horses and all of the King’s men couldn’t have put Humpty Dumpty back together again.