Charlton 1-5 Saints - Match Thread

[saintant]

Only saw the second half which was ok but no more - probably because we'd done the damage and were saving a bit for Leicester. Have seen highlights of first half and some of the play and goals were top drawer. My take is that we played the usual 3 centre backs but we finally twigged that your wing backs must get high up the pitch as much as possible. If that's down to Eckert's coaching then I take my hat off to him because it freed up so much more space and made us very dangerous going forward. Let's see how we do against Leicester who we usually lose to - if he makes it 4 on the bounce I may start believing he has something. Mad Nate proved today how bonkers we were to appoint him so Rasmus needs to own that one. Bragg looked neat and tidy and we still have Oriel to come once he is up to speed. 

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

1 hour ago, NewYorkSaint said:

Have to admit I see a player in Downs too.

Reminds me of kenwyn jones when he first joined.

Edited 47 minutes ago by JohnnyShearer2.0

[saintant]

3 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Thought Arma was superb. Less long balls punted up to him, more him dropping deep with plenty of bodies over lapping.

Some of the break aways in the 1st half were excellent.

That first half display was what I expected under Still, but fair play to Tonda....

Yes he was far more effective dropping deeper to receive the ball and it helped that we finally got our wing backs further forward. We had a far better shape about us today. Eckert is growing on me but I want to see how he does against Leicester.

[Patches O Houlihan]

47 minutes ago, Dr Who? said:

I have to say, 3 in a row and 1-5 on the road. Without getting carried away, that is not a bad turn of events considering the state we were in. You could see the confidence returning. The only negative we seem to be returning to knocking the ball around our own penalty area, but not only this a few yards out from the goal. I thought we were moving away from this kind of football. 

We will see how the next 2 games go, but the owners should either say, you have got the job or employ someone else, so all know where they stand. 

Playing around at the back to beat the press was the key to most of the goals - Jander's particularly.

Clearly there is some residual memory of Russball for our defensive unit, and he did get them to be on average pretty good at that playing style in the Championship. The problem was when it didn't go well.

What makes it better than under Russ is that the players now seem to be allowed to play it long, or chip it forward if they feel under pressure and want to play it safe - it felt like they knew they would get a blocking for doing that under Russ. 

It's not going to be very helpful against teams that will play a low block against us - as most teams in the league now will after that performance.

After a dispiriting 13 minutes with so many gilt edged chances missed that was a lovely 20 minute spell of total football. 

More please.

[Give it to Ron]

Felt for the lad in our row who turned up on the 25th minute….we did give him a cheer and some when our 5th went in.

Just been reading the comments on match thread what a bunch of miserable twats and clueless. 

[washsaint]

8 minutes ago, Give it to Ron said:

Felt for the lad in our row who turned up on the 25th minute….we did give him a cheer and some when our 5th went in.

Just been reading the comments on match thread what a bunch of miserable twats and clueless. 

100% on the money Ron.  Bunch of clueless, classless miserable twats who almost seemed to want us to lose to prove their (incorrect) point

[Give it to Ron]

4 minutes ago, washsaint said:

100% on the money Ron.  Bunch of clueless, classless miserable twats who almost seemed to want us to lose to prove their (incorrect) point

Hold my hands up was surprised at Bragg starting but he was really good on the ball and off it simple great range of passing that defence had an outlet to.

Our tempo has gone up loads Fellows and Leo great today but Armstrong my motm worked so hard 2 assists.

[goodymatt]

1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

Two hours ago some people were saying it was ridiculous he didn’t start ahead of Bragg.

I stand corrected, pleasantly surprised by Bragg today. Well done to the lad.

[goodymatt]

1 hour ago, 23rdSaint said:

 

Yeah I’ll hold my hands up on this one, Bragg proved me wrong today and fair play to him. I stand by the expectation that Joe Aribo who was reasonable for us in the PL last season should be contributing more for his £70k a week rumoured wage and not leaving us to take risks that in other games this season have cost us.

[Midfield_General]

One of the all-time match threads, this one. Spectacular stuff.

Fucking Saints. Just when you think you’ve got out, they pull you back in.

Magnificent today. Just magnificent. 

[Jack]

Happy to admit I called it wrong today. Was mad Nate too hellbent on getting at us that they overcommitted on the press? Either way we moved the ball far quicker than we have done all season and made the most of the acres of space they gave us, and the finishing finally looked good after a few missed chances early on. 
 

I didn’t think much of the QPR or Sheff Weds performances but if these are issues that Tonda has identified and rectified, it’ll be interesting to see what happens against better sides. How we played 2nd half was clearly just to manage the game, but it looked very much like how we’ve played for a lot of this season. More of the first half stuff please 

[LiberalCommunist]

Delightful to have a comfortable match day for the first time in what feels like years!

But, our third win in a row still feels a little hollow after such a disappointingly bad start to the season.  

Glad we are starting to put things right, but we are now playing catch up. Can't afford the silly mistakes. 

Tuesday is looking massive. 

[RedArmy]

5 hours ago, RedArmy said:

[OldNick]

Spors tonight https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=04c5eeed72dc1f96f90e3edde1c4908c42d1abb87653e85119b38b80166bcfacJmltdHM9MTc2Mzc2OTYwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=00b146fb-cd86-674d-1ff1-50cacc3d6611&u=a1L2ltYWdlcy9zZWFyY2g_cT1tYW4lMjBkb2luZyUyMGZ1Y2slMjB5b3UlMjAlMjBzaWduJTIwZW1vamkmRk9STT1JUUZSQkEmaWQ9MEMwOTQ0QUI2RjQzMTVENTE0QURDMDMzMDIwOEUxRkFERTM0NTI5RA

[Mr X]

I was skeptical about Eckhart but he deserves a chance on a short term contract for the rest of this season.... I just hope we don't appoint him permanently and this upturn in form turns to shit again as is the saints way! ... It is a gamble but one worth persuing if it's a short term contract! 

Edited just now by Mr X