Saints 3-0 Leicester - Match Thread

[lambtiss]

My reply was just a jest, although people will probably see it as you being a killjoy and know-it-all (crazy, I know). I agree with you that mocking Downs is not that funny and won't help his confidence or help him to find form. TE keeps bringing him on, so he must see something in him in training that is worth persevering with. I thought his moment had arrived last night with that cross to the back post, and he seemed to leap really well, however, he headed backwards to nobody, when a goal attempt seemed possible and then seemed to injure himself on landing, which sums him up at the moment, I'm afraid. I still cling to the hope that there is a good player there, but he doesn't make it easy.

[Miltonaggro]

9 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

Oliver Skipp has been taken to hospital after having his blood twisted by Tom Fellows.

Brilliant performance.  Oddly, what really impressed me was our shape when we didn’t have the ball.  Didn’t give Leicester any time or space.  The team looks extremely well coached.  Can’t see anyone but Eckert getting the job now.  He has certainly convinced me after tonight.

Great to walk home with a smile on my face.  Been a long time coming.

Same.  Huge credit to TE, whatever the missing ingredient was to turn good individual players into a team he seems to have found it.  Like the rest of the Saints supporters on Saturday and last night it would have been lovely to score more second half, but turned to my nipper at full-time and said that this has been like watching a Championship version of peak Man City last two games - relentless pressure and recycle, peppering the oppo goal, whilst preserving the points.  Intelligent team play.  Special mention to Jander, who is a pivot for all of our good work, and our new flair players Azaz, Fellows and Scienza who were all superb in their specific roles.  Quarshie was solid too, and his size unsettled them throughout (smart tactics from the manager). Remarkable really from what we were seeing a few weeks ago.

So, now two points from the play-off positions with a plus four GD going into next game (with players chomping at the bit), two wins to match the side in second place at the present time.  If I was Spors I think I might be asking TE who is backroom dream team would be, and a shopping list for January 1st.  Game on!

[kitch]

21 minutes ago, DellBlockH said:

When the last couple of subs were waiting to come on, my friend said "Is that Cameron Archer?" And we both realised that we'd completely forgotten about him. I'm not sure how he's going to get back into the team - who,would you drop? But surely even he could score goals from the number of pullbacks Fellows is providing.

Exactly the same thing happened here 😆

[tisspahars]

I'm old enough to remember when those that thought we had a ridiculously talented squad for this league were deluded happy-clappers.

[tdmickey3]

1 hour ago, Fabrice29 said:

Had people talking like this around me at the ground last night and I had to point out that football outside of our team does actually exist and Downs has a pretty provable record of being a reasonable footballer.

[Saint86]

4 hours ago, benjii said:

To be fair, the first goal was offside. Not sure about the second, haven't seen a side angle.

The red ended the game. I felt sorry for that nipper, but they were both yellow card fouls.

From a Leicester perspective it's just one of those days where everything goes wrong. It happens. We'll get one at some point!

Both 9-0's had some utter crap officiating... So as far as Leicester are concerned they can cry me a river.

[Football Special]

1 hour ago, whelk said:

Btw what sort of cunt sings If Damion scores we’re on the pitch? Probably same sort of twat that sings about the Charlton manager when we are playing Leicester 

Both mind-blowingly stupid 

I did laugh when one bloke started singing  "Sports Republic you can stay at our club" 

[Fabrice29]

12 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

If you had done the actual proper well known quote from the show and/or picked a picture that we could read the words on fully, this would have been some of your best stuff.

[spyinthesky]

11 hours ago, BotleySaint said:

He must show something in training to keep making the squad though?

Agree he looks totally off the pace. Seems to just hide.

One of the things that is really noticeable with Downs, he never gets close to an opposing player to defend the ball. It seems he is actually adverse to winning the ball just as he is to hit the ball towards those white posts.

[tdmickey3]

37 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

 

2 hours ago, Fabrice29 said:

Had people talking like this around me at the ground last night and I had to point out that football outside of our team does actually exist and Downs has a pretty provable record of being a reasonable footballer.

If you see this bloke Fabrice, you should try to stand/sit somewhere else

[spyinthesky]

Couple of random thoughts from last nights game.

Baz made a very important save to prevent an equaliser at 1-0.
He also concerned me when passing across the six yard box with an opponent in close attendance which could have gone horribly badly.
Begovic made a great save when Leo went through at the end of a terrific rum.
Both Fellows and Robinson should have done better when in good positions.
The Ref did well for us with some of his decisions.
The attendance was disappointing after a very decent performance at Charlton.
Leicester fans ticket take up was very poor for a club of their stature. Smallest away following so far this season?
Downs touched the ball once (?) and seemed to be injured in the process.

[Sir Ralph]

The main change for me is the mentality on the pitch. They actually want to fight hard to win the ball back and be aggressive going forward. Yes, there are some tactical changes but to me, this is why he should get the job. Even if we lose, if he is in the player's heads, they should want to play for him.

[Charlie Wayman]

2 hours ago, lambtiss said:

After last night, I can see some huge factors that Still got wrong. 

- How on earth was Scienza not our first choice left winger from Match 1? He was playing Fraser for gawd sake.

- Similarly, abundantly clear that you need Fellows on the other wing.

- Still did play both after a few matches, but he kept rotating, rarely played them together and then took one or both of them off after 45-60 minutes.

- TE has shown that you can play our flair players (FA, LS & TF) on the pitch together if they have clear roles and that playing them consistently has led to better understanding on the pitch.

- WS set up far too defensively. TE is still playing 3 CBs but we are playing the ball forwards far more often and hitting the wings early and more regularly.

In retrospect Still was a total calamity for our club and his incompetence was there in plain sight for all to see almost from the beginning of his tenure. Highlighting aspects of his shortcomings cannot mask the evidential overall characterisation of his performance here as being clueless.

Decent enough bloke but that's not what the Club were paying for.

[Hopper]

Just a word this morning for Casper Jander. I thought he was excellent last night and has been for most of the season. He reminds me a lot of Steven Davis (Who happened to be an analyst on Sky last night) Great engine, able to put a fut in, composed on the ball and for want of a better word - scrappy.
 

For a young lad I think he has a big future ahead of him and is playing beyond his years.

Edited 3 hours ago by Hopper

[Football Special]

1 hour ago, spyinthesky said:

Couple of random thoughts from last nights game.

Baz made a very important save to prevent an equaliser at 1-0.
He also concerned me when passing across the six yard box with an opponent in close attendance which could have gone horribly badly.
Begovic made a great save when Leo went through at the end of a terrific rum.
Both Fellows and Robinson should have done better when in good positions.
The Ref did well for us with some of his decisions.
The attendance was disappointing after a very decent performance at Charlton.
Leicester fans ticket take up was very poor for a club of their stature. Smallest away following so far this season?
Downs touched the ball once (?) and seemed to be injured in the process.

It was comfortably the lowest crowd so far this season,  25,921 including roughly 900 from Leicester,  was never going to attract a big crowd midweek in November with Cat A pricing. (Actual crowd definitely lower than that with season ticket holders not attending as well) 

[LuckyNumber7]

1 hour ago, spyinthesky said:

The attendance was disappointing after a very decent performance at Charlton.
Leicester fans ticket take up was very poor for a club of their stature. Smallest away following so far this season?
 

Smallest away following for a long time, was very surprised. Also disappointed with our attendance and support in general last night. It's like our fans have forgotten how to react to winning games, or maybe it's because it was just so comfortable. Very difficult to get any decent chants going but the morons around me were happy to sing about Nathan f*cking Jones (WTF)?

[CheshireSaint]

1 hour ago, spyinthesky said:

Couple of random thoughts from last nights game.

Baz made a very important save to prevent an equaliser at 1-0.
He also concerned me when passing across the six yard box with an opponent in close attendance which could have gone horribly badly.
Begovic made a great save when Leo went through at the end of a terrific rum.
Both Fellows and Robinson should have done better when in good positions.
The Ref did well for us with some of his decisions.
The attendance was disappointing after a very decent performance at Charlton.
Leicester fans ticket take up was very poor for a club of their stature. Smallest away following so far this season?
Downs touched the ball once (?) and seemed to be injured in the process.

Despite an absolutely sublime ball to Scienza for the Azaz goal, Adam Armstrong is not a centre forward. When he is in the mixer, he is more Fox in the Fog than Fox in the Box. His ability to drop deeper, is bearing fruit in one aspect but this then prevents him taking up a centre forward position. There was a move last night when Fellows got to the by-line (again) pulled a great ball back, but AA was still 20 yards too deep to get on the end of it. A problem TE will need to work on. Another incident when he received the ball on the edge of the box, back to goal and he needed to just pass it on one more time across the edge of the box to a midfielder who was facing goal, for an unobstructed shot. Instead he did his usual turn and shot straight at the keeper.

[saintant]

2 minutes ago, CheshireSaint said:

Despite an absolutely sublime ball to Scienza for the Azaz goal, Adam Armstrong is not a centre forward. When he is in the mixer, he is more Fox in the Fog than Fox in the Box. His ability to drop deeper, is bearing fruit in one aspect but this then prevents him taking up a centre forward position. There was a move last night when Fellows got to the by-line (again) pulled a great ball back, but AA was still 20 yards too deep to get on the end of it. A problem TE will need to work on. Another incident when he received the ball on the edge of the box, back to goal and he needed to just pass it on one more time across the edge of the box to a midfielder who was facing goal, for an unobstructed shot. Instead he did his usual turn and shot straight at the keeper.

I thought that at the time but when I watched the replay it looked more like AA was deliberately slowing down and looking for Fellows to cut the ball back to him so that he had more time and space. 

[dsrdorset]

35 minutes ago, LuckyNumber7 said:

Smallest away following for a long time, was very surprised. Also disappointed with our attendance and support in general last night. It's like our fans have forgotten how to react to winning games, or maybe it's because it was just so comfortable. Very difficult to get any decent chants going but the morons around me were happy to sing about Nathan f*cking Jones (WTF)?

Eh?? I thought the atmosphere was great! I'm still buzzing from last night!

[LuckyNumber7]

6 minutes ago, dsrdorset said:

Eh?? I thought the atmosphere was great! I'm still buzzing from last night!

I'm in the Northam and thought it was shit. People more interested in singing about Nathan Jones than Saints songs, couldn't even get a decent OWTS going. Felt very flat to me.

[Chez]

48 minutes ago, CheshireSaint said:

Despite an absolutely sublime ball to Scienza for the Azaz goal, Adam Armstrong is not a centre forward. When he is in the mixer, he is more Fox in the Fog than Fox in the Box. His ability to drop deeper, is bearing fruit in one aspect but this then prevents him taking up a centre forward position. There was a move last night when Fellows got to the by-line (again) pulled a great ball back, but AA was still 20 yards too deep to get on the end of it. A problem TE will need to work on. Another incident when he received the ball on the edge of the box, back to goal and he needed to just pass it on one more time across the edge of the box to a midfielder who was facing goal, for an unobstructed shot. Instead he did his usual turn and shot straight at the keeper.

I was going to comment on that Fellows byline cross last night. Armstrong simply doesn't get into box enough. He never has. As a result, he doesn't get those lineker-esque type goals. He doesn't have that instinct and probably never will. Doesn't mean he isn't a handy forward, but I think there's two or three goals a season he's missing out on by not making those runs. 

[Chez]

1 hour ago, Hopper said:

Just a word this morning for Casper Jander. I thought he was excellent last night and has been for most of the season. He reminds me a lot of Steven Davis (Who happened to be an analyst on Sky last night) Great engine, able to put a fut in, composed on the ball and for want of a better word - scrappy.
 

For a young lad I think he has a big future ahead of him and is playing beyond his years.

I was very excited by his signing in the summer as his YouTube video looked great. I love a cm that wants to get on the ball and is able to hold to it that little longer than normal to allow others to move into space. In general though, I've been a bit disappointed with him in the first part of the season. He's been a bit passive and looked a little lightweight too. I don't think he made much of an impression on games. The last few games he seems to have had his plaudits. Is that just because he has been involved in goals and chances or has he just been better?

[Football Special]

1 hour ago, LuckyNumber7 said:

Smallest away following for a long time, was very surprised. Also disappointed with our attendance and support in general last night. It's like our fans have forgotten how to react to winning games, or maybe it's because it was just so comfortable. Very difficult to get any decent chants going but the morons around me were happy to sing about Nathan f*cking Jones (WTF)?

Also huge number of fans leaving throughout the last 10 mins, I know 8pm ko doesn't help and people want to get home but it's hardly a celebratory atmosphere. Guess such little action in 2nd half if felt like game was already done and both sides just running down the clock 

[Saint Pete]

My first game attending this season last night and must say I really enjoyed it, dare we think things are turning for us at last? 

Main thing that stuck out for me is that the key summer signings are really finding their feet now. Jander, Fellows, Azaz and Scienza were all excellent, particularly in the first half when the damage was done. Scienza is obviously the fans favourite and you can see why as he is so positive on the ball, such a livewire. 

But for me it was Azaz that caught my eye most in that first half, amazing what a bit of confidence from a few goals can do for a player, he looked stylish and composed on the ball, pulling the strings and linked up especially well down the right with Fellows who had the beating of their defence on that side all night until he went off. Azaz also is that kind of attacking midfielder who is always looking to get on the end of things and get in the goals which is so valuable to have.

A word too for Armstrong, I know he gets criticism and I have reservations about him like others do as the Central striker. But he does blend well with the other 2 in the front line and you definitely can't fault his work rate and pressing of the opposition and defence which I think helped to set the tone for the performance last night. I think those 3 will do damage over the rest of the season if they all stay fit and happy. 

[OldNick]

5 minutes ago, Football Special said:

It was comfortably the lowest crowd so far this season,  25,921 including roughly 900 from Leicester,  was never going to attract a big crowd midweek in November with Cat A pricing. (Actual crowd definitely lower than that with season ticket holders not attending as well) 

It was ironic that the Leicester fans sang 'your support is f'ing shi@' when they had a terrible turnoutconsidering what a big team they perceive they are lol