Norwich 2-1 Saints - Match Thread

[James G]

36 minutes ago, BarberSaint said:

Who is this player and why don't we play him?

Yah, I looked back. I'm wrong. He's the probable reason for three at the back. 

[Paul_B]

4 hours ago, Osvaldorama said:

Bit harsh.

 

6 wins in 8 since he came in. Refreshed the whole team. Would have got a point today if the ref had seen the handball.
 

We are not good enough to win every single week. 
We looked very good first half, and I have to say I am starting to think that Will Still fucked up pre-season fitness training.  

I normally agree with most of what you say, but we really did not look good first half. And it just got worse. 

I've come to realise that we're just shit most of the time, and pretty decent some of the time. Which is not enough for anything better than mid-table. Which is fine. We just need to not be so arrogant as fans to think we are going to smash everyone or be anywhere near promotion this season like a lot on here still seem to think. As we are clearly not. We should be due to budget/player value etc, but when it's drilled into them to play it around our own 18 yard box at all expenses then we deserve nothing. 

[Chez]

12 hours ago, James G said:

Some players are Russballed

Tonda seems to want them to play in and out from our own six yard box too. And we've scored a couple of brilliant one end to the other team goals as a result. At championship level, it's possible for our players to do it.

The question I have is can we switch it up a little, like Liverpool do, going through the two CMs, or pinging it straight up to the attackers and play off them, or playing a ball over the top/in between cb and full back?

If a team nullifies our formation, can we do something else or do we keep banging our head against a brick wall? 

[Chez]

13 hours ago, macca155 said:

That 2nd goal summed up all the issues. It was right in front of us, so no hiding.

Manning completely out of position allows their guy to get a cross in. Stephens loses his man, and then Bazunu is beaten easily at the near post.

 

I wonder if five at the back by its nature allows crosses? If you want to stop crosses you need to double up on the flanks a bit more, but you don't have the bodies out there to do that.

[lambtiss]

13 hours ago, skintsaint said:

Just seen the highlights and knew AA will put the penalty that way, think thats 4 in a row going that way now. Vary it up man.

That's not the answer, give the penalties and all free kicks to Scienza

[Harry_SFC]

9 minutes ago, lambtiss said:

That's not the answer, give the penalties and all free kicks to Scienza

Exactly. He's probably the best player in the league. He should be on them all. 

[macca155]

Been good to read this thread, as there is a real consensus building. Take away the frustrations with individual players, and we can all see clearly where the issues lie. Why in earth can't they see it.

The return of Russball is very alarming, have they learnt nothing. Clement is an average manager, but he knew exactly how to deal with it.

That whole game hinged on the penalty miss. Norwich gained self belief from that and the crowd got behind them. Saints are a dangerous team, but old frailties returned. All is not lost yet but that defence is a disaster at the moment.

Bragg looked good again when he came on. Game was lost by then, but that's a small positive to hold on to.

Really tough set of games coming up. Need to avoid being bullied by these teams.

 

[SWLondon Saint]

35 minutes ago, Chez said:

I wonder if five at the back by its nature allows crosses? If you want to stop crosses you need to double up on the flanks a bit more, but you don't have the bodies out there to do that.

It doesn't, but you need to have a plan for who goes out to help. Usually it's the CB on that side, but our 3 seem glued to within the width of the 6 yard box. That definitely does leave us wide open to crosses as at the moment we're forcing either the wide one of the front three or one of the 2 CMs to help. I am pretty sure this is why we fade so badly in 2nd halves as those 4 players - CMs + wide attackers - are forced to cover a huge amount of ground.

[AlexLaw76]

14 minutes ago, macca155 said:

Been good to read this thread, as there is a real consensus building. Take away the frustrations with individual players, and we can all see clearly where the issues lie. Why in earth can't they see it.

The return of Russball is very alarming, have they learnt nothing. Clement is an average manager, but he knew exactly how to deal with it.

That whole game hinged on the penalty miss. Norwich gained self belief from that and the crowd got behind them. Saints are a dangerous team, but old frailties returned. All is not lost yet but that defence is a disaster at the moment.

Bragg looked good again when he came on. Game was lost by then, but that's a small positive to hold on to.

Really tough set of games coming up. Need to avoid being bullied by these teams.

 

This is such a ridiculous statement people keep making. 

If you (or others) cannot see why are are faced to plod it around the back at the moment, then open your eyes.

[saintant]

20 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

This is such a ridiculous statement people keep making. 

If you (or others) cannot see why are are faced to plod it around the back at the moment, then open your eyes.

Well I think it is a kind of Russball. We try to play out from the back and get THB (mainly) to hit a pass to AA or Fellows who have dropped to receive it and get on the turn to move us up the pitch. When we are allowed to do it it looks great. The problem is when teams decide to stop us doing it by committing more players into an aggressive high press so we end up pinned in with no out ball other than a long punt towards a diminutive forward. West Brom did it for the whole second half and more and more teams will be doing it. 

[macca155]

36 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

This is such a ridiculous statement people keep making. 

If you (or others) cannot see why are are faced to plod it around the back at the moment, then open your eyes.

Hold on Alex what am I missing. To me they are resorting to old ways as there is no outlet for them. A thin midfield and a static front line offer little opportunities. Add to that players who have a predilection to passing backwards and you have what we saw yesterday.

 

[Saint Billy]

Teams seem to be well prepared to cope with our style of play. They know that we will hit them hard in the first half but they also know we will tire quickly in the second. I saw little panic in the West Brom game even though they were 3-0 down and they were unlucky not to save the game.

We are a one trick pony at the moment and need to change it up. Get the guys fitter and be a bit more savvy with formation and subs as nothing seems to change when we make sub changes second half.

[Toussaint]

14 hours ago, stfrancisofbenali said:

Too many players below par today, Jander in particular who has generally been magnificent. Norwich were the first team to work out how to nullify Scienza and were simply hungrier and more aggressive than us. We had 30 mins after they scored their second and didn’t even try and lay a glove on them which is worrying. 

They nullified Scienza by booting him up in the air every time he got the ball, and the ref let most of it go. The ref was appalling yesterday and played a huge factor in the result. 

[sadoldgit]

38 minutes ago, Saint Billy said:

Teams seem to be well prepared to cope with our style of play. They know that we will hit them hard in the first half but they also know we will tire quickly in the second. I saw little panic in the West Brom game even though they were 3-0 down and they were unlucky not to save the game.

We are a one trick pony at the moment and need to change it up. Get the guys fitter and be a bit more savvy with formation and subs as nothing seems to change when we make sub changes second half.

Something does change in the second half. We look more confused and disjointed. Aribo, Archer etc get stick for not changing things for the better when they come on but with the team looking less coherent (lack of fitness?) it is like turning up to a kids game on a playground where people have a vague idea of what they are supposed to be doing but not doing it how and where they should. We rarely play to Archer’s strengths. Robinson showed signs of being a decent player but has now regressed to another bit part player who doesn’t add much when he comes on.

There was a lot of talk about clarity when Eckert got the job. I saw little of that yesterday or during the second half against WBA. Perhaps we just sign mostly thick players who can’t work things out on the pitch?

[Toussaint]

1 hour ago, sadoldgit said:

Something does change in the second half. We look more confused and disjointed. Aribo, Archer etc get stick for not changing things for the better when they come on but with the team looking less coherent (lack of fitness?) it is like turning up to a kids game on a playground where people have a vague idea of what they are supposed to be doing but not doing it how and where they should. We rarely play to Archer’s strengths. Robinson showed signs of being a decent player but has now regressed to another bit part player who doesn’t add much when he comes on.

There was a lot of talk about clarity when Eckert got the job. I saw little of that yesterday or during the second half against WBA. Perhaps we just sign mostly thick players who can’t work things out on the pitch?

I’m not sure players are “thicker” than they ever were, it seems most likely that the over coaching we have seen predominate over recent years has had the unintended consequence of players not  thinking and adapting in game, when the managers plans are not working. 

[Football Special]

12 hours ago, saintant said:

Yeah, they worked out that if you kick him all over the pitch and the referee doesn't get his cards out you nullify him.

Not just the players, felt like their fans really made him a villain after the pen and were giving him loads of abuse, especially when he went over to take a corner, unlike Norwich fans to be so up for it 

[Midfield_General]

17 hours ago, Sheaf Saint said:

It's crazy when you think that at the start of the 2022/23 season, he was packed off on loan to that tinpot club down the road because we thought we had upgraded the position with ABK. We all breathed a big sigh of relief at the thought that we wouldn't have to put up with his ball-watching and general crapness ever again.

3.5 years later and not only is he still here stinking the place out, he's been made captain and given a contract extension. And said tinpot club are now riding high in the PL while we flounder around in mid-table of the Championship after the second worst attempt at a PL season in its history.

Nothing exemplifies our falling standards since the SR takeover more than this.

Spot on. 

From Svensson, Fonte, Lovren, Alderweireld and Van Dijk to building the club around Jack fucking Stephens. 

Absolute comedy gold. 

[Obstacle1]

6 hours ago, lambtiss said:

That's not the answer, give the penalties and all free kicks to Scienza

I just know he'll try a panenka 

[Challenger]

On 13/12/2025 at 13:41, Saint In Cornwall said:

I thought Phil Lynott was dead?

Other people have mentioned that, however I don't believe a word.

[stfrancisofbenali]

Jamie Carragher just made an interesting point on Super Sunday about defending away from home. He said that as a defender that’s where you knew you could win the game for your team, whereas at home is when the attackers win the game for you. On the evidence of yesterday, our defensive unit don’t have this ingrained into them. They were all over the place and Coventry will rip us apart if we don’t tighten up and show some positional nous. 

[sledger]

there is no real spine in our team,from keeper to centre backs to midfield and up front hence when the going gets tough we fold,it is the brilliance of 2 or 3 players that is carrying us at the moment.

[Football Special]

8 hours ago, lambtiss said:

That's not the answer, give the penalties and all free kicks to Scienza

Not seen outfield players directing the keeper before 

 

[Tommy Mulgrew]

1 hour ago, stfrancisofbenali said:

Jamie Carragher just made an interesting point on Super Sunday about defending away from home. He said that as a defender that’s where you knew you could win the game for your team, whereas at home is when the attackers win the game for you. On the evidence of yesterday, our defensive unit don’t have this ingrained into them. They were all over the place and Coventry will rip us apart if we don’t tighten up and show some positional nous. 

You say our defenders were all over the place whereas, according to Carragher, they should have won the game for us.  Coventry might well rip us apart but we play them at home next Saturday.  That’s when, again according to Carragher, our attackers will win the game for us.  Our defenders will probably still be all over the place but the logic that you seem to accept suggests that the key to us winning lies not with our defence but with our attack.  Nothing is ever as simple as that, however; we shall need every player to be on their game to get three points next Saturday.

Sorry to be so picky, 😇🫏🐑🐓🦆🐺; I just could not understand your logic.

[Football Special]

16 minutes ago, sledger said:

there is no real spine in our team,from keeper to centre backs to midfield and up front hence when the going gets tough we fold,it is the brilliance of 2 or 3 players that is carrying us at the moment.

Agree, made this point many times on summer transfer window  , Spors managed to do an interview last week after hiding for last couple of months , but still hasn't addressed the recruitment failures 

[stfrancisofbenali]

45 minutes ago, Tommy Mulgrew said:

You say our defenders were all over the place whereas, according to Carragher, they should have won the game for us.  Coventry might well rip us apart but we play them at home next Saturday.  That’s when, again according to Carragher, our attackers will win the game for us.  Our defenders will probably still be all over the place but the logic that you seem to accept suggests that the key to us winning lies not with our defence but with our attack.  Nothing is ever as simple as that, however; we shall need every player to be on their game to get three points next Saturday.

Sorry to be so picky, 😇🫏🐑🐓🦆🐺; I just could not understand your logic.

Carragher wasn’t taking about us specifically but it was an interesting point in the context of an away performance in which the defensive side of our game meant that we would need to score three (again) to have any chance of winning. True that defence AND attack needs to be at the top of our game to get a result on Saturday. The wider point is that (home or away) our defence is not providing a solid base for us to grind out results with only one clean sheet in eight. 

[HnycS]

On 13/12/2025 at 19:30, skintsaint said:

Just seen the highlights and knew AA will put the penalty that way, think thats 4 in a row going that way now. Vary it up man.

Nope at this point change for another man, a man with a 1/5 penalty rate takes no more penalties. Whoever's next best in training gets to step up.

[lambtiss]

18 minutes ago, HnycS said:

Nope at this point change for another man, a man with a 1/5 penalty rate takes no more penalties. Whoever's next best in training gets to step up.

Leo Scienza should take them 

[HnycS]

15 minutes ago, lambtiss said:

Leo Scienza should take them 

Not sure never seen him take one, Finn is another candidate, but I assume they practice in training so next up is whoever has the best %.

[notnowcato]

Fuck me! I haven’t seen this many wet fannies since I was snuck into the nurses college in the early 90s. 
 

6 wins from 8 is fucking brilliant considering where we were. There’s not some magic switch where we go from being shit to unbeatable. 
 

 

[VectisSaint]

22 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

Fuck me! I haven’t seen this many wet fannies since I was snuck into the nurses college in the early 90s. 
 

6 wins from 8 is fucking brilliant considering where we were. There’s not some magic switch where we go from being shit to unbeatable. 
 

 

No, but there does seem to be a magic switch that turns us from good or very good to crap during the half-time break.

[notnowcato]

44 minutes ago, VectisSaint said:

No, but there does seem to be a magic switch that turns us from good or very good to crap during the half-time break.

Not at Norwich there wasn’t. We were bang average throughout the whole game. Bound to happen. The trend looks alright at present though. 

[saintant]

47 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

Not at Norwich there wasn’t. We were bang average throughout the whole game. Bound to happen. The trend looks alright at present though. 

It's a forum where people discuss the good and the not so good. Not that difficult to comprehend. When we play well and win you will see praise. When we play badly and lose you will see criticism. That's how it works. Same on forums at every other club.

[BARCELONASAINT]

One of the most worrying things for me is our substitutes! Most teams seem to make them and instantly look better but the opposite is true with us. At present when our midfield are flagging we have Romeu and Aribo who i am sorry but both offer nothing. Bragg i like but he's very young and is not an equal replacement for Jander or Flynn Downes.  We badly need Shea Charles back!

Wingers we have Robinson who is no replacement for Scienza, Azaz or Fellows, he's still very raw and Ryan pass the ball backwards Fraser, i need say no more.

Upfront we are really struggling once Armstrong has run his legs off, Damion Downs awful, Ross Stewart needs a miracle of biblical proportions to ever have a meaningful contribution and Archer who has yet to find any form.

Goalkeepers....well i'm not even going there its so divisive

Defenders, well on paper we should have good defenders for this division but most of them look crap to be honest and it does not seem to matter who starts the game and who comes on, they all appear much of a muchness....there is not a single leader amongst the defence.

When was the last time anyone remembers our bench making a positive impact??

[austsaint]

9 hours ago, HnycS said:

Not sure never seen him take one, Finn is another candidate, but I assume they practice in training so next up is whoever has the best %.

I haven’t looked up the numbers but I see Armstrong as a pretty good penalty taker, despite missing two recently.    Sadly there aren’t too many Ricky Lamberts around.  A specialist pen taker if ever there was one.

[Sheaf Saint]

59 minutes ago, BARCELONASAINT said:

When was the last time anyone remembers our bench making a positive impact??

First game of the season against Wrexham. Manning came on and sparked our comeback with a goal and an assist.

But the irony is that it wasn't even a planned sub, it was enforced due to Welington getting injured. Because let's face it - no manager is ever going to look at his bench when losing and think "I know, I'll put Manning on. That will definitely turn the game in our favour".

[notnowcato]

8 hours ago, saintant said:

It's a forum where people discuss the good and the not so good. Not that difficult to comprehend. When we play well and win you will see praise. When we play badly and lose you will see criticism. That's how it works. Same on forums at every other club.

B I G G E R 

P I C T U R E

HTH

[lambtiss]

2 hours ago, austsaint said:

I haven’t looked up the numbers but I see Armstrong as a pretty good penalty taker, despite missing two recently.    Sadly there aren’t too many Ricky Lamberts around.  A specialist pen taker if ever there was one.

He has missed three out of the last 4, time for a change.

[VectisSaint]

10 hours ago, notnowcato said:

Not at Norwich there wasn’t. We were bang average throughout the whole game. Bound to happen. The trend looks alright at present though. 

Not the game I watched we weren't. We weren't as good as some other games, but we had several good chances, had a pen saved, hit the crossbar (and missed an open goal follow up). We should have been at least one up at HT. 9 first half shots (to their 3?) says we were doing something quite well, just not as ruthless as we have been. Second half was just complete shambles from kick off.

Edited 11 hours ago by VectisSaint

[austsaint]

49 minutes ago, lambtiss said:

He has missed three out of the last 4, time for a change.

You might be right.   Looking up his record though, 23 scored from 28; missed 3 of his last 4.    Still think he’s probably the best option.

[lambtiss]

12 hours ago, lambtiss said:

Leo Scienza should take them 

12 hours ago, HnycS said:

Not sure never seen him take one, Finn is another candidate, but I assume they practice in training so next up is whoever has the best %.

He has taken 4 and scored all 4. If he wants to take them, I would certainly like to see him given an opportunity; he strikes and places the ball better than any of our other players.

 

[notnowcato]

2 hours ago, VectisSaint said:

Not the game I watched we weren't. We weren't as good as some other games, but we had several good chances, had a pen saved, hit the crossbar (and missed an open goal follow up). We should have been at least one up at HT. 9 first half shots (to their 3?) says we were doing something quite well, just not as ruthless as we have been. Second half was just complete shambles from kick off.

That’s fair, think I was leaning more to the fact there wasn’t such a large drop off in the second half as we weren’t as good as we have been in previous first halves. 
 

Anyway, 6 points from a possible 9 in a fairly tricky week is to be applauded. 
 

Tonda now has a week to prepare the boys for the best team in the division. 

[Greedyfly]

14 hours ago, notnowcato said:

Fuck me! I haven’t seen this many wet fannies since I was snuck into the nurses college in the early 90s. 
 

6 wins from 8 is fucking brilliant considering where we were. There’s not some magic switch where we go from being shit to unbeatable. 
 

 

Nice to be on 'your side' of the fence for a change but I agree.

That said we do seem to struggle to adapt when we don't have all our best front 4 which is something we need to figure out but we had an absolute shite start to the season which are gradually turning around.  I am ok with Saturday as long as we bounce back.

[Gloucester Saint]

5 hours ago, austsaint said:

I haven’t looked up the numbers but I see Armstrong as a pretty good penalty taker, despite missing two recently.    Sadly there aren’t too many Ricky Lamberts around.  A specialist pen taker if ever there was one.

MLT only missed the one (v Forest - Mark Crossley still talks about it) and I don’t recall Beattie missing one either. On the other extreme, we missed 2 in one game under Burley (McGoldrick at least one) but generally late 80s to 2014 we had reliable penalty takers which is remarkable. Full backs can be a good bet (Manning? He can’t defend so let’s utilise him other ways) - my old man stuck a tenner on David Peach as our regular and reliable spot kick taker at Wembley in 1979 in case we were awarded one at 16/1. Paid for his day out and more besides.

Edited 8 hours ago by Gloucester Saint

[VectisSaint]

2 hours ago, notnowcato said:

That’s fair, think I was leaning more to the fact there wasn’t such a large drop off in the second half as we weren’t as good as we have been in previous first halves. 
 

Anyway, 6 points from a possible 9 in a fairly tricky week is to be applauded. 
 

Tonda now has a week to prepare the boys for the best team in the division. 

You're right, because we weren't as good in the 1st half as we have, the drop-off perhaps wasn't so noticeable. It's also true that Norwich were bossing us before the end of the first half to some extent. The same happened in last game, before that everyone was blaming the subs, but the drop off is happening before the subs, I don't believe it's tiredness, if it were why immediately after HT? It seems more of a deliberate tactical switch, of course puzzling when we weren't winning, preconceived plan?

Anyway agree with you, we can't win em all, especially 3 in a week (sorry, 8 days). Just would be nice sometimes to get a draw instead of a loss.