West Brom 1-1 Saints - Match Thread

[vectraman]

Crap performance, get out of jail point, take it and move on. Without the belief that our recent form has brought us, we’d have lost that.

We stay unbeaten in 11, let’s beat Coventry on Saturday.

COYS

[chownie20]

1 minute ago, austsaint said:

I thought Tonda’s biggest gaff tonight was not bringing Edozie on earlier.  With the Baggies well set up in defence and Scienza injured, Matsuki wasn’t the player to take on and get past a defender, and Fellows seems to have lost his way.   Edozie is a seriously underrated player in this set up.  The old label of no end product needs to be binned.  He is young, improving and maturing.   I like Matsuki, but he’s not really a wide attacking player.

Totally agree. Edozie has a pedigree and a decent amount of experience....hes played prem football, and if he applies himself he could be really important. A great time for his career to slot in there and make an impact. 

[Toussaint]

The point we gained tonight could take us up, the point WBA gained could send Pompey down. Let’s hope.,

[trousers]

7 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

I'd rather have lost tonight and not had Scienza get injured 

Yeah, fair call. If he's out for a significant period of time we'll lose more points than the one we gained tonight as a result, that's almost inevitable 

Edited 10 hours ago by trousers

[Harry_SFC]

4 minutes ago, austsaint said:

I thought Tonda’s biggest gaff tonight was not bringing Edozie on earlier.  With the Baggies well set up in defence and Scienza injured, Matsuki wasn’t the player to take on and get past a defender, and Fellows seems to have lost his way.   Edozie is a seriously underrated player in this set up.  The old label of no end product needs to be binned.  He is young, improving and maturing.   I like Matsuki, but he’s not really a wide attacking player.

Matsuki certainly has his uses but as you say, he's not an out and out wide player who will beat a man and ping a cross in. He's more of a central player. 

Surely the front 4 vs Coventry will be Edozie, Azaz, Fellows and Larin. 

[Zorba]

2 points lost. Shit performance.

1-1. I’ll take that.

[Greedyfly]

13 minutes ago, die Mannyschaft said:

How on earth are Coventry,  Boro and Hull far superior than Saints winning far more games. We cant play like this next season there needs to be consistent,  fit quality players and less boring possession.  

Because we spent 14 games fannying around trying to play Fellows as a RB in a 5, at home to fucking Stoke et al.  We can compete with them and are, as the form table suggests.  Unfortunately that means shit if we don't go up BUT it gives me hope (that kills me of course) that we will be ok next season...

[beatlesaint]

1 minute ago, trousers said:

Yeah, fair call. If he's out for a significant period of time we'll lose more points than the one we gained tonight, that's almost inevitable 

Having the Easter programme wiped out and having no league game after 21 March for 3 weeks might be a blessing if he’s gonna be out for a month.

[saintant]

Looking for a positive we gained a point on 6th place in this round of fixtures so it's now in our own hands as we have to play Wrexham. Tonight's performance doesn't fill me with much confidence but we can and have played much better so will put it down as a bad day at the office. I think West Brom had Russboy's sidekick in the dugout so maybe he supplied a dossier on all the players he knew from his time with us. One to forget tonight other than the unexpected late equaliser.

 

[macca155]

Lots of unsurprising things happened tonight. A drop in performance after the adrenaline high of Saturday, was inevitable. Plus WBA stepped up, credit to them. Dross from Saints though.

Charles for all his skill, doesn't seem to improve the midfield. I feel dirty saying that, as he looks so stylish, but I'd start with Bragg against Coventry, he is very calm and makes things tick. Keeps things simple.

Playing Matsuki and Azaz is a luxury.

However no surprise Saints grabbed a point, they have fight in them.

Saints can cope without Leo, they'll have to now. Hamstrings are an absolute bugger, we'll be lucky to see him before the play offs.

The annoying thing is that the form under Tonda is play off/autos standard. A draw would be a minor blip, easily absorbed. However, because of a poor start, every dropped point is potentially fatal to our play off chances.

Hopefully there will be a reaction on Saturday, and the show gets back on the road.

[OttawaSaint]

21 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

Can I say Fellows is shite?

Can’t shoot, can’t finish, bet he has trouble finishing his fkin dinner !!

He's so lightweight that I don't doubt it.

[Chez]

6 minutes ago, trousers said:

Probably the same reason the manager is praised when we play well...? 

we played badly, but Tonda's in play changes helped rescue a point, so i imagine the posts will be balanced...

[Jack]

Walking back to where I’m staying through the slums of West Birmingham. Garbage performance and massive opportunity wasted. They were there for the taking and I’m sure it would have been fine if we’d scored first in that first half. They offered very little but we dawdled and were happy to casually knock it side to side and backwards, no movement off the ball and fuck all effort. They realised we weren’t up for it and grew into the game. Infuriating. 
 

In the end even a point is a massive smash and grab. Have to be so much better and up for it on Saturday or we’ll get pumped. 
 

Absolute stinker from Azaz. When he’s off it, he’s really off it 

Edited 10 hours ago by Jack

[Lee On Solent Saint]

10 minutes ago, trousers said:

Yeah, fair call. If he's out for a significant period of time we'll lose more points than the one we gained tonight as a result, that's almost inevitable 

The inury doesn't happen if the ref wasn't so weak. He gave Leo no protection up until that challenge, if he had blown up for any of the shoulder barges or pushes, that challenge doesn't get made on him.

Edited 10 hours ago by Lee On Solent Saint

[trousers]

6 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

Having the Easter programme wiped out and having no league game after 21 March for 3 weeks might be a blessing if he’s gonna be out for a month.

Yeah, good point. You see @tdmickey3, there is a potential benefit of still being in the cup after all...

[Jack]

1 minute ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

The inury dorsn't happen if the ref wasn't so weak. He gave Leo no protection up until that challenge, if he had blown up for any of the shoulder barges or pushes, that challenge doesn't get made on him.

Leo doesn’t get much because he’s so quick to throw himself to the ground looking for it. If he’d man up and try to ride a challenge, the referees would have more sympathy for when he’s actually fouled 

[trousers]

2 minutes ago, Chez said:

we played badly, but Tonda's in play changes helped rescue a point, so i imagine the posts will be balanced...

Yeah, balanced posts wherever you look on Saintsweb...

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Just now, Jack said:

Leo doesn’t get much because he’s so quick to throw himself to the ground looking for it. If he’d man up and try to ride a challenge, the referees would have more sympathy for when he’s actually fouled 

Agree to a point, but he was obviously targetted tonight

[Charlie Wayman]

Back to crab football. When will Azaz and Fellows deliver on their potential. Neither deserves to be on the pitch. We need a creative playmaker.

At least Larin has defied his critics and saved our skins tonight.

Charles was poor, almost invisible. Where was Jander, we missed his attacking threat?

Edited 10 hours ago by Charlie Wayman

[Charlie Wayman]

3 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Agree to a point, but he was obviously targetted tonight

Yep, ref was crap tonight, booked Bragg for a (first) slight shirt tug but let them pull our guys to the ground all night and did FA about it

[BarberSaint]

28 minutes ago, Chez said:

why is it when saints play badly its always the managers fault? 

 

 

Rule number 2. Replaces the now defunct rule#1.

[Patrick Bateman]

Weird match. Started very well, Scienza injury killed what forward flow we had, West Brom fouling persistently and getting away with it. Second half West Brom were by far the better team and had cut out the fouling and started to play more actual football, which then became their undoing as we play better against teams playing football rather than clogging foulers.

Larin (as already said) needs to just do that all match, every match.

Fellows I don't understand, he's a shadow of the player we saw earlier in the season drifting down the wing, in and out and putting crosses in. Think he needs a proper chat to offload what's changed for him and get his confidence back - there is an awesome player there.

Azaz kills me, one minute incredible, then today (or every other match), misplaced passes, taking hours to line up for a perfect shot etc.

Ugh. 

A point is a point and being unbeaten matters psychologically. 

[beatlesaint]

3 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Back to crab football. When will Azaz and Fellows deliver on their potential. Neither deserves to be on the pitch. We need a creative playmaker. At least Larin has defied his critics and saved our skins tonight.

Fellows has been a total let down for me this season. People say Edozie has no end product but bloody hell this guy just offers nothing. 

[SW11_Saint]

35 minutes ago, Turkish said:

The unstoppable ride on Tondas Honda 

 

Ridin’ Tonda’s Honda like Peter Fonda…

[Charlie Wayman]

24 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

Matsuki certainly has his uses but as you say, he's not an out and out wide player who will beat a man and ping a cross in. He's more of a central player. 

Surely the front 4 vs Coventry will be Edozie, Azaz, Fellows and Larin. 

I really hope not Harry

[SW11_Saint]

4 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

Fellows has been a total let down for me this season. People say Edozie has no end product but bloody hell this guy just offers nothing. 

Give him a break FFS… players go in and out of form. He has quality, as he showed earlier in the season, just low on confidence atm. 

[beatlesaint]

Just now, SW11_Saint said:

Give him a break FFS… players go in and out of form. He has quality, as he showed earlier in the season, just low on confidence atm. 

Christ he’s been out of form for 4 months now !!

[bpsaint]

Made the mistake of going tonight. Christ that was a hard watch. The home fans were very subdued for the first 30 minutes, you could tell they were worried, and our fucking about at the back caused them to get a bit of belief and find their voices which spurred the team on.

Thought we looked tired, a bit heavy legged after 90 minutes against a Prem side at the weekend. Didn’t help that the ref was a cunt and allowed West Brom to get away with the dark arts.

Edozie needs to come in for Leo as cover for me, the only other players in the squad that wants to run at the opponent and cause a bit of excitement.

[trousers]

 

 

[dsrdorset]

Terrible performance tonight, but that late equaliser feels like a win!!!! COYS

[saintant]

23 minutes ago, macca155 said:

Lots of unsurprising things happened tonight. A drop in performance after the adrenaline high of Saturday, was inevitable. Plus WBA stepped up, credit to them. Dross from Saints though.

Charles for all his skill, doesn't seem to improve the midfield. I feel dirty saying that, as he looks so stylish, but I'd start with Bragg against Coventry, he is very calm and makes things tick. Keeps things simple.

Playing Matsuki and Azaz is a luxury.

However no surprise Saints grabbed a point, they have fight in them.

Saints can cope without Leo, they'll have to now. Hamstrings are an absolute bugger, we'll be lucky to see him before the play offs.

The annoying thing is that the form under Tonda is play off/autos standard. A draw would be a minor blip, easily absorbed. However, because of a poor start, every dropped point is potentially fatal to our play off chances.

Hopefully there will be a reaction on Saturday, and the show gets back on the road.

Agree entirely. Charles was a major disappointment tonight not least when he conceded a needless corner leading to their goal. All he had to do was stay strong and the ball runs out for a goal kick but for some reason he panics and kicks it out - hope Eckert points out how big an error he made so maybe he won't do it again. Bragg has more about him than Charles and should be first pick behind Downes and Jander.

[trousers]

Translation: "If it didn't look serious I'd say so..."

Edited 10 hours ago by trousers

[saintant]

17 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Yep, ref was crap tonight, booked Bragg for a (first) slight shirt tug but let them pull our guys to the ground all night and did FA about it

Yeah, the guy who held onto Larin's shirt when ref let play should have been booked because that was far worse than what Bragg did.

[karlb79]

18 minutes ago, saintant said:

Yeah, the guy who held onto Larin's shirt when ref let play should have been booked because that was far worse than what Bragg did.

Not to mention their right back who dragged Scienza down as he was about to get into the box in the first 10 mins. But obviously not a yellow.....

[Yozzman]

1 hour ago, trousers said:

Probably the same reason the manager is praised when we play well...? 

So what did he do wrong tonight? What would you have done differently? 

[musesaint]

25 minutes ago, saintant said:

Yeah, the guy who held onto Larin's shirt when ref let play should have been booked because that was far worse than what Bragg did.

100% agree with that. Bizarre booking for very little. Far worse tackles left unpunished. Not a great ref. 

[Saint86]

1 hour ago, austsaint said:

I thought Tonda’s biggest gaff tonight was not bringing Edozie on earlier.  With the Baggies well set up in defence and Scienza injured, Matsuki wasn’t the player to take on and get past a defender, and Fellows seems to have lost his way.   Edozie is a seriously underrated player in this set up.  The old label of no end product needs to be binned.  He is young, improving and maturing.   I like Matsuki, but he’s not really a wide attacking player.

It was called by numerous people at half time. 4-4-2, Stewart and Larin, 2 wingers, get the crosses in. He waited till basically the last minutes of the game to essentially do that with Archer, Larin, Edozie, and Fellows. Its too late (obviously). He's done well lately, but his naivety/inexperience cost us tonight (won't be the last time, and it is what it is with him 🤷‍♂️) - but the people who can't see this and won't countenance any criticism of Eckert are just burying their heads in the sand and lacking all balance when it comes to our performances. Its perfectly reasonable to say when he's done well at times, and when he does badly at others - particularly as most of the forum telegraphed this game midway through the first half yet the manager waited until the 83rd minute... 😄

Edited 8 hours ago by Saint86

[Saint86]

1 hour ago, trousers said:

 

 

Worrying if so... he really hasn't played much. 

[SouthWalesSaints]

Just back from the hawthorns. 
 

The sheer lack of football knowledge from our fan base is beyond belief. 
 

“why do we always pass sideways and backwards”  “always take the safe option” 

yet these same people hate on Azaz and Manning, yet these two take chances and pass forward and try to make things happen. 
 

Passing between lines is not easy, these two continuously try, yet we hate them for giving the ball away and also hate us being “slow”. Help. 

[Micky]

Just got home, read through the comments and pretty much agree with most.  It was all pretty flat tonight, players were flat, thought we were flat as well.  Said before the game that if we could score early the place would go toxic, but we never managed that and the longer it went the more confident West Brom played, and the louder their crowd got.   We lost the physical battles all over the park (not particularly helped by the referee), but we generally just got beat up and out muscled for much of the match.  Their goal was not a surprise, as soon as the header broke in the box you knew they would win the second ball, scrappy but deserved lead for them. 

Second half our subs were probably about right but honestly, if your chasing the game the urgency levels have to go up.  We spent ages playing it square, endlessly across the back with no effect at all.  I think the only other shot their keeper had to save was Mannings free kick, that was it. It was a typical 'Saintsy' game, they were there for the taking, the pot was massive, but we blew it.  At the end of the day we got out with a totally undeserved point, which made the long drive home somewhat more bearable. 

[Football Special]

8 hours ago, vectraman said:

Crap performance, get out of jail point, take it and move on. Without the belief that our recent form has brought us, we’d have lost that.

We stay unbeaten in 11, let’s beat Coventry on Saturday.

COYS

Very frustrating game but didn't come as a surprise for anyone who had seen us struggling away this season against teams who sit deep,  we've played Blackburn, Norwich, Oxford,  WBA all similar performances 

I thought Matsuki and Charles particularly off the pace 

At least Bree and Downes avoided bookings 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Football Special

[Football Special]

7 hours ago, trousers said:

 

 

Got to wonder if he'll ever manage to cope with demands of playing regularly, 20 mins at Fulham, 45 at WBA, expect he'll be on the bench at Coventry 

[tdmickey3]

6 hours ago, Saint86 said:

It was called by numerous people at half time. 4-4-2, Stewart and Larin, 2 wingers, get the crosses in. He waited till basically the last minutes of the game to essentially do that with Archer, Larin, Edozie, and Fellows. Its too late (obviously). He's done well lately, but his naivety/inexperience cost us tonight (won't be the last time, and it is what it is with him 🤷‍♂️) - but the people who can't see this and won't countenance any criticism of Eckert are just burying their heads in the sand and lacking all balance when it comes to our performances. Its perfectly reasonable to say when he's done well at times, and when he does badly at others - particularly as most of the forum telegraphed this game midway through the first half yet the manager waited until the 83rd minute... 😄

Stop it, you are not allowed to point out the managers tactical failures, it upsets people

[Baird of the land]

8 hours ago, saintant said:

Agree entirely. Charles was a major disappointment tonight not least when he conceded a needless corner leading to their goal. All he had to do was stay strong and the ball runs out for a goal kick but for some reason he panics and kicks it out - hope Eckert points out how big an error he made so maybe he won't do it again. Bragg has more about him than Charles and should be first pick behind Downes and Jander.

There was no way to shepherd that ball out for a goal kick. His mistake was initially trying to, rather than putting it out for a throw.

[lambtiss]

Edozie should have come on as soon as Scienza was injured. 

I think he should be given his chance and start matches as our left winger until Scienza returns.

[Toadhall Saint]

Point away from home with a performance that was way below par. Under Still that game yields zero points.

[saintstowin]

46 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

There was no way to shepherd that ball out for a goal kick. His mistake was initially trying to, rather than putting it out for a throw.

That was my view. The decision not to immediately clear it was the wrong one, and then it became a rushed attempt when the ball wasn't going to run out for a goal kick, resulting in the corner.

They still won 3 consecutive balls from the corner to score so it was a team effort on our part I guess.

[Sheaf Saint]

9 hours ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

The inury doesn't happen if the ref wasn't so weak. He gave Leo no protection up until that challenge, if he had blown up for any of the shoulder barges or pushes, that challenge doesn't get made on him.

It wasn't a challenge that caused his injury though. He was running back and his groin just went. No other player involved.

[Whitey Grandad]

1 minute ago, Sheaf Saint said:

It wasn't a challenge that caused his injury though. He was running back and his groin just went. No other player involved.

That could have happened even in training. 

[Chez]

52 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

Stop it, you are not allowed to point out the managers tactical failures, it upsets people

bores people more like.