Boro 0-0 Saints - Match Thread

[AlexLaw76]

2 minutes ago, SotonianWill said:

It was very telling that their manager before the game was fairly courteous, declaring it made little difference etc.

 

After the game however, having failed to win their home leg, we’re cheats blah blah blah. Biggest bunch of babies. Northerners. 

Fair point.

they battered us in the first half and should have been 2-3 up. That was there best chance as you know it will be a very different situation Tuesday night

[Tamesaint]

1 hour ago, CB Fry said:

I had a good wander about and basically it is as much of a shitehole as other English cities like, say, Southampton.

There are spots where they've put some infrastructure/investment in but a town with an empty Debenhams and an empty House of Fraser is always going to be run down. Amazon (and others) have fucking killed the British high street.

Add Marks and Spencer to the list of empty stores.... Along with no end of empty shops. There are even plenty of empty shops in their new shopping centre. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Tamesaint

[Turkish]

2 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

What a load of old pony. “First half went to plan” 😂. If that’s the case it was a fucking stupid plan. “ Let’s keep giving the ball away, allowing crosses, let our centre forward be beaten in every physical battle and rely on their poor finishing to go in 0-0”. 
 

We got away with one there, and despite have 2 excellent efforts, could well have gone in 2 or 3 down. Completely different game then, and they’d have sat in and made it very very difficult. Probably edged the second half, but god the first half we were lucky they couldn’t finish. Larin was appalling, as was Fellows. Azaz anonymous up there again, and Leo was a long way from his best. Keeper did well again as did THB. 
 

Completely different game Tuesday and we must be slight favourites. However, if we play like we did first half, I don’t think we’ll get away with it again. 

The biggest load of pony on here today was the first half was down to the players being effected by the spy stuff 😂😂😂😂

not everyone is an absolute drip that goes to pieces at the first hint of adversity 

[Saint Gifford]

2 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

What a load of old pony. “First half went to plan” 😂. If that’s the case it was a fucking stupid plan. “ Let’s keep giving the ball away, allowing crosses, let our centre forward be beaten in every physical battle and rely on their poor finishing to go in 0-0”. 
 

We got away with one there, and despite have 2 excellent efforts, could well have gone in 2 or 3 down. Completely different game then, and they’d have sat in and made it very very difficult. Probably edged the second half, but god the first half we were lucky they couldn’t finish. Larin was appalling, as was Fellows. Azaz anonymous up there again, and Leo was a long way from his best. Keeper did well again as did THB. 
 

Completely different game Tuesday and we must be slight favourites. However, if we play like we did first half, I don’t think we’ll get away with it again. 

I get it, and we were very lucky in the first half to not go down at least 3. 
 

Keeper, Bree fantastic and did what was required. No way could Boro keep up that first half for 90 mins. 
 

Tired them at home, defended unbelievably. The stats said no shots on goal, no passes in the last third. 24% possession. 
 

But I’m guessing that was the plan and hit them second half which we did. 
 

Yes agree the plan looked crap because our touches were awful, and lost possession and second balls ect ect ect. 
 

But it worked, nil nil is a great result taking it back home. We could have done with the plan of a second half goal. 
 

Boro will not play like they did 1st half today at ours. They went all out today. They won’t do that again, technically it looks like we are playing the long game to get to Wembley.

Yes we looked awful 1st half and got away with it. But stuck to the plan it seems, and didn’t panic, and got the result. 
 
IMO obviously. 

 

[Badger]

24 minutes ago, Saint Gifford said:

Boro will not play like they did 1st half today at ours. They went all out today. They won’t do that again, technically it looks like we are playing the long game to get to Wembley.

Yes we looked awful 1st half and got away with it. But stuck to the plan it seems, and didn’t panic, and got the result. 
 
IMO obviously. 

 

Hope you’re right, but I think you may be underestimating them, and their away form. See the post from the Ipswich fan on here, that seems to be exactly as they played at Portman Road. 
 

[Lord Duckhunter]

19 minutes ago, Badger said:

Hope you’re right, but I think you may be underestimating them, and their away form. See the post from the Ipswich fan on here, that seems to be exactly as they played at Portman Road. 
 

You’re right they’re s good side. Tony Pulis has been saying all season they’re good enough to go up and Coventry aside, are the best side in the league. I know people will say, he’s a dinosaur etc, but he’s been around football a long time and his opinion is as valid as anyone’s. There’s no doubt in my mind that us and them are head and shoulders above the other 2, on our days. And that’s the point, the winner of this tie should go up, but if we don’t produce our best on Tuesday, it won’t be us. 

Edited 1 hour ago by Lord Duckhunter

[Turkish]

45 minutes ago, Saint Gifford said:

I get it, and we were very lucky in the first half to not go down at least 3. 
 

Keeper, Bree fantastic and did what was required. No way could Boro keep up that first half for 90 mins. 
 

Tired them at home, defended unbelievably. The stats said no shots on goal, no passes in the last third. 24% possession. 
 

But I’m guessing that was the plan and hit them second half which we did. 
 

Yes agree the plan looked crap because our touches were awful, and lost possession and second balls ect ect ect. 
 

But it worked, nil nil is a great result taking it back home. We could have done with the plan of a second half goal. 
 

Boro will not play like they did 1st half today at ours. They went all out today. They won’t do that again, technically it looks like we are playing the long game to get to Wembley.

Yes we looked awful 1st half and got away with it. But stuck to the plan it seems, and didn’t panic, and got the result. 
 
IMO obviously. 

 

As I’ve said the plan was clear sir deep, block The middle hit them on the break like we did v Arsenal and city.

the problem we had was that Larin had his worst game since he’s been here getting dominated by their defence so we had no outlet the midfield werent getting forward quick enough so the ball kept coming back.

second half we played a bit higher up and had a bit more control of the game. We did get a bit lucky but you see games like that all the time. Home team starts at 100000mph then away team takes control as they blow themselves out. 
 

Tuesday will be different again we’ll control The game but they’ll be a threat on the break main thing is they’ve not got A lead to protect so won’t be able Spend 90 minutes with 11 men behind the ball. Overall a 0-0 draw is a much better result for us than them so say what you like about luck not getting it right we got the result most of us would have taken at 12pm today 

[Patrick Bateman]

43 minutes ago, Turkish said:

 

the problem we had was that Larin had his worst game since he’s been here getting dominated by their defence so we had no outlet the midfield werent getting forward quick enough so the ball kept coming back.

 

Yeah Larin suffered from a few things I think today;

1. He does hold up play brilliantly, but a lot of the time he relies on being able to knock the ball 1, 2 or 3 metres at most to a nearby Saints player. We were defending more, so no one close enough to sweep up the little taps from his hold up, hence 'Boro picked them up

2. Their centre back, Fry, was actually very good at not letting Larin get away with pushing him around so much - I liked him

3. Larin went down a fair amount to start with, the ref was not having any of it, rightly so

 

[Turkish]

14 minutes ago, Patrick Bateman said:

Yeah Larin suffered from a few things I think today;

1. He does hold up play brilliantly, but a lot of the time he relies on being able to knock the ball 1, 2 or 3 metres at most to a nearby Saints player. We were defending more, so no one close enough to sweep up the little taps from his hold up, hence 'Boro picked them up

2. Their centre back, Fry, was actually very good at not letting Larin get away with pushing him around so much - I liked him

3. Larin went down a fair amount to start with, the ref was not having any of it, rightly so

 

Fry was very good very strong and like you say Larin had no Close enough to him to lay it off to. Our front 4, aside from a couple of decent crosses weren’t at it today but Tuesday will be different with Azaz and a Scienza will Have more impact  and of Stewart starts I think he’ll get goal 

[SWLondon Saint]

Only watched the first half, but even though they were all over us I didn't feel particularly panicky - the players seemed very calm about the situation, maybe a bit too calm and passive tbh.

Thought Larin, Fellows, Azaz were all poor, the few times we had it they all seemed out of sync and gave it away too easily. At the back Wood was awful, I think their plan was to let him have it then press him hard when he stepped forward and he duly coughed up the ball a number of times.

Couldn't watch the 2nd half but sounds better. I do feel Azaz seems a bit out of sorts the last couple of games, could play one of Bragg / Charles there or Matsuki even...?