Watford 2-1 Saints - Match Thread

[stknowle]

3 minutes ago, whelk said:

Sorry Stephens has cost us that. Should never have been 2-0 down 

This is 100% correct. He had a fucking shocker and both goals were on him.

[Cabrone]

Why are we always such poor starters?

Got to get that board ticking against Stoke, cannot afford another lazy start to this season.

[Wade Garrett]

2 minutes ago, Danbert said:

Dobbin is no Azaz

Mubama looks promising

Watford took it in turns to hack people down

When Watford ran out of steam and backed off us we were all over them

Our crosses and set piece deliveries were often poor

Finn is a one-man midfield

Scienza was class

Jack Stephens had a mare, Matsuki offered little

What did Scienza do that was class apart from put it on their CBs head every single fucking time.

[pingpong]

Kit superb. Maybe best kit we've had since the Wallace days?

[Saint86]

1 minute ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

That blue shirt is shit. Lets pile the pressure on the club to never wear it again

You jest, but it doesn't show up at all against the Sky (dark blue) hoardings all around the outside of the stadium during their live games.

[Saint Gifford]

Sorry, but just get rid of the bad smell of the end of the last season. Dragon is not beating the FA on anything, so just get over it. Typical of an owner that thinks they are better than the same pea out of the pod. 

[Football Special]

7 minutes ago, saint michael said:

Pedantic ref playing along with Watford dark arts

Ref was a useless cunt wasn't he 

[SNSUN]

One of those days but if we want promotion we need to cut the stupid mistakes out. One way to do that is to sign better players. I don't even care if we have to sell before we buy, just get it done.

CM immediately please. I wonder if the links to Louza were accurate. Would be a good signing. 

[Patrick Bateman]

2 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

That blue shirt is shit. Lets pile the pressure on the club to never wear it again

That shirt pissed me off just as much as the 1st half performance and end result. 

[NewYorkSaint]

Look, on any other day, only one of the two first half mistakes gets punished, and THB scores that sitter. It's way too early to have an overall negative narrative about the team. Let's say we just needed to set ourselves a slightly harder challenge for the season.   

[BranfootsLoveChild]

And Tonda will start Stephens on Saturday no doubt.....

[Wade Garrett]

3 minutes ago, saintant said:

Fuck sake Taylor.

Lost in first half with two gifted goals and weird starting decision to play Dobbin left wing and Leo as second striker.

Wake up call.

Trying to be too clever again.

[Saint86]

2 minutes ago, Saint Gifford said:

Sorry, but just get rid of the bad smell of the end of the last season. Dragon is not beating the FA on anything, so just get over it. Typical of an owner that thinks they are better than the same pea out of the pod. 

You been waiting all summer for us to lose the 1st game so you can rant for Tonda out? Embarrassing 😂

Edited 3 hours ago by Saint86

[tdmickey3]

1 minute ago, stknowle said:

This is 100% correct. He had a fucking shocker and both goals were on him.

Not really a shock is it.

If THB goes we need 2cb

[James]

Just now, NewYorkSaint said:

Look, on any other day, only one of the two first half mistakes gets punished, and THB scores that sitter. It's way too early to have an overall negative narrative about the team. Let's say we just needed to set ourselves a slightly harder challenge for the season.   

It’s very early but unfortunately we are starting 4 points behind and it’s pretty imperative we go back up this season to avoid becoming Swansea/Stoke. 

[tdmickey3]

1 minute ago, Football Special said:

Ref was a useless cunt wasn't he 

Nope

[qwertyell]

Got what we deserved. Looked piss poor against a team that'll finish in the bottom half. 

At least people can stop banging on about last season's unbeaten run as though that entitles us to promotion this time around. 

We haven't just stood still, we've weakened the squad - with more weakening to come. 

No positives. 

[Saint Pete]

First impressions of Mubama are that he doesn't have the same physical presence and strength as a Larin or a Stewart.

Of course it is very early days and I'm not writing him off to end up being a good signing by any means, but not having seen him play before, my feeling is he won't provide the focal point that we have been used to with the Larin/Stewart combo. So, perhaps we will need to adjust how we play a little when he comes on or starts. We certainly seemed to miss Larin when he went off today. 

[SW11_Saint]

2 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

What did Scienza do that was class apart from put it on their CBs head every single fucking time.

Scienza was godawful I thought. 

He wasn’t alone though in failing to beat the first man time and time again. 

What a buzzkill to start the season…

[James]

1 minute ago, Saint86 said:

You been waiting all summer for us to lose the 1st game so you can rant for Tonda out? Embarrassing 😂

Calling for Tonda to go after the first game is plainly ridiculous but let’s be honest, he has very limited room for error this season. Let’s be realistic though, if we have a rough start, the fan base will turn quickly given what’s gone down.

[whelk]

5 minutes ago, aintforever said:

Stephens and Bragg were just shite, can’t be starting with either of those if we stand any chance of going up.

Bragg came on at Colchester and made the difference. Agree about Stephens - this wasn’t a one off

[saintant]

34 minutes ago, HarvSFC said:

Edozie on before Fellows is odd.

Wonder if Fellows is on his way.

[die Mannyschaft]

4 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

Really poor. 2nd half marginally better. Still the only moment one of our players was willing to run with the ball (Bragg) and we score. Instead of trying it more we revert to the sideways nonsense.

guess lucky for us top 8 make playoffs.

We won't get top 2, so good job down to 8th. Our defenders are not top 2 level and the fact we won or draw loads to get to top 6 just masked the problem. 

We conceded to many goals from mistakes. Oh well Stoke next another on paper win.

[Midfield_General]

Threw away a really winnable opening game by getting it totally tactically wrong in the first half. Scienza is the best left winger in the league. Why on earth would you move him out of that position, especially to accommodate a very unknown quantity so far in Dobbin? 

Then a series of stupid individual errors, Stephens reverting to type and a lovely missed sitter at the end to top it off. 

A totally self-inflicted defeat against a bang average side with a shit keeper who we barely tested. Really frustrating.

[OneMrsWallace]

7 minutes ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

First half awful. Second half decent.

Really disappointing result and not too many positives outside of Larin. Missed Jander a lot.

Play like we did in the second half and we’ll win most games. Don’t want to overreact too much.

Agree but for me Stephens is the problem. Second half they went defensive to hold on, we're on the front foot and he has to do less defending. When we're under longer spells of pressure, he can't cope and makes mistakes. Hope THB stays. If not, we need two CBs in to make sure Stephens is fourth choice. Although TBF, everyone's mentality first half was crap. 

[sadoldgit]

5 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

Well that was fucking shit.  Downes played well but the rest weren’t worth a wank.

Yep, Downes was on it today. Larin coming off didn’t help but THB should really be putting that chance away. Gifted them the win but we really should have imposed ourselves more in the first half when they just bullied us and it worked.

[Disco Stu]

Just now, saintant said:

Wonder if Fellows is on his way.

To who though? He wasn't great last season and has 3 years on his contract. I can't see much interest from anyone better positioned than us for promotion.

[obelisk]

I'd want to know whether Larin felt he needed to come off. Looked like he was starting to cause Watford problems so daft to replace him that early if you ask me. Would be interesting to see Larin alongside Mubama but then I remember just how poor the crossing was.

[VectisSaint]

Paid the price for not having Jander or Charles in the middle. Nothing against Bragg or Downes but they don't have the same effect that those two had. Leaves too much space which Watford exploited in the first half. Two big mistakes but there were opportunities to recover both at the time and later. Awful first half again, it seems to happen so often even when we were winning last season. The fouls on Scienza  completely knocked the stuffing out of him, probably would have been better to take him off. Oh well at least the unbeaten run monkey is off our back. 

[saintant]

31 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

FFS Downes. Trying to get yourself sent off when you're out only fit DM is beyond fucking stupid.

We could do with a few more players showing the passion and effort Downes has today. He's put a real shift in so let's not try to take away his full blooded commitment. 

[Football Special]

2 minutes ago, SW11_Saint said:

Scienza was godawful I thought. 

He wasn’t alone though in failing to beat the first man time and time again. 

What a buzzkill to start the season…

Did you miss Scienza being kicked out of the game for the first 15 mins? Time and time again, clearly a plan from Watford and it worked , few of them missed by the useless ref 

[James]

Just now, obelisk said:

I'd want to know whether Larin felt he needed to come off. Looked like he was starting to cause Watford problems so daft to replace him that early if you ask me. Would be interesting to see Larin alongside Mubama but then I remember just how poor the crossing was.

Given how much was made of how much fitter Larin supposedly is, it’s pretty annoying we still felt the need to sub him. 

[Big M]

Why am I not surprised, no midfield and as per awful mistakes.Poor subs, Larin shouldn't have been taken off and what the hell is putting BBD on all about?? I think a few players minds are elsewhere tbh... Harwood Bellis, scienza.... 

[The very right reverend]

Jack Stephens is utter dogshit, he'll cost us automatic, Manning is a defensive nightmare as well, surely the people at the club can see this?

[tdmickey3]

Just now, The very right reverend said:

Jack Stephens is utter dogshit, he'll cost us automatic, Manning is a defensive nightmare as well, surely the people at the club can see this?

Nope, Stephens should have gone years ago

[Golac's Iron Gonads]

Looked the better team even in the first half, despite the clueless commentators going on about super Watford. Watford were gifted 2 goals, We look a good side again but I'm so disappointed to see Stephens back instead of Wood and even worse he's the captain so I expect him to keep his place.  Stephens' aimless hoof has no place at any level of professional football in any country in the world. 'kin abject. 

[Disco Stu]

1 minute ago, The very right reverend said:

Jack Stephens is utter dogshit, he'll cost us automatic, Manning is a defensive nightmare as well, surely the people at the club can see this?

This is Sport Republic we're talking about. They're VERY slow to catch on. We had to endure years of Bazunu remember.

[Baird of the land]

4 minutes ago, obelisk said:

I'd want to know whether Larin felt he needed to come off. Looked like he was starting to cause Watford problems so daft to replace him that early if you ask me. Would be interesting to see Larin alongside Mubama but then I remember just how poor the crossing was.

Yeah I was hoping we were going to take off the ineffective matsuki and bring on a 2nd striker.

[saintant]

15 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

We've missed two chances that should have been put away. They no doubt would have been against us.

Only two! Capn Jack missed two sitters on his own.

[Football Special]

3 minutes ago, The very right reverend said:

Jack Stephens is utter dogshit, he'll cost us automatic, Manning is a defensive nightmare as well, surely the people at the club can see this?

We wont be in contention for automatic,  top 8 has to be the aim 

[Saint Billy]

I don't understand how Stephens gets to start when year after year he costs us goals.

[Disco Stu]

Matsuki not coming off at half time for Fellows was frustrating. I'm not sure I agreed with a single substitution today.

[obelisk]

1 minute ago, Saint Billy said:

I don't understand how Stephens gets to start when year after year he costs us goals.

Hero 1st game last season but I take your point.

[saintant]

17 minutes ago, stknowle said:

Fuck me that was annoying. We were the better side overall but you can’t giveaway 2 goal head starts with terrible individual mistakes and hope to get away with it. Didn’t see an adequate Stewart replacement in Mubana on that showing. 

Christ give the lad a chance!

[Osvaldorama]

1 minute ago, Saint Billy said:

I don't understand how Stephens gets to start when year after year he costs us goals.

It is getting really boring. He’s been an obvious weak link for years now much like Bazunu was. 
 

Yet somehow we never look to improve. So frustrating. 

[Saint NL]

I mentioned it at the time, but watch Scienza when Downes was having his little scuffle 🤣 

 

[stknowle]

16 minutes ago, Saint Gifford said:

Sorry, but just get rid of the bad smell of the end of the last season. Dragon is not beating the FA on anything, so just get over it. Typical of an owner that thinks they are better than the same pea out of the pod. 

Very well said that man (roll eyes emoji)

[Ralph Fastenbüttl]

The good news is that at least we don't have a fanbase that will rush to write off players, the squad, the manager, the owners and the season after just 90 minutes of football.

[sockeye]

Sharpness not good enough today.. Missed some easy chances there.

But the second half showed that once we get back into the swing of things we will be in the mix again.

Need to ensure we don't get weaker in the remaining weeks of the window.

 

[Eire Saint]

First half felt like Russball again. Tons of possession did nothing with it. Pass, pass, pass, mistake, concede. X 2

Better second half. Another day we'd nick a draw. Not our day. F#%k it, onto the next game, it's a long season. 

Edited 3 hours ago by Eire Saint