Watford 2-1 Saints - Match Thread

[stknowle]

20 minutes ago, saintant said:

Christ give the lad a chance!

OK, I didn’t see an adequate replacement for Stewart in Mubana ON THAT SHOWING. 😜

Edited 4 hours ago by stknowle

[trousers]

21 minutes ago, pingpong said:

Watford very lucky to get anything, celebrating like they won the world cup - strong indicator we are serious business this season - it'll be rare that anyone else gets that lucky I think.

Bragg though, is a good sub, but we need more experience in the middle.

Or a formation change.  We don't really need two cdms in this league.

And, what's more, we'd have come away with at least a point if Bazunu had been playing....

[Miltonaggro]

Absolutely shit way to lose that unbeaten run - down to earth with a whimper! Best bet for Solak is to do all he can to get THB to stay and sign Anel from Feyenoord or similar - we need a proper first choice pairing. Stephens has the footballing brain of a mayfly. Wonder when the team ‘to get you out of your seats’ will appear. 

 

[ally_uk]

Jesus wept! It's the first game of the season no need to piss the mattress just yet. 

The likes of Leo Scienza didn't sign for us until September, Still early days in the transfer window. 

I'm sure we will bring in additions and strengthen the spine. 

As for writing Dobbin or Mubama off after one game or half of football... Are you for f##king real ? Embarrassing 

 

[SaintlyAnd]

Playing Scienza central up with Larin ended up like a 442 - he was 10/15 yards higher up than Azaz plays. Led to our two CMs being all over the place and huge spaces between defence and midfield. 
 

Then we had no ability (and zero intensity) to play through Watford pressing and chasing, and led to our mistakes. 
 

Would love a centre defender who wins every header and defend above all else. Ours don’t.

[tdmickey3]

Just now, Miltonaggro said:

Absolutely shit way to lose that unbeaten run - down to earth with a whimper! Best bet for Solak is to do all he can to get THB to stay and sign Anel from Feyenoord or similar - we need a proper first choice pairing. Stephens has the footballing brain of a mayfly. Wonder when the team ‘to get you out of your seats’ will appear. 

 

Stephens gets people out of their seats, calling his shite out again

[saintant]

17 minutes ago, Saint Pete said:

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. 

First impressions he'd beat either of them in a foot race.

[Willo of Whiteley]

Larin looked good. Doesn’t in the second half, but that was pretty much it.

Scienza looked crap, Dobbin very indecisive when it comes to shooting and the midfield was largely non-existent.

Very poor way to start the season - again.

[BarberSaint]

As I missed the first half and don't like Dobbin (fast, but so what? No creativity, changes the way we play, doesn't offer anything and is no way a replacement for Azaz) but understand this was the JS show at the back, how did Dobbin do? I only arrived just before we scored and pretty much were all over the dirty, cheating bastards who should all have had at least 4 yellow cards(they seem to like to foul a lot) and did get to see the Manning wonder-tackle.

Very pissed off we lost to a team that look like relegation fodder.

[Disco Stu]

2 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Very poor way to start the season - again.

This is why the supposed easy start on paper only concerned me. We never start seasons well and we'll only end up dropping points against sides we'd likely beat in the mid season.

[Saint Pete]

4 minutes ago, saintant said:

First impressions he'd beat either of them in a foot race.

Possibly yes. So we will need to adjust how we play when he is on as he won't hold it up as well but may offer other qualities, which was my point. 

[Vancouver Saint]

Tuned in to see the Watford players celebrating their win, so missed the game but saw the goals. OMG we deserve to lose for playing in that terrible second kit alone!

Both their goals were Stephens mistakes right? What control does he have over this club - it's crazy - we all know he's not the answer, nice guy or not.
So reality bites.
Next home game is a must win for us I feel. The unbeaten run is over first game. We're seven points behind the leaders. We know how fickle we are - the forgiveness runway for Tonda is going to be very short if we don't start winning fast and keep winning with style. 
Sounds like Watford were deserved winners.
Did I get this wrong? 

[Winnersaint]

26 minutes ago, qwertyell said:

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. 

So season over then?

[Pamplemousse]

Overall that was poor.

Defensively in the first half a disaster. Never mind a THB replacement, we need a Stephens replacement. 

No midfield either. And playing Mastuki on the right is pointless, if he doesn't have faith in Fellows then get someone in. Edozie looked somewhat lively

[Peter Douglas]

On 14/08/2026 at 20:15, Yorkshire Saint said:

They have beaten us once in twelve or something daft ..

Better make that twice in thirteen or something ....🙄

 

[dsrdorset]

It was men against boys today, especially in the first half. Bunch of fannies, bullied by an average Watford side. Stephens needs to not play in a Saints shirt again, sorry. Dobbin crap. System all wrong in the first half. THB missed a sitter to get us out of jail. Pollock was great for them. We need to sign at least 1 CB, if not 2. 

The club really need to reign in all these stupid social media posts, sick of it now. I wish the players would stop getting involved with them, it's fucking embarrassing. Get your fucking heads down, work fucking hard, and we might just have a sniff at the playoffs. 

7 points adrift already. I'm already calling it, we are not going up automatically. 

[bpsaint]

Tactically shite from Tonda today. A harsh lesson for those that expected us to just turn up today and steam roll Watford due to our end of season form.

Dragan needs to get that chequebook out asap, despite the prematch over exaggerations of how good Bragg is, he was wank today and we desperately need a Charles and/or Jander replacement. 

Stephens was a beast from January last season, but he always starts the season awful. Almost like he forgets how to play football over the summer.

Let’s hope it was just one of those days, and not because Tonda didn’t have a bit of insider info on Watford.

Edited 4 hours ago by bpsaint

[Graffito]

13 minutes ago, SaintlyAnd said:

Playing Scienza central up with Larin ended up like a 442 - he was 10/15 yards higher up than Azaz plays. Led to our two CMs being all over the place and huge spaces between defence and midfield. 
 

Then we had no ability (and zero intensity) to play through Watford pressing and chasing, and led to our mistakes. 
 

Would love a centre defender who wins every header and defend above all else. Ours don’t.

I was at the match and that’s what I saw. Should have been corrected much sooner. 

[Saint_lambden]

2 minutes ago, dsrdorset said:

It was men against boys today, especially in the first half. Bunch of fannies, bullied by an average Watford side. Stephens needs to not play in a Saints shirt again, sorry. Dobbin crap. System all wrong in the first half. THB missed a sitter to get us out of jail. Pollock was great for them. We need to sign at least 1 CB, if not 2. 

The club really need to reign in all these stupid social media posts, sick of it now. I wish the players would stop getting involved with them, it's fucking embarrassing. Get your fucking heads down, work fucking hard, and we might just have a sniff at the playoffs. 

7 points adrift already. I'm already calling it, we are not going up automatically. 

Anyone that thought we were was in fantasy land. 4 point deficit to begin with in a much stronger league than last time around and the hangover from the most embarrassing saga in our history. 
 

Top 8 is far more realistic but we need much more to be done on transfers first. 

[Sheaf Saint]

I'm actually not as despondent as many seem to be. Yeah there were clear issues in the performance overall, but I've seen us play much worse than that in the past and win.

We started well and looked the more threatening, but Watford's entire game plan in that early period was to kick lumps out of Scienza to neutralise him, and it worked. After the second of the awful tackles, he was pretty anonymous and didn't get into the game at all.

Watford then capitalised on two diabolical errors of judgement from our wonderful captain and found themselves with a two goal lead despite creating very little up to that point. 

They were never going to be able to keep up the intensity from the first half, so it was inevitable that we would come back into the game, and we actually had the better chances overall (we had more than double their xG in the end). Just couldn't convert the best ones - the Larin one shortly after he scored and then THB's defender's finish in stoppage time.

There's things that need addressing. We badly missed Jander in the middle, and neither Dobbin or Matsuki had good games on the wings but are both capable of playing better than that.

The fact we're still bringing BBD on when chasing a game is concerning, but clearly we're still not done in the transfer market yet. 

Would have been nice to start the season with a win to all but wipe out the points deduction, but Watford away has always been one of our bogey fixtures for as long as I can remember.

[carljack]

37 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

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

Yes,his crossing was shocking,and continually slowed the play up after doing the pacey skillful bit.

[Winnersaint]

1 minute ago, Sheaf Saint said:

I'm actually not as despondent as many seem to be. Yeah there were clear issues in the performance overall, but I've seen us play much worse than that in the past and win.

 

Derby at home springs to mind.

[die Mannyschaft]

38 minutes ago, Patrick Bateman said:

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

Cant understand why Saints have a blue shirt, why go on a pitch looking like Skates

[bobby_charles]

Just now, die Mannyschaft said:

Cant understand why Saints have a blue shirt, why go on a pitch looking like Skates

They went onto the pitch looking like us and also sucked eggs so maybe there's something in it

[dsrdorset]

The shirt is a massive problem by the way...

 

Just when you think the club can't fuck up anymore 🙈

[Micky]

The bottom line is if our defenders had defended properly and attacked properly we would have won the game 3 nil.  But they didn't. 

[Birder Saint]

Undeserved or not,that should have been 2-2. Wish i could unsee that miss.

Hope thats not the lasting image of THB as a Saints player

[Lord Duckhunter]

Two horrendous goals to give away. An horrendous miss & an horrendous pass which should have led to a great chance. That, together with some poor crossing & a passive first half cost us. You’re going to have 4 or 5 performances like that every season, but we’ve only got room for 2 or 3 this season and we’ve used up one already. 
 

Probably the first time Tonda tactics can be questioned since Bree returned & he could revert to a 4. His tactics contributed to that poor first half imo. The spygate stuff obscured the fact we were dreadful most of the away leg in the semi & were pretty average against Bristol City & Ipswich, even the home leg of the semi was level at 90 mins. Last week & this week were also disappointing performances,so  whilst it’s premature and way too early to start worrying, decent emphatic performances seem quite a few games ago. I’m not saying sides have worked Tonda out, but we were flying when we were balls out, shit or bust, win every game, once there became a bit nuance around results we weren’t so good. I like the mix of long ball & possession, but there’s been  too much possession, particularly sideways and back, for my liking. 
 

Some poor performances today, Stephens, Bragg, Dobbin. Matski also average, and I’d look at the keeper. We’re not judging him against Baz anymore, but Ramsdale who is available. Could he have done better, maybe, particularly the first one when he looked like he may have borrowed Baz’s gloves. Perhaps too harsh, but he was quite magnificent last season & personally I think he may have saved that in April. Downes good, THB was, until his horrible miss. Azaz different class in his short cameo , but Leo flattered to deceive again. Unlike others, I thought the lad who came on looked ok, not great, but not as bad as some have posted. I thought he looked lively and had decent movement. 

[East Kent Saint]

55 minutes ago, SNSUN said:

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. 

It says he's off to Middle East when googled , on Facebook. 

[Patches O Houlihan]

20 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Would have been nice to start the season with a win to all but wipe out the points deduction, but Watford away has always been one of our bogey fixtures for as long as I can remember.

🤪  September 2007 was the last time Watford beat us at their place

[OttawaSaint]

We seem to be so indirect when attacking eventually overplaying the ball whereas Watford (and other teams scoring against us last season) are much more direct , pacy, physical, and able to forge a chance with the minimum of fannying about.

[SW11_Saint]

58 minutes ago, Football Special said:

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 

No, I saw that and am sure it contributed to him being so poor. Should have been taken off at h/t. 

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

3 minutes ago, OttawaSaint said:

We seem to be so indirect when attacking eventually overplaying the ball whereas Watford (and other teams scoring against us last season) are much more direct , pacy, physical, and able to forge a chance with the minimum of fannying about.

In fairness Saints did that to plenty of teams in the second half of the season.

As others have said, the two mistakes killed us and Watford pressed well against our playing out from the back.

[SW11_Saint]

40 minutes ago, Vancouver Saint said:

Tuned in to see the Watford players celebrating their win, so missed the game but saw the goals. OMG we deserve to lose for playing in that terrible second kit alone!

Both their goals were Stephens mistakes right? What control does he have over this club - it's crazy - we all know he's not the answer, nice guy or not.
So reality bites.
Next home game is a must win for us I feel. The unbeaten run is over first game. We're seven points behind the leaders. We know how fickle we are - the forgiveness runway for Tonda is going to be very short if we don't start winning fast and keep winning with style. 
Sounds like Watford were deserved winners.
Did I get this wrong? 

The second was a combo of mistakes, starting with Manning needlessly giving away possession. Then a clusterfuck of ‘defending’… (actually that last part is true of the first too). 

[bugenhagen]

33 minutes ago, bpsaint said:

Tactically shite from Tonda today. A harsh lesson for those that expected us to just turn up today and steam roll Watford due to our end of season form.

Dragan needs to get that chequebook out asap, despite the prematch over exaggerations of how good Bragg is, he was wank today and we desperately need a Charles and/or Jander replacement. 

Stephens was a beast from January last season, but he always starts the season awful. Almost like he forgets how to play football over the summer.

Let’s hope it was just one of those days, and not because Tonda didn’t have a bit of insider info on Watford.

Yeah - the players!

Last season form and run means nothing - it all has to be earned again by putting the work in. The effort today was not good enough by most of the players. They looked entitled

[stknowle]

 

28 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Two horrendous goals to give away. An horrendous miss & an horrendous pass which should have led to a great chance. That, together with some poor crossing & a passive first half cost us. You’re going to have 4 or 5 performances like that every season, but we’ve only got room for 2 or 3 this season and we’ve used up one already. 
 

Probably the first time Tonda tactics can be questioned since Bree returned & he could revert to a 4. His tactics contributed to that poor first half imo. The spygate stuff obscured the fact we were dreadful most of the away leg in the semi & were pretty average against Bristol City & Ipswich, even the home leg of the semi was level at 90 mins. Last week & this week were also disappointing performances,so  whilst it’s premature and way too early to start worrying, decent emphatic performances seem quite a few games ago. I’m not saying sides have worked Tonda out, but we were flying when we were balls out, shit or bust, win every game, once there became a bit nuance around results we weren’t so good. I like the mix of long ball & possession, but there’s been  too much possession, particularly sideways and back, for my liking. 
 

Some poor performances today, Stephens, Bragg, Dobbin. Matski also average, and I’d look at the keeper. We’re not judging him against Baz anymore, but Ramsdale who is available. Could he have done better, maybe, particularly the first one when he looked like he may have borrowed Baz’s gloves. Perhaps too harsh, but he was quite magnificent last season & personally I think he may have saved that in April. Downes good, THB was, until his horrible miss. Azaz different class in his short cameo , but Leo flattered to deceive again. Unlike others, I thought the lad who came on looked ok, not great, but not as bad as some have posted. I thought he looked lively and had decent movement. 

Very well put. On the Peretz thing, I’d also argue he was beaten too easily for the 2nd from a tight angle. A supporting act of crapness to Stephens’ starring role.

Edited 3 hours ago by stknowle

[Football Special]

21 minutes ago, Saint_lambden said:

Anyone that thought we were was in fantasy land. 4 point deficit to begin with in a much stronger league than last time around and the hangover from the most embarrassing saga in our history. 
 

Top 8 is far more realistic but we need much more to be done on transfers first. 

 I pointed out when fixtures came out we didn't win any of the equivalent first 7 games last season (Watford (a), Stoke (h) Millwall (h) Birmingham (a) , Lincoln , Swansea (h) , Bristol City (h) so a poor start wouldn't be a surprise 

[Football Special]

6 minutes ago, SW11_Saint said:

No, I saw that and am sure it contributed to him being so poor. Should have been taken off at h/t. 

Watford set out to injury him from the start, bunch of cunts , they have the cheek to call us cheats 

[Baird of the land]

3 minutes ago, SW11_Saint said:

The second was a combo of mistakes, starting with Manning needlessly giving away possession. Then a clusterfuck of ‘defending’… (actually that last part is true of the first too). 

It started with matsuki not putting the ball into the box.

[badgerx16]

After losing at home to Hull last season, we were 10 points off 6th place and 22 off 1st. Plenty of time for the Southampton FC juggernaut to gather steam.

[Mboto Gorge]

5 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

It started with matsuki not putting the ball into the box.

I thought it started in the chapel…..

[inspectorfrost]

Our opening day record must be one of the worst in the football league, we're always total crud first game of the season.

[Window Cleaner]

43 minutes ago, die Mannyschaft said:

Cant understand why Saints have a blue shirt, why go on a pitch looking like Skates

Modern football, only the Old Guard still despise the Skates to the previously required and appropriate  level.

[MB]

Matski is useless & Dobbin was awful recruitment 

poor decisions today by Tonda too. 

[Lighthouse]

48 minutes ago, die Mannyschaft said:

Cant understand why Saints have a blue shirt, why go on a pitch looking like Skates

There’s like half of football teams worldwide who play in some variation of blue shirts, in one of their three kits. Why this masochistic insistence that we’re wearing Pompey shirts and not Everton, Grasshopper Zürich or Dynamo Minsk I can’t fathom.

I noticed our player were drinking water during a stop in play, just like Jimmy Saville used to, FFS!

[Window Cleaner]

Perhaps flying blind he's not the same thing.

5 minutes ago, MB said:

 

poor decisions today by Tonda too. 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Window Cleaner

[Pilchards]

Total fuck up today.

Stephens pathetic pass for the first goal and the closing down for the second was horrific.

How on earth did Woods who did brilliantly last season find himself on the bench again for that carthorse?

Felt sorry for Downes as he gave his all but the midfield was pretty shit around him.

As for Manning, 75% of your crosses couldn’t even beat the first defenders chest height.

And finally THB, How the fuck do you miss from 7 yards out with the goal at your mercy. I swear your newly wedded wife could have done better while holding the baby!!

 

PS Larin is easily going to be our top scorer this season as everyone couldn’t hit a barn door from an inch out.

 

[Badger]

26 minutes ago, badgerx16 said:

After losing at home to Hull last season, we were 10 points off 6th place and 22 off 1st. Plenty of time for the Southampton FC juggernaut to gather steam.

Definitely agree with this.

Now, The Badger Collective have spoken. Tonda will sort it. 

[hypochondriac]

Looks like Dragan will be keeping his promise. At this rate I'll be up off my seat because I'll have left to go to the pub instead.

[stfrancisofbenali]

1 hour ago, bpsaint said:

Tactically shite from Tonda today. A harsh lesson for those that expected us to just turn up today and steam roll Watford due to our end of season form.

Dragan needs to get that chequebook out asap, despite the prematch over exaggerations of how good Bragg is, he was wank today and we desperately need a Charles and/or Jander replacement. 

Stephens was a beast from January last season, but he always starts the season awful. Almost like he forgets how to play football over the summer.

Let’s hope it was just one of those days, and not because Tonda didn’t have a bit of insider info on Watford.

Bragg was far from wank. He is one of the few players who looks to break the lines with a forward pass and created Larin’s goal with a neat reverse ball, He’s a young player who will be v important for us this season and everyone was below par today.