Saints 3-1 Stoke - Match Thread

[Toussaint]

I must congratulate myself on my accurate score prediction, other than is scoring two more goals than I predicted and winning, not drawing, I was uncannily accurate. It’s a gift I have, don’t go messaging me for lottery numbers etc, I won’t allow it to be abused. 

[Toussaint]

6 hours ago, obelisk said:

Just arrived in Vancouver. Missed the game but read through the match thread after landing as if live. Talk about a range of emotions but with a happy ending. Three important points. It'd be even better if a point had been gained last weekend.

A happy ending seems like a good way to start any holiday. 

[Cabrone]

The performance may not have been up to last year but this league is all about momentum and who gets going the quickest. Follow this up with wins against Spam and Millwall and our tails will be up and performances will turn up.

[Wade Garrett]

One thing Manning needs to improve on is closing down wingers and stopping crosses.  He gave the guy acres yesterday and it's not the first time.

Definitely something to work on in training.

[suewhistle]

That was a hard watch but two good goals and we showed we had substitutes to make a difference alongside stepping up the speed of our play. Missing 4 decent players from last season but the various issues we've identified on this thread must surely be addressed. I'm taking the win when we weren't firing on all cylinders as a positive.

Sometimes I wonder whether Scienza wouldn't be better as a sub against tiring defenders who may already be on a card and less likely to get the softening up tackles he so often gets at the beginning of games?

[Jack]

31 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

One thing Manning needs to improve on is closing down wingers and stopping crosses.  He gave the guy acres yesterday and it's not the first time.

Definitely something to work on in training.

He’s made it to the old age of 30 without ever bothering to close down a cross, doubt he’s going to start now 

[austsaint]

34 minutes ago, Jack said:

He’s made it to the old age of 30 without ever bothering to close down a cross, doubt he’s going to start now 

Just the same, the space  he gave Saints old boy Gallagher before he crossed for the Galbraith goal was way too casual.   If we could combine the tight marking of Wellington with the attacking crosses and passes of Manning we’d have  an excellent LB.

[markr27]

The "Manning chasm" as it's called.

[Lord Duckhunter]

That was painful, but I’m hoping it’ll kick start a run like QPR game did last season. 
 

Both full backs nowhere near the level they were the second half of last season. Wood is ok when battling with a forward, but his distribution & touch when he’s got time on the ball is horrendous at the moment. Luckily Downes was excellent because Matski was poor in there. Leo, probably the worst performance I can recall him putting in. TF tried hard, but it’s still not clicking. Larin 2 in 2, looks bang on it and good finish from the young lad (and great to see him celebrating). Thought the penalty a bit harsh, but haven’t seen the reply. I don’t think he gives that at 1-1. 
 

I wouldn’t say we were lucky, but couldn’t have too many complaints had it ended up 1-1. 

[jrobsbigshorts]

My thoughts on yesterday 

I wasn't surprised the midfield didn't quite work again when I heard Jander was out , you can't have a match day squad without a number 8 but fair play to them they got it done

Downes was great but I thought Matsuki ( the bloke behind me was calling him Matsui, wasn't that a cheap 80s hi-fi brand!) struggled, he was better than the Colchester game but it's not his position and it's knowing when to press ,when to drop etc he didn't seem to get it right at times, TBF to Tonda I can see why he started him as Bragg and Downes last week didn't work either but with Jander back and a Charles replacement in  we'll be fine in the middle

I was furious with Jack last week but TBF he did well , Wood makes me a bit nervous at times , he can look clumsy and off balance but actually I thought his positioning was good ,he knows when to attack the ball and he's a player who'll make those brave blocks , Are Stephens and Wood good enough for the season ahead? It's probably one of them with a new signing alongside but TBF they were solid yesterday 

Scienza was totally ineffective yesterday, they doubled up on him at times , we didn't have THB hitting him early, hopefully he hasn't been found out ! Oh well makes it more likely we'll keep him , was that Gallagher that cleaned him out btw

I thought Azaz was a difference maker again, I love how he always scanning looking for.the killer pass and it was no suprise he played in Mubama form the winner YET the numpty behind me was slagging him off half the game

So pleased for Mubama , City obviously rate him could be a great loan

In the 2nd half what happened when Stoke had a chance that Peretz saved , where I was sat it looked weird like in slow mo and it trickled toward the net and I thought the stoke player was gonna tap it in but Peretz ended up with it ,it wasn't on the highlights either 

Edited 7 hours ago by jrobsbigshorts

[Lymington Saint]

Third goal looked offside yesterday in the stadium. Freeze framing youtube and it was really close. VAR would have disallowed it but not easy for the lino. Stonewall pen mind you. Definite barge in the back

[markr27]

Peretz pulled off a great stop. I don't think either he or the Stoke players were aware it was offside at the time - excellent reactions from the Saints No.1.

47 minutes ago, jrobsbigshorts said:

In the 2nd half what happened when Stoke had a chance that Peretz saved , where I was sat it looked weird like in slow mo and it trickled toward the net and I thought the stoke player was gonna tap it in but Peretz ended up with it ,it wasn't on the highlights either 

 

[lambtiss]

Agree with most of the previous comments. 

I thought that we got the job done whilst still looking unsettled as a team and with some playets still struggling for form. The difference eas that we had more quality tham Stoke in attacking positions, especially with Azaz and Larin. 

I thought both wingers were disappointing. I so want Fellows to come good but he seems to be struggling for form and his end product doesn't seem to be improving. 

I thought Leo's body language was poor yesterday and he lookrd a shadow of last sessons player. Maybe one with an eye on a transfer. For once I was happy to see him subbed and Dobbin looked much more up for it

 

[Patches O Houlihan]

18 hours ago, die Mannyschaft said:

Two well taken goals

Some players way off the mark making an unbalanced team but I'll take that rather than 1-1 .

Got to bottom Avenue in time to see Stoke coaches off and they couldn't handle Saints fans giving the binoculars gesture. So unless someone comes up with something else its binoculars and we'll spy went we want. Fuck off Stoke went down well also!! 

Fuck the EFL and Live in a Shit Hole came through well on the TV feed.

I felt there was plenty of opportunity to give the cheat chant back last week and this week. After all a sneaky handball, cynically taking out Scienza, or diving are all likely to have as big an impact in a game as our work experience lad filming with his phone 300m away...

[BarberSaint]

2 hours ago, jrobsbigshorts said:

My thoughts on yesterday 

I wasn't surprised the midfield didn't quite work again when I heard Jander was out , you can't have a match day squad without a number 8 but fair play to them they got it done

Downes was great but I thought Matsuki ( the bloke behind me was calling him Matsui, wasn't that a cheap 80s hi-fi brand!) struggled, he was better than the Colchester game but it's not his position and it's knowing when to press ,when to drop etc he didn't seem to get it right at times, TBF to Tonda I can see why he started him as Bragg and Downes last week didn't work either but with Jander back and a Charles replacement in  we'll be fine in the middle

I was furious with Jack last week but TBF he did well , Wood makes me a bit nervous at times , he can look clumsy and off balance but actually I thought his positioning was good ,he knows when to attack the ball and he's a player who'll make those brave blocks , Are Stephens and Wood good enough for the season ahead? It's probably one of them with a new signing alongside but TBF they were solid yesterday 

Scienza was totally ineffective yesterday, they doubled up on him at times , we didn't have THB hitting him early, hopefully he hasn't been found out ! Oh well makes it more likely we'll keep him , was that Gallagher that cleaned him out btw

I thought Azaz was a difference maker again, I love how he always scanning looking for.the killer pass and it was no suprise he played in Mubama form the winner YET the numpty behind me was slagging him off half the game

So pleased for Mubama , City obviously rate him could be a great loan

In the 2nd half what happened when Stoke had a chance that Peretz saved , where I was sat it looked weird like in slow mo and it trickled toward the net and I thought the stoke player was gonna tap it in but Peretz ended up with it ,it wasn't on the highlights either 

Peretz took the sting out of it but it crawled towards the goal, as you said, but he got up and dived on it and it didn't even reach the line. Most other goalies and that's a goal though. Bloody good from him (again).

[RedWillie]

48 minutes ago, BarberSaint said:

Peretz took the sting out of it but it crawled towards the goal, as you said, but he got up and dived on it and it didn't even reach the line. Most other goalies and that's a goal though. Bloody good from him (again).

It was flagged offside but Peretz didn't know that and stopped it brilliantly.

Edited 5 hours ago by RedWillie

[stfrancisofbenali]

21 hours ago, SaintlyAnd said:

Really need to get the tempo and speed of play up. Its not a big surprise that goals come when we play fast, one-touch passes forward and through defences rather than pumping in crosses. We have the quality to play that way with Azaz, Leo, Dobbin, Matsuki and Cyle/Divin on the end.

And I don’t think the right side is working.
 

As soon as we try and break the lines (Dobbin) and play one touch (Azaz) we become so much more threatening. I know we can’t do it all the time and spells of possession are necessary, but we we certainly need to increase the frequency. Weight of pass from Azaz for the winner was dreamy! 

[Badger]

Few random observations from yesterday:

Defence - probably not stretched or pushed  as we would be by other teams, but some concern especially with the CB’s. Need for a better option than on show yesterday. (Thought Hirst might have caused us more problems).

Midfield : again the loss of Charles, and Jander’s absence leaves us exposed. Stoke seemed to have acres of space to work in,especially first half,  and only Galbraith looked able to take advantage. 
 

Matsuki - no taking away his effort but looked a bit lost at times.

Azaz - impressed by him constantly probing for an opening.

Scienza - easily worst performance I’ve seen from him. Didn’t look as motivated as usual. He’s got credit in the bank so can forgive him an occasional off day. Don’t want to read too much into it. 

Larin - impressed by pace and finishing. Looked to be tiring before he really hammered one before going off to remind us of his strengths.

Mubama - good goal. Promising. But unimpressed that he seemed to have a strop when the penalty was given to Manning.

At times we looked toothless up front despite the score(rs). Still think we need another CF (if the Ratkov profile, if not him). 

The penalty- seemed some uncertainty over who’d take it. In my view should have been known before the match. Reminiscent of the Man Utd game. Credit to Stephens as captain for stepping in and giving the ball to Manning to sort it.

Tonda - two subs, and two goal involvements. May be a genius or just lucky. Either way he seems to get more right than wrong on the pitch.

Crowd - inevitably a “we spy when we want” bollocks. Pleased there was no booing at HT after we looked to be flagging a bit. 
 

Onwards and upwards.

[Badger]

One other thing on Stoke, just realised one of their CB’s was Ben Gibson. Nephew of Gibbo. 

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

6 hours ago, markr27 said:

The "Manning chasm" as it's called.

I've always called it No Mannings Land!

Totally agree with what you said Patches about giving the "Cheat" chant back, especially when their players dive, go down with cramp to waste time etc. 

[trousers]

20 minutes ago, Badger said:

Mubama - good goal. Promising. But unimpressed that he seemed to have a strop when the penalty was given to Manning.

Agree that 'having a strop' isn't a good look, but much prefer that to players that shirk the responsibility, especially at his age.