Lincoln 1-1 Saints - Match Thread

[vectraman]

2 hours ago, O_Lord_Marian said:

Really, what player in the Lincoln squad, not even the starting 11, would/should even be on the bench for Saints?

If that is arrogance so be it, we should be blowing teams like this away. Winning is endearing for me, not appeasing. 

Their big lump who came in up front. 

[O_Lord_Marian]

11 minutes ago, vectraman said:

Their big lump who came in up front. 

The fact you cannot even name him proves my point. Horrible team that should've been put away.

[Tommy Mulgrew]

14 minutes ago, O_Lord_Marian said:

The fact you cannot even name him proves my point. Horrible team that should've been put away.

IMO, Lincoln was not a horrible team.  The players have their limitations, as do ours, but they played to their strengths, did it well and, with slightly better finishing, would have won.  I hope they stay clear of relegation.

We, on the other hand, except for twenty minutes or so, barely threatened their penalty area, let alone the goal, and towards the end played to our weaknesses, resulting in two lost points.  We could easily have lost that game.  Let’s be thankful for small mercies.  And hope for better in future.

[Saint_lambden]

The whole 'taking off a midfielder/forward and putting on another defender' never works, at least not for us. 

It just invites pressure and instills an attitude of 'we're defending what we've got' rather than having a front-foot mentality. 

Right the way back to Adkins taking Billy Sharp off for Dan Harding against Pompey in 2012, it baffles me each time. 

Plus our ability to never stop the cross or attack the ball in with any intensity, it's a toxic combination against sides that are direct. 

[Badger]

1 hour ago, vectraman said:

Their big lump who came in up front. 

More impressive than our lump we put on. 

[Harry_SFC]

25 minutes ago, Saint_lambden said:

The whole 'taking off a midfielder/forward and putting on another defender' never works, at least not for us. 

It just invites pressure and instills an attitude of 'we're defending what we've got' rather than having a front-foot mentality. 

Right the way back to Adkins taking Billy Sharp off for Dan Harding against Pompey in 2012, it baffles me each time. 

Plus our ability to never stop the cross or attack the ball in with any intensity, it's a toxic combination against sides that are direct. 

It's almost as if it just adds another player to get in the way/complicate things in our own box. We had 3 CBs in that area and none of them managed to deal with the ball in.

[Whitey Grandad]

6 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

It's almost as if it just adds another player to get in the way/complicate things in our own box. We had 3 CBs in that area and none of them managed to deal with the ball in.

Yep 

[trousers]

Was out and about at the weekend and only just seen the match highlights... No doubt someone will already have pointed this out, but WTF was Downes doing (or rather not doing) to block the cross that led to their goal? He has all the time in the world to launch a blocking tackle, but didn't even make an attempt, just let their bloke cross the ball unchallenged.

WTF goes through the mind of a professional footballer that leads them to not do the f***ing basics? It's the 87th minute and we're defending a one goal lead FFS. Criminal.

(Does it show that I'm a tad annoyed?! 😁)

Edited 10 hours ago by trousers

[saintant]

18 minutes ago, trousers said:

Was out and about at the weekend and only just seen the match highlights... No doubt someone will already have pointed this out, but WTF was Downes doing (or rather not doing) to block the cross that led to their goal? He has all the time in the world to launch a blocking tackle, but didn't even make an attempt, just let their bloke cross the ball unchallenged.

WTF goes through the mind of a professional footballer that leads them to not do the f***ing basics? It's the 87th minute and we're defending a one goal lead FFS. Criminal.

(Does it show that I'm a tad annoyed?! 😁)

I think that's harsh on Downes who was the one player who ran his guts out for the team. He may have been tiring and I don't think he has 'all the time in the world' to cut the cross out. More at fault for me were Mubama and Bree who, between them, allowed their guy to get down the wing to cross. But, as always, this game is all about opinions.

[SouthWalesSaints]

13 hours ago, Saint_lambden said:

The whole 'taking off a midfielder/forward and putting on another defender' never works, at least not for us. 

It just invites pressure and instills an attitude of 'we're defending what we've got' rather than having a front-foot mentality. 

Right the way back to Adkins taking Billy Sharp off for Dan Harding against Pompey in 2012, it baffles me each time. 

Plus our ability to never stop the cross or attack the ball in with any intensity, it's a toxic combination against sides that are direct. 

Except it does, and has, on many occasions. 

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, SouthWalesSaints said:

Except it does, and has, on many occasions. 

Except when it doesn't...

[Fitzhugh Fella]

2 hours ago, trousers said:

Was out and about at the weekend and only just seen the match highlights... No doubt someone will already have pointed this out, but WTF was Downes doing (or rather not doing) to block the cross that led to their goal? He has all the time in the world to launch a blocking tackle, but didn't even make an attempt, just let their bloke cross the ball unchallenged.

WTF goes through the mind of a professional footballer that leads them to not do the f***ing basics? It's the 87th minute and we're defending a one goal lead FFS. Criminal.

(Does it show that I'm a tad annoyed?! 😁)

You try being there! I don't think I've ever been at an away match and being as pissed off while not having lost if you get my drift.

[redkeith]

19 minutes ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

You try being there! I don't think I've ever been at an away match and being as pissed off while not having lost if you get my drift.

I don't think it helped that nobody went wide right midfield when Masuki came off, it  allowed them to push on up their left, which is where the cross came from. 

It was a very good cross, don't think Wood could have done anything about it, maybe nudge the forward under it, but that is all. 

For me, I would have prefered Fellows coming on to give us an outlet on the right, occupy their leftback and help Bree out. 

Horrible team though, can't remember Wimbledon or even a Howard Wilkinson side take a kick off that comes down with snow on it ! 

 

[SouthWalesSaints]

52 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Except when it doesn't...

Which is agreeing with my point, it does and has worked many times. It only gets noticed when it doesn't. 

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, SouthWalesSaints said:

Which is agreeing with my point, it does and has worked many times. It only gets noticed when it doesn't. 

For a true evaluation you would have to compare the performances after sticking with a standard defence against introducing an extra centre back.

[SouthWalesSaints]

19 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

For a true evaluation you would have to compare the performances after sticking with a standard defence against introducing an extra centre back.

Depends on lots of things, sometimes people move to a three at the back to gain control of the ball in build up.  Some teams go man 2 man and press into midfield, others sit in a deep block.  To many variables to make create an evaluation. 

 

The comment I'm debating is that it never works, it does, and has on many occasions, for saints and other teams. 

[Cuddles]

1 minute ago, SouthWalesSaints said:

Depends on lots of things, sometimes people move to a three at the back to gain control of the ball in build up.  Some teams go man 2 man and press into midfield, others sit in a deep block.  To many variables to make create an evaluation. 

 

The comment I'm debating is that it never works, it does, and has on many occasions, for saints and other teams. 

I'm struggling to remember when we last deployed three at the back during a game though. I know previously it caused problems as no-one seemed to know who they were marking!

[tdmickey3]

5 minutes ago, Cuddles said:

I'm struggling to remember when we last deployed three at the back during a game though. I know previously it caused problems as no-one seemed to know who they were marking!

Yep, it was terrible under Still and Ekert until he realised and changed to a 4

[swedish dave]

just another instance of wrong subs. at wrong time.

Mubama hardly got a kick, Edozie was off the mark compared with his penalty-winning show

v. Stoke and Dobbin just didn't get into the game.

Slotterbeck seem to have command of the area, but Wood couldn't decide which way we

were kicking and their big CF had an easy finish. Another 2 points gifted in a game we ought

to have tied up in by 60 mins. However, hitting the woodwork is never a good omen, but when 

the same shot struck both posts and then fell into the goalies arms,  I could sense the inevitable.

 

Aside from the - 4 start and sitting in 18th place,(or is it 17th) we've made a reasonable start and 

had we got the real points from our results, we would have been up in the play-off places. 

Edited 6 hours ago by swedish dave

[StrangelyBrown]

27 minutes ago, Cuddles said:

I'm struggling to remember when we last deployed three at the back during a game though. I know previously it caused problems as no-one seemed to know who they were marking!

We did it a few times towards the end of last year and got away with it, but anyone watching could see if was an utter shambles.

[SouthWalesSaints]

2 hours ago, Cuddles said:

I'm struggling to remember when we last deployed three at the back during a game though. I know previously it caused problems as no-one seemed to know who they were marking!

Multiple times at the back end of last season. 

 

Coventry being one, which did work.  Wood came on and headed one away last kick of the game. 

Edited 4 hours ago by SouthWalesSaints

[saintant]

I'm really missing that feeling of invincibility we developed from January to the end of the season. It felt like we couldn't lose and would more likely win and we went into every game full of confidence.

Now we are back to the old Saints where anxiety and fear of losing rears its ugly head before and during each match. I think we're slightly weaker as a squad but the performances have dipped alarmingly. I'm hoping Tonda can sort out a few issues and have us running like a well-oiled machine again because our movement, passing and ball control looks very rusty to me.

[Saint Garrett]

27 minutes ago, saintant said:

I'm really missing that feeling of invincibility we developed from January to the end of the season. It felt like we couldn't lose and would more likely win and we went into every game full of confidence.

Now we are back to the old Saints where anxiety and fear of losing rears its ugly head before and during each match. I think we're slightly weaker as a squad but the performances have dipped alarmingly. I'm hoping Tonda can sort out a few issues and have us running like a well-oiled machine again because our movement, passing and ball control looks very rusty to me.

I'm the same, mainly because we just cannot keep a clean sheet, so we need to score 2 to win.

This is every league clean sheet we've had since the start of last season: 11 of the last 51 games (1 away clean sheet) ...not good enough for a club that should be fighting for autos.

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Saint Garrett

[saintant]

23 minutes ago, Saint Garrett said:

I'm the same, mainly because we just cannot keep a clean sheet, so we need to score 2 to win.

This is every league clean sheet we've had since the start of last season: 11 of the last 51 games (1 away clean sheet) ...not good enough for a club that should be fighting for autos.

 

I don't think we've ever, or rarely, prided ourselves on our ability to keep clean sheets. We've mainly been a side that aims to outscore the opposition. That's how I felt from Jan to the end of the season - sure, we'll probably concede but we have enough offensively to make sure we mainly come out on top. Doesn't feel like that this season even with 3-1 and 5-1 victories at home. Millwall we did show what we are capable of but the 3-1 against Stoke flattered us.