Saints 4-1 Bristol City - Match Thread

[RedArmy]

Any word about Downes? 
 

Hopefuly with 4 weeks until the derby he’ll be back and ready. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

An impressive scoreline, with an impressive closing spell, where Bristol just couldn't keep up with us. 

However, before that they had plenty of the ball, and plenty of that within our final third. Yes, we defended well in the main. But we had the odd slip up , as you'd expect from any team, and they had a few chances that needed a more clinical finishers to put away today. Ballard should be pleased with a lot of his work, bar the final shot, today. 

But we did enough when defending, and Larin made all the difference in the when it came to being clinical. Great to have such a centre forward with us. Matsuki's work rate also made a big difference. A number of others were quieter, but then did really good things such as JWP, Azaz and Leo. 

A quieter home game, where we didn't have it our own way until later on. But we worked well, with the subs doing fine too. Perhaps that extra fresh energy helped with the later goals today. 

 

[Turkish]

21 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

Loving that Azaz had a uncharacteristically 'quiet game' and still managed 2 assists and a goal 😁

Yeah I thought that too, take that sort of quiet game every week 

[Jimmy_D]

Perhaps a tad fortunate to weather that first 15 mins, which owed a fair bit to an excellent save by Peretz and some wasteful finishing, but some excellent finishing of our own got us over the line against a bunch of thugs and one of the worst refs we’ve seen at St Mary’s in recent times, which perhaps isn’t entirely surprising considering he’s a former Bristol City player!

Ridiculous he was allowed to ref, but makes it all the sweeter to get this one over the line  

[BS8Saint]

44 minutes ago, Toadhall Saint said:

Are you suggesting he knows something that the rest of the footballing world doesn’t?

I reckon it was ‘just in case’

[Viking Saint]

1 hour ago, Saint_clark said:

We need to spend some money on a decent left back in January. There's just too much space in that area when we're defending.

Just play Welington FFS. Manning can't defend.

[Harry_SFC]

33 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

Any word about Downes? 
 

Hopefuly with 4 weeks until the derby he’ll be back and ready. 

Tonda said Downes should be ok for the Wrexham game. 

[Patrick Bateman]

Just got back - first half of first half was mostly nervy both on the pitch and around the ground. Songs seemed to die out really easily, but then I don't think Bristol City made the most of their 3000 travelling fans either.  But very composed football by us in the end, lovely first goal from Larin, boom.  I enjoyed that.

[Saint NL]

Just now, Harry_SFC said:

Tonda said Downes should be ok for the Wrexham game. 

Between a half crocked Downes and Jander, we might be able to get 90 minutes between them

[Harry_SFC]

1 minute ago, Viking Saint said:

Just play Welington FFS. Manning can't defend.

Agreed. Feel like the main reason he is in the side is because he's got a decent delivery.

We've got Azaz, Scienza, Matsuki, JWP who can all get assists, not sure the need for Manning is that great now.

Welington is certainly the better defender out of the two. 

[Dr Who?]

2 hours ago, danjosaint said:

Same as Lincoln game,  drop deep , let them back in and concede late equaliser after being far to passive 

That’s not at the fortress that’s away! 

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

When you look at the goal differences, maybe West Ham aren't the only stand out team in this league this year!

Sort out our away form and we will be really motoring. 

[Cuddles]

Don't forget Bristol City didn't play midweek...

[Dr Who?]

Love all the bottom lips going in here when we conceded you bunch of pussies! 🐱. 

Did my part again braving the elements for the good of Saints on a terrace in the Scottish league 2. 3 home games for Annan when Saints have been at home and 3 wins for Annan who were second from bottom (not conceded in those 3) 2-0, 4-0 and 2-0. While Saints have a 5-1, 3-1 and 4-1. 

Unfortunately are next home game is on the Sunday in THE derby and Annan play on the Saturday… do I go? 

[Dr Who?]

4 minutes ago, OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint said:

When you look at the goal differences, maybe West Ham aren't the only stand out team in this league this year!

Sort out our away form and we will be really motoring. 

Not really, just keep winning at home and not lose away, win a few in there and all will be good. But we will lose at home and we will win away. Love this league! 

[Wade Garrett]

27 minutes ago, Viking Saint said:

Just play Welington FFS. Manning can't defend.

I agree, but to be fair, today was his best defensive display all season.

Tonda said Downes will be ok for Wrexham.

Thought Bragg was superb.  Azaz was having a bit of a mare but popped up with 2 assists and a goal.  Larin - outstanding.

Couldn’t work out who was playing where when Leo went off, but we were definitely better for it, so fair play to Tonda.

[Wade Garrett]

Bristol City were fucking dirty and the ref  wasn’t great.

[saintwbu]

8 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

I agree, but to be fair, today was his best defensive display all season.

Tonda said Downes will be ok for Wrexham.

Thought Bragg was superb.  Azaz was having a bit of a mare but popped up with 2 assists and a goal.  Larin - outstanding.

Couldn’t work out who was playing where when Leo went off, but we were definitely better for it, so fair play to Tonda.

Agree Bragg was brilliant in that second half.

As for Manning, we didn’t look anywhere near as fluid and composed on the ball down the left against Lincoln. There’s a game for Welington but i think in games where we will dominate, Manning still wins out for me. 

[Football Special]

38 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

Tonda said Downes should be ok for the Wrexham game. 

He played almost the entire first half with the injury and could clearly see he was struggling,  could hardly turn or sprint which contributed to Bristol City winning most of the 50/50s , hopefully can play at Wrexham then take a nice 3 week break to recharge the batteries 

[Swaythling Saint]

Immense result against a team we've not had the best results against. Again so pleased we have Larin and Peretz in our team (why was the ref allowed for this one!?)

[Dan Johnson]

It’s a fantastic result in a very hard fought game against the best team we’ve seen at St Mary’s so far this season.

id be fuming if I was a Bristol City fan at the absolute incompetence of the ref for our second, fuck knows what went on there.

Azaz has an “off day” with some of his passes but still gets 2 assists and a goal.

Larin is just a beast, The championship Drogba.

shout out to keven schlotterbeck, another exceptional game! We’ve got ourselves a bargain.

Bragg and Fellows had a massive impact when they came on, unlike Bristols City’s subs who seemed to take the wind out their sails.

Matsuki is a work horse, really like him as a player.

really bad reaction from Leo after being subbed, stormed down the tunnel kicking doors!! But was back out by the final whistle 

[AlexLaw76]

Shout to the ref. You win 4-1 and still think it was shit.

worst thing is, his ability to ref was even discussed on the commentary.

 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

2 hours ago, tdmickey3 said:

Apparently Tonda doing a lap around the pitch on his own

To be fair, he did that Tuesday night as well.

[Sheaf Saint]

41 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

Bristol City were fucking dirty and the ref  wasn’t great.

So what you're saying is that when it came to the nitty gritty, Bristol City were pretty shitty and the ref showed no pity for the reality of their activity, thus giving his complicity.

[Football Special]

2 hours ago, tdmickey3 said:

Apparently Tonda doing a lap around the pitch on his own

Was basically the same he does every home game, generally let's the players go first then follows behind 

[tdmickey3]

24 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

To be fair, he did that Tuesday night as well.

👍

[Saint Fan CaM]

** Just came here to say I don’t like international breaks. At least not when we’re starting a nice little vein of form. Glad that’s off my chest. ** 😵‍💫

[kjurwi]

Schlotterbeck and Wood works great as CD pairing. 

Schlotterbeck Motm 

[die Mannyschaft]

2 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

Bristol City were fucking dirty and the ref  wasn’t great.

Ref must have been told by EFL and Boro not to give us free kicks. 

[die Mannyschaft]

2 minutes ago, kjurwi said:

Schlotterbeck and Wood works great as CD pairing. 

Schlotterbeck Motm 

His positioning to clear off line, blocking and passing is top class. 

[Teamsaint1]

Matsuki was exceptional today I thought. Must be a mangers dream. And his goal was just a lovely piece  of football. 
if we can just get a few clean sheets the  away wins will come.

The goals we are scoring are so classy ATM.
 

[die Mannyschaft]

1st half we got away with some sloppy defending and didnt close down on edge box. But some great sliding tackles today.

Manning got several crucial blocks in, Azaz was again trying to get his assist for opponents up, then assists goal and scores one thd most unpredictable player.

Overall a decent performance all round again and we seam to be able to get results even with a log of passing around that looks to be doing nothing.

Bristol City kept thier formation most of the time and we need a bit more movement upfront. See photos of where Saints position themselves as we do the playoff from back, almost identical all 1st half. The keeper tried the long balls and some deliveries almost got through 

But another 3 points and goal diff up.

A win at Wrexham will keep confidence going 

 

[Saint Pete]

It's good that it sounds like Mubama did much better today in his sub role and his assist for Azaz's goal should boost his confidence. It's going to be so important to our season overall that we have a good enough option to sub on in that position that it gives confidence to the manager that he can give Larin a longer rest sometimes. 

[Ekelund]

15 minutes ago, die Mannyschaft said:

His positioning to clear off line, blocking and passing is top class. 

Agreed, looks a great signing but he seems to have a moment (clanger) in him every game. Tbf, if he didn’t we probably couldn’t have got him. Happy to ignore it 😅

[die Mannyschaft]

1 minute ago, Ekelund said:

Agreed, looks a great signing but he seems to have a moment (clanger) in him every game. Tbf, if he didn’t we probably couldn’t have got him. Happy to ignore it 😅

Yes turning around in our own box with 2 or 3 Bristol trying to get ball will be overlooked.

[SuperSAINT]

Lovely result.  Cant wait to get Jander back in and around the team, too.

[saintant]

4 hours ago, Vancouver Saint said:

Great result - if the plan was to allow them twice as many shots as us - get extremely lucky they didn't take any of four or five really good chances in the first half and beat them on the breakaway with some really calm, clinical finishes - then brilliant!

If that wasn't the plan then the game I watched was a much more even one, with Bristol City easily giving as good as they got and looking capable, even more likely to equalise and perhaps go on to win until Matsuki's goal.

Which game did you see?  

Score was 4-1. A big part of the game is putting the ball in the net and we did that far better than Brizzle. Simples.

[die Mannyschaft]

The other point forgot to mention is why does Scienza take corners ? Has Tonda got stats that says corners delivered low to defenders at near post produce a high expectancy of goals.

My son says managers like to hit thd corners waist high drilled in as mistakes happen and deflections, flick ons cause goals. Not for us though. I would have Scienza on edge box ready to shoot and JWP take corners 

[SaintBobby]

Play pretty badly and win 4-1. I’ll take that!

[Sir Ralph]

3 hours ago, Viking Saint said:

Just play Welington FFS. Manning can't defend.

I agree Defensively a bit short but he gives a lot going forward and from set pieces 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

The mark of a good team, not be at your best but still win. First half an hour or so, really under the pump. Very fortunate not to one or two down by then. Ballard, who many wanted back here was guilty of missing a few decent openings for them. Larin is just a beast at this level, if he stays fit and we continue to create what we do, he'll be Champioship top scorer. The best thing, we will get even better. We've not hit anything like top gear yet.

[CSA96]

 

[Dr Who?]

2 hours ago, Swaythling Saint said:

Immense result against a team we've not had the best results against. Again so pleased we have Larin and Peretz in our team (why was the ref allowed for this one!?)

This is a myth. Our home firm against this lot is pretty good. Does this come from them ending our unbeaten run and then autos last season? 

In the last 4 at SMS we have won 3 and drawn one. We lost the 2 before this 0-1. But it is hardly a horrendous record. 

[S-Clarke]

There were a couple of really positive elements to us today, which in my eyes bodes really well for us setting ourselves up to be a very successful team this year.

We were under the cosh for a good portion of that 1st half, we couldn't get into the rhythm of the game - but through grit and determination we seemed to be able to grind ourselves through it, not very pleasant to watch as we couldn't get going, but we showed a very good side to us where we just dug in and rode the storm. We seem capable of doing that these days, which hasn't been the case for some time.

The other element was how clinical we were, Bristol City had much better chances - and more of them - but for the smaller amount of chances we had, we were clinical with them. We didn't need a bucket load, we are very efficient with Larin, Azaz, Matsuki in the attack - they're not the sort of forwards who need 5 or 6 chances to score.

Those two elements are what pleases me the most, the ability to dig in when things aren't going our way, and to then follow it up with such a strong clinical edge where we can just kill a game in a matter of minutes. The best teams do exactly that.

Larin just scores goals, I don't know what we've fed him since he came here, but the bloke is a machine. His hold up play is great, his touch and movement off the ball is equally as good...but his finishing is next level stuff, I don't think we've had as good a finisher as him since Ings was banging them in. I've certainly not felt this confident for a while as I do when I see him barrelling down on goal.

I really enjoy the attack - either Fellows, Azaz, Larin, Leo. Or Matsuki, Larin, Azaz, Leo - it's so interchangeable and fluid, we can swap out Fellows and it still works. It's quite a scary attack because we can hurt teams from so many different angles. I enjoyed Muambas cameo today, that's what you want him to do - use his strength to bully CB's, keep the ball up top, make runs and stretch it - great assist and movement for the Azaz goal. I'm still looking forward to Dobbin making his mark here, looking back at his highlights the other day shows that he's a pretty tidy player when in form.

Overall this looks like a proper team to me. It's been such a long time since I've felt a connection with a Southampton team, but this lot are starting to grow on me. Larin, Leo, Azaz, Matsuki, Keven, Peretz, Bree, Manning, Downes. It's become such a powerful and consistent spine at this level (special mention to Keven, he's only just come here but it feels like he's been here forever).

To start the season on -4 and end game 6 on 10 points is great. We couldn't afford a slow start and we certainly haven't had one. One more game to finish this block off before a quite ridiculously long international break, but there we go.

Edited 2 hours ago by S-Clarke

[Saint Pete]

38 minutes ago, saintant said:

Score was 4-1. A big part of the game is putting the ball in the net and we did that far better than Brizzle. Simples.

Yes of course. But it's also important not to get too carried away thinking "it's another thumping home win" when on another day if Bristol were a little sharper up front, it could have been a very different scoreline. We have started sluggishly in a few games now, we need to improve that when we play the real top contenders like West Ham, Wolves etc or we will likely be punished. But great result and a lot of positives too of course. 

[Saint_lambden]

7 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

There were a couple of really positive elements to us today, which in my eyes bodes really well for us setting ourselves up to be a very successful team this year.

We were under the cosh for a good portion of that 1st half, we couldn't get into the rhythm of the game - but through grit and determination we seemed to be able to grind ourselves through it, not very pleasant to watch as we couldn't get going, but we showed a very good side to us where we just dug in and rode the storm. We seem capable of doing that these days, which hasn't been the case for some time.

The other element was how clinical we were, Bristol City had much better chances - and more of them - but for the smaller amount of chances we had, we were clinical with them. We didn't need a bucket load, we are very efficient with Larin, Azaz, Matsuki in the attack - they're not the sort of forwards who need 5 or 6 chances to score.

Those two elements are what pleases me the most, the ability to dig in when things aren't going our way, and to then follow it up with such a strong clinical edge where we can just kill a game in a matter of minutes. The best teams do exactly that.

Larin just scores goals, I don't know what we've fed him since he came here, but the bloke is a machine. His hold up play is great, his touch and movement off the ball is equally as good...but his finishing is next level stuff, I don't think we've had as good a finisher as him since Ings was banging them in. I've certainly not felt this confident for a while as I do when I see him barrelling down on goal.

I really enjoy the attack - either Fellows, Azaz, Larin, Leo. Or Matsuki, Larin, Azaz, Leo - it's so interchangeable and fluid, we can swap out Fellows and it still works. It's quite a scary attack because we can hurt teams from so many different angles. I enjoyed Muambas cameo today, that's what you want him to do - use his strength to bully CB's, keep the ball up top, make runs and stretch it - great assist and movement for the Azaz goal. I'm still looking forward to Dobbin making his mark here, looking back at his highlights the other day shows that he's a pretty tidy player when in form.

Overall this looks like a proper team to me. It's been such a long time since I've felt a connection with a Southampton team, but this lot are starting to grow on me. Larin, Leo, Azaz, Matsuki, Keven, Peretz, Bree, Manning, Downes. It's become such a powerful and consistent spine at this level (special mention to Keven, he's only just come here but it feels like he's been here forever).

To start the season on -4 and end game 6 on 10 points is great. We couldn't afford a slow start and we certainly haven't had one. One more game to finish this block off before a quite ridiculously long international break, but there we go.

It's not. He's a great goalscorer but part of the reason the ball keeps coming back at us is his inability to hold the ball up. Today for example - he completed just 3 passes. From Jan to May it got covered up by the fact we had Stewart as well who was excellent at that. 

But his goals value far outweighs it, of course. So we just need to find a way to control games better so we're not under the cosh so much if we can't make the ball stick at the top end of the pitch. 

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, Saint_lambden said:

It's not. He's a great goalscorer but part of the reason the ball keeps coming back at us is his inability to hold the ball up. Today for example - he completed just 3 passes. From Jan to May it got covered up by the fact we had Stewart as well who was excellent at that. 

But his goals value far outweighs it, of course. So we just need to find a way to control games better so we're not under the cosh so much if we can't make the ball stick at the top end of the pitch. 

No, I disagree. I think his hold up play in key moments is great, his ability to even get a small nick on it to play in others. Sometimes it bounces off of him, sure, but I think it would give him a disservice to say he doesn't offer us anything in the sense of holding it up or playing off him.

[Saint86]

5 hours ago, Toussaint said:

Was he onside?

Tolaj was onside, but pretty sure this guy in front of Peretz is obstructing his view / interfering.

He's a poor referee tbh - its also laughable that he's born in bristol and a former player of both bristol clubs - and yet he's refereeing one of them... that just shouldn't happen 😅😂 (i'm aware that he's not at fault for their goal, merely commenting on the position it puts him in as a ref).

Edited 2 hours ago by Saint86

[Swaythling Saint]

34 minutes ago, Dr Who? said:

This is a myth. Our home firm against this lot is pretty good. Does this come from them ending our unbeaten run and then autos last season? 

In the last 4 at SMS we have won 3 and drawn one. We lost the 2 before this 0-1. But it is hardly a horrendous record. 

Another user shared a table earlier in the thread showing results and our results in the championship against them aren't good - but yes at home we do have a good record against them.

[Golac's Cunning Stunts]

16 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

Tolaj was onside, but pretty sure this guy in front of Peretz is obstructing his view / interfering.

He's a poor referee tbh - its also laughable that he's born in bristol and a former player of both bristol clubs - and yet he's refereeing one of them... that just shouldn't happen 😅😂 (i'm aware that he's not at fault for their goal, merely commenting on the position it puts him in as a ref).

The guy who is “offside” in that pic is in no way obstructing Peretz view