Norwich 0-1 Saints - Match Thread

[Lord Duckhunter]

2 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

It’s easy to forget that last season, on 18th January we were still 15th in the table and hadn’t won in 7 games. 

That run we then went on last season was phenomenal, but overall we are in so much better shape this season. 

The league is so much tougher this season. Without rehashing previous arguments around the punishment, it was a set of favourable circumstances we’re not going to face again. We were bang on form, the sides in and around the play off’s were fucking pony. Middlesbrough have a striker now, Wolves, West Ham, the extended play offs bring the likes of Burnley into it after a terrible start. We won’t get an easier set of play off’s opponents this season, that’s for sure. 
 

As for the game. The type of away result you need a dozen or so times  to get up. We can out score sides at home, but away you need clean sheets for the days it doesn’t quite click. 
 

For a bloke with 6 months left on his contract Tonda has some confidence doesn’t he. 2 line ups which on paper look weird, two 1-0 wins. Chucking Abbott in could easily have back fired (poor defending, but decent going the other way) & Dobbin didn’t look completely hopeless second half. I don’t care that he made the goal, but Edozy is still weak & pony. That maybe one for the positive side of the ledger, but I’ve no doubt there will be more on the negative one, come May.
 

Jack & The German looked solid again, but we know Jack, a poor performance is around the corner. I guess the key is to anticipate it and leave him out before, rather than after. Although they didn’t do too much, I liked the idea of the two strikers second half, took the pressure off us a bit, rather than the ball keep coming back as in previous away games. Keeper looks back to his best again, and Jander excellent for being out so long. 
 

We need to cut out these unnecessary bookings as well, from Larin waving his yellow cards, to Manning & Azaz kicking people when they’re going nowhere. And get on with the fucking throw ins as well, we had two reversed yesterday because we were dithering. 
 

All in all a satisfactory week, just need to make sure we don’t ruin that good work with a poor result Saturday. Normally I’m worried when a player returned, worried he play well, score, or put in a performance missing from his spell with us. But it’s Baz, even if he puts in the best performance he’s capable of well, we’ll still stick 3 or 4 past him. 

[Patrick Bateman]

5 hours ago, SouthWalesSaints said:

Positives.  

Great support on the road, dogged performance, squad depth wins us a game. Dobbin was tidy, S&S at centre half compliment each other well.  JANDER. 
 

Negatives. 
 

it’s 4am. I’ve just got in. Two loan boys miles off it. 
 

 

Nice one, that's a hell of a trek midweek!!

I also liked Dobbin, he really grew into the game, I think we'll see more from him. Good to have another option to use anyway. 

[Football Special]

43 minutes ago, VectisSaint said:

Out of context. Blackmore clarified and Tonda was OK with it, maybe a misunderstanding at first. Their relationship is a bit prickly though you sense.

Blackmore is by some distance the worst interviewer I've ever heard. 

Incapable of asking a straight question

Or even just an open question and letting someone speak for themselves 

He always  leads with some waffle formed from his own opinion then asks if the manager agrees with that. "We all doubted / worried about team selection" , ffs just ask him why he made so many changes and how he felt the players did, we dont need your opinion Blackmore , its irrelevant 

Edited 4 hours ago by Football Special

[Football Special]

1 minute ago, Patrick Bateman said:

Nice one, that's a hell of a trek midweek!!

I also liked Dobbin, he really grew into the game, I think we'll see more from him. Good to have another option to use anyway. 

Lost count of the number of turns Dobbin did where he managed to put us on the attack, good to see, I liked the look of him, need to find a line up that suits him, did Azaz move more out wide and allow Dobbin to have that space? 

[Patrick Bateman]

Just now, Football Special said:

Lost count of the number of turns Dobbin did where he managed to put us on the attack, good to see, I liked the look of him, need to find a line up that suits him, did Azaz move more out wide and allow Dobbin to have that space? 

Looked like Azaz was moving to the right more often, I think. It's harder to judge those small bits of movement detail on TV than in person though. 

[Whitey Grandad]

2 hours ago, PJ said:

Do you think it's harder to overcome 4 points over 46 matches, or to overcome 5 points over 36 matches?

I'm not saying we can't do it, I'm just putting an alternative view that our challenge is statistically harder now, despite a relatively positive start.

Those 5 points are in relation to teams that will change as the season progresses.  Basically you are comparing us to a position which represents the best of a large number of possible teams and not one specific team. 5 points in 36 is less than 0.139 of a point per game. 

[Totton Saint]

11 hours ago, SNSUN said:

Good performances from Peretz, Schlott, Jack, Azaz and Matsuki but Jander was MOTM when he came on. Peretz made some decent saves though and should be happy with the clean sheet.

Jack in for two games since the break and two clean sheets.

Shame that on TV it is a job to always pick out the players faces.  So missed some of Jander's play. He looks a bit Bree from a distance too.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

1 minute ago, Totton Saint said:

Shame that on TV it is a job to always pick out the players faces.  So missed some of Jander's play. He looks a bit Bree from a distance too.

 

I struggle with Bree and Downes.  All look the same with my deteriorating eyesite these floppy haired blonde kids 😂

[Disco Stu]

Any updates on the Downes injury?

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

11 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Any updates on the Downes injury?

Haven’t seen anything definite but Tonda said shouldn’t be long and Downes hasn’t ruled himself out of Saturday.

Dobbin grew into that game last night, bit more promising. Excellent result.

And watched a stream of the game, were those commentators on a bet to how many times they could mention the skates over the 90mins? 

Edited 4 hours ago by TheAlehouseBrawlers

[hypochondriac]

Worth pointing out that we are now level on the points that Ipswich were at this stage last season even with the points deduction...

[Fitzhugh Fella]

1 hour ago, Midfield_General said:

Mubama is our other loan player

Yes thanks I had a senior moment 

[Wade Garrett]

1 hour ago, whelk said:

They brought on Maghoma, Musaba and Makama, we brought on Mubama. Those subs were tough on commentators 

That Maghoma looked decent.

[saintant]

17 minutes ago, Totton Saint said:

Shame that on TV it is a job to always pick out the players faces.  So missed some of Jander's play. He looks a bit Bree from a distance too.

 

I'll help you out - Jander is the one who oozes class and runs the game, he's easy to spot 🙂

[whelk]

Don’t often say this but thought ref did a good job

[Lighthouse]

1 minute ago, whelk said:

Don’t often say this but thought ref did a good job

You're just scared to say anything mean about him.

[WALK DMC]

Yet another successful evening game for Saints last night.

Since the beginning of last season, we've averaged 2.27 points per game (PPG) for evening matches, but only 1.55 PPG for day games. Using last season's table as an illustration, extrapolating that over a season is the difference between winning the league by 9 points, or coming 7th. 

It is beginning to look less of a statistical anomaly and more of a preference (maybe the night time atmosphere ?)

Either way, I'm now pleased that we've got Middlesbrough on a Friday night 🙂

[PerthshireSaint]

25 minutes ago, Totton Saint said:

Shame that on TV it is a job to always pick out the players faces.  So missed some of Jander's play. He looks a bit Bree from a distance too.

 

I thought he looked like Oscar Piastri.

 

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

28 minutes ago, Football Special said:

Lost count of the number of turns Dobbin did where he managed to put us on the attack, good to see

Yes, he went from being invisible in the first half to putting us on the attacking foot a few times in the second. He seems to need another striker to bounce off though not convinced Mubama can do the job.

And I think Lighthouse commented on the throw ins. Ours have been awful for years. Perhaps we could even get a throw-in coach because we never do anything positive with them. Fast recycling, long throws something different. We get a thow and it puts us on the back foot. That one to Bragg last week cost him a booking and yesterday's turnovers were just poor.

[saintant]

Great to get the second clean sheet. We are not leaking many goals and only 2 sides Swansea and QPR have conceded less than us.

[adrian lord]

The Tondameister's greatest managerial skill is in his line-ups and subs game, in my judgement. 

[UpweySaint]

Couple of thoughts having read through some of the reaction. Downes did an interview after the Portsmouth game saying the players have spoken in the dressing room about not having hit their stride yet. I know it’s easily said but if we can do this well without hitting our stride it’s promising. If we can kick on then another good run could really start to eat away at the gap to the top.

I tend to agree that Swansea may fall away based on squad depth but I remember being convinced we would catch Ipswich when they did the back to backs for exactly the same reason. They did okay with injuries and momentum seemed to carry them. Swansea are no mugs and they looked well coached so I guess they could continue to surprise a lot of people.

 

[Saint Pete]

11 hours ago, PJ said:

Another (negative) way to look at it is we're further behind the automatics now then we were at the start of the season, after almost a quarter of the season gone. I still think those 4 points will prove too much to overcome, and that we'll have to rely on the playoffs...

I think that IS a negative way to look at it. A more positive view would be that after less than a quarter of the season, we have already fully reversed the impact of the 4 point deduction on 17 of our 23 competitors (74%). We have another 36 games to pick off at least 5 of the remaining 6 teams to get top 2, and we have already started reducing the 4 point deficit on 4 of those teams.

Yes, there are 2 teams that have outperformed us so far this season, but there's no guarantee both of those teams will continue at the rate they have achieved so far. I don't think we will be far off if we continue the way we have started and I also think we have potential to improve, particularly away from home. 

[adrian lord]

We are going to have to win with metronomic regularity from now on in. 

[Badger]

1 hour ago, whelk said:

They brought on Maghoma, Musaba and Makama, we brought on Mubama. Those subs were tough on commentators 

Seem to remember Solent commentary once where they struggled with ‘Magilton’.

And an old duffer at one match who spent 90minutes calling Magilton ‘McCalliog’. 

[RedArmy]

4 hours ago, PJ said:

Do you think it's harder to overcome 4 points over 46 matches, or to overcome 5 points over 36 matches?

I'm not saying we can't do it, I'm just putting an alternative view that our challenge is statistically harder now, despite a relatively positive start.

After 10 games last year we had 12 points (6 draws and 2 wins) and were 9 points off 2nd. We lost our next 3 games and were 13 points off 2nd. Then Still got sacked and we finished 4 points behind Ipswich. 
 

We’re on 16 points after 10 games and 5 points behind 2nd. We’ve got 3 games this month that could go either way. Bolton have hit a bit of form, West Ham goes without saying and QPR look a good side this year. 
 

We’ll have a good idea of whether top 2 is achievable at the end of this month. Without that 4 point deduction we’d be talking about trying to win the league. 
 

 

[Turkish]

3 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

After 10 games last year we had 12 points (6 draws and 2 wins) and were 9 points off 2nd. We lost our next 3 games and were 13 points off 2nd. Then Still got sacked and we finished 4 points behind Ipswich. 
 

We’re on 16 points after 10 games and 5 points behind 2nd. We’ve got 3 games this month that could go either way. Bolton have hit a bit of form, West Ham goes without saying and QPR look a good side this year. 
 

We’ll have a good idea of whether top 2 is achievable at the end of this month. Without that 4 point deduction we’d be talking about trying to win the league. 
 

 

Im not interested in coming second. Winning the league is all that matters.

[RedArmy]

6 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Im not interested in coming second. Winning the league is all that matters.

Thats a bigger challenge at the moment unless Swansea fall off a bit and so far we’re the only team capable of beating them. 

Edited 2 hours ago by RedArmy

[Midfield_General]

1 hour ago, saintant said:

Great to get the second clean sheet. We are not leaking many goals and only 2 sides Swansea and QPR have conceded less than us.

Also second best goal difference and second most goals scored in the league, both after West Ham. 

All the meaningful metrics (points, PPG, GD) look pretty strong at the minute. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Midfield_General

[Saint86]

2 hours ago, VectisSaint said:

Out of context. Blackmore clarified and Tonda was OK with it, maybe a misunderstanding at first. Their relationship is a bit prickly though you sense.

Maybe out of context, but i wouldn't be confident in saying the relationship between Tonda and Blackmore is okay tbh.

End of the day, this is the same Blackmore that wanted Tonda out over spy gate, and who put out numerous pieces where he prostrated himself (and the club) in the media and poured more fuel on the fire at the time.

In fact, Blackmore came across as extremely biased against Eckert, particularly over the (unfounded) accusation/narrative that Eckert bullied junior staff, and i thought it was at best extremely unprofessional how the took those allegations as gospel when even a cursory glance at the EFL report could see there wasn't even a single piece of evidence directly linking Eckert to bullying junior staff.

Blackmore was seemingly unable or unwilling to do even the basics of reviewing the EFL report and challenge the narrative against Eckert. A narrative we now know conclusively to be baseless (although anyone who read the report at the time could see that); and it was very poor from a journalist (let alone a Southampton aligned journalist) that he failed to review the evidence before condemning the club and/or its staff for bullying.

So if Eckert does give him short shrift this year then it is deserved, and tbh, has Blackmore even apologized for or acknowledged his hysterics over Spygate?

Edited 2 hours ago by Saint86

[Midfield_General]

56 minutes ago, adrian lord said:

We are going to have to win with metronomic regularity from now on in. 

Any side that is serious about automatic promotion has to do that. And only Swansea, who are top, have won more games than us so far this season so I'd say we're doing pretty well on that front so far. 

[sockeye]

Wrong thread

 

Edited 2 hours ago by sockeye

[obelisk]

40 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

Maybe out of context, but i wouldn't be confident in saying the relationship between Tonda and Blackmore is okay tbh.

End of the day, this is the same Blackmore that wanted Tonda out over spy gate, and who put out numerous pieces where he prostrated himself (and the club) in the media and poured more fuel on the fire at the time.

In fact, Blackmore came across as extremely biased against Eckert, particularly over the (unfounded) accusation/narrative that Eckert bullied junior staff, and i thought it was at best extremely unprofessional how the took those allegations as gospel when even a cursory glance at the EFL report could see there wasn't even a single piece of evidence directly linking Eckert to bullying junior staff.

Blackmore was seemingly unable or unwilling to do even the basics of reviewing the EFL report and challenge the narrative against Eckert. A narrative we now know conclusively to be baseless (although anyone who read the report at the time could see that); and it was very poor from a journalist (let alone a Southampton aligned journalist) that he failed to review the evidence before condemning the club and/or its staff for bullying.

So if Eckert does give him short shrift this year then it is deserved, and tbh, has Blackmore even apologized for or acknowledged his hysterics over Spygate?

Fair points but I still like to listen to Going Home with Adam and Jo. Tessem has been fairer than hair-shirt Blackmore when it comes to Spygate.

[skintsaint]

3 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Any updates on the Downes injury?

[Cabrone]

Personally I think this was an excellent 3 points at a team that, IMO is in a false position just like they were this time last season and will get much better.

They play these teams at home ... QPR in Nov, Wrexham\Wolves\Charlton in Dec, Boro\Swansea in Feb, Millwall\West Ham in March.

I hope they wake up ASAP and take a tonne of points off these teams.

[Chez]

Great 3 points. No doubt about that.

We're not playing great, but we are getting results. Obviously that's far preferable to the Will Still period of playing poorly and losing. If we continue to play this way we will come unstuck at some point, but if we improve and things click into place, like they did last season, then there is no reason why we cant win the league. Points in the bag make all the difference.

Stubborn, ugly, underserved, lucky wins...are extremely welcome. Even the league winners tend to get a few of these. I'm thinking back to our promotion and the heroics at Elland Road. We were completely battered but somehow escaped with 3 points.

I am hopeful that getting Jander into the side can make a big difference.

[VectisSaint]

Like I said, a bit prickly. 🤣

[BotleySaint]

Hopefully we can follow this up with a good solid win against Bolton.

Going to need that before going into 3 very tough games against teams above us currently. Which are an opportunity to overtake those teams, or potentially fall further behind.

Enjoying the season so far. And more so now the Spygate thing is done!