The best home performance of the season by a country mile and against a very decent Crystal Palace side who never gave up. Redmond probably had his best performance in a Saints shirt with the bionic Stephen Davis, Romeu, Soares and Tadic all being exceptional. The midfield gave it's best performance of the season and I with young McQueen acquitted himself superbly too. Long played really well and whilst I can appreciate some of the comments regarding his shots / goal ratio, I felt tonight he was thwarted by a goalkeeper who is completely at the top of his game and who, in another match without a Saints team humming like that, might have picked up a man of the match award. The performance was very much enhanced by the fact that we seemed to exploit the flanks more than has been the case at St Mary's. With Hennessey, I felt this game would probably have been more comprehensive even though I felt that the Palace forward line were certainly not without their own merit. Palace also contributed to the excitement, A couple of controversial moments for the ref including the own goal and the tackle prior to Saint's first goal which looked from distance that it should have been a Palace free kick. I believe Allardyce was incensed but I didn't see his remonstration. Much, more entertaining than the pre-match build up had suggested.
I reckon the ref just didn't want anyone to have to use that rebuilt penalty spot tonight. Either that or he was blind. Vin
Thanks. I thought Shane was excellent - ran himself to a standstill and scared the bejeebers out of their defence. His runs were a million times better than Jay's on Saturday and I don't think he was flagged offside more than a couple of times. He pulled the defence around allowing Tadic and Redmond space. And hats off to Steven Davis - he should have had a penalty when he nearly had his leg broken as he was about to stick the ball away, but he ran and ran. If Prowsey ran 12 km I reckon Davis did more. A great result and everyone played well - and Cedric so nearly got his goal - was thinking of you, Vin
We are really starting to see the fruits of Puel and the squad's labour on the training field and a team that he has stamped his authority on. I like what i'm seeing, brave and composed on the ball under pressure, building from the back, intricate movements around the penalty area and working the ball to the byline and keeping going until the final whistle. I can't wait until Manolo, Charlie and VVD are back as we will be even more effective at both ends of the pitch.
Nice words from the pundits about JWP as well, and they didn't try and sell him on to a big club for once.
As I saw it SD was travelling pretty fast and couldn't avoid contact but it should have been called a foul, I won't blame Mr East because the linesman was inches away and didn't wave, no help to the Referee who was some distance away.
