Away form has been troubling; not just today and BC last weekend. We threw away a 2 goal lead at Coventry City; pulled ourselves out of that won, but it was not a position we should have put ourselves on. Chaplow is being missed, more so than I would have thought at the start of the season - he has been immense. Cork seems to be suffering a dip in form and management needs to address this quickly. We were always short of a striker at the start of the season and recent loss of DC has not helped matters. Need Ricky back asap. I hope also we drip into the transfer market in January to make up of the shortage. Barnard does not look fit; looks a little out sorts too - but that is not surprising with the injury and the court case hanging over him. Back to away form; tactically we have lost our way; I think we are trying too hard for the win, we put too much pressure on what is still a young team, sometimes its better to let the other team come onto you and then look to punish them. The other results went well for us - we got off this weekend lightly. We will not get so lucky again unless we improve mentally and tactically.
I have said it all season..... I will be happy when we get to 55 points and are totally safe from relegation. Didnt expect us to be top at any point this season and would take a play off spot now. Wish the fans would lay off bit so we have lost a few games so what most of you would have been happy at mid table finish at the end of season as would I have been when we started the season. This is a tough division were anyobdy can beat anybody. We are having a bit of blip get over it but this recent run of games does show how weak the squad is as a whole... time to get the cheque book me thinks Nicola!
But looking at the bigger picture we are only in the third year of the five year plan, and the goal is to be competitive in the Premier League. It won't be a disaster if we don't get promoted, disappointing maybe, but we will still be 'on schedule' with probably a much stronger team next season.
Regardless of where we are I'd expect to beat the team bottom of the league. It's not acceptable IMO to lose this game and say "oh well we're still top" because fact is we need to stop relying on other results to not punish us! I would not be happy with a play off place after being 8 points clear of 3rd with 1/3 if the season gone. It needs to be sorted!
In this league anyone can beat anyone else - that is why it is such a tough league! Doesn't matter if you are top or bottom. Gee, even I can see that.
Hi all. I didn't watch or listen so I don't know yet whether we deserved to lose or are musing about Dick Turpin wearing a mask. But don't forget we are still 8 points from third (ok Cardiff playing tomorrow but 5 is still a lot), so let's not start declaring the season over just yet. I am sure Nigel will be drawing a blue line under this one and moving on to Blackpool.
Saints fans should know better than anyone what it is like for a bottom team to beat the top teams in the league, we were famous for it in the Premier League. At the end of the day it is 11 players v 11 and teams can have a bad day at the office. I agree that our away form needs to improve to achieve promotion, but you don't become a bad team or manager overnight and i'm sure the Nigel and the lads will turn it around soon.
In ANY League any one can beat anyone on any given day , it's just that we are Dropping to many points away from home !!!!!
Especially West Ham. Agree 100%. For goodness' sake everybody, we are still top of the league! Just have a little faith in Nigel and the boys. We couldn't keep up the amazing form for the whole season, instead we will have to grind out a few games to get back on track. That's what happens in a highly competitive league like the Championship. We'll be fine, trust Nigel.
HOW? It's not like we can just click a ****ing switch and we'll be picking up more points away, is it?
No, we're not. Win all our home games and lose less than half our away games and we should be in the top two. We are still ahead of the curve...it is one bad result - BIG DEAL!
Indeed. Lots of people are saying that our away needs be sorted, but few people are actually suggesting how (the january transfer aside).
Easy , Flick the right switch !!! Seriously though I don't know how , perhaps instead of trying outright for the win from the off , sit back and let them come at us and attack on the break ? Like they do to us ? But it's not easy I am just expressing my opinion .
we need to tighten up and play more defensively away from home and not play 3 centre midfielders across a four man midfield, start holmes and lallana on the wings and 2 from cork hammond and spiderman, transfers wise i think we must get either maynrad or jayrod AND a like for like BACKUP for rickie!
This is what Nigel said about our next away game "Oh well,law of averages we're due to get a win away from home then,so we are looking forward to that one very much so...and again that will be a very lively one" hehe
Sort our away form? To me quite simple, 4 2 4 is fine at home but would prefer 4 2 3 1 Just watch the top prem teams especially when playing away in Champs League. Control the middle of the park and you control the game
I honestly don't think we would've lost the game had Rickie played, the truth is that we don't know how to play without him as he has been ever present in the team for 2 years. He is superb at holding up the play and bringing others in and similarly with his flick ons and all round heading ability. We just don't have any other player that can do the job as well as he does. NA tried something different today and it clearly wasn't as effective as our usual formation, Guly cannot play the role that Rickie does, so the ball was played to feet much more, but it may just be that this new formation needs time to be successful.
