Hi fellow Saints fans!
Not a regular poster but always enjoy reading everyones opinions and debates
After todays result and then reading the inevitable backlash and criticism of the team by a number of Saints fans I thought it would be useful to put into context exactly what todays result meant...
Ok, so we lost our hugely impressive run of home victories but still I thought it was a good performance today (in the main) against what is a reasonably good (if inconsistant) Blackpool team and I think importantly for the boys we are still 'undefeated' at home. After West Ham's defeat at Reading we are still a whole win clear at the top and maintain the 5 point gap to being outside the automatic places. We also still have the comfort of an 11 point gap from being outside the playoff places.
I think a lot of the criticism of certain team players... that usually comes on the 'team ratings' thread is rather OTT, for example;
Bart - Yes he had a poor game where he looked nervous pretty much throughout but we have seen him enough times to know he is a good back-up goalkeeper. He will learn from this experience and become stronger from it.
Hooiveld and Fonte - People seem to be giving them harsh marks. Hooiveld dominated in the air all day and Fonte did well sweeping up anything that got past him as well as playing the ball out of defence to good effect throughout.
Guly - We all know by now what we are going to get with Guly, he will drift in and out of the game but the important thing from today was that he continued to work hard and when we went forward he looked a threat and linked up pretty well with Lambert and Lallana especially.
We have to remember that players are not going to play out their skins every week but watching the game today I did not see any players that had a particularly bad game (other than Bart obv) and I thought that the team responded well to the challenges that came from both Blackpool, the goalkeeping errors and the Referee!
What makes me sure that this team will do their very best and in my opinion secure Saints premier league football next season is their belief in themselves and in the team. After we conceeded the second goal and took a bit of time to regain our momentum the camera cut to Adkins and he was bellowing at the players "believe it, believe it!" and the players responded by creating a host of chances throughout the second half and I think with a little bit more luck and being slightly more clinical, especially De Ridder with the chance at the end we actually could have won the game.
Adkins believes in the team, the team showed today that they believe in themselves and I for one believe in them and our club too...
So come on everybody, lets try and be a little more positive and have a bit more faith in the boys. Bring on Pompey!!!
Not a regular poster but always enjoy reading everyones opinions and debates
After todays result and then reading the inevitable backlash and criticism of the team by a number of Saints fans I thought it would be useful to put into context exactly what todays result meant...
Ok, so we lost our hugely impressive run of home victories but still I thought it was a good performance today (in the main) against what is a reasonably good (if inconsistant) Blackpool team and I think importantly for the boys we are still 'undefeated' at home. After West Ham's defeat at Reading we are still a whole win clear at the top and maintain the 5 point gap to being outside the automatic places. We also still have the comfort of an 11 point gap from being outside the playoff places.
I think a lot of the criticism of certain team players... that usually comes on the 'team ratings' thread is rather OTT, for example;
Bart - Yes he had a poor game where he looked nervous pretty much throughout but we have seen him enough times to know he is a good back-up goalkeeper. He will learn from this experience and become stronger from it.
Hooiveld and Fonte - People seem to be giving them harsh marks. Hooiveld dominated in the air all day and Fonte did well sweeping up anything that got past him as well as playing the ball out of defence to good effect throughout.
Guly - We all know by now what we are going to get with Guly, he will drift in and out of the game but the important thing from today was that he continued to work hard and when we went forward he looked a threat and linked up pretty well with Lambert and Lallana especially.
We have to remember that players are not going to play out their skins every week but watching the game today I did not see any players that had a particularly bad game (other than Bart obv) and I thought that the team responded well to the challenges that came from both Blackpool, the goalkeeping errors and the Referee!
What makes me sure that this team will do their very best and in my opinion secure Saints premier league football next season is their belief in themselves and in the team. After we conceeded the second goal and took a bit of time to regain our momentum the camera cut to Adkins and he was bellowing at the players "believe it, believe it!" and the players responded by creating a host of chances throughout the second half and I think with a little bit more luck and being slightly more clinical, especially De Ridder with the chance at the end we actually could have won the game.
Adkins believes in the team, the team showed today that they believe in themselves and I for one believe in them and our club too...
So come on everybody, lets try and be a little more positive and have a bit more faith in the boys. Bring on Pompey!!!
