No not the one that went out of the ground, but the free flowing confident football that saints posessed at the start of the season! Being away in australia and being such a passionate fan, ive had to deal with saintsplayer at silly am, and watch all the games that have been televised. The beginning of the season i could hear and see through highlights that we were playing some lovely football, Lallana tearing up defences, midfielders creating chances left right and centre, and some lovely link up play up the top. Todays game was unbelievably poor! i cant remember many time we played 5-10 passes at a time, it was relentless hoof from the back up to the top....which was evident that there was no way in making that work. Lambert scores most his goals how? By getting the ball wide and whipping a sweet ball onto his head, evident from todays goal! Today was full of relaxation, lack of passion and unltimately that killer punch that we needed! Top of the league, cant complain, were still in the position every club wants to be in, i just want to see that passion and play were capable of returning. COYS
Dissagree with pretty much everything that your saying to be honest mate. Yeh ok so our away from isn't great and the match today wasnt a great one. But out of the two teams out there we were the only one playing any good football. On another day we take a few of our chances that we created. You got to remember it is a derby game and away from home and it is not always possibly to play the football we started the season with especially when a team plays to disrupt and get a point. There were periods today where we kept the ball well and looked really dangerous. Stop over reacting, as you said yourself we are still a point clear.
I don't think i over reacted in anything i wrote mate, a simple view from how i see our form currently, can you say no wins in December is what we would hope for? 2 home games to hopefully put it right! Yes it was a derby game, and yes it was always going to be scrappy, but does that mean that you cant show a certain passion? Apart from the goal, can you remember a memorable save their keeper had to make? Im far from complaining because im one who would happily have seen us finish mid table this season, but with with the position were in comes a certain expectation from fans? Simply put i was pointing out the lack of passion, creativity and excitement from our play today! Heres to many more wins and points to come, Together as one! .... or get off the bus
Agreed that we are on a poor run of form but if you look at the games (and there have only been 3!) there were 2 tricky away games and a game at home to a very good Blackpool side that we actually could have beaten. I thought the lads showed a fair amount of passion today, what are you after? 2 footers, reds and yellows all over the place? I never saw our players shirk a tackle (apart from Guly obviously!). How about the save from Guly to make it 2-0 and game over? Can you remember Davis' having to make a save? The main reason that you didn't see as much creativity and excitement in our play today was because Pompey set up not to loose and to restrict our play. As you say together as one but still lets not over react... if we don't beat Bristol City or Crystal Palace at home then I will be right with you! But win those 2 (as expected) and we will still be clear at the top come 2012.
Disagree with the majority of what you've said. If you couldn't see passion from Deano or Cork, you wouldn't have seen it from anyone.
Not on here to argue mate, the reason i rarely post is i know every persons opinion gets criticised by somebody with another one (wasnt far wrong with this one) No i wasnt after 2 footers, and cards flying about, but theres a certain desire if you get a throw, dont lazily walk along and take an age, when you get a corner dont just walk over slowly and look dis interested, theres certain aspects of the game that show the other team you mean business, we looked like we were playing into their hands and slowing the game down, looking dis interested and more than happy for a point. 6 more points before New Year will be lovely, as will a couple of new faces in Jan. COYS
I agree the skates came in to the game with a couple of good results behind them and we have had a slight blip of late they were at home and i thought we would be up against it today.It was no classic but we were the better side considering the little good football played and Kelvin had so little to do even Bart could have played.I think we will still push on from here and we will add some quality in jan. No reason to be negative even Claridge said we should not be judged on this one game but on the standards already set are we supposed to win every week in style some fans can be niave
Sainted7 - I don't altogether disagree with you. I tend to go to more away games than home games due to living in the east midlands and have to say we have changed recently to a more direct style but a lot of that is because teams have stopped us rolling the ball out of defence and knocking it around at leisure
For what it's worth, you both sound reasonable to me, and neither of you sound naive either. Where did the free flowing football go? Well, we know that teams now close us down quickly to give us no time on the ball. It was also not an ideal pitch to play that style of football upon. How many slips did we see? Difficult to commit to the rapid changes of direction which that free-flow gorgeous footy demands. Or am I just be naive?
Guarantee the second half of the season won't be as easy as the first half for you Here's to your downfall
Was at today's game and in a low position - pitch was like a paddy field, well what do you expect from nottarF kraP. Poor playing surfaces don't aid free-flowing footy. Saints played some good stuff in the second half considering the conditions
I appreciate where you are coming from, to be honest we have been a bit spoilt, but against a workmanlike side such as Pompey put out today, on a greasy pudding of a pitch, happy tappy passing game would get you nowhere, our lads put in a more tactile effort, how they kept it clean enough to only register one booking is beyond me, there was no lack of commitment, so there must have been a good bit of discipline involved. As you say top of the League, but yes, there is still a bit to complain about, we don't score from corners, we don't play with enough width when we play all three central midfielders, we are still a bit light within the squad, something that should be rectified in January. We got off to a flying start and it is only now that the opposition has cottoned on to our methods and are counteracting them, there are few fools in the Championship. We have to find new ways to grind out our points for the second half of the season and I suspect some of the games may not be pretty.
slick football goes out the window on Derby Days. You do get the odd thriller but they are usually scrappy games.
Morgan is being completely wasted out on the wing. He is probably the best passer of the ball in the championship and yet he is playing on the right wing. To me this is a fundamental reason in why our football has gone slightly pearshaped. Earlier in the season he would get it and move it on, get it move it on, he is the player to pull the strings and keep us ticking.
We may not have kept possession quite as well as you, but there were a few points where we were playing pretty good football and kept possession well.
I actually only lasted 20 min before I had to go and hide (no good at watching televized games), but my impression was that we had been instructed by Adkins to slow the tempo down when playing the ball from the back. No quick kicks from Kelv. Doubt it was lack of passion..more don't give the ball away by playing hastily when we aren't chasing the game. At the beginning of the season we were scoring from all over the field, but now we have the pressure of being top (better than being bottom!) and teams are treating us with respect. Our home form is excellent and our away form isn't bad...I don't think there is any sign that we are falling apart.
