Cant remember the last time a started a thread, but probably because they not very good. But they is a few saints fan at work, and we were thinking of one word to sum-up our whole season. Mine is 'Exhausting' Because it has been exhausting. What's your word to sum-up the season and why? From Andoversaint Bored at work. Love you guys been a brilliant season. Bring on Premier league!!!!!
ageing...my heart rate in some of those games was nothing short of dangerous, and definitely found grey hairs that weren't there before
Ok, I'm going to hijack this thread a little and be a bit controversial.......but I actually think we underachieved. I think it was well within our grasp to win the Championship. I can only really think of 4 games that we maybe got a lucky result; Reading, Leeds and Millwall away, and Blackpool at home (although we probably should have won that one in the last minute even though we were outplayed). Then look at the games we lost. Bristol City home and away and Doncaster away. Now, be honest, a team with Premier League ambitions should be winning against these two teams who struggled all season. Other games that we should have achieved a better result (in that we largely dominated but couldn't get the job done); Leicester and Cardiff away, both games against Portsmouth and Reading at home. Blackpool away we could easily have been two up before they got started and Middlesbrough away we threw away the perfect start. I genuinely believe that if we had played to our ability throughout the season and not given away some silly goals we could have walked away with the division. Player for player we were a match for any team. We played West Ham and Middlesbrough at home when they near the top of the league and looking to be our main competitors and we completely outplayed both of them. Having said that I can perfectly understand why people think we have overachieved given where we started from. Also, I haven't watched other teams in the way I watch Southampton so no doubt you could summarise their seasons in a similar fashion to the above. Now if 'overachieve" can be applied to next season, I'll be a happy chap.
I'll hijack it a little further and explain why I believe Saints over-achieved. It was because we had a League One side who were promoted, and with a few additions were expected to do reasonably well in the Championship, in the first season. From early on, Nigel stated that he would like to be in the top-ten, for the race to promotion. It was a good realistic goal to achieve for halfway through the season, and it was only at the January window and beyond, did he up his own personal expectation for the team to make auto-promotion, by winning the title. By aiming very high or trying to over-achieve greatly, he knew the team could make the odd few mistakes and overcome unavoidable circumstances, like injuries to key players, and still be there or thereabouts. In a sense it was planning for over-achievement. Cortese was prepared for this also because from February, I believe he had the planned finances for the PL in place, should they be required. I think only with hindsight can one make a case for Saints underachieving, and just because Norwich did the same spectacular job the season before doesn't lessen the achievement in any way. Both clubs did extraordinarily well and over-achieved. What is real is that now Saints have set their own standard bar very high. Once again, the current players, plus a few additions, will be asked to go again next season. Let's see if they can over-achieve and do better than the goals they set out for themselves at the beginning of the season.
