I wasn't too upset by the game. Second half showed the potential, unfortunately first half showed the reality. I just don't see this team cutting it with this defense. If Saints can hang on until January and not be more than five points adrift, I think if they can get two good defenders fast they will stay up.
Just back in. The second half performance was a pleasure to watch, and it was obvious that Nigel had a word. In the first half we were passing so slowly and eventually stopped passing outside of our half, resorting to Fox hoofing it up the left side. When we came out, we started to play foot all from the off, and it was noticeable that the passing was so much quicker. You could feel that the goal was coming and we built pressure, the atmosphere was excellent during this period. The only observation about the double substitution is not the players chosen but the fact that they came at a point where we were really putting the pressure on, and this seemed to break our flow. I felt the same thing about the Man U game. It's the timing which seems strange, but I am very encouraged and think we will improve the squad in January and be fine.
Really? No... REALLY a pleasure? You must be easily pleased as 10 minutes of pressure out of 90 for a home game, is not really something to be proud of in my book. We badly let Spurs off the hook, I don't think they could quite believe how we took our foot off the gas in the last 15 minutes, instead of battering them like we should of.
The same guys. The fat one asked me if you'd sold your ticket. He said: "Ey, where's your mate, he sold his ticket? Could probably have made £30 out of that!" :Z
Could be MOTD editing but from the highlights we were all over them second half. Commentator mentioned that we were cutting their defence to pieces!
We played with more intensity in the second half and this is how we will have to approach all games in this division.We have to play cup tie football because there is a difference in class head for head and there will be in most games if we stand of any of these teams we will lose.Second half Spurs gave the ball away much more as the passion in our play began to force errors ,last season our controlled passing football was great against lesser teams .I know Nigel is reluctant to change our style and thats fine but we are going to have to harry, force and get closer to these sides to enable us to compete and play the good attacking stuff we are capable of .No standing off and no giving to much respect to the opposition.It also rouses the passion within the stadium which is important as when the team cranked it up so did the home crowd.
We dominated in the second half. We had more possession and our stats were similar to Spurs overall which demonstrates how good we were in the second half. Those 11 shots must have been almost totally second half. They did more fouls and 3 yellows which usually shows a degree of desperation. The team came out fired up...we should start like that. Sitting back and absorbing pressure isn't working for us...leaves us playing catch up. On the 2nd half performance, we deserved a draw minimum. The first half was depressing for fans and players alike as we looked like sure fire relegation candidates...second half showed that we can still compete. Must play 90 min and not 45!
CBK, if I am too easily pleased as you previously inferred, then you are perhaps a bit too begrudging in your praise! If you can't find anything to admire in that second half performance then I wonder what you gain from attending?
The second half was just like last season...we were confident and played attacking football. I went home in a far better mood than if I'd left at half time. Seeds of hope.
The first half dominance by Spurs was, in my opinion down to our two CM playing on the toes of our CBs. If you give Tom Huddlestone 30 yards of space, he'll look like Platini. Second half they didn't sit as deep and spurs didn't have that time in the middle.
I agree that Saints need to play a 90+ minute game - this is what the group that i was with were saying after the game, as were when leaving Upton Park the week before. They have performed really well for short bursts in most games this season but not for the full 90 minutes. Even the 4-1 win over Aston Villa came in the 2nd half after under-performing in the 1st half and going in at 0-1 down. 1st half yesterday was so dire and we didnt have one shot that i can remember - 2nd half yesterday was pretty good and we had quite a few shots and chances to score, in fact on another day we would have won 3 or 4 - 2. However these ' another days ' have to start happening pretty soon and hopefully November will be the month to turn the tide a little.
Me too, I arrived at St Marys with a serious headache, spent half an hour before kick off, just dozing, by full time the headache was forgotten and I went home feeling a lot better than when I first got there. West Brom could be quite interesting, they are team that are definitely on the up, but seem to be suffering from more than their fair share of bad luck.
I haven't seen the stats but it seemed to me even in the first half we had most of the possesion, they just didn't know what to do with it. We past it around the back 6, before someone eventually lobbed a hopefull ball forward. Their two goals came because it seemed we were scared to tackle Lennon, they made him look like Messi. Our second half performance was really good. Also I thought we looked like a different team when Mayuka came on the pitch. He made those runs that Punch didn't, and really stretched their defence a little bit. He should start in my opinion. Ben Reeves also looked like a capable player, better than Fox who had been extremely average. I left the ground feeling quite happy, it's a shame we couldn't get any points out of it, but we did pepper their goal second half. It was also a better starting line up than we've had in recent weeks, with Lambert playing the whole 90 minutes. If we'd given that second half performace from the start we would have won easily. And fans, why boo our players at half time? It's not helping. Someone was singling Boruc out for the second goal as well, it wasn't even his fault.
On the contrary, we didn't sit back and absorb pressure, look at the build up to the first goal, Fox is pushed high up the pitch and not in position to challenge Defoe on the wing, not a position you'd expect him to be in if we were "sitting back". For the second goal Lennon is running at the defence high up the pitch and they're all forced to run backwards, he's already past the midfield on the halfway line, again not a defensive position. I think the correct thing to do would have been start more defensively and then come out attacking in the second half.
If we maintain the way we played in the second half for the next 5 games, we'll be fine - especially with players coming back from injury. Defense is a worry, but presumably that will be fixed in January.
The defending was pretty good yesterday to be fair. I don't think many teams could have prevented Spurs' two goals. Clyne could have been a bit tighter on Bale, but he has a good 6 inches on him anyway.
