So do I a little bit. With all that height and looks you'd think he'd have a head start. But he caught a cross from Stoke at exactly the right time, late in the game, and you could see the Stoke players slumped a little at the prospect of getting the ball past him, so he's winning me over. Artur had a great game today by all accounts. Saved a penalty in Bournemouth's 8[Eight]-0 win Away at Brum.
Just found a very extensive and very interesting interview with Dušan Tadić. It's in a Serbian paper so you'll have to google translate it (I can help if there are bit especially poorly translated) http://www.b92.net/sport/intervjui/intervjui.php?yyyy=2014&mm=10&nav_category=91&nav_id=915870
Popped across to BBC Final Score at 5.15pm and caught John Hartson and Steve Claridge being absolutely glowing in their overall praise of Saints. Dan Walker had just summarised John Motson's downplay of Saints because of fixtures coming up, and they effectively rubbished it. Hartson rightly said Saints would fancy playing anyone at the moment, and Claridge rightly said the defence is better than it was last season. They said other things too. If you want to see get on iPlayer LIVE and pull the pointer back to about 5.15pm and wait. You'll enjoy it, I promise. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/live/bbcone
Was at the ground today. Like always any win is a great win but my god it was a nervy second half. I'm not quite sure why we were playing so defensively. Anytime somebody edged past the half way line they'd always stop, turn back and go give it to one of the CB's. It was just odd as anytime we did attack we were giving them problems so I dont know why we werent at least counter attacking. But a win is a win and even though we werent attacking after we scored Stoke never really looked like scoring either. The only other issue I have is Forster. There is just something... off. It could be his confidence or something but I just worry when we come up against a big side. There was a few times he wouldnt call for the ball or just a general lack of communication.
Ugly win but a beautiful 3 points. This was always going to be a tough game. Someone around me was moaning that Crouch was winning all the headers. Talk about being as thick as a plank! Very very pleased with the 3 points and pleased for Mane after seeing his goal last week awarded as an own goal. And there was something else......oh yeah........ 2ND IN THE LEAGUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We got exactly the game I thought we would get from Stoke, hence I stayed at home and watched on stream. Games against Stoke are always scrappy, physical battles and poor quality to watch. I kept my powder dry ( and money) for the trip to the dreadful Britannia on Wednesday instead to cheer the boys on
And, as mentioned earlier, if ManU get a win against Chelsea, we are 3 points behind Chelsea with a better GD.
So is this season the season we end our jinx with certain teams, hadn't beaten Sunderland, Stoke or Arsenal in last 2 years, who else is there? Spurs and United? Am I missing any?
Hard fought win, loved it. In previous years could have seen us throw it away, but we remained organised at the back. The players were visibly tired so I'd expect to see a few changes for Wednesday.
Funny, in the first half we were probably better than we were against Sunderland. Second half we were poor but even so managed to restrict Stoke to a few half chances. Fonte had a lot of the ball today and pushed forward a lot as the Stoke midfield retreated. I think the only thing I'd have done different than Koeman would be to have brought Long on. We allowed their defenders too much space to bring the ball forward, Long would have closed a lot of that down. But, 3 points is 3 points. By the way, I heard on Radio Solent that Mane's goal against Sunderland was taken away by the dubious goals panel. Has that been on here? Anyone know the reason?
Yes, it was on here yesterday I think. Van Aanholt got quite a bit of it. Still should have been Mané's goal though.
