I agree, Martin had a good game today, and people shouldn't focus on his nerves in the first half and the very dubious penalty decision! My only worry with him is that he has a tendency to hoof the ball into the crowd when he's not under a whole lot of pressure, but he has a lot of time to improve and a promising performance tonight.
The dirtiness was the only upside of that performance. Dirty Leeds and proud! dirty leeds and proud will end up whipping boys and league one bound.....
No we won't it will force Grayson into playing someone who might actually be able to tackle and pass the ball lol
some of you lot were saying your team had an abundance of these kinds of players before today, i notice none of them have showed their face here today though...
We don't need the play-offs we're in an auto spot! Only joking..enjoying our day in the metaphorical sun. Todays match showed me that Saints are carrying on their method of play from last season and that you can beat teams that way. Good home form is essential and this result will do wonders for team morale. How often have we got several games in with hardly a point on the board.
Sky and the BBC seem to love us too which is nice. http://www.skysports.com/football/match_report/0,,11065_3407130,00.html and http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/14351913.stm
I really do not know what game you were watching.............Better to watch it again on Sky later perhaps...........In the first half Saints midfield completely dominated the game. It is true that your midfield had a better second half but there never was any domination. We brought players on to close you down which worked. If you are claiming you should of had another couple of penalties, then we equally would argue we should have had at least two if not three. However had they been given you would have been hard done by but I've seen them given. So on that score probably honours even. The one you did get I was at the other end so cannot pass judgement. It was apparently not clear on the TV so in reality if that is the case you were perhaps a shade lucky over that as well. There can be no denying on the day it was the right result. Your midfield were found wanting today.....we did warn you, our guys were not any ones pushover. You have to admit there was some decent football played by both sides today. Two goals from our midfield + one from a forward. Plus you were lucky in that your goalkeeper saved to crackers just as ours did. So the result was about right.
Really intrigued by de Ridder...he might not have created anything definite, but his pace certainly gave their back four difficulty on a couple occasions. Warming to the idea of using him up top a bit, especially later in games when the opposition is tired and he can put his bull-in-a-china-shop routine to good use. Beyond that, the midfield was fantastic, and it seemed that every shot was well-struck; all three goals were gorgeous, and if not for Lonergan, Chaplow would have had an equally clinical fourth.
To quote the BBC report; "Southampton made the ideal start to their return to the Championship with an emphatic home win over Leeds. Nigel Adkins' side were the more fluent attacking force throughout" - are you sure you were watching the same match - just a thought?!!
Well how about that? Fantastic win, fantastic performance, and quite frankly a few of the Leeds fans on here deserved that for ignoring (or underestimating) what our attack could do to their defence. Have to say I thought Snodgrass was awful, and without Bechio Leeds clearly lacked a proper forward presence, but that takes nothing from us. Hammond was easily MOTM for me, whilst Cork also had a blinder. Surprise, surprise they completely outplayed Brown, who as I (and many others) have said all along is nothing more than a dirty hacker. Leeds will be worse off with him in their side (save for those pesky away winter Tuesday night's in the rain). Was surprised to see Martin start - and moreover, for neithe Jaidi nor Seaborne to even be on the bench - but I thought he played alright. Had a knack of headering the ball straight out of play, but at least he dealt with the danger. Only negative points were that he didn't look comfortable on the ball (and one instance in the first half lead to him giving it away in a dangerous situation) and he gave away the penalty - talking of which, I'm surprised to see comments on here that it wasn't handball. From way back in the Chapel Stand, it looked a nailed on handball to me. The thing that amazes me most - aside from the result - is that our attack didn't actually perform as well it could. Lallana i thought drifted in and out, Guly was more effectively defensively than offensively, and Lambert played more of a supporting role rather than a dominant one. I can't even think how good we'll be when these guys are putting in 10/10 performances, alongside the likes of Hammond and Cork!
To quote Sky: Superb Southampton fired a warning to the rest of the Championship by demolishing Leeds 3-1 at St Mary's on Saturday evening. ere - would you like to comment further?
Absolutely top drawer performance. Every player contributed, lots of energy and clinical finishing. Great stuff, really happy
The BBC live text commentary would also appear to go against Simon's belief. Amazing that. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9555073.stm
I didn't think this joint thread would work (mainly because Leeds were so boring with no sense of humour or irony) but it's good innit?
rep for this. its not easy sometimes seeing our favorite teams lose, but for someone to rubbish our fair win the way simon has is very unsporting, appreciate the honesty. good luck to leeds for the future
I had this one down as 0-0 and was really surprised that we performed so well. Cork and Lallana were terrific for us and I think Connolly was our more impressive forward. It was a good alround performance by the whole team. I can see where Simon is coming from. Up until the first goal, we had attacked without causing any real damage. Hammond should have been closed down by the Leeds defence and should not have been allowed to blast the ball past the goal keeper. It was a brilliant shot encouraged by the inabilkity to put a proper tackle in. The second goal was an exceptional move and I thought Lallana should have buried his effort a few minutes later. I felt our final goal was almost as good as the second one. From a Leeds perspective, the third goal was the killer and did go totally against the run of play, For the first ten minutes of the second half, Leeds looked a different team and had they pulled one back I feel we would have struggled to hand on. When Connolly had added the third, Adkins took the sting out of the game by making the substitutions but he must have felt that the game was over by then. In fairness to Leeds, they had far more corners than Saints and I think there were more attempts made of goal by them as well - especially during the first half. In the first half, we had about four attempts asnd scored from two of them. Other than that, the Leeds keeper was not threatened in the first half and perhaps even less in the second where Leeds seemed to pick up for periods. However, I think that to say that Leeds should have won is woefully wide of the mark and despite fielding a very much depleted squad, it was a solid and professional Saints performance which probably demonstrates that we will be comfortable in this league although talk of a play off place is very premature. Leeds fans heading off up North can have not grumbles about the outcome of today's game.
just back from the game. A superb win from the saints, and a superb all round performance, and thoroughly deserved. Leeds were better in the second half, and showed more initiative going forward, but in the first half Leeds seemed to have no real idea going forward. Some pretty clumsy tackles, and a few of them, especially Lonergan need to watch their tempers, as stupid bookings will cost them. Kelvin made 2 excellent saves, but kicking and distribution was poor. Fonte and martin were excellent at the back, and Hammond and cork were excellent in midfield. Rickie did look a bit out of sorts, but Connoly was magnificent. Guly a bit hit and miss, but did track back and defend well. Lallana made messi look sh1te!! Chaplow can always be relied on to add some steel to the midfield. Ref was a bit hit and miss, and made some strange decisions. penalty looked harsh, and we could have had one for a similar "hand ball" at the chapel end. Must say i was impressed by the Leeds fans, didn't really have much to cheer on the pitch but were very vocal all the way through the game. brought over 3,000 fans down for an evening kick off on TV - well played!!
