I haven't seen those sort of comments, must be a real minority. I believe we've generally given your team rave ratings last few months, and probably once in the premier (I see you as up too) the type of flair that you have will take many top teams by surprise, so maybe a top half finish for you guys, whereas Reading will play to consolidate, no more, and a 15th place would be most welcome. Remember too that on our specialist site Royals Rendezvous, a whopping 87% of Reading fans voted that they wanted Saints to accompany us in autos and not Hammers - so don't be too harsh on us!!
Brilliant post. I may sound like a broken record but I cant remeber Davis doing anything but pull the ball out of the net every chance they had they took you can say thats why theyre going up or whatever but I gurantee that they havent been that ruthless all season. On a normal night with that performance they may have scored one at most and we would have had 3 at least. The result is never guranteed but losing doesnt mean the team deserved it, its just football!
Fair play to the reading fans I thought at the ground they were gonna give it the big one after the game but most of the comments ive seen over the web have been fair. They supported their team well but I thought we supported even better but yeh Id rather Reading than west ham go up. good luck
A commentator on Sky said he didn't know what Adkins could complain about as we outplayed Reading in all areas. A scruffy win would have been better, but we showed why we have been at the top all season and why we will get the final points we need.
I can't believe some of the arrogance on here. If I have a differing opinion to you, I must know nothing about football or be delusional. Get a life.
Beddytare is spot on and those who say I and Joe are wrong aren't being realistic. Yes we created loads of chances, however clear cut chances were few and far between. The Goal was a clear cut chance. The 2 Jos headers were pretty much sitters (for him) but the Lallana header wasn't like those Jos headers. We create loads, we keep the ball well, we play through well however the nitty gritty of making clear cut chances we are very poor at. Just look how many times we have scored 2,3,4 goals this season and then equate that to the shots on target and off target count. We are terrible at conversion when accounting for the shots count. The ratio is very poor. The reason is that although we may get 20 shots per game only 1 or 2 were clear cut and we normally score those. As for the hoofball.....The comments above are spot on. There was no hoofball last night. Mainly because Fox was so invisible in the game and hence why Lallana got to see the ball more. Butterfield doesn't do the same as Fox, he hits the ball in from a fair way inside the opposition's half, Richardson does similar. Fox gets to the half way line, puts the brakes on and then hoofs it in from there!!! As for Lallana ripping them apart, not really. He did what he could but not with much cutting edge, more because of the others than Lallana himself. Lallana kept creating space only for Chaplow to waste it. That is the reason we are seen as a one man team...because the combination of Fox booting possession away into the box as well as Lallana being left to do all the work himself whilst others final ball being wasted means all our goals come from the big man!!!. As for Reading not putting much up against us. Reading were away from home against their main rivals for the title. They set up to soak up pressure and counter. I would suggest they were more than happy with the actual amount of pressure we put them under especially when the final balls were so poor. Yes they scored the first off a mistake however it wasn't a mistake on the edge of the box, where a split second later the ball was in the net. It was a poor ball when we still had more defenders than they had attackers yet they played it quick and NONE of our defence were able to deal with it. Pinpoint pass to the wing, Run and pinpoint cross to the centre, free header......goal. It was ball watching at it's bestest. I woul be perfectly happy for Saints to play the same as last night in the remaining 3 games however Fox either overlaps and joins in the 'passing game' or Harding comes in. Maybe ADKins has told him to stop hoofing and that is why Fox was so invisible in the game!!! Add to that Fonte needs to raise his awareness because his positioning has been very poor for a while. he is a defender not a midfielder and pace isn't really the problem. It is how he lets the free attacker get so far away from him when he is last man that means by the time that player receives the ball Fonte cannot make up the ground!!! It's something Hooiveld is very good at. He is either holding hands with the attacker or at least close enough to bruing him down if needed!!! Maybe it is all complacency due to us being top 2 all season, if so then it needs stepping on to make sure the unthinkable doesn't happen (even though I don't think West Ham will catch up the 3 (6 at mo) point gap in the games remaining. Not a downer on the side at all. I am still amazed we are there however we are there from our first 10-15 games form and ever since then have struggled to get that form back. I will still most definitely be shedding tears and consuming large amounts of Wadsworth 6X if/when we go up but it would've been so nice to have 'league champions' on our honours list. Something that has not happened since playing in the Southampton local league in 1875 <---Guess and not the runners up to Tottenham, Runners up to Liverpool, Runners up to Brighton....and now...runners up to Reading. Celebration at going up but massive disappointment not to finally win a league
I was one of those who didn't agree with you and I am being very realistic (I am one who didn't think we'd be anywhere near here at the start of the season). My opinion just differs to yours. You mentioned Lallana didn't rip them apart as I said in the first half, then proceeded to say that it was not his fault but the team mates, so he either did or din't. I saw him in the first half run at their back four several times, opening them up and delivering balls and passes into the box. When you get 12 shots on target, you have created something, no matter how the chance has come. You also contradicted yourself (unless I have misunderstood). You said that we fail to convert our chances (I agree) but then went on to say that we only get 2/3 clear cut chances which we normally take. So is it conversion of chances that are easy, or of any chance? If we have a shot on goal, it is a chance... end of. It is not as though we are counting hopeful shots from 35 yards as a chance, becasu we don't do that.
Agree. No need for them to tell you are deluded or no little about football. Disagreeing on opinions about football is fine. Slagging off is uncessary.
No Injures? Well our two reserve centre mids were playing last night ... Tabb and Mullins cos our first choice midfielders where injured. Stupid thread and you only wrote it cos your pissed off ... Is it not a coincendence we keep getting lucky?
Basingstoke Royal, yes I think he was a bit miffed at losing as we all were. Don't let it get to you. Two ways of looking at the game: 1. we outplayed you and got unlucky. 2. You played the game to your strengths and caught us napping. either way, good win for you and well done.
Not only do I not like your opinion, I don't respect it either. To formulate an opinion you must have decent evidence to base it on, and you have none. I've said that I don't like personal attacks on here, and therefore I realise the hypocrisy in what I am about to say, but I say it for your own benefit: you need to grow up.
Had some time to cool off, it just made me feel better to vent out my annoyance in some way last night. Congratulations to Reading, i do believe that we are the best team in the league, but you've earned the title so well done. See you next year.
You are absolutely right. Reading can very easily suffer from over confidence now, believing they have done it like it just did. And give away silly points. But congratulations on going top anyway, and i apologise for my outburst.
Possum, I'm sure you can find a better way of disagreeing. I quite often disagree with Joe's point of view and have been on opposite sides of several debates with him, however I would never intentionally insult him or make a statement like that. In fact sometimes I can't believe what he writes, but we should at least try and keep the debating fairly sensible. Like most people he posts his views on the subjects not the people, and often he posts stuff that makes me think he has some good football knowledge and other times he posts stuff that makes me think he has been up all night working on whatever he is studying!
