Just got back in after covering Wimbledon 0-0 Southend, followed by getting lost in London and relying on a dodgy satnav. The relief when Mané scored... oh man, it made the evening bearable.
There was a funny moment right at the end where the ball was out for a Palace throw right by the corner flag and Atkinson was looking in my direction and I was frantically tapping my watch at him. Throw in taken, he blows the final whistle. #refereetelepathy
Great result. But of luck on our side for a change. Liking djuricic brings something different and he'll only get better with more prem game time. Would still like to see long start with the Serbs in behind. Maybe not against Chelsea though
It was a great result but all the same problems existed. We did look a lot brighter with Long and Ward-Prowse playing. Pelle is an interesting one. It will say a lot about him to see how he reacts to the substitution. At least he came off the pitch without showing any emotion. I thought the best player on the night was Puncheon who hardly put a foot wrong. I was thinking about how he and Clyne used to play so well together on the right. I actually think he would improve our team right now.
Well it may have been an relatively unconvincing win but I'll cherish it forever because my Dad, a life-long supporter, died on Monday, aged 99 (I told him a white lie on Saturday that we had beaten WBA) so last night I was just willing us to score, so that I could dedicate a win to his memory. He took me to the Dell c1952 and we've shared Saints ups and downs ever since. I used to get him to St. Mary's a couple of times a year when I was down, last time when he was 95! So thank you Mane and Saints. We march on.
As mentioned above, he was not happy in the stands...having a moan and refused to take a hand from one of the coaches (think the coach was trying to say well done or something like that). He definitely thought he should still be on the pitch.
That was a difficult 3pts. We made it hard ourselves, gave the ball away to palace to much at times. Very lucky with the shot Forster saved and then (Zaha, I think) hitting the post. I think what was good about last night is we can play without Pelle leading the line, Long won a considerable amount of long balls for a small guy. Pelle seemed to win more long balls than usual, unfortunatley nobody was around him for the flick on.
Our tactics this season have been based on a strong defence...our defence last season was more a case of having possession in the other half naturally resulting in few goals against. A bit of a disservice there, our defence was good last year as well, but the emphasis is greater this season. Apart from a couple of games, we haven't won decisively...our good GD is based on 12 goals against Newcastle and Sunderland and winning low scoring games. There was always the chance that the winning could stop and turn into a draw or 1-0 loss...the shock was having those games arriving in a group instead of scattered throughout the season. Last night was little different from the games against West Ham and West Brom in reality. However, it was a very important win...a loss could have resulted in an insurmountable gap between us and the top 5. Let's hope their little beano to Chocolate Land will do them the power of good.
Long was excellent when he came on and he definitely terrorised the Palace defence. He can actually jump higher than Pellè so I don't see why we can't play him as a target man occasionally, or even better, alongside Pellè. The wonder goal Pellè scored against QPR at home was set up by a Long header IIRC.
Just at the moment, Long and Mane look the two most likely to score. Pelle, I don't know. His confidence looks shot to bits.
Koeman isn't dropping Pelle, so he either sees the rest that Pelle does or he believes he will come good again if the manager shows confidence in him. Or he has little choice with Long only just back from injury. I feel for Pelle...he just needs a simple goal and I'm sure he will recover his shooting boots. One thing I'm sure of, another striker is top of our list for the summer.
Well I'm happy to leave it all to Ron. If only Pelle had got decent contact when he had a chance a couple of yards out. I suppose that's how it goes when your luck's out.
