Hi fellow Saints fans! Not a regular poster but always enjoy reading everyones opinions and debates After todays result and then reading the inevitable backlash and criticism of the team by a number of Saints fans I thought it would be useful to put into context exactly what todays result meant... Ok, so we lost our hugely impressive run of home victories but still I thought it was a good performance today (in the main) against what is a reasonably good (if inconsistant) Blackpool team and I think importantly for the boys we are still 'undefeated' at home. After West Ham's defeat at Reading we are still a whole win clear at the top and maintain the 5 point gap to being outside the automatic places. We also still have the comfort of an 11 point gap from being outside the playoff places. I think a lot of the criticism of certain team players... that usually comes on the 'team ratings' thread is rather OTT, for example; Bart - Yes he had a poor game where he looked nervous pretty much throughout but we have seen him enough times to know he is a good back-up goalkeeper. He will learn from this experience and become stronger from it. Hooiveld and Fonte - People seem to be giving them harsh marks. Hooiveld dominated in the air all day and Fonte did well sweeping up anything that got past him as well as playing the ball out of defence to good effect throughout. Guly - We all know by now what we are going to get with Guly, he will drift in and out of the game but the important thing from today was that he continued to work hard and when we went forward he looked a threat and linked up pretty well with Lambert and Lallana especially. We have to remember that players are not going to play out their skins every week but watching the game today I did not see any players that had a particularly bad game (other than Bart obv) and I thought that the team responded well to the challenges that came from both Blackpool, the goalkeeping errors and the Referee! What makes me sure that this team will do their very best and in my opinion secure Saints premier league football next season is their belief in themselves and in the team. After we conceeded the second goal and took a bit of time to regain our momentum the camera cut to Adkins and he was bellowing at the players "believe it, believe it!" and the players responded by creating a host of chances throughout the second half and I think with a little bit more luck and being slightly more clinical, especially De Ridder with the chance at the end we actually could have won the game. Adkins believes in the team, the team showed today that they believe in themselves and I for one believe in them and our club too... So come on everybody, lets try and be a little more positive and have a bit more faith in the boys. Bring on Pompey!!!
So what if the didn't win at home today we're still top and we gained a point on West ham today and we didn't lose any ground on Cardiff. Get behind the team people!!
This is the most sensible comment I have read on here this season and articulates everything I want to say, on another day we would've won this game, despite not being at our best. I just hope that Bart doesn't get crucified for a bad 90 minutes, plenty of other players have had bad games this season and it is natural that he would have nerves today, we need him to regain confidence, so let's get behind him if he plays again.
Absolutely right. If you average 2 points a game you get promoted. We are ahead of that and the transfer window is about to open so we can strengthen the obvious areas of weekness....so I fail to see what the big problem is.
I have just looked at the stats from http://www.statto.com/football/teams/southampton and by my reckoning, we have never been outside the top two, have been top since September 18th and out of 21 games have been top for 18 of them! Come on guys we are having an AMAZING season! Rewind a couple of years and then look at those stats. Glass definitely half full! No 7
Good point, considering all the things that went against us and the fact we played a good team we still managed to get a point and on another day should have won it. Although I didnt go to doncaster or bristol city it from what I heard from those games we were vastly improved today.
Oh and another thing - we now have 43 points after 21 games - we got relegated in 2008 on 45......... Let's keep perspective! We are Southampton, we're top of the league!
for 30 mins in the first half we played some really good pressure football. When we had the ball we played it around and when they had it- closed them down really well. Seecond half went flat. If we play to our potential then we will be fine
What I like was Jos giving Bart a pat on the back and trying to cheer him up, if anyone is a team player, it is this guy, I reckon he would make a good skipper, he is also the first to come across to the fans showing his appreciation.
Top thread CorteseIs..., more please. Having seen the other results come in, it underlines how even this league is, and that anyone can lose to absolutely anyone. I think at the start of the season, most of us would have taken a draw against a newly-relegated side like Blackpool, and it's only because we have had such a great run of wins at home that it seems a bit disappointing. It isn't, in the context of West Ham losing at Reading. And who would have thought that Barnsley, who have been on a fantastic run, would lose to an out-of-form side like Ipswich? So chill, people, we are top of the league going into the Pompey match! Even a point there should still see us top at Christmas, which statistically puts us in with a massive chance of the auto spots.
