Newcastle definitely had more possession. At the end of the first half, we stood off and were happy to let them have the ball. To be honest, Saints weren't terrific yesterday, and we have played better and lost. We did enough to win, and Newcastle were hopeless. Very happy though.
Not quite as good as last season in my opinion, even the players were saying that they let the tempo drop in the first half.. Still great though for a newish team.
And this was against a poor side...remember we've had victories against good sides...for example those wins the season before last against Liverpool etc.
"Fans were on us from the start, on me in particular I don't think that helped the situation, we rebooted " Pardew is a twat, blaming the fans. What the **** is rebooting all about? "then did quite well" Really? I thought you played complete ****.
I don't think the fans were on them from the start at all, the fans got on them because they were absolutely abysmal from the kickoff, and could have been 3-0 down after 6-7 minutes through appalling defending. The "Pardew Out" banner didn't come out until after our 3rd goal IIRC, along with their fans joining in with the "sacked in the morning " chant. Pardew is doing what he always does, looking for someone else to blame, but to point at the 6,000 fans who made a 600 mile round trip yesterday is just ludicrous.
Your being too harsh, dont forget that; "We didn’t have long to prepare with the internationals and that"
Pulis on 'Goals on Sunday' says he knows a few people at Southampton who speak very highly of Koeman. Referred to him as being "on the front foot" and "forceful". Also said that the powers that be at SFC have recruited well.
Obviously not working at the moment for Newcastle, but I for one like Pardew a lot, and am grateful for what he did for our club.
He did okay for us and rebuilt the team from rock bottom and, of course, won us the JPT, but he came up against a very ambitious Chairman, If you think about it, we have had 4 good managers in the Leihberr era.
All of them arguably better than their predecessor, and perfect for the job they had to do: Pardew to rebuild us and get us into the "winning mentality"; Adkins to get us to the Premier League; Pochettino to consolidate us in the top half; and Koeman.... who knows?
Can't say I like AP a lot, more like a little, but I'm certainly grateful for his time at Saints. At worst I'm indifferent about him, at best he's all right by me. I wouldn't have him back as we've surpassed his quality, in my opinion. I think he gets a lot in the neck by being Chris Hughton's replacement, who was doing a perfectly good job. He got a lot of Toon supporters onside with their 5th place, but they weren't going to stick by him if things got rough. The major thing is, I reckon he's being hung out to dry by Mike Ashley. I understand he has little or no say over which players he's allowed to keep or recruit, and although Toon has spent quite a bit, they haven't recruited that well, or replaced their very good ex-players with similar quality. Ashley has a lot to answer for here, in my opinion. If I speculate a bit here, I think he is trying to behave a bit like Cortese, but with his own money, and whereas NC got 90+% of it right, Ashley gets no more than 50%, and that simply won't do. Also, if Ashley decides to ring the changes, it'll cost him a pretty penny, with that long contract AP is on.
I know it is very early on, but isn't it so nice that those who supposedly went on to better things, are all below us in the table ? For now...
@TomC_SFCMedia: Stats on #SaintsFC's fourth goal: 41 passes, 1 minute 45 seconds of uninterrupted possession, all 11 players involved. On website later.
I knew it was more than 35, started counted earlier from when Forster took a pass back, my counting was rudely interupted by a 2 yr old! Glad they are making a deal of it, great stuff.
