What is the best and worst you have seen Saints play this season so far? Mine: Best: Blackpool (H) F.A Cup 3rd Round : I can honestly say that this was the best all round Saints performance I have seen for years - I couldn't fault a single Saints player. Pretty close to perfect TBH. Worst: Rochdale (H) League 1 : Terrible display (one of many) under the dismal management of Wilkins. Never been so negative after a game before , really thought there was no way forward after losing to such a smaller club than us (no disrespect). So , over to you...
Best: Huddersfield (H) Bit of a shaky start and an early goal conceded. After that though, we really took the game to decent sde. Worth mentioning the Man U game too as it was a fabulous effort and I reckon we would have won had Man U not had Giggs and Nani to put on. Worst: Swindon (H) JPT - Just dire. We passed, but no penetration or invention. Poor defending too. Rochdale was also pretty bad.
Best for me strangely was there loss to Man U.........They made two mistakes during the whole game....and paid dearly for them. Certainly was the best though just the same! The worst is a little more difficult for me as I can think of a couple out of Plymouth, Leyton Orient, Swindon JPT, Rochdale or Notts county and finally Carlisle. For me it is probably Plymouth, 1st game of the season. Although Rochdale, Notts and Carlisle were up there in the running and very close.
Best: Oldham (A) Fantastic performance. Could have scored 10 and it wouldn't have been. Also, great performances against Blackpool, Manchester United, Huddersfield and Bristol Rovers away. Worst: Swindon (H) JPT Absolutely dreadful performance, no fight and no desire. Other bad performances were Swindon (A), Rochdale (H), Brentford (H) and Tranmere (A)
Wow, you're an optimistic guy DTLW... We can't blame the games we had under Wilkins. He was the best person to take the reigns until our suitable replacement was found. He never wanted this normals anyone expect AP's sacking so it was all a shock. Obviously the players were shocked and clearly for aometime there was a sense of unrest about the club. Also if you remember Adkins still lost his first game as manager ao we shouldn't be blaming anyone if we fail to win promotion...
Not saying I blame Wilkins ! Just saying imagine how different the situation could of been, Dean is a great coach, but a great manager? No.
To be honest though , the whole start t the season was poor for a team chasing the top two ...but we can do nothing about it now and can only win the remaining games we have in front of us. COYS.
I don't think you should be looking any where else for the the bad start we had other than the players themselves. You could argue if you like that Pardew and later Wilkins didn't prepare them properly. You could also argue that the team themselves thought they were better than they actually are. What ever the reason they lost 3 crucial games at the start of the season. Plymouth, Rochdale and Swindon. " 2 home and 1 away. Add to that the dropped points against Leyton orient (home) there is where you problem lies with the team that didn't get results. If we had got just the average points we now have then we would have been 7 points better off. Making that a clear second place for us. So really it depends on how you look at it.
We all could say that IF and IF and IF...... I think people will blame Wilkins but your Chairman made the call and did not have a plan in action after Pardews sacking..therefore he must take some of the blame?
Yes I think you may be right however.....the players are paid professionals they are supposed to play to win (if you want promotion that is) they too have to take some responsibilties.
