Match Day Thread Southampton v Cardiff - Saturday 9th Feb 15:00 pm

I agree .

I'm not saying we will go down , but if we do Ralph will stay IMHO . I'm pretty sure when they announced his 2 1/2 year deal they made a point of saying it included if get relegated .

 

There is no way Austin is fit enough to start a game in a Ralph team.

 

And have done so for at least the last two plus years?

 

Huh? That’s one game! Ok, 1.5 games CP & Cardiff.

 

By Ralph's own admission the team went for the win on Sat instead of settling for the draw....ok they got caught out...... It wasn't his decision I gather it was the teams collective...... ?

 

Team influenced by crowd?

 

You've slightly misunderstood my comment there Gary, I wasn't knocking the bloke but just observing that when he falls below his very high level it is noticeable and it has been so rare this season. He is going to be a massive player for us in the run in.

 

They let the excitement of the goal carry them away...especially as they no doubt felt they should have won. Ralph will no doubt be telling them all this....when to go for it and when not....a draw would have been ok for us against a team below us....especially after an equaliser in injury time.

 

I'm totally ok with that approach and if we had managed to get the winner then it might've been season defining.

Draws are what killed Pellegrino in the end.

 

The crowd is a massive factor. Often cited as our "12th man" at Cardiff (maybe that title's been taken over by Sala at the moment), it's nevertheless so important to the players. I often cringe at the Villa supporters for instance who start mumbling and even booing their players when it isn't going right - absolutely criminal.

No player wants their supporters on their backs and the pressure they can apply. When you are expected to win a game as you were on Saturday, it can be counter-productive. You came to life when you scored that equaliser, and that was the first time we really heard the roar you should have had from the start. By contrast, the 3,000 CCFC travellers were awesome all game.

Not trying to score Brownie points here guys, just an opinion as to why there's a correlation between players, fanbase and results.

 

Situations aren't always the same. Gifting Cardiff an extra 2 points and losing one ourselves could be season defining. A draw would have kept Cardiff 2 points behind us. The time for coolness.

 

Our atmosphere has rarely been as good at SMS than it was at the Dell and it doesn't help that our main "singers" have congregated next to the away fans instead of using a whole end.

 

Generally it is better, Ralph has already proved that he is better at getting wins than his two predecessors while losing a similar amount of games, without those wins we might be cut adrift by now.

 

I agree...we are much improved and will no doubt get more points over the rest of the season than under our previous 2 managers, but sometimes you have to be pragmatic. We were out of the relegation zone and all we needed to do was be the same or better than the teams below us. Think how happy we would all have been if Stephen's goal had gained us a point and how good he'd have felt after being involved in Burnley's penalty....then compare with how we felt after Cardiff's late winner. You could multiply how we felt by 10 to get how the team felt.

 

It's difficult to think pragmatically at the end of an intense match when you have momentum and the home crowd is baying for a win. Nobody thought that Cardiff had it in them to go up the other end and win it but anything is possible and it's not realistic to think that the team were going to sit back and defend until the end of the match IMO.

 

I bet they will in a similar situation after a bollocking (I mean training session) from Ralph

 

I think that if we are at home against a lesser talented side again then we will still go for the winner with Ralph as the Manager.

 

You wouldn't last 2 minutes at St. Marys then ...

 

That's true of most grounds in the country to be fair though, the away support is almost always noisier than the home. At St Marys (same as all established prem grounds) it's been ****ing awful for years now.

 

You are spot on. We only sing when we’re winning.