Saints fans left St Mary's after witnessing a smash & grab raid by a Newcastle team that was as cynical a side as i have seen all season with a succession of niggling tackles and time wasting tactics.

After the lifeless display at Villa, Saints fans looked for a reaction from the team from this one and to be fair they got it, the home side dominated the game and didn't play badly, but not for the first time this season we threw away a game through poor defending.

We started well enough and dominated the first half hour taking the lead through a Stuart Armstrong header, but the lead lasted only 7 minutes when out of the blue Chris Wood headed home from close range.

In truth the goal was mainly the result of either Moi Elyounoussi failing to hold his position or a strange formation where we played without a right sided midfielder, whichever was the case when Newcastle broke they found that Tino Livramento was exposed on the right flank.

For the equaliser he found himself with three men and no support on that side, that meant that Newcastle could take him into the corner then lay the ball back and have all the time in the world to put in a cross, with time and no pressure they did just that and caught us on the back foot and suddenly from dominating a game to a poor Newcastle side we were back on level terms.

Some might point the finger at Salisu here, he allowed Wood to get his header in, but the cross was a perfect one and sometimes defenders get caught out when that happens.

We had further chances in that half, Che Adams his a stunning drive from a tight angle that crashed against the bar and Armando Broja who was having an off day should really have done better when he took a heavy touch and allowed the keeper to get close enough to make a save.

Second half saw a repeat of the first, Newcastle had a succession of corners and used the same tactic, a high ball to the far six yard line and head back across goal and it was back heeled in.

Now the visitors had the bit between their teeth and they poured forward and it looked like they might get a third, but Saints regained their composure and took charge again.

But despite the majority of possession and several good chances well saved by Dubravka in the visitors goal a late barrage could not rescue a point.

Newcastle inflamed the crowd with a series of time wasting tactics, they constantly went down with niggling injuries requiring either lengthy treatment from which they miraculously made a full recovery or small ones where they waved the trainer away but still stayed down.

Cramp was a constant for them, I have never seen a team with so many players get cramp, or for that matter be able to play on normally seconds after getting up.

At least twice, players rolled back onto the pitch after being tackled to demand treatement.

Add to that a series of niggling fouls and it was as cynical a performance as the Leeds United team of the early 70's would have been proud to have called their own back then.

Why did they continue to do it ? The answer is because the referee Kevin Friend let them get away with it.

I have no gripe in losing the game, Newcastle's two goals were both well worked and well taken, but watching a team see a game through like that was sad to see.

On the night although the Saints team had their spirit back there was still something lacking, as mentioned we strangely didn't seem to play with a right sided midfielder in the first half, several players had off nights, Armando Broja was way off the pace, despite scoring and having another good chance I thought Stuart Armstrong struggled at times and was a little wayward in his passing.

But there were plus points, Kyle Walker Peters was excellent and for all the headlines Tino Livramento gets, it is KWP who is the best full back at the club on current form, defensively he was excellent, his ability to win the ball and keep possession was tremendous and he surged forward in a way that Tino did in the past, but of late has not done so much of, although the fact that for long periods he was the only man on the right hand side probably meant that he had to stay back a little.

It was only a cameo role at the end for Adam Armstrong, but when he came on Saints suddenly looked an attacking threat again, he played with enthusiasm and like a man who wanted to win his place back in the side, this bodes well for the future and it gives up options, I have said in the past that yes if you judge him on his goal scoring record he has not been a success at St Mary's, but when he plays he adds a lot in build up play and creating opportunities for others.

All in all this is a game we really should have taken something out of, but no gripes, we lost because we failed to deal with two situations we should have really have done better at.

Photo: Action Images

Number_58 added 10:31 - Mar 11 So when it comes to conceding soft goals from crosses, if it's your favourite defender it's a great cross, if it's not your favourite defender it's terrible marking.
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wessexman added 10:33 - Mar 11 It is depressing to see bad defending and a strange formation making the headlines again. How many times have we been here before? Newcastle won a game through 2 goals from 2 new signings. We can moan and groan, but the Premier League let them get away with it. Also, credit to Eddie Howe....he got his tactics spot on. As for all the sh&%housery...I really thought Howe was better than that. Welcome to the world of mega bucks in the Premiership.

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HythePeer added 10:35 - Mar 11 Someone else needs to take the corners!
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DorsetIan added 10:47 - Mar 11 It was a tight game. Could easily have been 2-2 or 3-2 to us. It felt like we were lacking a final bit of quality around the box, but Newcastle defended deep for most of the game and were well organised. I'd say that our first and their second goals were pretty similar. The difference in the end was their first goal, which was the best bit of quality in the game. For me, just one of those games, and - tiredness apart - I wouldn't be thinking of changing too much for Sunday.

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onetowatch added 11:06 - Mar 11 Sorry Nick, I'm not sure I was at the same game as you last night. You mention regaining our spirit, but Newcastle scored, what ended up being their winner, in the 52nd minute, so no need to panic, plenty of time to get bac in the game. There's a subtle difference between a sense of urgency and panic - yes NU wasted time, but we also seemed to have no sense of urgency - far too often players, JWP a good example, not taking responsibility to get the ball forward. I saw countless runs by Adams then A Armstrong in the box and players not even looking to play them in. For all our possession did their keeper have to make one telling save after going in front? On the full backs, I've always thought KWP is the best we have. I wish though he was playing RB and have a left footed LB -Ralph once again opting to play who he wants and upsetting the balance of the team. He needs to make the decision on who is the best RB and play him there!

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halftimeorange added 11:16 - Mar 11 I thought the main culprit last night was JWP who, having been razor sharp in tackling and forward passing in recent games, reverted to type and constantly stopped any Saints progress in Newcastle's half. Che Adams made lots of promising runs but, never received any service and, with the pace of Broja, why we didn't try a few balls over the top for him to run onto I cannot understand. Apart from the Newcastle theatricals, Kevin Friend, a poor ref if ever there was one, never once penalised the constant pushes in the backs of our jumping players committed by the opposition. JWP's dead ball crosses were generally poor and too close to their keeper. He looked somewhat jaded last night. Another sign of the high press game taking its toll?

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SaintPaulVW added 11:44 - Mar 11 Salisu is going to be a great defender. But he isn't there yet. Looked well of the pace at the start, wayward passes, poor positioning and then the goal. KWP put in another MOTM performance. Broja looked distracted. Unsurprising really given the news and his age. May have been better to start someone else. Stu Armstrong was off and on. Got the goal, had some chances but kept on producing poor passes. Similarly JWP looked out of sorts. Back to returning the passes straight away and some very mixed crosses, one straight along the turf. Similarly Fraser's daisy cutter clearance - was he trying to give us heart attacks? We were lacking composure and a few clinical conversions to get something out of this match. Seemed to revert to taking the ball all the way back from a promising attack to Forster far too often. Newcastle's regular sit down protests against football should have been stopped by the referee. Positives- Adam A looked really good when he came on, Similarly Djenepo grew quickly into the game, got things going down the left. Tino was also very good. Battling away with the mighty atom Ryan Fraser who seemed to be wearing purpose made small socks. All in all, we played at 70% and Newcastle took their chances. Unfortunately, those are the breaks sometimes. COYR

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felly1 added 11:44 - Mar 11 Appreciate the report Nick and some good points made. It does make me chuckle though when errr certain defenders make mistakes they are very much highlighted whilst when other defenders do the same it's reported as... you know these things kind of will happen! I guess we all got our faves and our foes! I wish Ralph would put KWP on the right and Perrau on the left, KWP is a fantastic player who does a great job at left back but his best position is on the right. Livramento is clearly not playing at the level he was earlier in the season and should be rested. I though Newcastle deserved the win, we huffed and puffed but kept tried to go through the middle and were crowded out and ran out of ideas. We needed to use the width of the pitch and cross more. Yes Newcastle were cynical in their game management but so are we.

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FrankSaint added 11:54 - Mar 11 Maybe we should have gone to a 3-5-2 formation after their second goal. It might have solved many of thr issues mentioned here including problems on the wings in both defence and attack.
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RobtheSaint added 12:15 - Mar 11 We need to work on our options for bringing the ball forward from defence. Too slow and predictable easy to defend against. Unfortunately JWP first thought is to go back or sideways. Newcastle scored after pumping ball forward from free kick on halfway line. All ours in similar positions went backwards.
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underweststand added 12:31 - Mar 11 No why am I not surprised. Admittedly we did have a bad day at Villa, but we are still suffering from the lack of goals up front. Adams has scored just 2 goals in his last 7 outings and Broja 2 in his last 10 games and it's the same story...one goal isn't enough. I won't criticise either Livramento or Broja who've had great starts to their Prem careers, but both have had injury issues since and t.b.f have looked a little " jaded" of late. Broja's devastating runs on goal seem to have been reserved for home games, and those fast runs that Tino used early season, have been reduced to a 20 yard sprint, and then a backpass to JWP. Although we had a good run since Christmas, I get the feeling that we have been " sussed out again " and both Villa and NU found as solution. Let's hope Watford don't. Ralph is correct in saying we have better cover in the squad (compared to last season), but there doesn't seem to be any permanent replacements in sight yet. Ralph hasn't made a big deal of it now, but after spending nearly £100 million in the window it was ironic to note that both NU scorers were with other clubs when we were originally due to play them in January.

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PezzaSaint added 13:06 - Mar 11 Welcome to the world of being a supporter of the Saints. Whilst we do have more cover this season Ralph obviously doesn’t feel confident enough in the cover to make a lot of changes when really they are needed. JWP hasn’t played well in the last 2 games. He played against the Hammers in the Cup and could do with a rest. Broja blowing hot and cold, matters at Chelsea must be a distraction and so bench him. Elou, again in and out, give Redmond a go? It only takes a few to be below par and the whole team suffers and the Saints don’t the resources to achieve a real competition for places.

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NewburySaint added 13:27 - Mar 11 I thought Burnley were bad with their time wasting, gamesmanship etc. but Newcastle took "cheating to a whole new level last night.... I did enjoy the St Marys half time playlist of Dirty Cash, Money can't buy me Love, Price Tag & Loaded though - good work Saints!
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WestSussexSaint added 13:27 - Mar 11 I’m sure Ralph noted that the two Newcastle goal scorers wouldn’t have been at the club had the match been played on its originally scheduled date…….
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beynali73 added 13:37 - Mar 11 Its great that Saints have given us the wake up call that we needed. The same flaws remain but the last two matches have exposed them after a decent purple patch. Agree with others above re KWP playing RB and Perraud at LB - but Ralph is Ralph - bless him. Just need to remember that he is not the messiah - he's a a very naughty boy.... Glad he's our boss though - if he wasnt flawed he wouldnt be with us. COYRs

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TimSaint added 13:46 - Mar 11 We have been passing it backwards far too often for the last 3 games now. We did it in the cup v West Ham, probably due to the number of changes made and those that came into the side, don't have the ability to pass it as well as the starting XI. We won that game and kept the same tactics for the next 2 games and lost both. We were woeful at Villa and you could still see some evidence of that last night. Ely was still way off, S Arm was drifting all over the park instead of staying out wide right and the front 2 were well marshalled, so were not used in our attacks often enough. We were too content to pass it around, usually backwards, sometimes from the edge of their area and then all the way back to FF. The team showed no urgency or willingness to drive the ball forward and especially when we were chasing the game, there was no flow to our passing and because we moved the ball around so slowly, or passed behind the man, we played into Newcastle's hands - giving them time to get men back and to waste time passing it around. All the silly flicks we tried failed to come off as well, which just gave possession back to them. It was like a performance from the start of the season. On top, but can't break teams down, no urgency and not looking like they will score despite the possession and being camped on the edge of the opposition area. All our little triangles of passing were off last night. This is key because usually it creates space enough for us to whip crosses in, but last night, the passing was a little out and we end up having to re-set, which often means passing it all the way back to FF !! FFS !!! We should have been driving on to try to win the game, let alone try to draw, but it was all too pedestrian again. Newcastle have certainly taken a page out of the Wolves book in terms of time wasting and feigning injury. It is about time the referees picked up on this, but to be fair I guess we would do the same in their position. Who knows, they may well even finish above us in May !! The next game on Sunday is a must win, not only for the fans and our league position, but to prevent the media from accusing our players of being on the beach already, despite there being 10 games / a quarter of the season still to go !!

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ItchenNorth added 13:53 - Mar 11 I agree with this report. This was a poor Newcastle side, in a game we controlled the possession, but we just couldn't get anywhere with it on the night. Newcastle were just to resilient to break down and we hardly won any ball in the air. For me, JWP is playing too deep. If you want your best ball player on the ball, great, but too deep and too slow to start any attack means the opposition just sit there waiting. An off night? Well, yeah, but let's not make it 3 vs Watford! Hats off to whoever was selecting the money themed music at halftime though. Money Money Money. It Ain't About The Money. Etc etc. Maybe next though; Pink Floyd, Money......now that's a great track !

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davidargyll added 14:23 - Mar 11 Funnily enough I do agree about Adam Armstrong looking a real threat. And I haven’t thought that for a while, especially as Armando was on fire, but now the opposite seems true. And Tino has also just lost some of his zip. But why oh why, when he was often standing in acres of space on the RHS did no one pass to him? What the hell us the point of having a wing back who likes to go forward then be denied the opportunity to do so? KWP was fantastic too: his skill and ball play gets better by the game. Our MOM definitely. I continue to be very uncertain about Salisu - I seem to be out of step with the world in thinking that. I agree he does play some lovely stuff but my goodness he cocks it up in almost equal measure too. But do you know this is the first time for many weeks that I came away from SMS feeling rather depressed? Everything just seemed to so disjointed again. I just thought that the game was there for us to grab by the scruff of the neck, but we just didn’t seem to have enough oomph, or certainly what we did have faded away after their second goal went in. Newcastle are nothing like as skilled as Villa, but we just seemed to lack that killer punch against a lesser opponent. We were starting to look jaded against Villa, it continued last night and on this form we may well struggle on Sunday against Watford, a side we should completely demolish. All this optimism about only now having a whole host of games against teams below us in the table is starting to look a bit hollow. If I didn’t know better, it was almost as if the team has done their calculations, reckon we are safe and have taken their foot off the gas just a bit. I know, wash my mouth out with soap, and I will no doubt be wrong about out next game but my confidence is just starting to wane a shade…

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wrathoftazz added 15:07 - Mar 11 Lol amd the Raplh/Southampton bubble bursts yet again. OK, they had a decent run (as every season) but then it is back to the same old nonsense, proving that Ralph or the team have the knowhow to fix the issues. I dont mind loosing but loosing to soft/stupid mistakes is just not good enough for a PL team. We were found out again because we didn't adapt and kept to the same tatics. It's the same old story.

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JoeEgg added 15:31 - Mar 11 Newcastle may be a poor side but they beat us. and once again a great run of results is in danger of being followed by a series of defeats and disappointments. I could not understand the reason for the midfield inbalance and whereas a few weeks ago we were raving over the Romeo/JWP partnership that certainly wasn't the case at Villa or against Newcastle. KWP is our best player and should be the first name on the team sheet and asked to play in his best position at right back! Once again the Central Defenders always looked fragile and thank goodness we have Forster to rely on. Ralph was let down by some key players with Broja and JWP the two most obvious defaulters. All this so frustrating after all the recent optimism. Villa was described here as a bad day at the office! So what was the Newcastle excuse? and now Watford.......... surely not?!!!

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AmericanSaint added 16:19 - Mar 11 So I didnt get to watch the game due to work, but after reading the report of the game, the only comment I want to make is the FA can go f-themselves. NU goal scorers should never have been on the field due to NU bs "covid" claim in December. This just shows that the FA wants NU to stay up as the Saudi money is key to them. There is no more concern about fair play competition, it is solely about money. Rant over, on to the next one.

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Centurion added 17:21 - Mar 11 If Che had scored instead of hitting the bar I think we'd have won. We MUST beat Watford to get momentum going again. Not safe IMO until we reach 40 points.
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landsdownsaint added 21:02 - Mar 11 Must be nice too have £40 million player too come in . We played well & could’ve taken 3 points easily , I saw no bad performances that made me think we gone backwards, if your a saints fan & u don’t expect these sort of results you ain’t been supporting us long …. Saying all that Broja body language is sometimes he don’t give a toss
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vanmans added 21:22 - Mar 11 Prowse is back to his bad ways of backwards or sideways passing. Livramento is not playing nowhere like he was at the start of the season, he just dosent take defenders on anymore. He needs a rest along with Broja. Armstrong and Djenepo both looked good when they came on.
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Billeewithers added 07:10 - Mar 12 We have become too predictable and correspondingly slow to adapt to teams who attack our style of play. We need to move the ball more quickly. To many players wanting two three of more touches. Borja has wanted an extra touch several times this season when an early shot was on. I wanted to rest him and brought Armstrong in up front who has looked sharper and ready to play. Adams doesn’t need to batter the shot when less would have scored. Guess we are a little tired and teams have bought in better players in January.. Great run up to now and it is a tough league.

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