Oldham Athletic 1 v 0 Salford City Papa John's Trophy Tuesday, 31st August 2021 Kick-off 19:00 |
SaintBrock added 08:48 - Apr 19 Hard to take but we looked disjointed all afternoon and only Schneiderlin played to his usual high standard. Sadly Kelvin looked his age and was caught napping for both goals, his confidence will be rock bottom after today. A pity that the best defence in the league is hitched up to what may be currently the worst attack that never seems able to get command of the final third. Quite embarrassing really that it was our defenders who conspired to fashion our only goal. owderrammy added 19:22 - Apr 24 we made a good start and Zac Whitbread gave a 5 star performance and made some amazing tackles and held our defence together until his injury. After that our defence went to pieces and gave away silly goals as usual. I believe we currently have the worst defence in the division with Grant and Christie again showing ability no better than conference players. The forwards gave a decent performance with Ince looking very good although Bent seemed to be out muscled by their centre back. Dawkins had a good match and may have found his true position in midfield. codge added 15:49 - Apr 25 What does it take for Steven Davis to be on the bench,if only he could learn to put the ball in the net once in awhile and string a few passes to our own players we might have won this game going away.Mane and Pelle looked really good today and deserved to be on the winning side,as a whole one point not good enough but we move forward and hope Schneiderlin will be ok Coyr.... halftimeorange added 15:49 - Apr 25 On the way to the ground I voiced the opinion that "Hopefully, Steven Davies would have had several hours shooting practice" as he often gets himself into shooting positions. Oh dear, it's not often I'd say that one player cost us points but today that was the case. Maybe it's time he became a squad player and Harrison Reed stepped up (he wasn't afraid to shoot in the U-21 final). Mane's persistence resulted in the first goal but RK should suggest that he doesn't fall over so often. It is somewhat embarrassing. Kelvin had little to do except pick the ball out of his net but there were two somewhat worrying moments - one when he allowed Morgan to cajole him into a chancy game of passing the ball back and forwards between them - and the second when he casually watched a ball pass his right-hand post when it might have been more appropriate to palm it away. Other than that I thought we played better than we have of late and Pelle's second goal showed what he can do if he's fed the right sort of ball - which hasn't been the case all season long. corkcitysaint added 18:02 - Apr 25 Such a shame we couldn't keep it tight at the back for a win. Unlike us to concede 2 goals. Whatever about the first being lucky for them, the 2nd, I felt Yoshida was exposed for pace and I thought Kelvin should have done better to cover the angle. Spurs didn't deserve anything from this game. Better finishing would have seen us cruise this one. But that has been our issue recently. Fantastic 2nd goal by Pelle and great persistence for the 1st too. Mane really needs to look along the line to avoid being caught offside. He has the pace so I feel he can hang more behind the defender. Clyne was very quiet going down the wing in contrast to Bertrand who I thought had a great game. Hopefully Morgan will be fit and hasn't done his knee in. Leicester & Villa won't be easy games I feel now as they both seem to have their tails up. With Liverpool drawing today, had we won at Stoke and again today, unfortunately it's all "ifs , buts and maybes"... TimSaint added 19:03 - Apr 25 Feels like we lost. To throw the lead away twice is extremely disappointing, but perhaps expected with a keeper in poor form and 2 or 3 outfield players well below par. This many out of form players is hard to cover, but just think what could have been if we had 2 more playing well. Think Yoshi will be dropped next week - don't feel comfortable when he is on the ball anyway. Kelvin should retire in 4 games time - he was good against Burnley and Hull, but awful today and v Stoke. He has cost us big time and it is not coincidence that we have started losing points from winning positions, now he is back in goal. S Davis cannot buy a shot on target, let alone a goal. Better distribution from him today though and plenty of running - but stupidly got booked after giving the ball away cheaply. Great that Pelle got a brace and that Kane didn't even have a shot !! Mane dived a couple of times, but was getting kicked all day - should have had at least 1 penalty. Gave the ball away, or straight back to them a lot, but overall, pleased with the majority of the performance, but not quite with the result. gpsgm added 19:36 - Apr 25 Great game, could have won it. Spurs are a good side we should be proud. Maya was excellent, Morgan & Toby v.good in the middle, Sadio worried the hell out of their defence, possibly his best game yet. Steve Davis excellent except he has an ass / banjo malfunction in front of goal. What a miss the first one was! Pelle back to scoring, the header was a thing of beauty. Can't believe one of Joses headers didn't win it for us. Who knew Elia was so good at dead balls. Ever one created a chance. aceofthebase added 19:58 - Apr 25 I enjoyed this game tho' the result was disappointing. I don't blame Kelvin for any recent results, the pity is is that our opponents have managed to get a few shots at our goal which they were denied in earlier games, Steven Davis had a good game but those two extremely poor shots were so costly. Does he shoot like that in training if so his days are surely numbered. Well done Pelle and Mane, a few dives by the latter and Eli looked very tricky. Bertrand excellent and all our defenders played well. Yoshida played well but he will know that the second goal was his fault, Incidentally Pelle could have been blamed for the first when he brought down a difficult ball near the half way line and then tried one of his hopeful backheel passes that enabled Spurs to break down the right and subsequently score. The biggest congrats go to the Saints supporters who shouted and entertained everyone and hopefully our team were encouraged. sidsaint added 23:05 - Apr 25 Great game of football which I feel we shaded and certainly created the better chances. If we play like today for rest of season we can make it into Europe. I think that this is the first time this season that we have let in 2 goals in successive weeks. Consigliere added 10:00 - Apr 26 I have a theory that Saints' performance in any given match is inversely proportional to the position of their game in the MOTD running order. For those of you who couldn't be bothered to wait up, we were next to last. Sure, the result was disappointing but the game was an excellent display and the goals against us represented no more than the fine margins by which these things are decided. You could citicise Yoshida for being overtaken for pace just before the second goal but that apart he had an excellent game and I would certainly play him again next week. Mane must learn to stay on his feet, but his commitment was a joy to behold, and Pelle has come good in the end as we all thought he must. I think the only managerial decision I would question was not bringing Shane Long on 10 minutes earlier - we needed the bionic ferret to make a nuisance of himself as he always does, and it paid off. Finally, it was a pleasure to observe how most of the fans simply ignored Pocchettino, it being a waste of breath to jeer him. Where the national newspapers got the idea that he was given a hard time I can't imagine - presumably their reporters hadn't bothered to turn up and simply wrote their stories beforehand.
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