Saints played badly but got a draw against a poor team Villa. Lucky they were not playing a top team or they would have lost

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Ok let's see how our defence handles the pressures of the next few months. No easy games for a while, however I'm hoping that we are the ones applying the pressure.

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Great game of football. Could have gone either way but not ashamed we took the points. Lots of good performances but special credit to Stephen Caulker for his extended periods up the pitch. Brave and effective. Nedum's distribution needs to improve, too many failed passes to the midfield, and Joey really should leave the shooting to others, but overall a gritty showing with plenty of quality too.

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Pulsating. If R’s could only play with that amount of positive commitment in every game (home AND away), we would surely pick up plenty of ‘bonus’ points. Today was proof that we need to retain that level - and slightly worrying that everyone had to play at absolutely the extent of their energies to just squeeze past what is now the bottom side in the league. Although Leicester are better than that and arrived in Shepherd’s Bush with exactly the attitude that our lot have been lacking on our travels - i.e. they played at high tempo, without fear and with attacking intent. Vardy proved a constant threat and the pressing & speed of movement forward was impressive.

Nigel Pearson will feel hard done by but we rode our luck in defence, were due some good fortune and things fell our way for a change. The win was deserved for the desire shown to actually grab a game by the scruff of the neck rather than just hope to survive, as per last weekend. Surely that lesson is now learnt?

The signs were positive from the team selection but why has it taken 12 games for Harry to realise that playing individuals in their natural positions reaps dividends? Fer was given the kind of role he obviously thrives in and, as a result, we saw the best of him, capped off with a fine goal producing a celebration smile which said “I’m finally enjoying myself!”. A couple of wayward shots aside, Barton generally played quite well with two or three really astute defence-splitting balls backed up with enough non-Hollywood pragmatic decision making (been reading the forums me thinks). Another reliable & solid performance from Henry, while Ned, although constantly flirting with disaster, held his own playing centrally, looking more at home than at right back. The Chileans both made good contributions providing the much-needed right side balance, with Vargas always gnawing away at Leicester’s defenders, while Charlie, always a presence, managed to get himself in the right place/right time again - it’s an uncanny knack. (I know BZ has his uses but personally, I don’t miss him.)

Those that say the defending was comical underestimate how good Leicester were at times. We can’t have it all ways - if we want the team to go for it, attack and press, try to score goals, then we will sometimes get caught out at the back. It happens. (We get caught out at the back anyway, no matter what approach we take!).

R’s got this result because they wanted it badly - and I want to see the team & management take that confidence & belief into every game. That’s the basic template.

PS Refreshing to see both teams getting up to take quick, intelligent free kicks - no messing about - all facilitated by a decent ref who I felt appreciated the no nonsense attitude. Made for a brilliant exciting encounter, enhanced by a fantastic atmosphere. Nail biting.

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Outclassed I'm afraid. The really disappointing thing was to concede 2 more goals when we had superiority in numbers.

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Just lately we seem we have trouble stringing more than 2 passes together, no fluidity to our game hopefully just a temporary thing.look for better things on Wednesday.

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Disappointed we didn't make a better showing of ourselves. Weathered the first 15-20 mins before we finally getting into the game. How the ref booked Aguero for a dive ! He was chopped down to be fair. Was disappointed with Mane. Gave the ball away too many times and never looked a threat going forward. Thought Long showed much more energy when he cam on. Wanyama I thought was poor also. Gave the ball away and was too slow in possession. The same can be said for the team overall I think. Too slow with the ball and often looked to just pass the ball back to Forster instead of going forward. Tadic too was sloppy in the first have with his control.

The biggest disappointment I think was that we didn't make City look like they had 10 men. I think maybe we showed a bit of naivety and went too gung ho too soon. With 15 mins or so left we had time enough to get one back and I think City would have gotten nervous and fallen back deeper the later the game went on. They did look a bit shaky at the back at times today.

Again, I thought we were disappointing with our corners and free kicks. If we are going to find it hard to break teams down in open play then we need to make more of these situations.

We didn't deserve anything from this game. Hopefully, Wednesday will be more positive.

At least we are still top 4!

C'mon lads!!

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Augero what a player shame we couldn't handle there class, thought we played well in the first half but kind of lost the plot in the second

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An odd game in that Saints gave City far too much respect. In the first half when we were playing well there were plenty of chances to dominate the game and even a few good goal chances but they weren't taken and instead, City were allowed far too much time and space. That was a considerable pity because at least in the first half, their defence looked shaky, especially the goalkeeper.

When Schniederlin went off things went very wrong for us though. The midfield failed to make connections and although Wanyama still looked quite good, there was a serious loss of linkage. The first goal didn't seem to upset the team but the second really did and it was a matter of time before the third went in. I can't say that city didn't deserve their win because they plainly did but the margin of the win was avoidable and should have been avoided.

As for the penalty argument that was one of the few decisions I thought the ref got right - the incident was right in my eye line and I also thought that the melodrama of the fall to the ground deserved an award for play acting!

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Best team and best players won.

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