The over riding feeling after this game is one of anger, anger that we have thrown away the best opportunity that we have had to challenge for a trophy since 2003.

The fact that we made six changes to the starting line up didn't anger me, in the main the player coming in were all experienced and capable of putting in a performance, I have often said we need to use the squad more and rest players and I still believe that, what did surprise me though was that if one player would need resting in a week that has seen three tough games would you rest a youngster or a player who is about to turn 32 the next day and has played all but 13 minutes of the last 5 games, putting it this way makes the changes a little strange in my opinion.

Although it has to be said that Sunderland had a little more of the play than is normal for our opponents of late, they did little with it, in fact their play was typical of our style, they had a lot of the ball but rarely threatened our goal their winner coming just after the break was out of the blue.

But for our part we rarely threatened either, obviously we weren't as fluent as normal, but we were comfortable, the first two substitutions were the obvious ones to make, no one could argue with them.

No what argued me most about this game and i am still almost 24 hours later trying to work out just what the manager was doing and his motivations for doing so, was the final change with 8 minutes of the game left.

Normally when you are a goal down in the closing stages of a cup tie, you go for broke a bit, perhaps take a defender off, go three at the back and throw everything you have at the opposition, perhaps you go a little more cautious, take off one of your defensive midfield players, put on a more attacking options and you go for it that way.

But what happened in the 82nd minute defied belief, what I have never seen or at least remember seeing a Saints manager do in this position is take off your best attacking option in Adam Lallana and replace him with a 19 year old player from the developement squad who has never played for the first team before and doesn't even have a squad number.

This was just a preposterous decision, yes Pochettino was a bit short on options for the last substitution, but whose fault was that ? but he still had options, he could have bought on Callum Chambers for instance gone three at the back and pushed Nathan Clyne forward, indeed Clyne had engineered our best chance of the game with a great overlapping run to the byeline and I will never know how Rickie Lambert managed to get the ball over the bar from barely two yards, it defied the laws of physics.

We could have put Jack Cork on, Cork can move the ball quickly, again we could have gone three at the back and pushed Wanyama forward to utilise his strength up front.

n short we could have done just about anything else than what he did do, I have nothing against Sam McQueen, I have never seen him play before and to be facetious I still don't think I have, but that isn't his fault, he may go on to become the best player in our history, but this wasn't the best time to be handing him his debut with so much at stake.

So the $64,000 dollar question is just why di Mauricio Pochettino make this change, Im not upset at us losing , god knows I have seen that enough times in four decades of following the club and god knows I have seen enough poor managerial decisions and substitutions, so its not that either, it is the nature of how it was made, with so little time remaining it was almost as if the manager didn't care about the result and this is one of the politest comments i heard after the game from other Saints fans.

It was as if having shown his contempt for the competition and our chances of glory by putting out a weakened side in the first place, he wanted to make one last gesture just in case anyone was unsure of his motives, perhaps Im overeacting a little and Im sure that this wasn't the case, but it damn well felt like it straight after the game, it felt like we had thrown away our best chance of glory in a decade and you know what, it felt like that because it was TRUE !

Whatever way we want to look at it, whether we consider the line up or the last substitutions just one of those things that happen in football, the TRUTH is we were playing a side who clearly had their minds on other things, they are one of the worst sides in the Premier League with their full first team on the pitch, they were playing their reserves, they were their for the taking and we didn't take them and we should have.

Football is a cruel game if Rickie Lambert's horrendous miss had gone in then things would be a lot different, but it didn't and what happened in the last ten minutes took place, Im sorry but I can accept defeat, I can't accept what happened with that substitution, I was angry after the game I am still angry now.

Photo: Action Images

thegeneral added 10:13 - Feb 16 Angry and disappointed. Six changes and the injuries to Ramirez and Lovren meant 8 first team regulars out of the starting eleven. The impact was immediate. The players looked unsettled and well out of sorts having realised that MP had no interest in winning this game. I can't help but wonder if there were words in the dressing room, Pocchetino looked glued to his seat and spent most of the match with his chin buried in his coat whilst those on pitch looked nothing like the team we have seen this season. A team with so many English players will know the historical importance of winning the FA cup more than most and it must have been bitterly disappointing to capitulate and throw a game on the managers instructions. KD's kicking was awful, i like the guy but why rest Boruc who is just back from injury, Jack Cork has only been a starter for the last couple of months, like wise Chambers. Taking off Lallana was the final confirmation for those in doubt that Pochettino had absolutely no interest in winning this game. Disgusting, and then one final dig at the fans were Perez's post match comments (because MP 'wasn't doing interviews') " we are a little bit sad ". Shameful absolutely bloody shameful.

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davepid added 10:41 - Feb 16 Given we've got 2 draws, 2 points ,been beaten twice in the cup by them and played well below par in 7 of the 8 halves of those games , it might be best if we could avoid playing Sumderland for a season or two, which with a bit of luck we will if they get relegated month after next As the General said and I've said in a few posts this season, how can the first choice goalie for about 8 seasons, with his dedicated coach and all the time in the world not improve his kicking? Six times he tried to find Shaw on the bye line, succeeding once. On the train home a Sunderland fan said he was as bad a kicker when he was with them. It's unprofessional .( though he did make a really important save towards the end)

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davidhosey added 11:12 - Feb 16 My sympathy to those fans who travelled there to get to a 12.45 kick off. Where to begin...last time we played them they did not get a kick in the first half. This time we looked like a team with 9 or 10 players. I know Guly tries his best but when I saw the line up I knew we were going to lose. My girlfriend put a bet on that Hoiveldt would score an own goal for a start. We were terrible!!. Davis could not kick, Shaw could not cross, SRL could not finish. You cannot change 6 players and expect fluency. It is clear that the manager uses these games to 1) rest players for league games 2) give games to fringe players 3)try young players. All good in theory but what about the loyal fans who travelled hundreds of miles and spent a bloody fortune to see us on a FA Cup saturday that used to be magical days. A shame !!

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slynch added 11:21 - Feb 16 Pochettino did not put out a weakened team per se, The only "weak" members was Kelvin Davis but even he has much experience at this level, and Guly who has played a few first team games this year. Clyne is probably first choice right back and possible England candidate. Hooi and Yosh are second choice but Fonte (shin) and Lovren are both injured. Shaw is nailed on first team left back. Wanyama is a marke signing and first choice, Davies has been a regular first choice. JWP has played more games than not. Lambert/Lallana well no argument there. The introduction of other first team players made little difference and Lambert missed a sitter. A few points for you to consider: A while back Saints were 2/3rd in the league. They lost a few players to injury and tumbled to 10th. The team wins a million pounds for every position it gains in the league. The FA cup is a lottery that Saints have little chance of winning. Pochettino has to marshall resources to achieve the long term best for the club. Which is gaining entry into the top six using sensible, sustainable investment into the club and progressing forward better than the other clubs by the training of young players and their staged introduction into the first team. It is not the clubs aim to throw caution to the wind for the possibility of a glory-or-bust day out to London for the fans; or do you think it would be wiser to follow the Portsmouth business model?

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davidhosey added 11:56 - Feb 16 Personally I agree with you Slynch. The manager has stated his dislike of the Europa League and pointed out that Swansea have really suffered this season because of it. Its a shame but I do think that the league is much more important. People say we have nothing to play for now but if we keep winning we can still end up above Man Utd and maybe higher. After all we still have to play these teams. I have not given up hope yet!

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SanMarco added 12:09 - Feb 16 I too am angry and agree with the points made (and to come!) but to make a slightly different point is this not partly a result of the abolition of the Reserve League + the long term downgrading of the FA Cup by all and sundry? In the old days Wanyama would have had a month in the reserves getting fit and the others would get the chance to prove themselves there, not in a 'big' cup game. I saw someone on the Echo site saying we had thrown away a big 'revenue stream' by going out - but as SLynch points out this is wrong - maintaining or improving our league position will make us more. The cup is for the fans and no one in the Premier League/Sky circus gives two hoots about the fans. This downgrading is gaining pace as the fans gradually join in with it. Saints fans were genuinely looking forward to yesterday but will they next time? Look at the attendance yesterday compared to the league - in future years will even 800 hardy souls go all that way for such a match?? We will end up with quarter finals being played in front of 8000 with next to no away fans. I am almost tempted to say that at least MoPo is honest about it - but why as the report says play RL? Why not play the full second team and be done with it?

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wazzosan added 12:22 - Feb 16 Firstly, I just wanted to give my support to the fans that made the journey up north. I watched the game on TV and my heart swelled with pride when I heard a rendition of "Oh when the saints" about 20 minutes in. Making the journey up to Sunderland for a midday kickoff...now that is real commitment. Back to the game, despite his kicking being awful, Davis had a good game. He couldn't be faulted for the goal. It was a wonder strike and may end up being goal of the month. He actually claimed a couple of crosses too. Jos and Yosh were solid at the back. In fact Yosh seemed to be reading the game very well and stepped up numerous times to play Sunderland's strike force offside. Luke Shaw was great in the first half with pretty tight control and some good runs. I loved how strong he seems to have become, bundling people off the ball. Saying that, on another day he could have given away a penalty and appeared tired in the last 20 minutes as his crosses and shots were all very poor. Clyne, with the exception of giving the ball away once, had a great game. He is a real attacking threat. Davis and Wanayama were wasteful in the middle. Davis probably had the better game and seemed composed on some occasions. Wanayama needs match practice. He looked off the pace. I know his distribution is questionable but he was struggling with his bread and butter yesterday, namely his tackling and using strength to hold people off. JWP had a great chance in the first half and forced their keeper into a very good save but apart from that he was anonymous. Lallana was class and apart from resting him, I don't know why he was taken off. Guly was ok, no better or worse than some of the others. I thought Rickie, that terrible miss aside, played well. His hold up play was good and the knock-down for JWP in the first half was quality. When Spiderman came on, he showed why arsenal were sniffing round in the January window. He tackled, he passed, he dribbled. If he would just get some goals, then he'd be the complete player. Overall, we played poorly and struggled to close Sunderland down in our usual manner. BBC website said that we came out winners in terms of possession but it didn't seem like it to me. However, Sunderland didn't really offer much except their wonder goal. They were offside many many times and I thought Saints had the better chances.

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stmichael added 12:40 - Feb 16 Nobody has mentioned Adams miss. Awful miss. Not as bad as Ricky's but an absolute sitter. To miss 2 chances like that in a matter of minutes is frankly pathetic at that level. For all the talk of line ups , managers etc that's why we didnt get a replay..
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densham41 added 13:27 - Feb 16 This could have been the most damaging result in the last 5 years. By picking a team with so many changes from the one that started at Hull, tells the players like Lallna, shaw, cork,WP,Chambers we have no ambition. All of those players would crave a cup final at Wembley. How many of these players will be with us next Season? The message Po sent them was go somewhere else to achieve success. Had we got to the cup final. The message would be. Stay at Southampton we are going places. The remainder of the season will be played out in a flat atmosphere, with us finishing 9th. Yes Nick I am till angry to,as my belief is that Po has put at risk Southampton loosing some of its greatest ever players

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saintmark1976 added 14:50 - Feb 16 Message to the Southampton board of directors. If you are not interested in the F A Cup then next season do not enter it. Simple really is it not? Result? Money, time and effort saved by the fans and no problem with the Europa Cup for the following season.
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rjh added 15:09 - Feb 16 Densham41 you are spot on. This speaks volumes about our club and I think players will leave. Just watching Everton playing their best XI against Swansea. No wonder Baines is staying. Saturday was an absolute disgrace and took the piss out of all the fans who were there. Sadly, if we are honest, clubs and players do not give a toss about fans.
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schatfield added 16:48 - Feb 16 just seen the next round draw - brighton/hull v sunderland.....such a good chance wasted now, we really could have gone all the way with the right mindset
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richardmdcooper added 17:10 - Feb 16 Disgraceful stuff from poch yesterday. Completely agree nick about the decision at the end to sub lallana- a slap in the face to the supporters who travelled. And then perez's comments after the game were insulting to all saints fans- that was clearly not the best team that could have played and if they wanted to rest players, they should have done so against stoke or hull- far less important games. It's surely because they're not English, that they don't appreciate the history of the fa cup. On a side note, slynch has confirmed what I've long suspected- he's completely delusional

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ItchenNorth added 17:30 - Feb 16 We should have played our strongest 11 as this was a great opportunity wasted. It does though once again highlight our lack of quality and depth in the squad. Those selected let us down, so let's not just point the finger at Pochettino here, its also the players. In the summer we must address the issue of centre back and striker.
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ExiledSupporter added 18:35 - Feb 16 I take exception to MoPo (and his few apologists on this web site) thinking that he has any right to decide which games he will choose to win and loose. He is the Head Coach and as such is responsible for gaining as many points in the league as he can with the assets available to him and to do his best to win the Cup competitions that the club decides to enter (so long as achieving this does not jeopardise our Premier League status) Well thanks to MoPo our PL status is apparently not at risk and we have now lost twice to Sunderland in the cup competitions entered by picking deliberately understrength sides. In the case of the first competition we had no relative certainty about our security because it was much earlier in the season, but no such excuse applies this time. So was he protecting key players from the prospect of injury, resting those already tired from their exertions or simply signalling that he didn't want to win the cup because of the Europa League consequences. Why drop your 'young' leading scorer and play your oldest and least in form striker who has looked weary for the last few weeks (and, by the way, is becoming less and less likely to go to Brazil because he appears slower and slower). Why drop our most industrious midfielder who has barely played ten or so games this season. Why choose Davis (who apart from his kicking had a reasonable game) but who is renowned for the lack of confidence he inspires in his central defenders with the combination of central defenders who we all know (hasn't MoPo noticed) are the least resilient. Why omit Schneiderlein when pairing his replacement (a guy who hasn't played a full game for many weeks) with a young lad with potential but who does not have the physical strength yet to be a holding midfielder and whose creative talents lie elsewhere on the pitch. I don't like the Europa Cup either, but did feel that we had a seriously good chance of winning the FA Cup and thought that was more important and a reward to the fans who support the club through thick and thin (and especially to those fantastic people who follow the team all round the country) This was a disgraceful set of selections and subsequent decisions, for instance once we went one down we should have brought on first teamers immediately not wait a further 15mins to see what we already knew ie.that we were never going to score because the key players on the pitch had been deliberately demotivated by MoPo's selections (and quite possibly team talk!) Completely unacceptable, Pochettino should make a full apology, explain his thinking, take personal responsibility and speak directly to the fans in English (stopping this silly charade) that means he has no direct communication with the club's loyal fans. I was appalled and ashamed by the club's treatment of Adkins, I am now equally appalled, ashamed and as angry as most of the above contributors for the club's treatment of its fans!

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BlackRod added 20:12 - Feb 16 Poch knows what he is doing. Far better to concentrate on consolidating our place in the League. It may be unfortunate but the FA Cup doesn't have the same status that it used to. The fact that the stadium was half empty shows that - probably made it seem more like a kickabout than a serious match. Even if we had gone right through to the end the Europa Cup would have been a poison chalice. Hats off to the supporters who travelled all that way and outsung the Mackem by a mile.

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ExiledSupporter added 20:34 - Feb 16 I agree BlackRod, MP does know what he is doing...he cynically lost the match! The issue is that what he did was wrong and contrary to his duties as Head Coach and took no apparent account of the supporters and players perfectly reasonable aspirations
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davepid added 21:34 - Feb 16 Has anyone heard of McQueen before? He's played just 3 times for the u 21 s , only two were starts, with just one goal. So why was he preferred to be in the squad ahead of Gallagher, Isgrove or a couple of others. And ,then, why was he preferred to be the final sub, ahead of two other attacking players. Doesn't make sense however you dish it up.
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cheltenhamsaint added 23:00 - Feb 16 Hello, I have never posted on a forum before because I have a always thought that the "posters" were not representative of my club. I thought I had found such a forum, as a voyeur, but I have been disappointed today. At 16/1 I had a punt I thought we had a real chance this year to win the FA Cup and I was very disappointed in our performance against Sunderland, to lose with a whimper. Am I disappointed with Mr Pochecttino and his team selection? Yes and no. Did I want a day out to Wembley for a possible semi final and take my new girlfriend, who is new to football and Saints, yes of course. Do I think that we have the best manager possible to take us forward, win or lose. Yes of course. It is churlish to want to take the rewards when we are playing well, winning games with players from our academy with the style we want and then react with anger when we have the odd result we don't like because we fancy a day out. Am I disappointed. yes,certainly. Do I think we have the right man to manage our squad of players, Yes I do. My biggest disappointment is that we seem to be like every other club. One defeat and the manager doesn't know what he is doing. Very sad day for me in what has been the best season I can remember (my first game was seeing Ron Davies score two headed goals against Peter Shiilton in goal for Leicester) It has been short and sweet, this venture in reading about what supporters think (I understand that feelings are different). So long and thanks for all the fish (as MP will probably say if he read this forum)

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Santos added 10:20 - Feb 17 Livid, angry, annoyed and very disapointed Saturday yesterday and still now. Ok Uefa cup not very appealing lots of games no revenue (not a fan perspective!!), yes league places worth a lot of money. (well better make sure we finish 2/3 places higher then now!!!). I get making a few changes maybe not 6 and not our top scorer. Even more annoyed as Sunderland really did not want to go through all but offered us the game and considering our record against them we should have been weary. Changes all to late was bad after 45 mins and needed something. surely the point of the exercise with a complete week off after this game would have been go for it and if then the dream came true, dip out of the uefa cup early next season. Sorry for ranting but even more dissapointed this morning having seen the draw and really feel those that travelled should be compensated for such a poor poor limp showing. Sorry all had to get it off my chest.

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darthvader added 11:32 - Feb 17 Hi Cheltenham saint . I agree with everyone's pov. But I'm not angry with poch, very disappointed with the team selection though and also the way we played ,gutted for the fans especially the ones who made the trip . But I still love my saints and I hope that next year we have a good draw in the facup again and it goes for us .make no mistake poch is a top manager and great for us we all make mistakes but he's done brill for us up to now . Now we must get behind the team and get as high up the league as we can . Chase and pass Man who .. keep the faith up the saints go for the win against in form wet spam that will help ease some of the pain from going out ..

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BaselSaint added 11:33 - Feb 17 Pochetino should personally reimburse the traveling Saints supporters travel and ticket money - embarassing
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geezershoong added 12:35 - Feb 17 We had chances to win the game 3-1 but didn't... So not sure how you can blame the team selection on our failure to stick it in from 2 yards for example...
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bstokesaint added 13:09 - Feb 17 I'm still angry now, especially after seeing the draw for the next round. For me the season is over given our current position in the table. And why would we want to finish any higher because that would mean a potential Europa spot and wasn't that the reason we picked a weakened team for Saturday because we didn't want a potential Europa spot? Nothing stacks up apart from a very apparent disregard and disrespect to one of the most celebrated cups in football. I wish Poch would just admit he has made a mistake and insulted the nature of the competition and the fans, especially those that made the journey. A massive respect is to those fans. This was a cup that was winnable, especially given that the favourites will likely be involved in the UCL as the season goes on. Why couldn’t we win it, because it’s easier to say that and bury your head in the sand? I think you’ll find we’ve got results against most of the remaining teams at some point in recent history. I’m grateful to Poch too for where he has taken us but as others have said that doesn’t give him the right to choose which games to win or lose. That’s preposterous. He said he didn’t leave when Cortese did because he” owed it to the fans”. He should recognise that he owed this to us fans as well. Let’s face it sadly the FA Cup is dying a slow death, not because we want it to but because money talks. I’d love to see how things would change if a UCL spot was offered to the winner. Might mix things up a bit!

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kristianJ added 14:47 - Feb 17 Dreadful team selection by Poch. Off all the teams in the FA Cup we had the most reason to try to win it. We are 11 points above the team in 10th place in the league, so we are very likely to finish in either 8th or 9th place. Ahead of us in the league are Man Utd & Everton, whilst United are only 3 points ahead of us they have a forward line of Rooney, Van Persie, Mata & Januzaj - (which is clearly way better than our own) it's pretty unlikely that we will overtake them. In the FA Cup we had to play a Sunderland team, who put out a bunch of reserves and we would then face either Brighton (in the league below) or Hull (who we've beaten twice this season) therefore we had a great chance to make the semi finals. To not put out a full strength team on Saturday against Sunderland is not only an insult to the hundreds of fans that made the trip north, but it is clearly the height of stupidity by the manager. It was only after Jay-Rod and MS came on that we played with the right tempo, but it was too little too late. To then take of Lallana and replace him with a kid just shows the disdain that Poch has for the competition, it was almost as if he was making a point by doing this, I think this is supported by the post match comments by our management staff. Whilst Lambert did miss a sitter, forwards are always going to miss chances now and then, if we'd played a full strength team we could have easily turned over a very mediocre team and wouldn't have been trying to dig ourselves out of a self made hole as we were in the second half.

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