Saints shot themselves in the foot defensively as they blew a two goal lead through sloppy defending at White Hart Lane this afternoon.

Morgan Schneiderlin joined the injury list, but Jack Cork returned as Saints travelled to Spurs looking to leapfrog over Newcastle, but by the end of the game it would be a case of two injury time winners going the wrong way for Saints this weekend, If Newcastle hadnt hit their late winner against Palace and Spurs hadnt ruined Saints day at White Hart Lane with an injury time strike then Saints would two points ahead of the Geordies instead of a point behind.

But it all started so well for Saints with first Jay Rodriguez latching on to a long clearance from Artur Boruc that was missed by Naughton and doing his England chances no harm in front of Roy Hodgson to finish with aplomb on 19 minutes.

Ten minutes later and it was Lallana who doubled the lead, Naughton again was the culprit as he miscontrolled a ball into the path of Lambert standing in an off side position who held it up well and found Lallana overlapping.

Saints then looked well in control and should really have seen the game to the break comfortably but they shot themselves in the foot with a lack of concentration, firstly Lovren got caught out near the left touchline and from the resulting cross Nathan Clyne really should have dealt with the ball being under no pressure, he didnt and the deficit was halved. Boruc saved well to keep the scores level and Saints at least held a lead at half time.

But that lead would last barely a minute after the restart, again Lovren tried to shield a ball over near the left touchline, again he was brushed aside and again Saints conceded a soft goal.

Spurs then took the game by the scruff of the neck, however to Saints credit they dug in and chased an harried, however most of their problems were of their own making, Lovren and Fonte did not look comfortable all afternoon and seemed to struggle to win the ball and when they did they struggled to clear it or even pass it to their own players.

This was the difference between the sides in the second half, Spurs central defence dealt with our attacks and built the play from the back, Fonte and Lovren looked dodgy.

But just as Saints looked like they would get a point, they conceded another sloppy goal, with 90 seconds of 4 minutes of injury time left all Saints had to to was stay strong, a hopefull ball into the box was a free header for Fonte, but his header was tame an barely went ten yards and was volleyed home for a winner Spurs did not deserve and Saints didnt deserve to concede either.

Once again Saints failed to beat a top half of the table side and the reason why is clear, again its all about lapses in concentration and making mistakes under no pressure, Spurs 3 goals came out of nowhere in that all three situations should not have dveloped as they did, they could easily have been avoided but they werent.

This result perhaps means that all Saints have to play for now is 8th, I say all because we would have all been happy with that prior to the opening day against West Brom, perhaps now we have to look a the Baggies themselves and how their fortunes have changed this season, we need to identify those players who need to be replaced, we still need a quality central defender to partner Lovren, the Croatian had a bad day at the office today but was clearly not 100%, but Fonte s too error prone and he should not be first choice due to this, it wasnt just that late goal, but throughout the game he failed to get the ball down and use it and that brought pressure on us.

The lessons to be learned are clear, we are of the standard we are but we make too many errors to make that step up at the moment, we are only a player or two short of making that improvement, but it was there to see, at the back we made error after error and too often didnt get the ball down and going forward we had little threat on goal, we were needing to go on the counter attack and we didnt have the pace up front to do so.

There are excuses for this game in respect of injuries, yes we could have done with Schneiderlin and even Wanyama, although Jack Cork had a fine game, but again its about individual error costing us and that is nothing to do with who is available or not.

Onwards and upwards though, lets chase that 8th place starting with the game against Newcastle next week, we can have a fine end to the season and if we can keep this squad together and make two or three quality additions in the summer then there is no reason why we should not continue our progress

Photo: Action Images

IanRC added 16:52 - Mar 23 Thought Louvren was unlucky for the equaliser, he is pushed in the back and play continued, he did the same to the Spurs forward and was booked - hardly a level playing field. Should be beating Spurs easily a disappointing day.
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A1079 added 17:16 - Mar 23 A disappointing result but not that surprising. Our record against sides against above this season is not great (with a couple of exceptions) and our record against London based clubs even worse (with the exception of Fulham). Our record of surrendering leads is pretty awful and I think where we are in the league is probably is as good as it is going to get, though, it is still better than expected and is still a step forward. The close season is so crucial this year in terms of where the board etc see this club going. We have a good team, not a great team. We have heaps of potential - but we need to sort that manager position out quickly once the season ends, firm up on retaining our best players and if any are leaving to sort it out early so that we both have a chance to replace them sooner rather than later and also build on what we have. I dislike Spurs so much and yet on the whole they seem to have the measure of us.

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schatfield added 17:19 - Mar 23 Sorry IanRC but disagree on Lovren being unlucky, he was barely touched and fell to the floor expecting a free kick, and didnt get it - bit disappointing, he didnt try harder in that tackle. Good report and agree on Fonte, all game he looked nervy and was error prone. We certainly need a solid central defender in the summer, and some of u may disagree, but we also need a goalie to put pressure on Boruc. He knows at the moment no one can touch him, and thats not good.

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aceofthebase added 19:55 - Mar 23 Lovren (or others)again and again forced to play the position of left back as our talented youngster hugs the touchline as a left winger should. However everytime the opposition send a ball down the left it looks like a goal is coming and they do. We have to sort this out. Too many of our players have slipped at vital times this season, are they wearing the right boots for the conditions?

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Ddobsy added 20:48 - Mar 23 Aside from an individual error it was an excellent first half, particularly as an away performance. What worries me, is not the quality of the players, but a lack of tactical response. Time and time again we dominate first halves, but fail to respond to changes by the opposition at the change over. Chelsea was the most obvious example of this, but away at Palace, Spurs and others we have seen the iniative surrendered. Especially if we are leading. We need a plan B, something that changes our shape or tempo. Changing one set of legs for another simply won't do.

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thegeneral added 22:44 - Mar 23 Agree with the two posts above. Lovren has to cover the left back position time and time again, LS is all too often missing, play him as a winger and be done with it. Again no plan B from MP, Spiderman and Wanyama may have been missing but that didn't affect us for 35 min's or so. Spurs didn't win it we lost it, but again headlines from Pochetino saying we deserved more, no we didn't, we fooked it right up and tactically again he had little to offer. Lambert is a legend but he's only effective for a half, why take JRod off?, a goal and a constant threat to get behind the Spurs defence he looked lively, maybe he had a knock? With no replacement for Osvaldo the only option is to bring on Gallagher who just doesn't look ready.

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LostBoys added 23:10 - Mar 23 shocking defending for most of the game frankly and needs to be sorted. Spurs were poor and we should have rolled them over
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DJI added 08:57 - Mar 24 Agree with your post Nick. Lovren should learn to play to the whistle also; just watch his reaction for the second goal. As Soldado beats him, he stops and looks back at the linesman! I was also disappointed that at the end, the majority of players and all the staff walked straight down the tunnel and ignored us travelling fans! Only the 4 kids and Adz made the effort to come towards us. This is becoming a trend now and I can't recall MPo ever thanking the travelling fans which is starting to give the lead to his players! Feel a little taken for granted of late.

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davepid added 09:39 - Mar 24 Ddobsyis spot on, we don't protect first half leads even when it's two goals advantage - Sunderland and now spurs. That is why I repeat MP has taken us as far as he can , I see very little improvement in tactics since early season and he should go .
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Fordy added 11:34 - Mar 24 If we are going to get to the next level we need to change the way we play. If we are 2-0 up in the first half we need to do everything we can to get in to half time with that lead. Instead, we carry on playing the same way, looking for the third. It has cost us so many times this year. We missed Morgan and Wanyama though. I think at half time Sherwaood must have told his players to be a lot more physical and there was a lot of pushing and shoving and we didn't really have the players to stand up to them.

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SanMarco added 12:04 - Mar 24 I knew there would be lots of Plan B comments after this result. Are we saying that once we scored the second we should have changed to a defensive strategy? They were individual errors that cost us, nothing to do with tactics/strategy. I believe that our problem is that we are unable to get back into the groove once we are rattled. Once we had weathered the inevitable pressure after the equaliser we should have been able to reimpose our style but we didn't do it. If Plan B means kick and rush/long ball etc then we need to change personnel. Yes the first goal came from a long ball but as a rule it is good, composed, entertaining football that gets us our goals. If we can't then defend these leads while maintaining our goal threat then we need different defenders...

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BoondockSaint added 12:46 - Mar 24 Both teams were awful in their own half. This is some where around 18 pts we've dropped from winning postions. No mental toughness. In all sports, good mangers/coaches come in with a good game plan. It's the great ones that can adapt during the game. MP has to start showing this. I'm scared every time the ball is played back to Boruc. Because of the pecking order in the league, if Spurs had been ahead, there would never have been 4 minutes of Fergie Time added.

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simmo400 added 13:01 - Mar 24 I agree with most of the comments above. We threw the game with basic defending errors as usual. We were also guilty of passing about at the back and putting orselves under pressure. Until these BASIC errors are put right we will never improve.
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Whatsforpud added 17:09 - Mar 24 Shaw likes to get forward, but his prime job is to defend. Lovren had to fill in for him twice, neither time very well. For the second one, he had a chance to stick it into touch, but messed up. Not his best match. It seems we have to score three goals before reply to ensure a point.
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saintmark1976 added 19:29 - Mar 24 Sorry, but if a team drops 18 points from winning positions with nearly a quarter of the season still to play then this indicates to me tactical problems on behalf of the manager. I have said it repeatedly, Mo Po is a one trick pony and the management of the top teams have sussed him. What would have been wrong yesterday when you are two goals up within the first half hour in playing the long ball game and putting Lambert up front on his own as a target man. In other words why did Mo Po not do to Spurs what others do to us i e "park the bus" at least until half time? The crowd would of got on their backs and made it even more difficult bearing in mind that they had lost their previous two Premiership games Lets be honest, Spurs had not had a kick after after half an hour and if they had gone in at half time two down then there was very little chance of them getting any sort of a result by full time. The game was won and Mo Po throw it away, yet again.

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SanMarco added 19:46 - Mar 24 Saintmark1976 - how would the long ball game have prevented the four schoolboy errors that cost us the game?? Good basic defending and we would have been 2 or more up at halftime.
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saintmark1976 added 20:19 - Mar 24 SanMarco- with respect you miss the point. The errors to which you refer may well not have occurred if we had not played so open after building a two goal lead. Indeed, Lovren could simply have belted the ball into touch on both occasions prior to their first two goals. I accept that Mo Po is not responsible for the individual errors of Clyne and Lovren but even if you forget yesterday we have still dropped 15 points from winning positions. Is this all down to individual players errors? Personally I doubt it. On a happier note at least we can agree that there is no chance of us playing non league football next season,something that can not be said for all our south coast neighbours!

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cheltenhamsaint added 22:56 - Mar 24 saintmark1976 - I don't understand. All the other managers have sussed us out and allow Saints to go into the lead? It seems a strange tactic to me. Why don't they just out smart our manager from the start as it is obvious what we are going to do. I'm sorry am I just being dense? 18 points from winning positions!!!! Can we complain to the league or something because this seems like a stitch up to me. If you want to start a petitiion count me in. I was just enjoying watching us playing some great football and perhaps making Saints Premier League history this season with our highest finish/points tally, Now I'm furious! We are being robbed of our CL dream just so that other clubs can get more points than us and win some exciting football matches. Hang on, it is only 15 points in your second post. Have we just improved in the last hour or two? Sorry I am really confused. I want Ian Branfoot back. I knew where I stood in those days.

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BaselSaint added 10:55 - Mar 25 I watched MOTD 2 until our second goal. 2 - Nil. That's what it was. .... 2-0...
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saintmark1976 added 16:07 - Mar 25 cheltenhamsaint- An interesting if somewhat muddled response if you do not mind me saying so,and all in one paragraph! I did not say all the other managers have sussed us out.However,I did say all the managers of the top teams have. That is why in my opinion we have won only one game against them all season long. Mo Po is currently a one trick pony. If he can learn some other tactics then I will be the first to join you in singing his praises. In my second post I said if you forget yesterday we have still dropped 15 points from winning positions. 18 minus 3 = 15. Like yourself I hope we have our highest Premiership finish/points total. Being, I suspect somewhat older than yourself (I started to support the Saints many years prior to when they finished second in the top flight) it may not appear to me such a great achievement as it may to you. Hope the above helps clear your confusion and if nothing else we can agree on one thing. I do not want Branfoot back either.

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Zambucco added 13:25 - Mar 26 There is no plan B for this style, we just need to perfect it, score more of the chances made and make fewer errors in defence. It really is that simple. I should know I have won the European Cup, World Cup, and the Ashes! Not sure of the official stats but I'm certain that our defensive record is far superior when Wanyama plays, than when Cork does. It may go against popular opinion here, but Wanyama is a linchpin in our midfield, I think he fills the defenders behind him with more confidence than Cork does. Sure he makes a few mistakes and some of his passing is not always spot on. but surprise surprise neither is Cork's. Wanyama and Schneiderlin the biggest reason for our early successes

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cheltenhamsaint added 22:53 - Mar 26 Saintmark1976 - good response to my rant I've just seen to many drubbings over the years, not that it has spoilt my enjoyment, and some dour football, and get frustrated when I perceive that fans are not recognising, in my opinion, that we are in one of the few exciting times of our history. (New paragraph). I did feel a bit guilty about giving you some stick actually. You've made me feel even worse with your considered response. My first Saints game was to see Ron Davies score two headed (what else) against Leicester with a young Peter Shilton in goal. So that dates me accordingly

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aceofthebase added 08:03 - Mar 27 cheltenhamsaint Are you saying that you are so young that you missed Derek Reeves and George o' Brian? Not forgetting the recently passed away Christie in goal or that wonderful tackler at left back Tommy Traynor or the kids on the wing Paine and Sydenham. Div 3 South and the days when there were full grounds with just a handful of away supporters.
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