Once again Saints threw away a game they really should have got something out of, so where did it all go wrong, how could we lose such an important game against a side down to 10 men.

The crowd put aside their views on Saints manager Nathan Jones when the game kicked off, but there was much bewilderment at some strange omissions from the team and indeed the squad, the manager had said we would see his true character going into this game and that seemed to be in his team selection.

There was no place in the squad for Duje Caleta-Car, Jones had said he would probably not play due to an unamed injury issue, but also missing were Mislav Orsic & Armando Bella-Kotchap, this raised a few eyebrows pre game.

Into the starting line up came the two new signings, Paul Onauchu & Sulemana, joined by Charly Alcatraz & strangely Ainslie Maitland Niles.

In fairness not a bad side with only Che Adams from the substitutes perhaps thinking he was being hard done by.

Saints started well and got a grip on the game and took a well deserved lead on 24 minutes through Alcaraz who after seeing his initial effort blocked fired home in off the bottom of the post to send the majority of the St Mary's crowd wild.

There were more cheering when 3 minutes later former Saint or more accurately sinner Mario Lemina was dismissed for a second yellow card.

Surely now Saints could finally win a game at home, one nil up and playing against 10 men.

For the 40 or so minutes everything seemed to be going to plan, we controlled the game and Wolves were yet to have a shot on target, as we approached the 70th minute though it was noticeable that some players were tiring, this is when the manager has to earn his corn, Nathan Jones in his previous games has used substitutions liberally, a week ago at Brentford he had used 4 of the 5 allowed by the 65th minute, yet here we were in the 70th minute with not one made.

In contrast the visitors had brought on 4 themselves to give them fresh legs to try and get something out of the game.

But as our players tired Jones did nothing and we paid the price with some kamikaze defending ending with Jan Bednarek getting his legs tangled up and falling into the net with the ball.

Now Wolves had their tails up and it surprised no one when they scored a winner in the 87th minute, by then we had made 4 substitutions in the 8 minutes after the equaliser as suddenly the manager pressed the panic button. But all that did was turn us from a side who had been playing to a system to be a disorganised rabble.

Another bizarre feature of the game was that James Ward Prowse had two free kicks right where he likes them but didn't shoot from either, both times he passed it short and both times we failed to get in a decent effort.

The first time I could see the reasoning, it was a change of tack and could have caught the opposition out, the second time was deep in injury time and in a prime position.

Surely Nathan Jones is not instructing James Ward Prowse not to shoot at free kicks, I have to say that I think that is the case, these were clearly training ground practised moves, JWP seemed to be playing to orders.

Sadly it is hard to see a way forward at the moment, certainly not under Nathan Jones, he has shown little to suggest that he has the nous needed to manage in the Premier League, he does not have the courage of his convictions, players come in and out of the side on a regular basis, Joe Aribo has been out of favour and had not started a game in the Premier League since Fulham on 31st December, he came on as sub against Forest a few days later, but in the following games he has not got off the bench, or at times not even been in the squad, yet here he was thrown into the fray on 79 minutes.

Now I haven't got anything against Aribo, but when we leave players who have played a part lately such as Adam Armstrong & Sekou Mara on the bench when we are chasing a game and put in a player out of favour such as Aribo it stinks of a manager who is clutching at straws.

A few weeks ago at Everton we turned a corner, but since then we didn't build on the performance the players gave in that game, Caleta-Car has been dropped so has Lyanco, leading scorer Che Adams was also on the bench, Moi Elyounoussi & Ibrahima Diallo weren't even in the squad yesterday.

Only 4 players from the starting line up at Goodison Park started against Wolves, Kyle Walker Peters was injured and Jones claims Caleta-Car is as well, but aside from that that it seems this is all down to tinkering from Jones, he is switching players around willy nilly to show that he is a coach.

But his scattergun approach is not working and when we truly needed him to make a tactical change to bring fresh legs he sat on his hands and did nothing.

The players yesterday did not let Nathan Jones down, they gave their all and put themselves in a winning position, but Jones let them down tactically, he failed to make 1 or 2 straight substitutions to bring on fresh legs and then he compounded the problem by making 4 within 5 minutes of each other to completely disrupt the organisation of the side meaning we poured forward like a team of under 10's but had no shape to our play.

To call Jones a clown is unfair, he has built himself a career in professional football and knows a lot more about the game than most of the fans who watch, but that does not mean he is a good Premier league manager or for that matter a good Saints manager.

On paper his stats may well look good, but at the highest level only a few survive and Jones as I write this has not survived, the news of his sacking coming in as I type this report.

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 10:25 - Feb 12 The sacking news will change how we all comment on this but it was interesting how the calm manager with plenty of top level experience came out on top against the emotional wreck that was our guy. It was written in the stars that the hapless Bednarek should make the vital error. Where do we go from here? Almost certainly down but at least the club have, finally, admitted their catastrophic error.

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halftimeorange added 10:38 - Feb 12 Relegation certainly beckons but, keeping the better players for next season is now key. There were some good points from yesterday - Sulemana was exciting to watch, Alcaraz looked the business until he tired and the one player who improved in the second half was, imo Maitland-Niles. I hope Ruben Selles can boost morale in what must be a dejected dressing-room. To be fair, Saints fans were reasonable in their approach to yesterday's performance and those around me were philosophical in accepting that we fell to the sucker punch once again. Once Traoré came on and Nathan Jones tinkered with the defence we were done for. The prospects for any prompt revival are gloomy but, we have to stick with it.

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1962saint added 10:44 - Feb 12 In what has been a horrendous season this was, by far, the lowest point. Before the Brentford game last week there was a chance of survival, before this match there was only the slimmest chance. Now there is no chance and we much prepare for life in the Championship. I never wavered from my opinion that we should have stuck with Ralph but at least, if dismissing him, he should have been replaced with someone with top level experience and competence. Sports Republic have now accepted their mistake and Jones has been sacked. Let’s hope that the next appointment will be better thought out. As we are now almost certainly relegated there is no rush to get the next manager whose job will be to manage our very large squad for the rest of this season and plan how to get back into the Prem at the first attempt. Looking at the way Burnley have rebounded from going down last year there is hope that happier days are in the future. In some ways I look forward to being in the championship where we may turn up to St Mary’s and witness our team winning matches again.

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wibbersda added 10:56 - Feb 12 That what happens when you get God Bother in. Anyone who believes in sky fairies never actually work in reality. .....and take Bendy Bednerak with you as well.
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Colburn added 11:01 - Feb 12 Well after that, there was no other option than parting company. I was willing to give him a chance until the last week but there was certainly no way forward after picking Bednarek, a guy who slated us a matter of months ago and Walcott, who was finished 3 years ago and did a job on us when he went to Everton at the last minute of a window, leaving us short. Then comes back to us when nobody wants him.. Greedy little hit, we need these people out of our club too. The question is, are we going to select a manager to rebuild via the Championship? Or someone to try to keep us up?

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AndyD added 11:15 - Feb 12 I thought we started off quite well yesterday & everything seemed to be in Saints favour in first half. Where the game changed was in the tactical subs by Wolves at start of second half. You could see the lack of confidence & when we did make subs it was too late. On a positive note Sulemana played well with look attacking runs. Not so sure about Onuachu, looked fairly slow & I cant remember him getting on the end of anything.Its a tall task for new manager to avoid the drop but there are still games Ito play. Its the negative atmosphere that dosent help, it goes very quiet when we are losing which cant help the players. The recruitment in the summer is I think one of the main reasons for where we are now.

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WestSussexSaint added 11:47 - Feb 12 I watched Jones closely during the match from my seat in the Itchen stand. What struck me was the chaotic nature of his managerial style which I can only assume was the same during training and certainly came across in his interviews. An experienced, self assured manager who has a good player relationship will spend the week setting his plan, getting that across to the players, practicing elements in training. Then on match day will use the pre match talk for any last minute adjustments and to send the players out with motivation and trust them to do the job. If the players don’t k is what to do by then either the manager has failed in his communication or the players simply aren’t up to the task. From minute one yesterday Jones may have well been on the pitch, every ball was kicked, every missed pass berated, and constant instructions fired from the sideline with little chance of the players actually hearing him from 40 or 50 yards. The micro management and the criticism showed a lack of belief not only in the players but his own plans and tactics. I compare Nathan Jones to Ralph Hassenhuttl. Not because I want Ralph to return. He had his time. But while Ralph was certainly a passionate manager (eg win v Liverpool) he generally showed it with control and positivity. His instructions were usually delivered in breaks in play, and his disappointment at missed opportunities or goals conceded typically was directed more at himself and not the players. Jones was never going to get the best out of the players with his style and constant criticism. And if you cannot trust premier league players to act on your plans then who can you trust. So I think SR have to hold their hands up and admit the Jones experiment as a failure. He may have ticked many metric boxes but critically the one he didn’t was man management. Let’s hope that SR’d next appointment has the ability to get the best out of what is undoubtedly a talented set of players.

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LordDZLucan added 12:10 - Feb 12 I think everyone has forgotten that we were 1-0 up and playing against 10 men. Yet you would never have believed that from the 2nd half performance. JWP, as the senior player and supposedly our best player, should have been able to take the game by the scruff of the neck and dictate proceedings. But he was anonymous. Ffs how can you be anonymous when you're playing for a team with an extra man? I'm not saying that Nathan Jones shouldn't have been sacked but the players must take the lion's share of the responsibility for yesterday. They were a rabble yesterday for most of the 2nd half and they've now contributed to a 2nd manager getting sacked. They need to step up quickly or ship out.

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Saidou added 14:22 - Feb 12 How Jan Bednarek is still at the club, and starting games, is beyond me.
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SaintPaulVW added 15:03 - Feb 12 Oh how I've missed that Janny B own goal face where he looks just like Frank Spencer. Hopefully now it's seared onto my retinas one last time, I never have to see it ever again. Sulemana was excellent, Onuachu also caused problems and good to see Charly off the mark. All are reasons to hope for a miracle. I really think we've left it far too late but we are where we are. COYR

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AmericanSaint added 16:41 - Feb 12 Well it has happened and I think we can all agree that SR got it horribly wring with NJ. He is gonna and we must move forward. The best think to do is forget about him and move forward. SR MUST get the next manager right. Not for this season, but for the long term. The next one must commit to being the manager when we go down, so there is continuity. No need to comment on the game as it doesnt matter now. Let just try and get some confidence back and play a normal 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 to build on.

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redwight added 18:16 - Feb 12 It's irrelevant now, obviously, but there were clear signs of a different approach yesterday. I'm thinking particularly of the 'keeper kicking the ball long, rather than rolling it out to non ball playing centre backs, which achieved nothing and gave us all heart attacks. Going long generated flick-ons and often seemed to cause problems in the Wolves defence. I for one was celebrating the end of tippy-tappy and hope that whoever takes over doesn't change this.

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Peterx added 09:24 - Feb 13 The positives for me going forward is that the Alcaraz, JWP and Lavia midfield has been shown to work, obviously when that combination tires a Diallo coming in would have been key except, he was not even on the bench. But that midfield plus the promise of Car and Salisu in a back 4, the pace of Kamaldeen and Tall Paul's ariel presence has to mean some hope. Lemina had his best game for Saints and we still lost. OK snide comment, but our current position feels like a long time coming in wasting money in the Reed era and then lack of investment from Gao. Miracles do happen, hope springs eternal. I just want a decent manager who does not put round pegs in square holes and goes with the obvious rather than someone who tries to prove he is manager of the month in every game.

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