| Yesterday's game 09:19 - Dec 8 with 641 views | A1079 |
When I got up yesterday morning I was heavily weighing up whether to go to the game. I had the ticket but I didn't have the motivation and looking at the deteriorating weather I was looking for an excuse not to drive down the M18, M1, etc or hoping that perhaps the game would be called off. Anyway, despite all those doubts and knowing that I was going to watch another defeat, like many others I did go and the end if the day wondered why I did not stick to my gut instinct telling me not to.
I got there in good time, decided to venture into Aston Tavern to escape the cold and wet and paid the £5 entry fee which did include a bowl of food and though a Villa fans location there was a smattering of Saints fans and it was arguably the most pleasant part of the day.
As for the game. Well, whichever side you were supporting, there was a common feeling - it was a poor game, with a poor atmosphere played in poor conditions. Even the overhanging roof did not protect you from the elements as my feet became blocks of ice and the only thing that kept you going was the gallows humour between our own fans.
The game can be summed easily. They scored because of another error, we offered no goal threat whatsoever, despite alot of huffing and puffing. I think at best we had one real meaningful shot on goal and I think our corners was less than a handful. I cannot think of a more inept bunch of strikers we have had at this level in all my time watching Saints and that includes even through the Branfoot era. Armstrong was repeatedly in off side positions so on the rare occasion we did try to get it forward he had to come back. On a simple chance that he had in the second half he inevitably fluffed his lines. Archer I do think potentially offers more but wiith tall centre halves on either side of him the ball to him has to precision and Brereton- Diaz - why oh why did we waste our money on that purchase - put bluntly, we knew we would need a good striker for this level and we have at best a bunch of championship strikers - even Vardy at Leicester offers more than our 3 put together and of course in the background is Ross Stewart which has to go down as one of the worst signing decisions given he was injured when we purchased him - though I suppose they would not have expected him to have had these medical issues.
In some respects our build up play was not bad. As usual KWP, Dibling and Fernandes worked hard and Aribo worked hard when he came on but we simply had nothing in the final third. Our crosses got nowhere when we got to the opponents box. In defence we were ok (except for the one costly error) and Wood looks like persevering with. Lumley had his moments and having nearly had a repeat of his Chelsea moment he then proceeded to kick the ball long which RM blames the fans for doing as he claims it led to their goal! Blaming the fans is never a good thing - especially given the money they spend, the trip they have made, the conditions they have got there in and have to return home in and the lack of entertainment value his team have served up. We are not the ones on the pitch earning thousands of pounds per week.
Villa themselves were not in truth much better than us and that was also reflected by the lack of vocal support from their own fans, After the game I could hear Villa fans saying that Saints support was better - which is something given the difference in numbers. You left thinking that this was another game where the opposition were there for the taking. You would not have had to have been that much better than we were to beat them - if only we offered some sort of real goal threat. Most other PL teams would probably have beaten Villa yesterday, even arguably any of the others at the bottom (except us)!
For the life of me, I really cannot see where an improvement or a win (even a draw) is going to come from. I have tickets for one more game in this month and beyond that I am really questioning whether I want to invest any more of my hard earned cash in being so underwhelmed by my team and club - I probably will because I always have but is that insanity?????
We are now 8 points at least adrift and 9 if you count our poor goal difference. To all intents and purposes it feels like our season is over and it really depends whether SR feel it is worth making the change in the hope that someone can produce a miracle now or accept (as I believe they have) that going down in the hope of coming back up is a reason and their model for sticking with what we have - with the risk of losing the few good players we have (and given SR record of wasting the money that we would get from them).
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| Yesterday's game on 09:30 - Dec 8 with 593 views | JoeEgg |
Thanks for that A1079.
If Sports Republic dont act this weekend then I guess we are left with this idiot for the duration. I cant imagine there being another Club in the PL that would not have sacked this buffoon weeks ago. I'm still hopeful - its going to be a long weekend continually checking the soccer news threads! | | | |
| Yesterday's game on 09:33 - Dec 8 with 565 views | dirk_doone |
"Most other PL teams would probably have beaten Villa yesterday, even arguably any of the others at the bottom (except us)!" Top teams only rest their best players when they play us. I'm not sure they even do it against Ipswich. |  |
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| Yesterday's game on 09:45 - Dec 8 with 495 views | A1079 |
| Yesterday's game on 09:33 - Dec 8 by dirk_doone |
"Most other PL teams would probably have beaten Villa yesterday, even arguably any of the others at the bottom (except us)!" Top teams only rest their best players when they play us. I'm not sure they even do it against Ipswich. |
Agree Dirk. I did not realise Villa had a CL game coming up and it says something when teams rest players against us in the same way as top teams rest players when they get a lower league side in a cup round. It also says something (sadly) on where other teams see us let alone how we see us. It is a reflection of how far we have fallen as a club. | | | |
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