| Southampton At Middlesbrough The Verdict on 10:21 - Sep 25 with 922 views | saintwizzler |
It could quite easily of been 4 or 5-1.
A better team would have put us to the sword.
The reception from the travelling Saints fans to the the manager and staff at full time spoke volumes.
People are truly pissed off!
Not just this season, or because of last but anyone could see the club on a downward spiral for a long time now.
A change of owners has not helped one bit.
They’ve spent money but have now recouped it on JWP, Tella, Livramento, Lavia and others…
Spending £18m on two players, one of whom is injured, then relying on 2 returning players in Smallbone and Stephens, loans from other clubs and a free transfer in Manning.
Russell Martin is being given a tough job by Sports Republic to get us back up.
All we can do is support the team from the first whistle to the final whistle.
I’m sorry but if Sports Republic, the manager and the players can’t take criticism on social media then they’re in the wrong job.
What the hell is going to happen this Saturday v an in form Leeds side? |  |
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| Southampton At Middlesbrough The Verdict on 11:04 - Sep 25 with 862 views | Butty101 |
| Southampton At Middlesbrough The Verdict on 10:21 - Sep 25 by saintwizzler |
It could quite easily of been 4 or 5-1.
A better team would have put us to the sword.
The reception from the travelling Saints fans to the the manager and staff at full time spoke volumes.
People are truly pissed off!
Not just this season, or because of last but anyone could see the club on a downward spiral for a long time now.
A change of owners has not helped one bit.
They’ve spent money but have now recouped it on JWP, Tella, Livramento, Lavia and others…
Spending £18m on two players, one of whom is injured, then relying on 2 returning players in Smallbone and Stephens, loans from other clubs and a free transfer in Manning.
Russell Martin is being given a tough job by Sports Republic to get us back up.
All we can do is support the team from the first whistle to the final whistle.
I’m sorry but if Sports Republic, the manager and the players can’t take criticism on social media then they’re in the wrong job.
What the hell is going to happen this Saturday v an in form Leeds side? |
Nick i know you like to be super positive, but this club is rapidly heading towards league 1. Once again a half decent keeper would have saved the first one, Baz has week wrists and is always slow to react.
Its interesting that since the transfer window shut we have lost all our games and the goals have dried up. Maybe for the likes of Che the motivation has gone... |  |
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| Southampton At Middlesbrough The Verdict on 11:11 - Sep 25 with 855 views | saintwizzler |
| Southampton At Middlesbrough The Verdict on 11:04 - Sep 25 by Butty101 |
Nick i know you like to be super positive, but this club is rapidly heading towards league 1. Once again a half decent keeper would have saved the first one, Baz has week wrists and is always slow to react.
Its interesting that since the transfer window shut we have lost all our games and the goals have dried up. Maybe for the likes of Che the motivation has gone... |
Bazunu should have done better with the equaliser. | |
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| Southampton At Middlesbrough The Verdict on 10:36 - Sep 27 with 548 views | saintwizzler |
From Midland Saint Andrew Bartlett -
MIDDLESBROUGH 2 SAINTS 1
“…This ain't no upwardly mobile freeway…”
At the end of the game our so-called manager started across the pitch to salute the away fans. He was halted in his tracks by perhaps the most concerted barrage of abuse I have ever seen. That tells you everything you need to know about this utterly shameful performance. What should have been a straightforward win against a terrible team was turned into defeat by our side that somehow contrived to be even worse. We have decent players but Russell Martin has made them much less than the sum of their parts by ridiculous formations and bizarre team selections. Boro had nothing and their fans were getting on their backs but we didn’t take advantage. The game was not lost by the penalty. It was lost the second we allowed the home side to equalize. All chance of automatic promotion has gone before September is out. I don’t mind that. I never expected us to go up. What I did expect was to see Saints winning more than we lose, but now unless change is made a relegation battle threatens.
I missed Ipswich at home due to having to get an early morning flight from London the next day. If the M3 wasn’t a car park it might have been doable. So I set off for Teeside with hope that we might get back to not losing ways. Thanks to leaving at 7am we avoided the A1 tailbacks and were parked in my preferred sideroad close to the station just after 10.
We had lunch in the Isaac Wilson, a former Wetherspoons that offered a remarkable range of cheap beer. It also had on the menu the local delicacy, the “Parmo”. This is a breaded chicken cutlet topped with a white béchamel sauce and cheese. It was actually delicious. I witnessed an unusual altercation when a chap came over an adjacent table to ask if a seat was free. Despite being told that it was taken he aggressively wrenched it away and walked off with it. The blokes at the table looked capable of dealing with such a situation but seemed too astonished to react.
From the pub it was an easy walk to the Riverside. It was good that the weather was pleasant as the exposed location with wind whipping off the North Sea has made for some freezing afternoons. There was a decent turnout of Saints fans in the away section located unusually on one side rather than behind the goal. Despite the home side’s recent form the gate was a respectable 26,141.
The main change in the side was Holgate coming in. But at right back rather in central defence, with KWP at left back.
From the kick-off it was clear that the home side was hopeless and their supporters rather restless. Saints looked more solid than in previous games as the nonsense that I believe is called “inverted fullbacks” was abandoned. This could be partly due to Holgate not having the pace to get forward anyway. You had the feeling that with say the pace of Edozie we could tear Boro apart.
Adams had a great chance when put clear but sent a low shot just wide of the post. It didn’t seem to matter as by the 17th minute we were in the lead. Adams threaded the ball into the penalty area and Armstrong did what he clearly does well, moving on to it to score confidently past the keeper.
From this point nothing could possibly go wrong. Sadly Saints failed to build on Boro’s weakness and instead of dominating just faded away. The home side were allowed chances but despite getting behind our defence a few times never really looked threatening.
Then of course, the half-time curse struck again. Maybe Holgate had his mind on a welcome cup of tea. It certainly was not on the game when he received the ball in the middle of the pitch under no pressure. As danger approached the away fans shouted “man on”. If only the players on the pitch had done the same. The ball was lost and McGree was set up for a shot. I didn’t feel too worried as it was a straightforward save – for any keeper other than Bazunu that is. From that moment defeat was certain.
Martin effectively threw Holgate under the bus by replacing him with Manning for the second half. KWP moved to right back where he was the only player to put in any sort of performance. While Manning was meant to be left back he was constantly straying all over the place and leaving the wing wide open. What had been needed was to bring some attacking pace on down the wings.
It seemed the only saving grace might be that Boro were so poor. Then just after the hour Harwood-Bellis tangled with Coburn in the penalty area. The defender had his shirt tugged but you can’t get away with dragging a player down. Mr Robinson pointed to the spot and Howson converted with ease.
As is the Saints way changes were made when they were no longer relevant. Edozie replaced Charles – a fine looking player who has far too quickly been dragged down by our coaching. The same applies to Harwood-Bellis, highly rated captain of the England U21 team who in a matter of a few games has been made awful. The saving grace for him is that the compulsory purchase on promotion is not going to apply. Sulemana replaced Fraser, who in his first game against QPR seemed exactly what we needed but is now going through the motions.
Throwing everything forward in attacks that petered out when the ball approached the penalty area left us wide open at the back. A number of times Boro got 2, 3 or even 4 on 1 breaks but couldn’t score, and Bazunu did actually make one very good save.
Mr Robinson had a very easy game, but he let Boro get away with some dreadful challenges without showing a yellow card.
About the only tangible chance was a good shot from Edozie from the edge of the penalty area that was saved quite easily by the keeper. Time added on passed without Saints exerting any real pressure. The home side were able to celebrate an unexpected win that has kept their manager in his job. No doubt they will now storm up the table.
The sense that Saints are now in freefall was cemented by the reaction of the away fans. Not only was the manager subject to abuse, so were the players. If they had any respect for us at all they would be having a whip round to recompense everyone who was short changed today and at Sunderland.
I never dreamt that before September was out that we would be thinking of the next manager. But we are under the charge of yet another charlatan who is inexorably leading us to the relegation zone. When I heard Martin’s comments after the first few games I thought he had seen the same game as me. Now his comments about “scar tissue” from last season are firmly in Nathan Jones territory.
With the exception of our pitiful keeper Saints have a squad that is easily good enough to be top six. All we need is a realistic and pragmatic manager who sets us up to play like a Championship side rather than dreaming we are a faux Manchester City.
The one good thing about the day was that our parking place enabled a very quick getaway and in just a few minutes we were heading back down the A19. Our North East troubles are done for this season.
Saints team: 31Bazunu 6Holgate (Manning 45') 21Harwood-Bellis 35Bednarek 2Walker-Peters 4Downes 24Charles (Edozie 72') 16Smallbone (Aribo 83') 9A Armstrong 10Adams (S Armstrong 72') 26Fraser (Sulemana 69')
Substitutes: 1McCarthy 3Manning 7Aribo 14Bree 17S Armstrong 18Mara 20Sulemana 22Alcaraz 23Edozie
Summary: Time for change already Top Man: N/A
Lyrics: Chris Rea – Road to hell
Next report: Leeds | |
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| Southampton At Middlesbrough The Verdict on 11:17 - Sep 27 with 511 views | kingolaf |
Andrew Bartlett, I salute you. |  | | |
| Southampton At Middlesbrough The Verdict on 12:40 - Sep 27 with 453 views | MattFinish |
Very good report from Andrew. The most enjoyable and entertaining part of his day was clearly the chair altercation in Wetherspoons and parking in a location for a quick get away. Everything in between was just sh1te |  | | |
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