Not the result many were predicting.

When you are looking at a football season there is an old saying and thats "Its a marathon not a sprint" and thats perhaps a good phrase to bear in mind when assessing this match, Saints started the day with hopes of ending it in top spot, but found themselves dropping to third spot.

Of course with Adam Lallana missing it was always going to be a more difficult task, but Jason Puncheon was a more than adequate replacement, out problems came not from the quality of the squad or our dominance of the game, but the fact that we couldnt alter our game plan.

Like earlier in the season as County dug in deep and defended competently, we didnt change things tactically, Chaplow was withdrawn at half time, but you had to assume that this was due to injury, but inexplicably Nigel Adkins did not make another change till there were only 12 minutes remaining, to be blunt Lee Barnard should have been on a lot sooner, we failed to get a decent effort on target, this was a trait of earlier in the season and is worrying, it could be excused if we were creating chances on target but being thwarted by the keeper, but the relaity was that fo all our possesion and ball into the box, no one was getting on the end of them.

Rickie Lambert was having an off day and could have easily have been replaced, although its understandable why Adkins did make the change he did do and easy to see why he didnt make a third with little attacking options on the bench, but why so late with Barnard Nigel ?

Its not a disaster its a set back, but we have to keep these set backs down to a minimum, we knew that Saints play best against sides that attack them, so we shouldnt be too surprised when the first side to come for a point for a whilse should thwart us.

On the plus side its another game unbeaten and although we dropped points on Brighton we are still in a strong position, is someone had said after the Brentford game that in the next five games we would win four and draw one, we would have taken that, this run has brought the points ratio per game needed for automatic promotion down to two per game, over our last 12 games we have got 26 points, so our form is good going into the next round of games, we just have to keep winning and making sure that the average remains above two points per game, if we do that then automatic promotion will come.         

Photo: Action Images

eusebio added 08:27 - Jan 17 The last two paragraphs are spot on......and to use "thwart" in any article is to be praised....8/10
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Shirleymush added 08:48 - Jan 17 I think we did alter the game plan second half and finally tried to build from the back after spending the first half playing 4-2-4 and hoofing it forward to Lambert with the other forwards foraging for second balls, but by then we had wasted 45 minutes. I can understand that perhaps there were some tired legs and our main creative threat in Lallana was missing, but Notts County are a decent side who probably defend adequately against route one football week in, week out. Why negate our technical advantage and effectively bring the two sides closer together?

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ericofarabia added 08:57 - Jan 17 ......and to use "thwart" in any article is to be praised....8/10 Tweety Pie fan? I thwart I saw a puddy tat!!!
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ourkid1984 added 11:35 - Jan 17 I see it as a set back but nothing else and not worrying whatsoever. We got a clean sheet, something at the start of the season I doubt we would of got. We had a couple of very good opportunities including the on the line clearance that if they had gone in I I have no doubts that we would of hammered them. Saying that 'if' is a long word so can't really dwell on what could of been but one thing is for certain Puncheon should be a good enough replacement for Lallana but for some reason he never performs as well as he can and is very frustrating. The other little point I'd like to point out is we probably had less shots than we have had in any of the past 5 or 6 games and even though there is an argument to say we shouldn't need loads of shots to get 1 goal the fact is we do so I was a bit baffled when it seemed like Fonte was the only person willing to shoot outside of the box.

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sholingred added 17:57 - Jan 17 I am disappointed not to have won,but they did put effort in,and that is all a fan can ask,our main threat was missing as Lallana makes us tick,come the end of the season,this could be a big point,as its important to keep the points coming every week even when we are struggling in games,a lot of twists and turns to come.
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