Swindon V Southampton Official Matchday Thread

[stfcinbmth]

Just got back ish. Marvellous day out.

Many thanks to leefer for giving me the guided tour of the pubs

The Savoy had San Miguel for £1.45, nearly fell over, thought she had the price wrong

Great to put faces to names, in no particular order Don Rogers Shop, tans, Si Pie, flammable ben, Samdy, herthab, Tonis, you all seemed younger than I had imagined, strange. Great to meet you all

JFW, sure he had a spider on his back

Not the greatest of games, the lack of width was concerning, can't believe that AOB wasn't even on the bench was looking forward to seeing how he got on. Kennedy, Morrison and Cuthbert all had good games. Great to see Charlie score, injury a big blow. Dossevi looked good on the ball when he came on

Think tho the most important thing was the three points, now mid table four points below the play offs. Need to kick on from there, but scoring goals could now be an issue

[Benzel]

Apparently AOB and Sheehan were suffering viruses.

[leefer]

Just got back ish. Marvellous day out.

Many thanks to leefer for giving me the guided tour of the pubs

The Savoy had San Miguel for £1.45, nearly fell over, thought she had the price wrong

Great to put faces to names, in no particular order Don Rogers Shop, tans, Si Pie, flammable ben, Samdy, herthab, Tonis, you all seemed younger than I had imagined, strange. Great to meet you all

JFW, sure he had a spider on his back

Not the greatest of games, the lack of width was concerning, can't believe that AOB wasn't even on the bench was looking forward to seeing how he got on. Kennedy, Morrison and Cuthbert all had good games. Great to see Charlie score, injury a big blow. Dossevi looked good on the ball when he came on

Think tho the most important thing was the three points, now mid table four points below the play offs. Need to kick on from there, but scoring goals could now be an issue

Good win for Poole...4-1 at Bodmin.
Brilliant 1-1 draw for Highworth v Salisbury.....that really is a superb result for them.
Supermarine beat Brading 4-0 also.

[stfcinbmth]

1-1 that is a good result, I did say Highworth looked a decent side

[Bennett]

the austin injury - am i alone in thinking that davies punched the ball and was out of his area?

hammond's tackle on ball was outrageous and just demonstrated how out of sorts they are. they looked pretty clueless for most of the game. we at least had a game plan: goal kicks, pull onto the dwarf butterfield and try to get the ball forward quickly.

ball and dossevi looked good when we were trying to break. their first touches are superb and will hopefully make other defences look a bit gash soon enough.

[joteddyred]

where do you sit in the arkells?there was a woman sat directly behind me who talked alot of sense during the game.
gonna sound all sexist, but that is rare.

Probably not me than Arriba, I tend to shout rather than talk  Row R, anything from seat 119 to 123 dependant on who's at that game and gets there first!

[joteddyred]

One person has been overlooked, with regard to their contribution in this victory, and that is the originator of this thread....

I didn't go on here yesterday until last night and checked back fully expecting to see the thread had been started by Sonicyouth again.  Looks like we now have the choice of two matchday thread starters. 

On the theme of superstitions, my 6 year old saw them win for the first time yesterday after 5 draws and 2 defeats.  I was becoming slightly concerned with his presence considering he has a season ticket this year.  Mind you, he was such a nuisance yesterday, I might make him stay at home for the next couple!

[Arch Stanton]

the austin injury - am i alone in thinking that davies punched the ball and was out of his area?

hammond's tackle on ball was outrageous and just demonstrated how out of sorts they are. they looked pretty clueless for most of the game. we at least had a game plan: goal kicks, pull onto the dwarf butterfield and try to get the ball forward quickly.

ball and dossevi looked good when we were trying to break. their first touches are superb and will hopefully make other defences look a bit gash soon enough.

Hey I'm glad someone else thought this, it was my first thought. No-one around me agreed so I felt a bit stooopid. On the OS there's a good picture of Davis and Austin just before the collision, how come this wasnt a foul? If any outfield player had gone thundering into Austin in a similar manner it would've been given - no questions asked, goalies seem to always get away with this.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

It was a good win for us. I knew before the game that Southampton would be no pushovers and it proved to be the case. I think we just about deserved the win. It was very even and both sides cancelled each other out. I think the difference between the 2 sides was that going forward we looked more of a threat than Saints did. Other than that both sides were very organised and passed the ball well. I think they had 1 very good chance in the 2nd half when Lambert I think it was managed to miss from close range and Smith either made a good save or someone cleared off the line (couldn't see from the Town End).

I'm still not sure about the diamond formation but we have kept 3 clean sheets in a row with it and the defence is looking rock solid with Morrison and Cuthbert moulding very well now. That is pleasing to see and they answered all questions put to them yesterday. The diamond makes us narrow but against certain teams it's effective. Norwich used it last season and it stops the teams that like to play football controlling the midfield. That certainly happened yesterday as we stopped Saints playing their game.

Pericard was very good yesterday. Caused them all sorts of problems. Was baffled when Wilson took him off but Dossevi played very well when he came on. Prutton had his best game for us I think. He still looks a little off the pace though and at times he was too slow to spot the right pass or even make it. Defence as I say was excellent and Douglas is starting to get back to his best of last season.

Was gutted for Charlie when he went off. I don't know if it was deliberate from Davis or not but Butterfield went to check on Austin and then came back to Davis and patted him on the back....all seemed a bit dubious to me. I think it was Charlie's best game this season as well. He looked determined to score and played with a real passion and commitment. He's making himself a bit of a legend here that's for sure.

Oh and Hammond should have gone for that poor challenge on Ball. I'm surprised he was OK after that. Poor decision by the ref that one. Saints were just getting dirtier as the game went on and you could tell they were frustrated. They must hate us....that's 4 wins from 4 against them since they have come down to L1 and they haven't even scored past us either. I'm sure they will pick up soon when the new manager comes in but they will want to start winning games pretty sharpish.

As for us hopefully that's the corner turned now. We've got the monkey off our backs with the first win and it's full steam ahead now. .

[Don Rogers Shop]

Cracking win. I don't care how we got it we got it. My man of the match was Morrison he was superb and special mention for lescinel when he came on.

Felt a bit sorry for morrison in regards to his distribution as with no wingers we are fucked as southampton clearly pushed up onto our midfield  meaning if morrison hit it diagonal to kennedy he was miles out of position.

I am delighted with that win i was concerned with the formation at first but now i have had time to think and we have played 3 games with that formation and conceded none so it's obviously not that bad.

On another note i heard carslile should of battered wednesday yesterday so makes that result a little better.

[sonicyouth]

The other problem with a lack of wingers is that we had no option but to pass the ball backwards at times which heaped pressure on our youthful back four, on a couple of occasions our posession was turned into a Southampton attack because of misplaced/poor passes to or involving the back four.

The diamond will work effectively away from home, particularly at teams who have narrow pitches - Peterborough for example has always seemed narrow to me - but think we need to persevere with 4-4-2 at home, JPM is simply wasted at the tip of the diamond.

[suttonred]

Apparently AOB and Sheehan were suffering viruses.

Sheehan was a migraine apparently. AOB was at the game, which if he had a virus is odd, as you would have thought he'd be sent home in case he passed it on.

[DiV]

I like Kennedy...but he tends to knock the ball in a bit early when there is still plenty of space to run into...means players wernt ready for the cross...could turn into a real good player if he can build himself up a bit.

In his defence again, there is that space there but still no winger to pass it to or to cover for him. There was one instance in the first half where Kennedy ran into the space and Morrison played a diagonal ball to the left wing. The Southampton full back won the header and all of a sudden the Southampton wide player has a big open space to run into because Kennedy is so far forward.

I think alot of the negativity being dumped on the players is partly due to the formation.

Does anyone know if Sheehan is match fit? I doubt he's played for Leeds, probably not even the pre-season games, so there is a chance he's unfit?

[Arriba]

the formation didn't help kennedy, but he hardly busted a gut to recover when he was caught up the pitch.this happend a few times.fair enough if there was a covering player,but there wasn't.

the biggest victim of the formation was jpm.he had virtually no influence on the game at all because of it.

[Don Rogers Shop]

Agree with that arriba although in kennedys defence to a certain extent do you think he seems a bit unfit at the moment?