OTHER FOOTBALL

I take it that James #17 is not Dan James.

Cabango and Cullen are on the bench. And ... WTF .... Sheehan is on the bench before Cooper!?!

Nervy 2-0 win in a game that we should have won by 4 or 5. When Ramsey went off I must confess that a lot of our quality went with him. The lads tried hard but their lack of class showed. Latvia were no better than an average First or Second division side and, in my opinion, were a disgrace to the game of football. The foul count was 15-8 and one yellow card should indisputably have been a red but the referee blatantly chickened out after seeing it umpteen times on replay.

When the Latvian players felt the slightest contact they went down like they'd been shot, holding their heads. Meantime most of their fouls were nasty and cynical designed to break up the rhythm of the Welsh team. There should be no place for sides like that at this level. They bring nothing to the game. But it worked because Wales never found their flow and their passing was abysmal. We had plenty of shots at goal but no striker to take advantage of the many times we got the ball in and around their box. Meantime, Cullen kicked his heels on the bench and Robert Page continues to steal a living....... Some stats:

POSSESSION: 42-58 SHOTS: 8-27 OT: 2-9 CORNERS: 2-9 FOULS: 15-8 GOALS: 0-2

Yankee_Jack said:

I take it that James #17 is not Dan James.

Click to expand...

Jordan James. Birmingham? and considered a prospect.

I see that Jenkins is one of two people in for Newport County who urgently need to raise £1 million. My advice to them is to avoid this odious character at all costs. Get your million quid from anyone else but him else run the risk of losing your football club..... as we almost have.

Soton down 0-2 to Leicester at home after 18 minutes. Both goals due to defensive errors trying to play out from the back, which has not impressed the comms who are saying it's just plain careless. And Leicester could have got a couple more as well as Soton's defenders were doing their best impression of ours.

Horrendous defensive howler from Foxes give Soton a goal back. Have both teams been watching us play? Lati on target as Coventry go 1-0 up at Hull.

Foxes 3-1 at half time. Following a bout of ping-pong in the Soton area just before this, when Foxes were unlucky not to score another, the commentator remarked that Southampton were just not following the basic laws of defending. Wonder where they got that from?

It's 1:4 now.

CroJack said:

It's 1:4 now.

Click to expand...

It could have been 7 or 8 if Leicester had taken their EASY chances.

ivoralljack said:

It could have been 7 or 8 if Leicester had taken their EASY chances.

Click to expand...

This is what one of the Saints fans wrote on their forum site:

"Sunderland was concerning.
Seeing that live tonight- seeing that we clearly hadn’t learned a thing - was really concerning.
Reading his (Martin's) opinion on the game is just next level. If that is genuinely how he feels and not a public comment hiding his private feelings, we are f*cked.
30000 people in Southampton and god knows how many on tv could all see an utter shambles, suicidal tactics and a very average (Leicester) team gifted 8 or 9 glorious chances by our utter sh1tness.

If he (Martin) is the only person who saw that any differently, and he’s in charge, we’re screwed."
-------------------------------------:

And Soton managed all this without Fisher and Darling. Madness is plumbing new depths.

Now ... who is worst, Madness or Duffer?

Yankee_Jack said:

Now ... who is worst, Madness or Duffer?

Click to expand...

Duff so far. Soton have 10 points we have 2.

All joking aside, I'm still pretty sure Soton will be fine and finish in the top six. We all know that Martin's teams are vulnerable to counter-attacking and conceding cheap goals, but despite Martin's madness, Soton have a squad that is better than the squads of at least 19 Championship clubs.

As you know, when Martin was our manager I used to say that he needed to implement a couple of simple tweaks to his playing style if he wanted to be successful.

One of the Soton fans is spot on here:

"What strikes me is that most of this is coming from ONE suicidal tactical stupidity.

We have pace and trickery on both flanks up front. There is absolutely no need - and little to be gained - by gung-hoing the FBs up there every time – especially Manning, who can’t get back.

All that does is destroy our defensive shape and make us completely vulnerable to the counter.

I really don’t think it’s a case of everything is going to shit. I think it’s a matter of one crazy, destructive element of Martin’s approach. He needs to ditch it right fucking now."

Manning’a key deficit already identified.

I see that Wayne Rooney and DC have parted company. Hopefully the new manager won't cost us as much as he has. Rooney is in talks with Brum which is surprising as they've just sacked their manager John Eustace who has had them playing well and currently in a play-off position.

Rooney joins Brum ... https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/67055334

At least that's one club we no longer have to worry about. Rooney's name is longer than his track record

Cullen starts for Wales in midfield!?!

Cullen played as a link man on right side just behind the attackers.
He had a neat and tidy game , one left foot effort required a diving save from the keeper , a superb crossfield ball in the second half set up one of Wales better second half efforts .
Wales won at a canter with 4 well taken first half goals , Liam played a full 90 minutes .

Glad Liam started and many congrats to him but I wish managers would use him in his best position. Agree with Blobs that he had a decent game and was regularly involved in the play. He had a decent shot saved full length by the keeper and another well drilled shot but straight at the keeper. Did absolutely nothing wrong but neither could he stand out as a potent striker given the role he was told to play.

Have to add a PS in that I thought Charlie Savage had a very tidy game and I think he's wasting his career at Crewe - he's better than that. I think he has a lot of potential and we could do far worse than put in a bid for him. He's learned his trade in the Man Utd academy so he has to have some talent.