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Saints At Orient The Verdict
Saints At Orient The Verdict
Sunday, 10th Apr 2011 21:23

Another good win in a difficult game.

Saints took another massive step forward in a hard thought game at Leyton orient where they had to match the home side for enthusiasm and work rate.

For most of the match Saints looked tight and restricted Orient to speculative efforts that rarely troubled the keeper, Kelvin for his part looked confident and seemed to pass this on to his defenders, it was a little strange to see both full backs changed again, but playing Dickson in midfield offered Harding cover, this in itself was a little baffling given that most people assume that Harding is the bettergoing forward so the natural thing should have been to play him in midfield, however Nigel Adkns clearly feels that Dickson is a better crosser of the ball as was shown for the opening goal when Dickson seemed to be hemmed in near the corner flag but then found a yard of space and put in probably one of the best crosses of the season from a Saints player that invited Rickie Lamert to bury it.

Of course you wouldnt plat Dickson ahead of Lallana, but clearly Lambert benefited from having accurate crosses fired in fast allowing hi to shake off his marker.

In the second half Saints seemed to be on the back foot for most of it, however on reflection they coped easily, it just didnt seem like that at the time, especially when bizarrrely we had four central defenders across the back four, both Seabourne and Martin being asked to play full back in the final stages stuck to their tasks and Jaidi and Fonte were solid as a rock in the middle.

The support Saints recieved was magnificent and they kept the team going throughout the whole 90 minutes, anyone who says that supporters make no difference to a team should have been at Brisbane Road, that theory was out the window and the roar when Barnard made the game safe could probably be heard at the galpharm. 

With Huddersfield getting a last minute equaliser the day could not have been better for Saints who moved into that second automatic promotion spot and must have decimated both Peterborough and Huddersfield in doing so with two games in hand.

Now the runners up spot is Saints for the taking, we are now ahead of the game with regard to my oft quoted target of 85 points and an average of two points per game, we have now won three in a row and if we can make it four at Rochdale it will be a major blow to our rivals.

If Saints keep up the two point average in the final seven games it will put us on 88 points, given that Peterborough can only now get 86 and Huddersfield 89, Saints just need to stay focused, their task is not needing them to do anything other than they have been doing for most of the season, or to be accurate anything other than they have been doing under Adkins himself, maintain that two point per game average and we will cruise to promotion.

But having put ourselves in this position, we have to guard against complacency, we are probably three wins away from promotion, the sooner we get those wins on the board the quicker we can get promotion secured hopefully without having to go to the final day.          

Photo: Action Images



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mitch1346 added 22:14 - Apr 10
Good summary about what may happen herein. Saints rode their luck at Leyton (2 disallowed goals etc) but came out winners showing a lot of grit - bodes well.
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saintBob added 23:23 - Apr 10
To be fair Nick, one of the best (if not the best) players for the past few games has been Rickie, and I haven't noticed you giving him much credit. His contribution has been excellent as well as being a scorer & provider in recent games. If you had your way then he wouldn't be playing as you would have had him dropped some time ago and we wouldn't be in 2nd spot right now! Come on - own up!!
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hortonsaint added 09:04 - Apr 11
Agree with all except to say that to me Dickson on midfield and Harding at full back was the obvious choice, Dickson is the better footballer without question and offers much more going forward. Noticeable how much more comfortable Harding looked with a more positionally disciplined player in front of him.
Richardson ended Tuesday's game with a knock which I assumed was why Butterfield started.
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SaintNick added 09:24 - Apr 11
Credit to lambert where credit is due and in the last few games he has looked a lot better, but that doesnt disguise the fact that for a period a month or so ago he was a passenger, if i had had my way yes he probably would have been dropped and whose to say that might not have spurred him on and brought him back to form earlier than playing him week in week out.

Perhaps a comparison can be drawn with the situation at chelsea with torres
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geezershoong added 10:13 - Apr 11
IMHO it would have been counter productive to drop RL despite some lackluster performances this season, I think perhaps we only notice him when he's scoring goals but some of his link up play I've seen this season has been great (can only comment on homes games). Big shout to the travelling away support this season, they have been the best in the div by far.
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Saintpaul120 added 10:19 - Apr 11
The Harding/Dickson debate rages on!! I've always said that Dickson in front of Harding is the better option. Dan Harding has been one of the most consistent players in the team since he arrived. His all round game is better than Ryans. Having said that Ryan is very good at getting forward and getting crosses in, as seen at Charlton & Orient games. I think it's greet we have 2 players who can fill in down that left side as well as Adam Lallana and long may that continue

As for Kelvin, sounded on Saturday as if he's finally started to command his box. He did that well on Tuesday night also.

Jose Fonte & Radhia Jaidi are just different class

All in all it bodes well for the run in!
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rjh added 11:06 - Apr 11
Great game, great result and class atmosphere.
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