Saints To The Four
Saints made sure that their fans didnt have to endure a nervous day.
Despite missing at least four players who would normally have started in a League game, Saints cruised to a win in the JPT Final, giving just the sort of performance that they now need to do in every game between now and the end of the season.
There cant be a Saints supporter who now hasnt seen the goals and read numerous reports about the game so it would be pointlessto add another indepth description about the win.
Perhaps the difference between this and some of our recent poor fform away from home in the league is the formation and the confidence we showed, recently away from home we have shown too much respect for our opponents, whereas at Wembley Alan Pardew set up a team to attack from the very start and Carlisle could not live with this, they found themselves under pressure from all areas and we now need to start doing this away from home in the League, quite simply we should be able to outscore anybody.
But perhaps saying that is underestimating the defence, at Wembley they coped admirably and got forward well to support the midfield, Saints can atttack in numbers also with the confidence that should the opposition break, then the defence is more than capable in coping.
On Sunday this was perhaps the most complete Saints performance of the season, it had everything, each and every player did his job and now Pardew has a difficult decision to make when we return to league ways over the next week.
Ricky Lambert and Mikail Antonio took the main plaudits, however that shouldnt detract from the team performance, if they both scored 9 out of 10, then everyone else is an 8.
Perhaps a special mention for Papa Waigo, it was fitting that he scored because without him we would not have had the chance to sample this great day, in our first game in the competition he scored twice to drag Saints back from two down, then in the area semi final against Norwich he again hit a brace, the second of which, deep into injury time made it 2-2, Saints were within seconds of going out and this Wembley occasion would only have been dreamed about.
In the grand scheme of things this wasnt so much about winning silverware, but about the survival of a football club, it being only a few days short of exactly a year before Saints entered what would be almost four months of administration and uncertainty, without demeaning the competition, for Saints fans the celebration at the end was not about lifting the trophy, but how the club itself had been lifted, lifted out of the abyss and given not only its future back but its heritage as well.
What to read next:
U's Vs Accrington Match Preview As the round of matches over the festive period draws to a close, we have the visit of Accrington Stanley on that most rare of events in our football history, a Sunday afternoon kick-off. If you filter out play-off and cup games, in the league this accounts for just 25 games since we were formed, seven won, six drawn and 12 lost. As you would imagine, Sunday games are generally focussed around Christmas and the New Year, or more recently, Sky-mandated final games of the season. It’s been a pretty positive holiday schedule for the U’s too, eight points from four games, and with other results often going our way, we’re now just two places and three points outside the play-offs.
U's Vs MK Dons Match Preview Happy New Year U’s fans! After two hard fought 1-1 draws away from home across the festive period we kick off the New Year with a home match against Milton Keynes. Tickets look to be selling well, although not in the West Stand it seems, so should be a decent crowd providing MK bring more than their normal coach load. I know it doesn’t count for anything but the calendar year League Two table has us in fifth with 72 points from 46 matches played so 2025 hasn’t been a bad year to be a U’s fan.
Gillingham Vs U's Match Preview First and foremost, I hope you are all having a pleasant Christmas break relaxing with family and friends, and wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. This will be our final match of 2025, with a trip to Priestfield to face old adversary Gillingham, our second game against them this month and our third this season. This will be our 112th game in all competitions against the Gills, a relationship that started with a Ted Davis U’s side winning 2-0 at Layer Road on 27th August 1938. At the final whistle tomorrow we will also be at the halfway point of the season, so considering at the end of September we were 20th, plenty of optimism for the second half of the season.
Crawley Vs U's Match Preview Merry Christmas U’s fans! Boxing Day in proper football leagues means football matches and the U’s face one of their shortest trips of the season as they venture across the Thames to face creepy Crawley. Crawley’s “stadium” is one of the few grounds I’ve gone away with the U’s (the 3-1 League Cup win back in 2019) and it felt like a ground that should be in the National League South but Crawley have been established in the football league since 2011 with two promotions to League One during that time which is impressive given the relative size of the club. We don’t have a huge history against Crawley Town, with just 24 meetings to date of which Crawley have won 11. In fact since that memorable League Cup win we hadn’t managed to beat Crawley until the, not as memorable but probably more important, 3-2 away win towards the end of the 2023/24 season that went a long way to helping us stay in this division.
U's Vs Newport Match Preview And so, Danny and Nicky enter their second century of games managing the U’s, at home to struggling Newport – let’s hope it starts a bit better than the first century finished. There won’t be many games we score three and lose, trouble is there’ll be even fewer where we concede four and win. That being said, I couldn’t fault the first hour of the Salford game, with the U’s in control of a game against good opposition, and on a typically heavy pitch. Then we kind of fell apart, certainly defensively, helped in no small part by a masterclass from ex-U’s Luke Garbutt (how is he only in League 2?). Credit must also go to 250+ of the faithful, a long trip starting at stupid o’clock – they deserved more than that for their support.