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Saints V Bristol City The Verdict
Wednesday, 25th Sep 2013 09:21

Saints progressed through to the next round of the Carling Cup, but it wasn't a convincing performance by any means against a side who are in the relegation zone of League One.

Saints completely changed the starting line up from the one that ran out at Anfield, in doing so they put onto the field what was clearly the shadow squad, it included five full internationals plus a few who have represented their country at lower levels, on the bench Jay Rodriguez and Adam Lallana were included for insurance.

Given that Tadanari Lee apart, all the rest of this team had played regular Premier League football during the past 12 months you would have hoped that they would easily overcome the Robins from the West Country.

Initially that appeared to be the case as the team passed crisply and looked a cut above their opponents and when Ramirez struck a superb volley in the 15th minute it did look like the floodgates would open, they didn't however and as the half wore on City started to get to grips with Saints and went in at the break with the game still within their sights.

The longer the second half wore on the more that the visitors sensed that they could snatch a goal or two, gone was the Saints fluidity and in its place was a nervousness and lack of concentration, at the back Hooiveld and Yoshida started to look shaky whilst Kelvin Davis despite making a couple of decent saves was nowhere on a couple of crosses he should easily have dealt with and the jitters were starting to arrive.

City upped their game and really should have equalised on a couple of occasions, the change came on 74 minutes when a double substitution saw both Lee and Guly come off, in the case of Lee he appeared to be trying just a little too hard and nothing was coming off, add to that the fact he clearly isn't suited to a lone striker role and it wasn't a good night for him in terms of forcing his way into first team contention.

In the case of Guly, once again the boo boys were out in force, his laid back style makes him a target for those who see pace as being the only barometer as to how good a player is and Im sure Guly could sense the animosity from a sizeable minority in the crowd everytime he touched the ball, its fair to say his confidence and desire went down a notch with every rumbling, all Im going to say is these people have short memories, call Guly what you want but he scored some vital goals for Saints in our two promotion seasons, back then though Im sure most of his abusers couldnt be bothered going to the games.

The introduction of Rodriguez as the lone striker took the pressure of Saints as they had an outlet, although most of Rodriguez's work was in a defensive capacity in that he chased and harassed the City defenders making it difficult to bring the ball up field.

On 83 minutes the game was made safe when Hooiveld put the ball in the net from a corner and Saints easily closed out after that.

Few players on the pitch did their first team claims any good, the central trio of Cork, JWP and Steve Davis put in good battling displays but beyond those three and J Rod, few did much to suggest they could be genuine contenders for a place in the starting line up. Perhaps a little unfair on Ramirez who did score a superb goal, but for long periods he was anonymous, yes at times he showed touches of class, but in the second half especially he was one who failed to match City's enthusiasm and fight.

But the important thing is that we marched on into the last 16 of the competition, 3 Premier League clubs went out last night with a further 2 guaranteed to follow them this evening, with the possibility of 3 more, a good draw tonight could put Saints with Wembley very firmly in their sights, lets hope then they start to take this a little more seriously.

Photo: Action Images



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LostBoys added 10:13 - Sep 25
sat in the Itchen rather than the normal Kingsland and there was a small group barracking Guly whenever he touched the ball even if it was a good pass to a team mate. They were told to shut up and fortunately they did. We do not have that where I normally sit although collective groans are permitted. Having said that some of his touch was real parks stuff. Otherwise some good and some patchy performances and I cannot see Davis, Hoiveldt and Yoshida playing in the PL anytime soon unless there are injuries and Emmanual Thomas and Harewood are hardly PL class. Very enjoyable though and I thought Bristol were a well organised unit under O'Driscoll but with a dearth of quality.
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brady100 added 10:17 - Sep 25
I'm afraid there is no defending Guly any more, yes he was a key player in league 1 and perhaps the championship but last night he was simply AWFUL. He was lazy, scared of heading the ball, scuffed at least 2 dreadful shots, miss kicked with the goal at his mercy and lost the ball countless times. Yes Ramirez was equally as sloppy at times, but he also shows touches of class, has a much better workrate and potential despite being relatively unfit and lacking match practice. I'm not sure what game you watched but I thought Tadanari looked fairly impressive for a first game back, he offers pace and plays off the shoulder of defenders. He also showed the ability to come inside and link up the play well at times.

On the game itself, much like the first team we are just struggling at the moment to make the right decisions in the final third and are often very sloppy in our final ball. I think we have the players to turn it round so I’m not unduly worried yet but this needs to improve asap.

One final thought though, very poor attendance which you can hardly complain about given that I paid 18 quid for an adult ticket last night. Personally I think saints should have sold tickets for £10 and tried to encourage as many people as possible to come and watch.
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ExiledSupporter added 10:29 - Sep 25
So nothing much to learn from this exercise...Ramirez as frustrating an enigma as ever and unable to command a regular first team spot (this is a real failing for the first team since we have no convincing playmaker), Cork (especially) Davis and JWP all well worth their squad status in midfield, Davis as hopeless at crosses as ever and wobbly looking defensive tendencies.

Nick, since I have yet to see Lee play is there any chance that he could be converted, like Rodriguez, into a wider attacker to replace Puncheon?
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SaintNick added 10:43 - Sep 25
Brady. There is perhaps no defending Guly anymore, but there is also no need for the barracking he got, without his performances in league 1 and the championship we might still be in one of those divisions and not the Premier.

Lee played as a winger at Stevenage in the Carling Cup last year, going forward he was fine, defensively he hadn't a clue, last night he showed the odd touch and plenty of running, but as I say he seemed to try too hard so it wasn't happening for him
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brady100 added 10:53 - Sep 25
I don’t deny that abusing Guly or any player is the way to go, but equally where I was sat anyway Gulys song was sung as often as any other player. I do think this is primarily because Guly has acquired a sort of cult like status for all the wrong reasons. Agree with the comment that Lee cannot be played as a winger, but imo proved he could offer a useful and different option to what we already have up front in terms of movement and pace. The management certainly seem to think so given their post match comments. The jury is still out however.
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Toppaldo added 10:55 - Sep 25
With regards to the Guly comments. I sat in the Itchen and whilst some of the groans when Guly touched the ball were cringeworthy, they were completely justified.

I sat with a Bristol City fan who had no clue who Guly was but he said that Guly is the worst player he has ever seen and he has to watch Bristol City week in week out.

His touch was awful, he couldn't shoot, his positioning was terrible and he jogged to chase through balls and let the defender run past him. He started to win me over in a few previous games as he looked like he tried but last night was just abysmal.

There should be no room for sentiment. We pay that guy a lot of money and every footballer knows that the crowd will get on them if they don't perform.

I thought T Lee looked half decent but with a lack of support. Ramirez was largely wasteful but you can see he has quality. Cork, Davis and JWP did a job. I'm actually disappointed that JWP didn't command a bit more authority on the game against such poor oppo but he's learning.

Fox was as good as a low Championship team player but that's just his level so I don't expect any more. Chambers made a few decent runs and looks like he could get better with age.

Overall we were terrible but we got the job done so on to the next round.
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slynch added 11:41 - Sep 25
St Nick. One of the opportunities of cup games is to see how new players fare. How did Rowe and Reed play?
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stmichael added 12:04 - Sep 25
OK - for anybody who did not go the game last night I will inform you what really happened last night wth regard to Kelvin& Guly
Guly started ok and the crowd were chantng his name and genuinely willing him to do well.
Gradually his performance went from bad to worse and to be honest he stank the place out.
Truly awful and in the end he got a bit of flak and he deserved it.
Nothing hostile just pure exasperation from a crowd who could not comprehend that leel of performance from somebody who should have excelled last night.
With regard to kelvin he was great last night making a couple of outstanding saves (not decent) as well as a handful of other saves which WERE decent.
The crosses Nick refers to were fired across the face of goal at pace after the full backs had been left for dead and he had no chace at all of cutting them out.
There were 3 or 4 cases of this and in fact even the Bristol players in the area could not get on the end of them such was the pace on the ball.

Nick is so blinkered towards these 2 players I suggest you ignore any comments he makes about them because they are not balanced.

On the other hand I thought Fox was excellent last night - good performance and good attitude.
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Butty101 added 13:30 - Sep 25
Reed looked ok, didnt get enough time to really make an impact.
Rowe had less time and looked incredibly light weight, got eased off the ball a couple times. I think Reed has a chance as he looked quite strong and tidy on the ball.
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slynch added 13:49 - Sep 25
Butty101: Cheers. A few lessons from Wanyama, then?
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standhaft added 14:10 - Sep 25
i attended the game last night and totally agree with the comments of st michael re davis, guly and fox and also lack of atmosphere never helps the players . Yes i know they are professionals and should rise above this ,but it does tend to give the game an air of a training session .On another note where are the crowds ,even in the league i would say noise level is poor ,lets start getting more vocal.
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