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Southampton fans comments before and after losing 3-1 to Newcastle United – Interesting

5 years ago
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Southampton fans travelled to St James Park with plenty of confidence.

Despite only one win on Tyneside in over 20 years, many of them were emboldened by the improved from under Ralph Hasenhuttl.

The Saints having won four of their last six games, including wins over Tottenham and Wolves.

The feeling also appeared to be that Newcastle are a poor team/squad which Rafa Benitez is doing well to keep in the Premier League.

Interesting to compare and contrast with the comment from Southampton fans after the 3-1 defeat.

Rather than praise for the opposition, many of the visiting supporters preferred to blame their own team.

Southampton fans comment via their top Saints Web message board:

PRE-MATCH:

‘This is ours to win I think, we are in great form.

‘Both teams in decent form, both teams safe, should be a good game. Our record up there is poor though, a point would be a good result. A win would be nice though, see how far up the table we can send the season.’

‘Rondon is the one player I wish we had from teams around us (and many of the others). We could do with someone so physical, and so talented. Will be a right handful.’

‘Wouldn’t mind us going for a striker who can do better than a 1 goal in 4 strike rate in recent years.

Can see us grabbing a point at least here, Newcastle are better at sitting back and hitting on the break much like us, but the emphasis will be on them to push out being at home n all.’

‘Isn’t 1 in 4 way better than any of our lot?’

‘Looking forward to it, meant to be nice weather too!

Confident in any team we put out to get a result up there. They’re decent at home, but we are in good form, should be a good game. They’ll likely sit back with 11 behind the ball and look to counter on us. Sold out away end too (ED: Southampton have only taken 1,700 tickets).’

‘This has the potential to be a very exciting and even high-scoring game, with both teams now virtually safe and in good form and full of confidence. I’m thinking it could be a 3-2 scoreline for us or them!’

‘Can’t imagine many Benitez games like that. They’re defensive and hard to beat. We’ll probably go there defensive too. Can see a 0-0.’

‘Not sure how many of you watched Newcastle beat Leicester away on Friday but I can tell you they were good and this will not be an easy game at all.

I think both sides have responded well when the pressure was on and both sides are safe now barring a Cardiff/Brighton miracle. I will be happy with a draw but think Newcastle with the barmy army behind them will win this one.’

‘I have a good feeling about this one. Newcastle are well organised and well drilled, but now they’re safe I wonder if they will try and be a bit more expansive (more influenced by their home crowd than their manager!) which might work in our favour. I’m going for a 2-1 win.’

‘Of course Newcastle will be hard, they’re playing well at the moment and Rafa is a damn good manager, plus our record in the north east is fu..ing atrocious. But we’re playing well too and we’ve got a decent amount of confidence, plus we’re not mathematically safe yet.’

‘Newcastle have done amazingly well to stay up this season so i think we’ll win easily – they’ll be thinking about the summer and our players are playing for their position next season.’

‘We often lose to Newcastle by a goal, and I’ll always remember the exciting defeat to Robson’s team at St Mary’s before we were demoted. Since then, and where we are right now under Ralph, we ‘re the better team.

I’ve a good hunch we’ll surprise them with our new attacking options. Toons will dominate possession but we’re sharper in front of goal on the break. 2-3 Saints. It’s going to be a memorable classic.’

Rafa’s press conference sounds like he’s off at the end of the season .’

‘He’s too good for a club in their position. He should move and challenge himself.’

‘Keeping a terrible Newcastle squad in the Premier with very little backing from the board is a big challenge.’

POST-MATCH:

‘Just a bad day at the office given how well we’ve done lately, I don’t ever expect us to come back from SJP with anything to be honest.’

‘At least JWP did to Almiron what someone should have done to Salah. Same result in the end, though. Gunn should never have had to make that brilliant save. Romeu was unlucky to get a yellow card for the player who pulled his ham string. Good pressure second half but not enough to make up for the outmuscled first half. Similar game to last season’s.’

Ultimately it was the absence of two key defenders which turned the match in favour of Newcastle.

J-WP is not a right back, he lacks the pace and Sims ahead of him made our right flank the weak spot which Newcastle exploited. Benitez is a clever old dog, but it didn’t take a genius to work out where we were vulnerable.

We also missed Vestergaard too and had they both played, it is not inconceivable that Newcastle’s goals would have been better defended by us.

The first half was Newcastle’s, but the second half was certainly ours and we dominated them without having the ability to put the ball in the net more than the once.

Hasenhuttl’s substitutions were spot on at half time, both Armstrong and Lemina making an immediate impact, shoring up the midfield, taking the pressure away from the defence by winning the majority of the 50/50 balls and forcing Newcastle onto the back foot.’

‘Saints fans are comical lose a match it’s all doom and gloom. We will be in the Premier league next season.’

‘Keep this in perspective, we were never going to win every game in the run in !

Sure, we were dire in the first half but showed a lot of spirit and energy in the second and with a couple of breaks could perhaps have turned it around !.’

We seemed unprepared in the 1st half for playing on a pitch where the grass was left so long.

‘Shades of wGS leaving it long for that victory against manure a few years ago.

It meant that sims, redmond etc could not run with the ball and our tactics of playing with pace on the break were completely nullified. Their tactics of playing it long and feeding off the knockdowns from our defenders were more suited to the surface.’

‘It’s disappointing we didn’t get anything because we certainly had the chances in the 2nd half but we gave ourselves too much to do with that poor 1st half display. 

They only got into our box 3 times in the 2nd half. First time they hit the post, second time it took a wonder save from Gunn after a tricky deflection, and the third time they scored.’

‘First goal, Yoshida passes to Hojbjerg who is instantly closed down and loses the ball. When in doubt in those positions hit the front men. I’ve lost count of the tippy tappy stupidity outside our box that has led to goals.

Second goal, lost the ball out on the touch line, Perez 10 yds behind Bertrand, Perez busts a gut to get to the cross whilst Bertrand on reaching the penalty area slows up and Perez gets past him. Bertrand would have got there first if he had kept going.’

‘Awful first half. Ralph got it all wrong but corrected it at half time. We didn’t get that second goal we probably deserved.. but in the end a fair result. Tough place to come.

Ings might as well have not been out there.’

‘Awful first half, superb second half. Wonderful to have Lemina back. We need him. Armstrong a much better bet than Sims based on what we saw today. We’ll be fine. We played some sensational football second half. But we do need a top-class striker.’

‘You can’t not turn up for the first 55 minutes of a game and expect to get anything out of it.’

‘Felt sorry for Sims – the intensity Newcastle played with overwhelmed him and having JWP behind him at RB meant the right side was very vulnerable.’

‘We were poor on the first half and struggled against a team pressing and giving us no time.’

‘I never like losing. Even to much better teams but Newcastle are not a good side. We were so ordinary we made them look awesome. We are not going down. Our second half showed we do have the capability and on another day the Magpies would be the ones who didn’t get the luck. Move on.’

‘From about 500 feet above the pitch in the away section the first half was pretty grim. Two poor goals to concede, and we just didn’t look much up for it. Was the ball out of play on half way before they scored their second – haven’t seen the replays but it should never have got to Perez anyway.

Ball was defo out before Gunn made his wonder save and after we scored I thought we’d get back to 2-2. Much better performance second half and good to see Mario back.’

‘We were better team for pretty much the entire second half.’

‘Newcastle just diving every time they were challenged and the ref falling for it every single time.’

‘Lets be honest, by some distance 2nd best all over the park

Outdone in the middle and couldn’t deal with their press.’

‘Man for man, they were better than us today. Not one of our players looked good.’

‘You know your defence is playing badly when Rondon looks like a half competent striker.’

‘Awful performance. Deservedly battered.’

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