The Verdict from a Variety of Southampton Fans

[Springal]

I thought they played perfectly against us to stop us playing, giving us no time on the ball, pushing up high. However it is all well and good doing this but you run out of energy eventually and unless you can capitalise and get good chances in, you won't win.

Thought both penalties could/should have been given but won't complain, think Wood lacked power in his which was a shame.

Batti was well out of his depth, Kishi looked shattered and his passing showed that (lack of), Dicker was better in the second half. Bennett was decent as always and we looked loads better when Murray was on but 100%, Barnes couldn't win or keep anything. Jamie Smith was outstanding, battler, winning balls, forcing errors, LOVED that little dummy with Murray. Dunk didn't have alot to do, but what he did was with confidence and handled brilliantly,Gus is right the kid is a future star.

I'd say play Smith on Saturday, get Woods and Murray playing together, Dunk and Elphick at the back would be good too, what was up with Elphick last night? I know there is illness in the squad so was it that?

 

[GrahamH65]

Elphick was suspended. He picked up his 5th yellow in the previous game.

Saints tactic of getting in the faces of Greer, El Abd and co worked for 35 minutes and we really struggled. They totally dominated the midfield area. Ankergren pulled of a couple of outstanding saves and some of the defensive blocks (one resulting in El Abd's injury) were brilliant.

But, as Gus said, you can't play that way for 90 minutes and they began to ease off and we slowly started to get a bit more possession. We played both our normal style and long balls well in the second half and, as soon as Glenn came on, you began to see that they're no great shakes at the back. They're fine when they can use strong arm tactics or when the the ball is pumped long and Wood/Barnes didn't have a chance, but once Glenn was getting flick ons and we started attacking them with pace, they were struggling.

Overall a fighting performance (following a poor run of form), we stuck to it and eventually began to show why we're where we are. If you were there and saw Poyet's reaction at the end, you know how important he thought that result was.

 

[Marshy]

Yeah Im bloody delighted with a point there cosidering our current level of injuries and suspensions.
Southampton away it dosent get any tougher than that in L1.
A point however you get it it at Soton is a great result, Ian Dowie admitted we were worthy of the point on sky sports and were the better side 2nd half, Saints ran out of ideas were his comments.

 

[KneeOn]

I don't really understand NSC's obsession with Southampton and this belief they're some sort of wonder team that will walk the league, as most predicted before the season. We saw them last year and they were hoofball merchants. Nothing has changed. Ok, we were poor in the first half tonight and their tactic of putting us under pressure and stopping us having any time on the ball worked. But they still showed they can't actually play football. It's all long balls into Lambert and reliant on midfielders surging forward. There is no build up or passing ability. They were also extremely unfit, and Jaidi at the back is presumably some sort of sick joke, because he's more out of shape than me. We were poor, but I got the feeling they were pretty much at their best, and it was still a draw. We've got nothing to worry about, we're going up.

This. Although I'd give a little bit more credit to their attack because when the hoofs did work and lambart was able to touch them down, there were some clever passes that Ankergren had to make some decent saves from/we had to block. I think Southampton ARE a good side by this leagues standards, but they're no Albion. Their plan didn't work and they tired while we were able to scrape a point while being out of form and hit with injuries and suspensions. All this given I feel we f***ing biltzed them by standards. They should have won, we were well off the pace. But they didn't so its all good here, carry on. We're going to win the league. I do think they are the second best team in the league because Chalrton and Peterborough are f***ing shite with no substance. Saints had a little bit more about them than those two teams.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Felt they battered us with their aggressive style of football up until El-Abd's injury, but that seemed to affect their momentum and for the latter part of the first half we gained more possession. Second half we seemed to make the pitch wider therefore creating more holes for us to play our football. Would have taken a point before the game given our injuries and suspensions, but left thinking we should have won.

Think that Southampton will steamroller a few sides, but their style of football is not very pleasant. For the money they've spent if I supported them I'd be disappointed.

Jaidi could well be the worst centre half in the division on that performance.

Thought Casper, Lewis and Greer were immense.

 

[kingstn seagull]

They say we settled for it (no denying it from me, I was happy with the result), but I'm not so sure the Saints weren't told the same by their manager.

This was summed up when they brought on Butterfield (a left back??) for that Chamberlain guy (attacking winger) in the 87th minute.
They weren't really trying to win it either!

 

[Rookie]

They were clever first half. When Casper had the ball, Greer and El-Abd went wide but so did Lambert and Barnard forcing the punt into the middle which they were always going to win and we couldn't get our passing going. Second half you didn't see that as much so it meant we could play our own game, of course Smith and Murray were major parts in that as well

 

[Tooting Gull]

On the train home a couple of Southampton fans next to me were saying that the longer the game went on, the better we looked and if the game had gone on for two hours there was only one team who was going to score. I'd agree with that.

That said, it was obvious how much better they were in the first half, and we really couldn't have complained at being 1-0 or even 2-0 down. Even for the battering they gave us, though, there weren't too many clear-cut chances. I was happy-ish with a point in the end despite the pen miss, and happier when I saw the Charlton result and one or two others.