That'll do for me....

[trueblue]

Yep,we are not far away.cant believe some of the comments on the match thread saying we were poor.

It's incredible. Unfortunately we came up against the man who was probably the best keeper in the Premier League last season. As for those who have it in for Stockdale - bad mistake, yes. But he made a very good save that stopped us losing against Blackpool, another terrific stop after Dunk's error last night, and a good one at Forest where his handling was excellent throughout, taking several dangerous crosses. And last night he also launched two counter-attacks superbly with quick, accurate throws. But I guess some people just have to have someone they can single out.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

It's incredible. Unfortunately we came up against the man who was probably the best keeper in the Premier League last season. As for those who have it in for Stockdale - bad mistake, yes. But he made a very good save that stopped us losing against Blackpool, another terrific stop after Dunk's error last night, and a good one at Forest where his handling was excellent throughout, taking several dangerous crosses. And last night he also launched two counter-attacks superbly with quick, accurate throws. But I guess some people just have to have someone they can single out.

But although outfield players make countless mistakes, as a keeper it's not the ones you save that are analysed, but the ones you let in.

 

[pastafarian]

thought we played well,our players were causing them all sorts of problems

unfortunately came up against a keeper who played a blinder.

 

[Notters]

How odd, I and everyone with me thought we were poor against a dreadful Cardiff side (other than the first fifteen minutes) and I'm generally a massive optimist.

 

[Tarpon]

I don't have the exact stats but we must be having 20 shots a game? 10 games in and 200 shots? Our forwards have scored once between them? That is pathetic and a little worrying. We do need a genuine Championship goalscorer, to supplement the League One strikers we have at present.

Agreed but at least we worked the keeper last night. Good performance.

 

[Rugrat]

I don't have the exact stats but we must be having 20 shots a game? 10 games in and 200 shots? Our forwards have scored once between them? That is pathetic and a little worrying. We do need a genuine Championship goalscorer, to supplement the League One strikers we have at present.

It's 174 according to the Beeb. Either way it's shocking.

But, I'm with the OP. I'm more than happy with what SH is trying to do and think we'll get there, if not this season. I don't think Baldock has had anything like long enough to adapt and COG looked handy last night too. That's not to say we don't need more class up front.

Despite our league position I'm feeling more positive about our prospects than I've done for a while

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

It's 174 according to the Beeb. Either way it's shocking.

But, I'm with the OP. I'm more than happy with what SH is trying to do and think we'll get there, if not this season. I don't think Baldock has had anything like long enough to adapt and COG looked handy last night too. That's not to say we don't need more class up front.

Despite our league position I'm feeling more positive about our prospects than I've done for a while

Agreed, and I'm with the OP too.

And I enjoyed last night's match more than most, if not all, I went to last year through the season. Particularly the first 20 minutes or so.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

What did Kenwyne Jones do apart from score the goal that was gifted to him?

Yes, Marshall was outstanding, mom without doubt, as alluded to when I mentioned that you can argue their keeper kept them in the game.

I challenge anyone to say that Cardiff are a good side on the strength of that performance. They looked woeful to me.

When they took him off, my brother said to me what I was already thinking - that they had taken off their most dangerous player. he was always there and always a threat.

 

[GT49er]

Would drawing every game this season at least mean we could avoid relegation?

No.

 

[Silk]

Funny old game. I thought Fabio was awful - was caught out by a long ball to Bruno at least 5 times.

Fabio WAS awful. Looked very shaky indeed.

 

[dingodan]

It's important that the players heads don't drop, they are getting it right. If the stats from the last few games stay consistent this season I can see us going up, despite our current position.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Although a little frustrated by the result i enjoyed it (and Forest and Blackpool), and if this is what we are like when we are not creating chances (©Steve Claridge), can you imagine what it will be like when we do ?

 

[Brighton Mod]

More entertaining game than previous, lots of endeavour and desire. With less and less opportunities falling to our strikers the midfield need to be naking better choices of when to shoot and when to pass, we could have won by four or five goals last night but squandered chances and wasted opportunities. A big plus for me was KLL who had a good game even though he showed poor awareness of opportunities and failed to make telling passes. I think Sammi was unlucky last night, don't call for his head, the players need to 'stand up' a la Gus Poyet. I want to see more vision and awareness from the midfield with the current strategy this is key to our success.

 

[nwgull]

It's important that the players heads don't drop, they are getting it right. If the stats from the last few games stay consistent this season I can see us going up, despite our current position.

Wouldn't go that far, but I can see another top 6 finish. Championship looks as competitive as ever as far as all teams taking points off of each other, so we probably need another 60-62 points in the next 36 games.

 

[GOM]

Can you not see that Cardiff were dire!? Apart from the goal, which was gifted to them by Stockdale, the only other shot they had on goal was the point blank effort that fell to Noone that Stockdale made a great save from. Aside from Fabio De Silva, who's different class at that level, the only other player to show anything for them was Pilkington in patches.

The fact that we had so much of the play, and yes we did play lovely football at times, and so many chances yet only came away with one fluked goal from a defender has surely to be a major cause for concern. You can argue that their keeper kept them in it, but unless we get a decent goalscorer in it's going to be a long hard season if we can't manage goals against shit sides like that. We should have ripped them apart tonight.

Surely by the very nature of the game if one team plays well and dominates, then the other team will look poor. It's not a co-incidence that when we have a promotion season a lot of our opposition looks really poor (or was it that we were good ?).

 

[Birdie Boy]

Surely by the very nature of the game if one team plays well and dominates, then the other team will look poor. It's not a co-incidence that when we have a promotion season a lot of our opposition looks really poor (or was it that we were good ?).

This...

Rather than poor, maybe Cardiff came to get a point (shock horror - no other team has EVER done that at the Amex) or maybe Brighton made them look poor? For me, it is a little of both.

I went to Forest and last night and I have to say, we are looking good. If we can go on a scoring run we will be hard to stop.

 

[WhingForPresident]

Cardiff turned up for a point and they will be delighted that they managed to get one as they were really poor bar Jones and Marshall. We played some good stuff and though it's frustrating not to get all three points, I'm feeling a lot more positive after that display.

It'll come together soon enough.

 

[ruthers]

I am thoroughly enjoying this season. Missed the Sheffield Wed & Blackpool games so probably seen the best of the games so far. Credit where it's due, and I spent most of last season whinging so more than happy to sing the praises when things are going right.
High tempo, chances galore and cohesion in midfield. Strength on the bench and a squad capable of lasting the pace of a 46 game season, hopefully. Impressed by O'Grady's work ethic when he came on and Greer (who I was convinced was past his best) has looked immense and effectively did a mental job on Kenwyne Jones last night.
I still think Stockdale will come good and be a fans favourite, although decision making suspect of course. Made a bad 'keepers' call for the Dunk back header. He needs confidence and I believe we need to give him our support.....it's in all our interests.

More of the same please. We'll be challenging again this season I'm convinced. The wins will come, starting with tonking Oscar's latest rear guard bores at the weekend.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

Agreed but at least we worked the keeper last night. Good performance.

View attachment 59089

Not purely focussing on last night as the keeper did play well but interesting we had 26 shots but only 8 on target which suggests we had 8 opportunities to score to Cardiff's 3. The 200 odd shots in the last 10 games should yield 1 goal per 9 shots (football average), so 22 goals.

This sort of suggests that our shooting isn't really good enough rather than super keepers etc in which case you could argue things won't change unless our strikers change/improve. Having said that I am in the positive camp and think that maybe the chances created will continue to be high but will be of better quality so we score a bigger percentage which is nearer the 1 in 9 norm

 

[sir albion]

We all like a moan me old mucker...But I love our new style of play as it's exciting and pleasing on the eye.Just need to put the ball in the net more and all will fall in place.
Considering how dire our squad was when we kicked off the season,you have to say he's done a fantastic job to get us dominating and creating loads.