Says it all really...
Brighton came to us on a Sunday as lambs to the slaughter… or so you’d have thought if you looked at the form guides going into the match. We were very good, they were very bad, we were at home, foregone conclusion etc etc.
They had a new manager however in Gus Poyet and we had to be careful of ‘new manager’ syndrome. This is one of the things that they always talk about in punditry circles about how a team that was previously playing badly (hence manager getting sacked) suddenly picks up a few wins with a new man in charge. It should be a load of rubbish because at the end of the day, bad players are bad players but though I hate to admit it – we should be worried. Whilst I have no idea about Poyet’s abilities as a manager, he is an imposing sort of guy who comes across well and of course, he was some player. I can imagine the Brighton players being lifted by him walking into the club. The new manager has to have something about him however for this to work, so if there are any Chairmen out there thinking of giving Jan Poortvliet or Steve Wigley a job in order to get ‘new manager bounce’… then I’d think again. Would the arrival of Gus be enough to inspire a win against the mighty SFC ? It shouldn’t be but who knows…
The team lined up as expected with Neal Trotman getting the nod ahead of Wayne Thomas who dropped to the bench. The announcement of our line-up was punctuated by loud boos from the impressively large Brighton contingent for Hammond and in particular Harding – both ex-Seagulls. The Seagulls fans showed their class though by immaculately observing the one minutes silence of All-Saints Day – fair play to them. The SFC crowd line up was different to the last few games in that I’d actually made it myself to my first home game since the Gillingham win, which was the first match of our undefeated run.
That match starts and Saints are looking lively, mainly though Antonio on the right who was giving their left back kittens and Connolly in the middle who was running and harrying and generally showing what a good player he is. Once Brighton got a foothold after about 5 minutes we began to creak a bit with Brighton forward Forster and Murray finding too much room too easily. It was apparent very early on that Jaidi and Trotman’s usual ‘nightclub bouncer’ approach was not going to be as successful as usual as both forwards were very mobile and the Brighton midfield was not being challenged quickly enough by Hammond and Schneiderlin.
Sixteen minutes had gone and what was looking increasingly likely, came to pass as Brighton took the lead after a decent move down our left, isolating Harding 2v1, a decent cross and a good finish by Murray who got in front of Jaidi. Crap defending but a good goal and we’d have been raving had we scored it. Still, surely now we’d wake up and batter them…. nope.
Five minutes later and Murray burst through a Rupert Lowe’s ego sized gap in our central midfield and defence and hit the post, only for the rebound to come straight back to him for a sitter which he sadly, didn’t miss. 2-0 to Brighton and no one could say they didn’t deserve it and they really should have been out of sight a few minutes later as Forster got free with Davis loitering on the edge of his box and it really was a bad miss to not get it over the marooned keeper.
Saints finally had a shot when a Lambert free kick was well saved by Kuipers in the Brighton goal who from this moment on, started time-wasting which is the right and professional thing to do…. but it’s bloody annoying. Not so annoying though was Saints getting awarded a penalty on 42 minutes as Lallana was assaulted when trying to reach a cross by a defender who obviously hasn’t watched an videos of Adam trying to head the ball – just leave him, there’s no danger… but there is from a Lambert penalty which was dispatched with typical aplomb. 2-1, Half time and I thought we’d be fine and probably go on to win it.
Thomas came on for Trotters at half time… tactical or injury…. I’d say the former as Trotman was bloody awful in the first half. Thomas, from where I was sat, looked like he should have been sent off within a minute of coming as he smashed into Brighton player elbows-first. When you get away with it though I guess it’s good play and ‘setting out your stall’.
As the second half wore on I gradually changed my mind about us probably winning it because we were basically still terrible. Brighton had Lambert well shackled and he was winning nothing so hard though Connolly worked, he wasn’t getting a sniff of goal. Kelvin was having one of those games where he may have well not been there. There didn’t seem to be any organization, nor any command and claiming of crosses though he did make one blinding close range block to prevent us going 3-1 down. Jaidi was also having a complete mare and though Thomas had shored things up, it still didn’t look good.
Our midfield was nowhere to be seen in a defensive capacity with Schneiderlin in particular being woeful with the game completely passing him by. He had a decent chance to win a tackle at one point and slid in showing mock aggression before bottling out at the last. Most of our attacks were coming down the right with Lloyd James on the ball. Brighton were letting him advance up until about 40 yards out before letting him boom over aimless cross after aimless cross. Rubbish to be honest. From the one decent cross that James put in, sadly it landed on the head of Lallana and no surprise, it went wide.
Waigo came on for Antonio and Mills for Harding but nothing much happened as Saints defence continued to look all over the shop and the attack looking as blunt as a pair of safety scissors and it was totally deserved when Brighton got a third as James was totally done down the right flank for a cross to pick out Crofts to slam in the decisive goal. There was still time for Waigo to liven things up and he worked himself a great opening before having his shot deflected wide. Not our day.
There’s a cliché that says that you learn more from defeat than you do from victory and this is very true. My personal report card reads…. Lloyd James is still a liability at right back… Trotman and Jaidi will struggle against quick forwards…. the midfield is too attack minded and Wotton, despite having much less ability, would be far more effective than Schneiderlin. Also, we have no plan B if Lambert is not having a good game and the whining shit who sits behind me really need to have a word with himself. On the plus side I thought Connolly was excellent and Antonio again looked the part though he wasn’t as effective in the 2nd half as Brighton got used to him.
One of the key things in life is, in my opinion, not to over-react. 4 wins and a draw in the last 5 league games is pretty good and we were always going to lose sometime – I just wasn’t expecting it to be today. However, Brighton were much better than us and totally deserved their win. There are bound to be a few more kicks in the nads before the season is done but I still think we’ll march onwards and upwards. Norwich at home on Saturday… dress rehearsal for JPT Semi Final.
They had a new manager however in Gus Poyet and we had to be careful of ‘new manager’ syndrome. This is one of the things that they always talk about in punditry circles about how a team that was previously playing badly (hence manager getting sacked) suddenly picks up a few wins with a new man in charge. It should be a load of rubbish because at the end of the day, bad players are bad players but though I hate to admit it – we should be worried. Whilst I have no idea about Poyet’s abilities as a manager, he is an imposing sort of guy who comes across well and of course, he was some player. I can imagine the Brighton players being lifted by him walking into the club. The new manager has to have something about him however for this to work, so if there are any Chairmen out there thinking of giving Jan Poortvliet or Steve Wigley a job in order to get ‘new manager bounce’… then I’d think again. Would the arrival of Gus be enough to inspire a win against the mighty SFC ? It shouldn’t be but who knows…
The team lined up as expected with Neal Trotman getting the nod ahead of Wayne Thomas who dropped to the bench. The announcement of our line-up was punctuated by loud boos from the impressively large Brighton contingent for Hammond and in particular Harding – both ex-Seagulls. The Seagulls fans showed their class though by immaculately observing the one minutes silence of All-Saints Day – fair play to them. The SFC crowd line up was different to the last few games in that I’d actually made it myself to my first home game since the Gillingham win, which was the first match of our undefeated run.
That match starts and Saints are looking lively, mainly though Antonio on the right who was giving their left back kittens and Connolly in the middle who was running and harrying and generally showing what a good player he is. Once Brighton got a foothold after about 5 minutes we began to creak a bit with Brighton forward Forster and Murray finding too much room too easily. It was apparent very early on that Jaidi and Trotman’s usual ‘nightclub bouncer’ approach was not going to be as successful as usual as both forwards were very mobile and the Brighton midfield was not being challenged quickly enough by Hammond and Schneiderlin.
Sixteen minutes had gone and what was looking increasingly likely, came to pass as Brighton took the lead after a decent move down our left, isolating Harding 2v1, a decent cross and a good finish by Murray who got in front of Jaidi. Crap defending but a good goal and we’d have been raving had we scored it. Still, surely now we’d wake up and batter them…. nope.
Five minutes later and Murray burst through a Rupert Lowe’s ego sized gap in our central midfield and defence and hit the post, only for the rebound to come straight back to him for a sitter which he sadly, didn’t miss. 2-0 to Brighton and no one could say they didn’t deserve it and they really should have been out of sight a few minutes later as Forster got free with Davis loitering on the edge of his box and it really was a bad miss to not get it over the marooned keeper.
Saints finally had a shot when a Lambert free kick was well saved by Kuipers in the Brighton goal who from this moment on, started time-wasting which is the right and professional thing to do…. but it’s bloody annoying. Not so annoying though was Saints getting awarded a penalty on 42 minutes as Lallana was assaulted when trying to reach a cross by a defender who obviously hasn’t watched an videos of Adam trying to head the ball – just leave him, there’s no danger… but there is from a Lambert penalty which was dispatched with typical aplomb. 2-1, Half time and I thought we’d be fine and probably go on to win it.
Thomas came on for Trotters at half time… tactical or injury…. I’d say the former as Trotman was bloody awful in the first half. Thomas, from where I was sat, looked like he should have been sent off within a minute of coming as he smashed into Brighton player elbows-first. When you get away with it though I guess it’s good play and ‘setting out your stall’.
As the second half wore on I gradually changed my mind about us probably winning it because we were basically still terrible. Brighton had Lambert well shackled and he was winning nothing so hard though Connolly worked, he wasn’t getting a sniff of goal. Kelvin was having one of those games where he may have well not been there. There didn’t seem to be any organization, nor any command and claiming of crosses though he did make one blinding close range block to prevent us going 3-1 down. Jaidi was also having a complete mare and though Thomas had shored things up, it still didn’t look good.
Our midfield was nowhere to be seen in a defensive capacity with Schneiderlin in particular being woeful with the game completely passing him by. He had a decent chance to win a tackle at one point and slid in showing mock aggression before bottling out at the last. Most of our attacks were coming down the right with Lloyd James on the ball. Brighton were letting him advance up until about 40 yards out before letting him boom over aimless cross after aimless cross. Rubbish to be honest. From the one decent cross that James put in, sadly it landed on the head of Lallana and no surprise, it went wide.
Waigo came on for Antonio and Mills for Harding but nothing much happened as Saints defence continued to look all over the shop and the attack looking as blunt as a pair of safety scissors and it was totally deserved when Brighton got a third as James was totally done down the right flank for a cross to pick out Crofts to slam in the decisive goal. There was still time for Waigo to liven things up and he worked himself a great opening before having his shot deflected wide. Not our day.
There’s a cliché that says that you learn more from defeat than you do from victory and this is very true. My personal report card reads…. Lloyd James is still a liability at right back… Trotman and Jaidi will struggle against quick forwards…. the midfield is too attack minded and Wotton, despite having much less ability, would be far more effective than Schneiderlin. Also, we have no plan B if Lambert is not having a good game and the whining shit who sits behind me really need to have a word with himself. On the plus side I thought Connolly was excellent and Antonio again looked the part though he wasn’t as effective in the 2nd half as Brighton got used to him.
One of the key things in life is, in my opinion, not to over-react. 4 wins and a draw in the last 5 league games is pretty good and we were always going to lose sometime – I just wasn’t expecting it to be today. However, Brighton were much better than us and totally deserved their win. There are bound to be a few more kicks in the nads before the season is done but I still think we’ll march onwards and upwards. Norwich at home on Saturday… dress rehearsal for JPT Semi Final.
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