Saints defence says : Where do think you're going pal ?Another SMS Saturday, another chance to get our first win of the season. I felt confident and here's why... the sun was shining, Saints had just got a point at League leaders Charlton, we were at full strength, we were playing Yeovil who were on a long winless run and also, best of all.... Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest had been replaced behind me with three glorious shiny empty seats. It was surely a sign that today was surely, going to be the day...
Team news and Jaidi is in for his debut. Even watching him during the warm up you can see that he's absolutely huge and though I feel a bit sorry for Chris Perry who has been dropped despite not playing badly at all, it's good to see the man mountain starting. Saganowski is up front so Joseph Mills misses out in the re-shuffle and is on the bench along with Papa Waigo. I'm disappointed that Mills is not in the side as he offers natural width and his exclusion means we are more likely to funnel everything down the middle. Lloyd James will be offering no width on the right and will doubtless be attempting to cross from the half way line again and Lallana will be meandering and wandering and not providing width on the left.
Saints start well and get on the front foot and it's obvious straight away that Yeovil are struggling to deal with Rickie Lambert. Within five minutes they change tactics and have two men marking him the whole time which should mean more space for Saga. Lambo is winning his fair share but Saga is struggling to read where it's going and in that instance I see why maybe Saganowski wanted to leave. League 1 football is all about being direct, flick ons, giving the ball away, winning it back, ball in the air .... all of which really doesn't suit him. He tries and he tries though and in the 18th minute is rewarded when he wriggles free on the left of the penalty area and is tackled, falls over a bit spectacularly and wins a corner.... Hang on a minute, the berk with the whistle has given us a penalty... what the hell was that for? He won the ball clean as you like... we'll have it though. Protests and bewilderment all round, Lambert, bang, 1-0.
Yeovil, suitably aggrieved, come hard at us and we're under pressure as they hoof it up to the big lad up front who is a handful but he's very isolated and he's up against Jaidi and Trotman who are the football equivalent of a pair of nightclub bouncers, "No, you are not coming in sonny, now turn around and take this bruise with you". Talk about uncompromising. Yeovil also have a little 'Jermain Defoe like' striker up front who is like Jermain in that he has two arms and legs and that's about it.... in short, he's rubbish. Along with the bouncers in defence, we have Wayne Thomas and Dan Harding who are both big lads at 6ft 2ish, as well has Hammond and Lambert elsewhere in the side which gives us massive physical presence. It's all a far cry from last years team of Time Bandits and 7 stone weaklings.
However, it doesn't matter how many big lumps you have in the side if no one attacks the ball and a free Yeovil header from a corner went pretty close. Hammondwatch was again proving interesting... sometimes he looks like he's injured and that every step is an effort that he'd rather not make but at other times he is a man possessed. If there is a ball to be won then he makes sure he wins it or that the opponent is on his backside. In an attempt to win a 10/90 challenge at one point, he executed a perfect scythe tackle and hoofed the Yeovil No8 up in the air where he in turn, executed a kind of spin turn triple somersault thing and landed in a heap. The referee in awe, did nothing... unbelievable. Hard though Yeovil tried for the rest of the first half, they weren't really getting anywhere and Saints weren't either to be honest.
Half time and no morons to listen to, fantastic. Half time scores... Aston Villa 2 Pompey 0 Haaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!
The second half starts in a kind of nondescript way with neither side looking likely. Jermain really is bad for Yeovil and sorry to pick on him again but Lloyd James for us, bloody hell. He's been shoved right to accomodate Schneiderlin who is mixing some great stuff with disappearing acts. He is improving though and getting more involved with games and it's nice to see a player who wants to get the ball down and creates some space and time for himself.
After the hour however, it's time for an aimless waft forward towards nobody. The ball runs across the Yeovil left back and brushes his hand. One person out of nearly 20,000 appealed and that was me. 'Handball' I said in a very quiet voice but the linesman, who obviously has the hearing of a bat, heard me and gave us another spawny penalty. The Yeovil players don't really protest because a) they haven't realised it's a pen, or b) they now know for sure that it's not their day. Lambert, bang, 2-0. Game over, it really is. You can never really say this as a Saints fan but it's time to bet your left nut on a Saints win because it's coming baby and Yeovil are not going to score twice.
Mills comes on for Schneiderlin and Papa Waigo comes on for Saga, accompanied by a massive cheer. Now I'm not against giving someone a big welcome but why exactly does he have hero status already ? One goal in the ressies in front of one man and dog at Hungerford, does not a hero make. Is it because he has a cool name .... like Jelle Van Damme..(who was crap) or is it the dance ... which we nearly see after his first touch which is a snapshot at the keeper from 20 yards. A good start and on the plus side he looks lively and unpredictable... on the minus side though there were some worrying Bradley Waigo-Phillips moments as he managed to get caught offside about 4 times...
Mills was now taking our corners and the delivery had improved markedly since Lallana had been removed from the set piece equation. Someone (Jaidi and Trotman perhaps) needs to beat it into him that repeated floating corners over everyone is not likely to lead to a goal. Saints nearly scored again when Trotman got on the end of a Mills corner and hit the keeper with the header and so the game petered out into an easy win with Wotton coming on for Thomas to maintain the 'big lump' quota in the side. Top performers for me today were Lambert and Hammond who were untouchable in their respective areas of the field.
So, -2 and Alan Pardew was happy with the win and not too impressed with the way we played. I'd have to agree with him but I really, really, really don't give a flying one how we win and I'll take all the dodgy penalties going if it means we score one more than them. Winning with style is a bonus and I'm really not bothered about bonuses as bonuses are for the greedy.
I am bothered though, about getting to one point before the Skates so we're at Carlisle and they are at home to Everton. I reckon we're favourites now....
Team news and Jaidi is in for his debut. Even watching him during the warm up you can see that he's absolutely huge and though I feel a bit sorry for Chris Perry who has been dropped despite not playing badly at all, it's good to see the man mountain starting. Saganowski is up front so Joseph Mills misses out in the re-shuffle and is on the bench along with Papa Waigo. I'm disappointed that Mills is not in the side as he offers natural width and his exclusion means we are more likely to funnel everything down the middle. Lloyd James will be offering no width on the right and will doubtless be attempting to cross from the half way line again and Lallana will be meandering and wandering and not providing width on the left.
Saints start well and get on the front foot and it's obvious straight away that Yeovil are struggling to deal with Rickie Lambert. Within five minutes they change tactics and have two men marking him the whole time which should mean more space for Saga. Lambo is winning his fair share but Saga is struggling to read where it's going and in that instance I see why maybe Saganowski wanted to leave. League 1 football is all about being direct, flick ons, giving the ball away, winning it back, ball in the air .... all of which really doesn't suit him. He tries and he tries though and in the 18th minute is rewarded when he wriggles free on the left of the penalty area and is tackled, falls over a bit spectacularly and wins a corner.... Hang on a minute, the berk with the whistle has given us a penalty... what the hell was that for? He won the ball clean as you like... we'll have it though. Protests and bewilderment all round, Lambert, bang, 1-0.
Yeovil, suitably aggrieved, come hard at us and we're under pressure as they hoof it up to the big lad up front who is a handful but he's very isolated and he's up against Jaidi and Trotman who are the football equivalent of a pair of nightclub bouncers, "No, you are not coming in sonny, now turn around and take this bruise with you". Talk about uncompromising. Yeovil also have a little 'Jermain Defoe like' striker up front who is like Jermain in that he has two arms and legs and that's about it.... in short, he's rubbish. Along with the bouncers in defence, we have Wayne Thomas and Dan Harding who are both big lads at 6ft 2ish, as well has Hammond and Lambert elsewhere in the side which gives us massive physical presence. It's all a far cry from last years team of Time Bandits and 7 stone weaklings.
However, it doesn't matter how many big lumps you have in the side if no one attacks the ball and a free Yeovil header from a corner went pretty close. Hammondwatch was again proving interesting... sometimes he looks like he's injured and that every step is an effort that he'd rather not make but at other times he is a man possessed. If there is a ball to be won then he makes sure he wins it or that the opponent is on his backside. In an attempt to win a 10/90 challenge at one point, he executed a perfect scythe tackle and hoofed the Yeovil No8 up in the air where he in turn, executed a kind of spin turn triple somersault thing and landed in a heap. The referee in awe, did nothing... unbelievable. Hard though Yeovil tried for the rest of the first half, they weren't really getting anywhere and Saints weren't either to be honest.
Half time and no morons to listen to, fantastic. Half time scores... Aston Villa 2 Pompey 0 Haaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!
The second half starts in a kind of nondescript way with neither side looking likely. Jermain really is bad for Yeovil and sorry to pick on him again but Lloyd James for us, bloody hell. He's been shoved right to accomodate Schneiderlin who is mixing some great stuff with disappearing acts. He is improving though and getting more involved with games and it's nice to see a player who wants to get the ball down and creates some space and time for himself.
After the hour however, it's time for an aimless waft forward towards nobody. The ball runs across the Yeovil left back and brushes his hand. One person out of nearly 20,000 appealed and that was me. 'Handball' I said in a very quiet voice but the linesman, who obviously has the hearing of a bat, heard me and gave us another spawny penalty. The Yeovil players don't really protest because a) they haven't realised it's a pen, or b) they now know for sure that it's not their day. Lambert, bang, 2-0. Game over, it really is. You can never really say this as a Saints fan but it's time to bet your left nut on a Saints win because it's coming baby and Yeovil are not going to score twice.
Mills comes on for Schneiderlin and Papa Waigo comes on for Saga, accompanied by a massive cheer. Now I'm not against giving someone a big welcome but why exactly does he have hero status already ? One goal in the ressies in front of one man and dog at Hungerford, does not a hero make. Is it because he has a cool name .... like Jelle Van Damme..(who was crap) or is it the dance ... which we nearly see after his first touch which is a snapshot at the keeper from 20 yards. A good start and on the plus side he looks lively and unpredictable... on the minus side though there were some worrying Bradley Waigo-Phillips moments as he managed to get caught offside about 4 times...
Mills was now taking our corners and the delivery had improved markedly since Lallana had been removed from the set piece equation. Someone (Jaidi and Trotman perhaps) needs to beat it into him that repeated floating corners over everyone is not likely to lead to a goal. Saints nearly scored again when Trotman got on the end of a Mills corner and hit the keeper with the header and so the game petered out into an easy win with Wotton coming on for Thomas to maintain the 'big lump' quota in the side. Top performers for me today were Lambert and Hammond who were untouchable in their respective areas of the field.
So, -2 and Alan Pardew was happy with the win and not too impressed with the way we played. I'd have to agree with him but I really, really, really don't give a flying one how we win and I'll take all the dodgy penalties going if it means we score one more than them. Winning with style is a bonus and I'm really not bothered about bonuses as bonuses are for the greedy.
I am bothered though, about getting to one point before the Skates so we're at Carlisle and they are at home to Everton. I reckon we're favourites now....
Nice to see some proper match reports, hope to see many more on here. Cheers
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