If our strongest line up had been on the pitch then the right side of midfield would be taken by Jason Puncheon who is, as is the trend these days, very left footed. A mercurial player who was given the very heavy Matt le Tiss comparison when he signed in January from the MK Fake Dons. Le Tiss and heavy in the same sentence, who’d have thought? Undaunted, Punch scored a couple of early goals for us by cutting in on his good foot and curling it in the far corner which bought him a bit of time as a new player. Very skilful and a good dribbler but it comes with the territory that he’ll have some games where nothing at all works and it’s painful to watch. The stats show though that he’s worth persevering with as he does make things happen and he does create goals. I read a fans report on the Hartlepool home game and it said that Punch was awful and kept giving the ball away. When I saw the highlights on the telly, I noted that all three goals had been set up by the man who was apparently awful. For those who can’t remember, Le Tiss used to give the ball away a lot and would often look a bit silly because he’d tried something outrageous and it hadn’t quite worked. Punch isn’t in his class but he’s a decent player and a very astute signing. A loanee from Reading by the name of Michail Antonio was the other main player on the right wing and played a fair few games there in the first half of the season. After Christmas, he got used as a striker occasionally but was back on the wing whenever Punch was moved elsewhere. He is blessed with a lot of pace and a slightly odd running style which looks like his head is about to fall off. He’s another that can be poor but he makes things happen as he’s very direct and when on song, is unplayable at this level and towards the end of the season, started adding goals to the armoury which already included the pace and a Delapesque long throw. Reading were apparently keen to move him on at the start of the season and his contract was up but he’s done so well for us that they extended his contract by a year to make us pay a fee. It’ll be interesting to see if we go back for him. I think we should as he‘s an exciting player who will only get better. There were a few bit-part players used on the right wing: Papa Waigo N’Diaye would fire over some decent crosses on the rare occasions that he wasn’t offside and he finished a fair few games out there as he got thrown on as a sub at the end when we needed a goal. Right wing was Lloyd James’ 2nd most inept positioning in that his defending wasn’t such an issue but his appalling crossing was highlighted more. Also used very occasionally was Jake Thomson who is following Lloyd out the door and rightly so. He weighs about 7 stone and plays like he should still be in age-group football. He was loaned out to Torquay for most of the season but sadly, he played for us in a home game against Brentford where we ended up with James at right back and Thomson at right midfield and they both stood and watched as the left back ran past them and crossed for a goal. The next time we’ll see Thomson will probably be in the World Cup 2014 as he’s declared allegiance to Trinidad and Tobago.
Central midfield was a strange area this season and one that I don’t feel we ever really got right. The defensive midfielder was usually Morgan Schneiderlin and therein (in my opinion) lies the problem. When on song he’s a great ball player and can drop a ball on someone’s foot from miles away. The trouble for me is that he does it from too deep. On the rare occasion he has got towards the oppositions box this season he has made things happen and he has the ability to get goals and assists on a regular basis. He is much improved on last season and added some steel to his game, flying into tackles and managing to be the only Saints player sent off all season, a feat he managed twice. The red card at MK Dons was harsh but he gave the ref the opportunity by grabbing the bloke round the throat. The one at Yeovil was just petulant and stupid. If he improves again next year and plays further forward then we’ll have some player on our hands. Dean Hammond was the other central midfielder and skipper of the side and man charged with being a box to box player and getting some goals. He managed this to a reasonable degree and had a solid season. Again with him I feel he could do more and maybe being charged with being the holding player rather than the attacking one would be the way to go. He’s physically imposing, likes sliding around and kicking people, works bloody hard and has a good engine, whilst creativity is not really his thing. I would like to see him control games a bit more which he should be able to do at this level. At the end of the season, following Morgan’s latest red card, Jason Puncheon was playing in the middle but he’s better suited out wide where it’s less congested and he can work his magic and it doesn’t matter as much if he coughs up possession. The main reserve player for central midfield was Paul Wotton Football Genius. If I could go for a pint with any player, it would be him – honest as the day is long. He’s a very limited player but he knows it and has squeezed out a decent career at Plymouth and Saints with good attitude and hard work as his selling points. He knows he’s not ever going to be a regular, is happy with that and is used mainly as a sub to kill the game. When introduced, usually with us one goal up, he either got to the pace of things straight away and did everything right or alternatively, he was five minutes behind the play and never got a touch, only hoofing the odd player into orbit if they got in his way. He has another year on his contract and it was nice to see him start the JPT Final at Wembley. Central midfield was Lloyd James best position by far which isn’t saying much and he did have a few games in there which were decent when partnered with Hammond. When he stuck to winning the ball and passing it five yards then he was ok but anything more than that, forget it. Also, if he messed up a pass, he kept on doing as if trying to prove that he could, rather than just cutting his losses and keeping it simple. Talking of simple – Jacob Mellis – fucking hell. Signed on loan from Chelsea, the next big thing, England under 19 captain and all that …. Shite. Not fit for purpose. Maybe he didn’t want to be here cos that what it looked like whenever he played. Some nice touches on occasion but basically rubbish and not up to rough and tough League 1. He went back to Chelsea in January – officially they wanted him back for their FA Cup run (which of course he never played in) but I reckon Pards was on the phone to Carlo Ancelotti saying whatever ‘take him back he’s shit’ is, in Italian. A mention too for Simon Gillett who is also moving on. At 24 it was now of never for Simon and ‘never’ was the winner. On loan to Doncaster in the Championship for most of the season and apparently he did ok but was never going to get a game here. He had to be something special to make up for only being 5 foot 2 (5 foot 7 officially – my arse!!!) and despite him having some decent games under the Dutch Clowns, I was never convinced by him and don’t feel that this one will come back to bite us. So, Gillett at 5 for 2 and Oscar Gobern at 7 ft 2 and about 8 stone of Carlton Palmer lookalike central midfielder. Bambi doesn’t look ready yet and is one to watch for next season where I personally don’t see him making much of an impression unless he seriously beefs up and the same applies to Callum McNish who made on appearance this season.
The left of midfield was owned by Adam Lallana which sorted out the question of where he was going to play this season. Adam had an excellent campaign that yielded 20 goals and some excellent performances due to him being more direct and more willing to take on the full back. If he managed to get himself one on one with the right back then usually good things happened and he was a pleasure to watch this season. Personally, I love the way he kills a ball which may have come down with snow on it – fantastic touch. He worked a lot harder this season than before as well and benefitted from a long run in the team and a regular full back behind him. He could and should have scored more with some of his finishing being particularly wasteful as he tried to pass the ball into the net when the whole crowd was of the opinion that he should ‘just fucking hit it’. Personally I’d like to hit Lee Holmes, not because I advocate violence but because he’s a soft bastard who would just sit on the floor crying and wouldn’t hit me back. Usually I’ll back a player with ability but what’s the point with this guy? His effectiveness is questionable as he hasn’t got the pace to beat a full back and you can’t rely on a nice touch to do everything for you. Surprisingly recalled to the team around Christmas from out of nowhere and then discarded again just as quickly. No word for a while and then shock of shocks, injured again and there’s no such thing as a one week layoff with this guy, on no, it’s six months or nothing. A strange lad and I remember one game when he was absolutely knackered after 10 minutes which was really odd given that he’s allegedly very fit. I was hoping his contract would be up in the summer but apparently he has another year. I’d like odds on him playing more than 10 games next season. Joseph Mills had the odd game on the left wing as well which only served to confirm that he’s a full back and Papa Waigo N’Diaye started a couple of games on the left so he could be offside from a different perspective. Some can be a right footed player on the left and then there’s Papa. I'm not sure which position Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain favours but he's one youngster that I'm genuinely excited about. He has a rare confidence about him for a 16 year old and is not afraid to take on big lumpy defenders who are going to try and kick big lumps out of him. His dad played for England so the pedigree's there - mind you, Bradley Wright-Phillips dad also played for England.
Up front, Pards favoured the big guy-little guy combination and we’ll start with the little guy. Marek Saganowski started the season in the team, mainly because we hadn’t managed to sell him and we had no one else. He didn’t want to play in League 1 and it showed as a player who had played in Euro 2008, managed to do nothing against League 1’s finest. Undoubtedly a good player but undoubtedly couldn’t be bothered at the end and his one decent moment of the season was diving to win a penalty against Yeovil. We finally managed to flog him to some team from some country where you’d never want to go. David Connolly was finally signed on a one year deal after proving to Pards that two years of injuries and not playing were behind him. To start with all was good and a fine player scored some great goals and quite a few of them and then the inevitable happened and he did a Pahars and disappeared for 4 months. It was a real shame as he has a cleverness of movement, speed of thought and a deadly finish that is not evident in many other forwards in this League. Sometimes he can be a bit Ormerod with his first touch and lack of shielding of the ball but I always feel that he’s just feeling his way into games and almost waiting to get injured, like he doesn’t trust his body to hold up. Connolly’s injury problems meant that we muddled by with one striker over Christmas until the January transfer window came round and we signed Lee Barnard from Southend. Looking back, I think this was a bit of a Championship Manager signing in that we bought a player who had scored a lot of goals for Southend and was cheap as he was coming to the end of his contract. At the start it certainly looked like he couldn’t play well with Rickie Lambert due to them both not being the quickest but as time went on, Barnard started playing deeper and the two worked well. He doesn’t seem to have convinced the manager completely though as you know that he’ll be the first man subbed even when he’s played well. The other thing that is guaranteed is that he will start arguing with the ref, usually with justification but he goes all red in the face and looks like he’s about to throw all his toys out of the pram and stamp on them. I have a 5 year old son who I send to his room when he acts like that. That said, I think he’s a big player for us next season and having settled in now and he’ll be banging them in for fun as like Connolly, he has an intelligence about his movement that will always create opportunities, even if he’s not the quickest. Talking of quick, Papa Waigo N’Diaye often found himself up front and he’s another that makes things happen as he has that air of unpredictability about him, the opposition don’t know what he’s about to do and Papa, sure as shit doesn’t know either. He scores and creates goals and as has already been mentioned, is always offside, I mean always. It’s not just a foot or two because he just got caught, it’s usually by about 10 yards, it’s not because a defender moved up behind him and he didn’t see him, it’s usually when he’s on the wing and can see everything. A great character though with dancing feet and it was one of my moments of the season when he scored and milked the celebration at the JPT final. I don’t think he’ll be back next year but I hope he is.
Our big, rough, tough, centre forward at the start of the season should have been Grzegorz Rasiak who was neither rough or tough and who wanted away asap so he only played a cuople of games before being sold to Reading. So, the job went to Matt Paterson and he scored in the opening game and looked promising. He disappeared off into the reserves for a bit and didn't do much. When Barnard was signed from Southend, they needed a player in return and so Paterson was off. I got the impression at the time that it was a necessary sale and that we didn’t really want him to go but when Southend came to SMS on the last day of the season he missed two absolute sitters and reminded me that he had no composure in front of goal which is a bit of a problem when you’re a centre forward. Matt’s replacement was of course, Sir Rickie Lambert who was signed for a million quid from Bristol Rovers. He arrived with a reputation for scoring goals a being a bit of a fat boy so of course, he got the No 7 shirt. He scored after 20 minutes of his first Saints game and never looked back, finally ending the season on 37. Right foot, left foot, headers, long range, incredibly long range, scruffy tap ins, penalties, free kicks, you name it, he can do it all. In addition to all this, he developed into a very good target man and held the play up brilliantly to bring others into play. He’d be playing in the Prem if he was quick and luckily for us, he’s not. Also, he managed to lose weight throughout the season and maintain the strength to play virtually every minute of every match. I did think he looked completely knackered from about Christmas to March but he still managed to keep scoring. Player of the season by a mile and we should be looking to keep him here for the rest of his career. Long live Sir Rickie….
It obviously remains to be seen whether Michail Antonio and/or Papa Waigo return next year and if they don’t, we need to add some pace to the side or at least, to the bench. We also need a player in central midfield to pressurise Schneiderlin and Hammond and Pards has intimated as much already. Up front, Sir Rickie will score goals by the bucketful again next year and both Connolly and Barnard will get their share with hopefully, Connolly staying fitter and available for more games (assuming he re-signs). The thing that could blow a real hole in our promotion prospects is an injury to Lambert and we have to sign a similar type of player to guard against this, ideally someone who can play up with Rickie or instead of him, good for 15 games a season. It would also be nice to allow Rickie to sit on the bench occasionally. Lambert, Lallana and Schneiderlin are all going to be linked with other clubs and we have to hope that we can hang on to all three. If we can and add to the squad, we’ll be flying…
Bring it on….
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