EFL Championship Play-Off Semi-Final 1st Leg - West Brom 0 Southampton 0

Boing, boing, Sit Down He's Saved It

The three-game season starts now with a trip to The Hawthorns to play West Bromwich Albion in the Championship play-off first leg. I remember when the play-offs first came in in 1987 and thought they were absolutely absurd, because prior to them, the team finishing third took their deserved place in the division above, based on being proven the third best team over the season and no one ever complained about it. At the time of the change, it seemed gimmicky and all a bit American but here we are now, 30 years later and it’s now part of the fabric of football in this country. If we didn’t have the playoffs of course, then our season would be over and we would be in the Championship next year but as it is, we have the chance to achieve something spectacular by getting promoted back to the League of Greed.

Standing in our way initially are West Bromwich Albion who finished one place below us in the final reckoning in the regular Championship season. They have basically been in fifth place ever since the season settled down in about October of last year and have always been seen as the best of the rest, outside of the top four who of course made a bit of a break for it.  We have of course played them twice this year and beaten them twice, the first of which was a slightly fortunate 2-1 win at St Mary’s, where Adam Armstrong popped up with a late winner having controlled the ball somewhat fortuitously with both his shins before rifling a shot across the keeper and into the far corner. The previous game at West Brom, brought us a relatively comfortable 2-0 win, when Russell Martin put on a bit of a tactical masterclass which included adequately replacing the loss of Flynn Downes and most notably, Jack Stephens playing his hybrid left back/midfielder role which worked in that game but didn’t work very well afterwards. Corboran against Martin will be a key battle today and who knows what either will come up with. West Brom, like ourselves, finished the season in slightly flat fashion, with three defeats in a row, followed by a decent win on the last day.

I’d like to think that West Brom will be going into this with masses of confidence because of those three defeats and also, they win on the last day was against Preston, who over the last month of the season have been the worst team in the division by a mile. Saints have also of course lost three games in a row but last week’s excellent win at Leeds has given everyone a boost and I would imagine we are the more confident going into this game given that win and the fact that we’ve beaten West Brom twice this season, there should be no inferiority complex.

What Saints have to prove is that they can do it when it really matters, when the pressure is on because recent history does not look too clever in that regard. Over the past few seasons, whenever we’ve had the opportunity to do anything, be it move out of a relegation zone, move into the top half of the league or even this season when we had the chance to consolidate second place, we have 100% record in shitting the bed and not achieving it. The last time I remember us having a serious milestone to achieve was when we played Newcastle at home on a Friday night with a chance of going top of the league early on in the season. We managed that but we have managed nothing significant since. Is it in the fabric of the club to bottle it when it becomes important? We will see.

If you had asked the average West Brom fan at the start of the season what they thought the season would look like, they would’ve been quite happy with mid table obscurity but Carlos Corboran has got a tune out of the team at his disposal and they’ve been pretty consistent all season and now, with a new owner, things are looking up for the Baggies. Hopefully, not too much though. Corboran has a good reputation and it’s largely anticipated that he could set up his team in such a way for us to make it very difficult to break them down. West Brom will know that they cannot afford to be behind after the first leg so I’m expecting today to be somewhat cagey.  Corboran is also hyper and the sort of manager whose antics get on your nerves with all his bouncing up and down and gesticulating on the touchline.  He managed of course, to get himself sent off against us last time when he kicked the ball whilst it was still in play.

Team news and unsurprisingly, it’s three at the back with wing backs, as per the Leeds game.  Just reading down the list of names and all good… Sekou Mara… What? Why?  Che is injured and Ross Stewart isn’t ready to start yet.  I guess it was a choice between Mara or Sulemana… or playing with ten.

Saints kick-off and knock it back to McCarthy, who boots it long and West Brom pick it up and we spent 10 minutes not touching the ball as the crosses come flying into the box and West Brom pick up all the second balls. We stand firm however and eventually start to play our way into the game.  It’s all high energy and the crowd are up for it but not much quality and nothing on target for McCarthy to deal with.

When Saints start to play, the first chance comes as Aribo drives through midfield before sending the ball right to KWP, who cuts in and hits it and it flicks of Townshend and goes just wide of the far post.

We look properly into the game now and following a Baggies clearance out to our left, Downes win the ball back off of Fellows and finds Aribo who takes out two defenders putting Downes in on the keeper but from an angle, his shot is blocked by Palmer straight up in the air and drops to Adam Armstrong, who tries to smash the cover off it when it returns to earth and as is usually the case, doesn’t get a clean connection on it and puts it into the side netting. To be honest that’s poor.  Downes should’ve taken it first time and Armstrong should definitely have got that on target but unfortunately, he’s done his usual and lashed at it.

Another attack brings a corner on the left as Diangana trips over the corner flag trying to prevent it.  In it comes from Smallbone, headed up rather than out and Mara attempts an overhead kick which goes so far wide that it’s barely worth talking about in terms of it being a shot. A stat-padder if ever there was one.

West Brom put together their first really decent move down our right-hand side and win a free kick when Diangana is tagged by Aribo. They take a quickly then work out to Fellows on their right and he pisses past Manning and stands up great cross of the back post and Diangana meets it and heads down and we all silently mouth the word “fuck”, but McCarthy gets across well to block.  Great save that.

Half time and it’s been tense and a bit dull.  Not bad though because we’ve drawn the sting out and played the better football.  Fellows vs Manning is a bit of a worry however.  No subs for either team and away we go.

West Brom have the first chance as the much-hyped Mikey Johnson gets a ball over from the left and Furlong gets in ahead of Aribo and jabs it wide with the soul of his boot.  It’s a pretty even opening of the second half with not a lot happening.  Saints are having decent possession but nothing much happening up front.

Here He Is

The substitutions happen with about twenty to go and it’s three forwards coming on with Wee Man, Brooks and Ross Stewart on for Manning, Mara and Adam Armstrong.  We’ve changed formation as well with Jack at left back, which puts him directly against Fellows and that particular battle doesn’t start too well as following some not brilliant, attempted challenges by Aribo and Stephens, Fellows pulls a low cross back to Diangana near the penalty spot and he hits it and Macca saves again.  Smallbone clears it to Brooks, who lobs it over the defence to Stewart who has stayed onside. Stewart takes the ball out of the left hand side before lining up Furlong and cutting across the box and hits it.  It flicks off Bartley and Palmer who has dived the wrong way sticks a foot out and saves it whilst we all go “yeaaaaaaaaaaaa-fuck” or something like that.

The last fifteen really petered out with both teams settling for a draw.  There is only one real incident as Diangana tried his luck on the right against Fraser and goes past him until gets to the edge of the penalty area and dives like a motherfucker. Absolutely disgraceful cheating and luckily the referee didn’t give anything.  There may have been the slightest accidental contact but the Olympic level throwing his arms out was spectacular.  Fuck off.

Well I said it would be cagey and so it proved with both teams seemingly settling for a draw.  As far as we are concerned, I think it’s a decent result because being a goal down would’ve been an absolute fucking nightmare playing against a Carlos Corboran team. I feel that if this has been a single game affair today then we would’ve done a lot more in an attacking sense than we did today.  I was a bit surprised at West Brom’s lack of intent to go out and win this but I guess Corboran just isn’t built that way.  Two players in the opposition box at most.

The 2017 player of the season version of Alex McCarthy turned up today, making a very good save in the first half from Diangana’s header and pulling out a smart save from the same players’ low shot in the second half.   He also took every cross and long throw that came his way with consummate ease and confidence.  One shite pass but overall excellent. 

That second half chance for West Brom which led directly to Ross Stewart‘s effort 30 seconds later, was kind of the limit of the goalmouth entertainment in the second half.  Our efforts in the first half were from KWP and the Downes/Armstrong incident and that was it.  Overall it wasn;t a great attacking spectacle and 0-0 is fair.

A Rare Containing Both Mara and the Ball

The major shock/disappointment/incredulity in the starting lineup was of course Sekou Mara, who has done absolutely fuck all this season to warrant been given their responsibility to play in the biggest game of the season. The only reason he was selected of course was because Ross Stewart is not fit enough to start games yet.  It’s a bit like winning a race because everyone else has fallen over.   Maybe Sulemana would have been better - I know he’s done nothing this season either but there always seems to be the possibility that he might. Mara is very consistent in that you know what you’re going to get… not much.

The bloke hasn’t even put in a decent substitute appearance for about four months and today was exactly as predicted. In the first half, his main contribution was to roll up one leg of his shorts and jog about for five minutes with one up one down. Then he rolled the other one up and ambled around till half-time. One decent turn in the second half where he was fouled was the limit of his involvement.  When he went off it was a blessing and Ross Stewart looked decent and dangerous when he came on.  If the keeper hadn’t made that unbelievable save from the deflected shot then it would have been a story and a half.  It still might be.

It was also a relatively quiet game for the referee Sam Barratt, who was decent and handled the game well.  He only had one potential issue with the dive at the end and got that spot on.

Defensively today it was another clean sheet and we were okay, without being watertight. We did cough up possession occasionally with some sloppy stuff around the edge of our own penalty area with both Jack Stephens and THB being guilty at times. Ryan Manning had a tough game against Tom Fellows on our left and that is something that we do need to sort out for the second game because Jack Stephens struggled there as well.  I wouldn’t be surprised if James Bree is considered a better option in the return game on Friday but for me, he’s been pretty hopeless recently and a winger of Fellows pace would be Bree’s kryptonite. Flynn Downes was as usual, the main man in the centre of midfield, driving forward to good effect with both Smallbone and Aribo starting the game well before fading into the second half.

Overall, I think Russell Martin will be happy with that end result and it will be interesting to see how we set up for the second leg. Will we play three at the back at home or will it be the more usual 4-3-3 formation? Whichever way he decides to go, as long as Che Adams recovers, we will at least have 11 proper players out on the pitch which will give us an advantage over today.

Half-time in the tie and absolutely nothing to fear in the second leg. Let’s fucking do this. Up the fucking Saints

 

EFL Championship Match 46 - Leeds 1 Southampton 2

 

Make Sure the Ball Goes Out Junior, Mark Your Man Joe

Leeds United against Southampton in the eagerly awaited automatic promotion play-off. You can imagine that the opening line of the Sky Sports coverage was written nine months ago when the fixtures came out. However, Ipswich Town didn’t get the memo, so Leeds and Saints are taking part in a game with not much significance whatsoever.  It has absolutely zero significance for us because we are finishing fourth whether we win or lose 9-0 today. Leeds on the other hand, need to win today and then hope that Ipswich lose at home to relegated Huddersfield.  It is somewhat unlikely. Truth be told, the Ipswich versus Huddersfield game is a much bigger story than what is going on there and it will affect the mood inside Elland Road today. If by some miracle, Huddersfield take the lead then the ground is going to go mad and the Leeds players will suddenly start playing like lunatics. If Ipswich go ahead then Elland Road will be subdued and it becomes a real nothing game.

For the first time in weeks, Saints have no excuse for tiredness seeing as they have had a whole week to prepare. Russell Martin has hinted at this being treated as a preparation game for the playoffs to come, so we can expect the minutes of Flynn Downes to be carefully controlled. We are also expecting to see a few minutes from the Crock Ness Drogba, Mr Ross Stewart who in case you’d forgotten, was signed to score the goals to fire us to promotion. Maybe he can still do that. I still cannot help but feel that if he had been fit all season and turned out to be as good as we wanted him to be, it would’ve had a massive transformative effect on this team.

We turned to Ross Stewart when we couldn’t sign Joel Piroe, who of course had played for Russell Martin at Swansea but eventually signed for Leeds. It was never really adequately explained why we didn’t sign the big Dutchman but desire to comply with FFP and profit and sustainability rules was never far from the surface.  Though Stewart has had his injury issues of course, Piroe has been slightly underwhelming in terms of his goal output and recently has found himself out of the team with the likes of Georginio Rutter, Crycensio Summerville, Willy Gnonto and Patrick Bamford preferred to him.  Longer term we might be better off.

Stewart was apparently a cheaper option in terms of wages and it was a gamble because of his fitness record. When we signed Danny Ings a few years ago it was seen as a risk because of his injury record and after a stop-start first season, he certainly proved this worth before moving onto pastures greener. By greener I am of course referring to the colour of money. Maybe Ross Stewart can be the man up front for us next year, whatever division we are in.

Leeds looked like they were coasting to the title on the back of a 12 game-winning run that started in early January and just at the time when a large percentage of their fan base was celebrating an impending title win, they shit the bed and shit it repeatedly, culminating in a 4-0 defeat at QPR, which was their equivalent of our defeat to Cardiff.

A result of their implosion has been that people have been looking at and questioning the abilities of Daniel Farke. Leeds certainly have the strongest squad in the division outside of Leicester (how do you Leicester have such a strong squad – it’s a bit of a mystery?) and Farke has picked up quite a lot of stick as they have fallen away. He too has made noises this week about this being a preparation game and whilst the football world at large will be looking for some pointers about what might happen in a potential play-off final, I don’t think it’s really gonna tell us that much.

The first meeting of the season of course saw us steam roller Leeds in the first half and ultimately comfortably win 3-1 at St Mary’s, which was the first game of the long unbeaten run that we went on. We could do with today being the start of a four-match unbeaten run.

The eleven names on the teamsheet are interesting.  All three centre backs plus two full backs, which either points at us abandoning our usual back four or it points at KWP on the wing.  Flynn Downes starts as well so we’ve gone strong.  Time will tell if that’s the right move but at least we are trying something different.

Saints have in fact lined up with a back three which is an interesting change and initially we start playing fairly long because it looks like we haven’t quite sussed where the passing lanes are in this new formation. There seems to be loads of room in the Leeds midfield and Downes gallops through and it gets to the edge of the box before taking being taken out by Ampadu but the referee decides that despite coming in from the wrong side, making contact with a player and not getting anywhere near the ball, that it isn’t a freekick.

Leeds put us under a bit of pressure down our left with Gnonto cutting in past Stephens and Aribo goes to ground to try and win it but absolutely trashes him about a yard outside the penalty area. The free-kick is whipped in by Firpo but it’s at a comfortable height for McCarthy to just flick it over the bar.

We go almost Route 1 as a clearance by McCarthy is flicked on by Aribo out to Adam Armstrong on the right.  A simple ball inside and KWP drives through the non-existent Leeds midfield and slides a ball into Smallbone but there is no conviction on his shot whatsoever and Meslier blocks easily and out for a corner.

It's Happened Again....

In it comes from Manning and cleared, headed back in by Downes, half cleared again and Downes flicks it left to Adams.  Che has clearly decided that his ‘strength’ stat is turned up to 99 today and holds off Kamara before putting it back across and there is Adam Armstrong about ten yards out, completely unmarked and with a swing of the left boot and not the cleanest of connections, he sends it goalwards and chocolate wrists Meslier can’t keep it out. You can hear the cheers all the way from Portman Road.

Oh, we seem to have poked the bear.  Leeds come out straight away with some hesitant defending by THB allowing Summerville to get a shot away which is well saved down low by McCarthy.  Macca rolls it out to Stephens who stolls in midfield and dawdles with it and gets tackled by Gruev.  Gnonto fires it in from the right, half a clearance by THB straight to Piroe and he drills it in from fifteen yards via a deflection off of Downes. Shit.  Any jubilation at the prospect of Leeds possibly being back in the automatic promotion picture dampens down a bit with news that Ipswich have taken the lead against Huddersfield.

It's time for some refereeing.  Having not awarded the one earlier on with Ampadu trashing through Downes, the ref seems to be making up for it by awarding soft ones as Summerville hits the deck under no challenge at all from Smallbone.  In comes the freekick and Ampadu’s header is tipped over by McCarthy but he was well offside anyway.

Having weathered the mini-storm, Saints get back on trying to exploit the Leeds non-midfield and win a corner, put in from the left by Smallbone, inadvertently flicked on by Byram and it looks for all the world like Adams is going to bundle in at the back post but with the boots swinging everywhere it’s a combination of Gruev and Meslier who manage to block and then the ball gets cleared.

A few minutes later, some controlled possession and Bednarek goes for the big diagonal to KWP on the right hand side, in a move rarely seen since the days of Vestergaard.  Now, I know that KWP is going to keep that in but Firpo can’t be bothered to make sure and when KWP does keep it in, Firpo overcommits and that’s the invitation KWP needs to piss past him and cut in before laying it along the six-yard line to where Smallbone has arrived to easily knock it into the net. Get in!! Leeds are all looking at each other.. Rodon has just stood there watching Smallbone run in front of him and Gruev hasn’t bothered tracking him. Neither are to blame as much as Firpo however, for one of the shittest, laziest, Under-11 pieces of defending you could ever wish to see.

Time for some more refereeing – good and bad.  Firstly, Rutter pulls out a bit premeditated dive in the box under no challenge at all from Stephens and he doesn’t buy it.  But then, Manning and Gnonto get into the mildest disagreement whilst smiling at eachother and both get a yellow card in the shadow of Daniel Farke standing there with his arms wide apart like he’s got some big issue with something.  The arms are out again a minute later as Gnonto spins away and goes down and Manning is now on a tightrope having picked up the ridiculous booking earlier.

Leeds have one more effort before half-time as Saints crowd out Summerville on the left of the box and it’s played back into the middle and eventually out to Gnonto on the right and he screws his shot across goal and wide.

Half time and this has been good so far.  Not much to worry about from Leeds as long as we stay compact in defence and midfield and opportunities for us if we can play through the press. With Manning having yellow card issues thanks to the ridiculous double booking, there is a sub at half-time and it’s Ryan Fraser coming on, so I assume the Wee Man is going to go to left-wing back. This is certainly a more progressive substitution than bringing on James Bree would’ve been. Wee Man is in the action straight away as Adam Armstrong bundles past Firpo on the right, with his cut back been cleared as far as Aribo who rolls it perfectly for Wee Man to hit first time and he curls it narrowly over the bar.

Saints are still playing some good stuff with Bednarek finding Adams who has come away from Rodon,who doesn't want to get drawn out of the defensive line and Adams has space to turn and slot the ball through and Adam Armstrong who has made a run-off the right, skipped around the goalkeeper and scored but the flag was up early so no excitement at all.

On the hour mark and it’s time to save some legs and Adams is off to be replaced by Sulemana, who will play up the middle.  Ten minutes later and Downes is off the be replaced with Rothwell.  It’ll be a challenge to keep the performance levels up having taken off the best midfielder and best attacker, losing as we do, the hold-up play and the defensive shield.

No problem as yet as Stephens drives forward and plays it right.  THB is on the charge and Rothwell finds him and cross of the day from the centre back, met in the middle by Sulemana, darting in front of the static Rodon, but it slides off his head and wide.

Our tactic for defending Summerville on the Leeds left is to basically stand on his right foot so he can’t shoot. He wants to bring it in on his right foot every single time and has no clue what to do otherwise.  Eventually he gets frustrated with Saints blocking that off and aimlessly lashes a ball across the box with his left foot which McCarthy pushes away easily enough.

And then the moment we didn’t think we’d ever see, certainly not this season, with Adam Armstrong being given a rest and being replaced by Ross Stewart who immediately gets involved and looks to have a good touch. Bree is also on for KWP as we look to give another one of our star men a rest.

Despite two attempted scything tackles in midfield, Saints break away down the right with Smallbone, who lays it into the path of Stewart who gets taken out from behind by Firpo who has of course already been booked for being a twat or being shit, but for some reason, he doesn’t get the second yellow that would have made his performance complete. I wonder if Daniel Farke is standing on the side with his arms wide apart imploring the referee to do the right thing. Anyway, with the free-kick to the right of centre, Smallbone tries to go low to the near post and it spins in towards the near post but hits the side netting.

The game is starting to get a bit feisty now with Smallbone being cynically tripped by Ampadu and when Smallbone reacts, Ampadu responds to the merest bump, by throwing himself to the ground like the big hard man that he is.

90 minutes are up in Leeds win a free kick on the edge of the box from another Summerville dive and the same player eventually steps up and smashes it into the wall and we get it clear. From the next leads attack, Saints snuff it out on the edge of the box and Piroe comes in with a very high and late challenge on Rothwell, he doesn’t take too kindly to it. Don’t like losing this lot do they?

The referees whistle blows and thus endeth a thoroughly deserved win.  A superb performance all round with every single player playing at a decent level.

Firpo Gets Harshly Booked for Being Shit

I am absolutely delighted that Russell Martin used the game to find out something different and the formation change suited us absolutely down to the ground.  A week of training not only helped us regarding a boost in energy but also in hatching this plan and formation.  The opening 10 minutes looked a little bit like we were struggling to find a passing options out of the defence but after we settled into it, it was generally excellent and once we beat the initial Leeds press there were so many chances for us because Leeds basically don’t have any defensive midfield structure at all and they have defenders who are always likely to cough something up. All of that was encapsulated in that little period in the first half where Adam Armstrong was completely unmarked to score from 15 yards, we coughed up possession to allow Leeds to equalise and then the chances kept coming with the shockingly bad Junior Firpo coming up with a bit of under 11s defending to allow KWP to set up Smallbone’s winner.

Everything that we tried today came off and even the half-time substitution, bringing on Ryan Fraser at left-wing back in place of Manning, worked out superbly with Fraser putting in a really good performance. We also managed to substitute virtually all of our key players with KWP, Adams, Adam Armstrong and vitally, Flynn Downes all getting minutes off in preparation for the playoffs. Not only did we withdraw those players, we still managed to win the game with in addition to Fraser, Sulemana, Rothwell and Ross Stewart, yes, Ross Stewart, all playing their part.  Even if we had allowed a Leeds equaliser in the last few minutes today with all the subs on, it would not of taken away from the fact that we played very well and it would’ve put a lot of confidence back into the team and into a vast majority of the fan base who aren’t beyond any persuasion.

The new formation seemed to suit every single one of our players and it gives another string to our bow. It is also worth remembering though that Russell Martin knows exactly how Daniel Farke sets up his teams from playing with him at Norwich, so it might be a one off thing because he knew it would be effective against a Farke team. That said, I thought the formation got all three central defenders onto the pitch, allowed the full-backs to concentrate on what are good at and it also seemed to help Smallbone and Aribo get through 90 minutes. It was generally a lot more compact in defence so even when Downes went off and was replaced by Rothwell, we still managed to maintain a good defensive structure in front of the defence. Up front, Che Adams and Adam Armstrong made sure that they weren’t static and easily marked by the central defenders and kept moving into the channels and Leeds defenders basically had no answer.

Ryan Manning was unlucky to get substituted at half-time but he had to be after picking up a ridiculous booking where he and Willy Gnonto had the mildest of disagreements and the referee decided to book both of them. I don’t think I’ve seen a more unnecessary double booking in my entire life of watching football. Flynn Downes looked much sharper than against Stoke and was probably cruising towards the man of the match award before he came off. Che Adams had an absolutely superb game up front. Proper centre forward play holding off Rodon with ease and keeping the attacks moving. Ross Stewart got ten minutes on the end and he look lively with some good movement and he looked pretty sharp and it’s certainly more encouraging to have him on the bench then our usual forward option.

The referee Matt Donohue was hilariously inconsistent throughout the game. As said, the double booking he handed out for absolutely nothing completely made a rod for his own back. If he was consistent then Manning should have been sent off for a second yellow.  He then went completely the other way. If you look at Junior Firpo‘s contribution to the second half where he got booked for dissent, then sarcastically clapped the referee, then did something similar at the linesman, then deliberately blocked KWP off the ball then brought down Ross Stewart from behind and still didn’t get a second yellow. Mind you, it actually helped us with him being on the pitch. Then there was Connor Roberts with his cheap shot on Sulemana, just barging into his back that went on punished, then there was the Ampadu and Smallbone incident. Joel Piroe got a booking for what should’ve been a red card for a very high challenge on Joe Rothwell.

Tedious Farker

I said at the start that Daniel Farke had come under a bit of scrutiny for Leeds collapse at the end of the season and he deserves it. All he seems to do is stand at the side of the pitch with his arms out wide, imploring the referee after a decision has already been made. The referee really isn’t gonna change his mind as a result of you doing that so stop doing it you dickhead. He looked like a guy who had no idea how to change the direction that the game was heading in. Yes, the score at Portman Road made this game a slightly deflating experience for Leeds but he certainly didn’t help. His whingeing seemed to translate to his players at the end.

The incident where Ampadu cynically fouled Smallbone and then dived when confronted about it by all eight stone of Will, was pretty embarrassing. Call yourself a captain and leader? Ha ha ha.. Leeds have some good players up front as everyone knows but they don't want to do any defending and today anyway they had absolutely nothing behind them in midfield and it was so easy for us to get at them. As we have seen ourselves on many occasions this season, if you don’t have a defensive structure in midfield then your defence is always going to struggle. Mind you, if one of your centre backs spends more time doing his hair than he does getting close to the opposition centre forward, then you are always going to struggle. That’s you Joe Rodon.  Every time Rodon does anything, take the corner or free kick quickly because he’ll be doing his hair.

I love the fact that today we were a little bit more pragmatic. We didn’t have 75% of the ball but we did a hell of a lot more with it than Leeds did and that is ultimately what it’s all about. After that,  I’ve come away with more confidence to Russell Martin knows there is more than one way to get the job done and that’s only gonna stand us in good stead in the three game season to come.

Other results meant that we are taking on Carlos Corberan and West Brom again and we should go into those games with absolutely no fear having beaten them twice this season already. It won’t be easy but then nothing worth achieving ever is and those previous games will probably count for very little.  If we meet Leeds again in the final, this game will mean very little as well.  Leeds will be better, of that I have no doubt.

A week to prepare, like we had today and now we have a trip to the Hawthorns to look forward to.

Up the fucking Saints