End of Season Awards Part 1
By: Mike |
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Time for the first ever “Saints @ The Offside Annual End of Season Awards thingy”.
Award for Best Player
Start with an easy one. I know Andrew Davies won the official gong but for me the one player most responsible for us staying up, and thus the only possible receipient of this award, is Stern John. 19 goals, with no other player getting into double figures, tells its own story but the lack of good crossing or final passes throughout the season meant he made many of those goals himself through his power and good touch on the ball.
Franny Benali award for being a nutter
From the likes of Mark Dennis, Benali himself even up to more recent examples like Patrick Colleter, Saints have a rich history of players just as liable to kick one of the opposition into the stands as the ball. In recent seasons our demise has coincided with a lack of grade A, top class nutterdom. I’m going to say Kudos then to Youssef Safri who, while not in the same league (literally or figuratively), as previous alumni has shown a streak of temper to collect 2 reds and 6 yellows this season. The fact that many of our best performances have come when he’s been pulling the strings in midfield and some of our worse when he’s been suspended show the rest of the squad need an upgrade in mentalness.
Légion d’honneur for finest capitulation
That would be the Saints team who travelled to Hillsborough and thanked the visiting supporters by conceding 5 goals in 24 minutes, 4 of them in a 14 minute second half spell. Remember that Wednesday themselves only finished 16th! They fought off strong competition for this award from the sides at Preston away (5-1, 3 in the last 15 minutes) and Hull away (5-0, 4 in the second half).
Category: Features
Tags: Nope, just lows.
By: Mike | Add Comments
Well that didn’t take long! No sooner had the NAMG possibility being suggested it has been pretty well debunked by some investigation over at The Saints Forum. Probably best to make your own minds up but it looks dubious to me.
Thus far names like Dave Merrington and Graeme Souness are being thrown into the hat as members of various consortiums by the papers. It’s presumably only a matter of time before the Branfoot, Hoddle and Redknapp consortium make an offer… Well, at least there’s a worse possibility than the current situation!
Category: Takeover NewsPoised for a summer of highs and Lowes?
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Well, now the boring business on grass involving 22 men and a ball is out of the way SFC can return to what it does best - off the field power struggles. The EGM on Friday should see Rupert Lowe and Michael Wilde assume control of the football club once again due to their combined share holdings of nearly 50%.
The real area of interest for Saints fans at the moment is a possible takeover by either the Jonathan Fulthorpe-led consortium who have been in discussion with Saints for some time or a new (possibly non-existent) group. The main barrier to a deal is whether or not Lowe and Wilde will be willing to sell up at a price any interested party can afford to offer, especially as they are about to assume control themselves.
Hopefully someone will have the funding in place to persuade all of the major shareholders to sell up and funding to make the club, at least, more secure financially. At the moment very few details on the takeover bid have been revealed but could it be linked to this?
A construction company, NAMG, have announced a deal with a UK company regarding the takeover of an unnamed football club and redevelopment of the surrounding area. I think very few Saints fans would begrudge an incoming takeover if it meant respite from the constant boardroom squabbling and the loss of a few nearby gas holders!
Whether the unnamed football club is Saints or not, I think all fans will be hoping that there will be an end to uncertainty in the boardroom early this summer so we can actually prepare for the new season properly.
Category: Takeover NewsSaints 3 Sheffield United 2
By: Mike | 1 Comment
Phew! A rollercoaster game to end a rollercoaster season saw Saints survive by the skin of their teeth. Why an extra 10,000 people suddenly felt the club was worth supporting for one day I don’t know but Saints were glad they did at the atmosphere generated was the best since our relegation and roared Saints on for the entire game.
The game started evenly with both sides showing nerves as passes went astray. Saints were just starting to apply some pressure with Andrew Surman prominent when they got caught by a sucker punch. Hulse won the ball on the right and looped a cross over Jermaine Wright for Quinn to head home. United then had their best spell of the game with Richard Wright making a point-blank save to deny Sharp.
With half time approaching Saints knew they needed a goal to only leave themselves a one goal swing away from Leicester who were drawing at Stoke. The goal arrived after good work from Euell down the left and a deflection saw the ball loop over Kenny in the United goal and Saganowski dived in to score. At half-time Saints were down but playing well enough to raise the level of hope among the fans.
Saints started the second half well and were rewarded when Stern John chested a ball down to Saganowski who chipped the ball over the defence back to John who calmly steered the ball home. At 2-1 with Coventry losing and Leicester drawing Saints were safe and Saganowski should have secured the win when put through but he took too long at was tackled before pulling the trigger.
Sheffield substitute John Stead equalised when Jermaine Wright made a meal of a clearance and allowed Quinn to cross for Stead to steer home. The St. Mary’s crowd instantly tried to rally the team and it worked when John made a chance out of nothing on the edge of the area, turning his man and firing home.
Substitutes Lallana and Licka were doing well when John got him self stupidly sent off for a rash tackle following on from an earlier booking when he removed his shirt celebrating his first goal. With 10 minutes remaining it was a case of desperate defending but Richard Wright inspired confidence with some assured handling from the crosses being slung in and Lallana proved a willing runner to give the defence some breathing space.
Eventually (following some confusion) the whistle went and confirmation that Stoke and Charlton had done their parts ensured that Saints would remain in the championship. Today showed that with 32,000 in the stadium and a positive atmosphere every match we really could be pushing for promotion. However their is an EGM looming which will probably see yet more boardroom turmoil and quite possibly another managerial change to go with more turnover of players.
Category: Match ReportsSaints 0 Burnley 1
By: Mike | 1 Comment
If the Bristol City game showed why Saints should be challenging for promotion, then this defeat showed why we’re battling relegation. Since relegation from the premiership I’ve lost count of the number of games which follow the same pattern: Saints dominate possession, opposition defend and hoof, we don’t create any real chances and get caught out from a set piece. There’s a basic lack of power and pace throughout the squad which leaves us far worse off than teams with less technical ability like Burnley.
Saints started quite brightly with Surman joining attacks well from left-back and Licka looking lively cutting in from the flanks. But we failed to create any clear-cut chances with Wright-Phillips looking desperately low on confidence and John starting to look tired after carrying the goal scoring burden for so long. After Surman had a long range effort well saved Burnley broke and Lucketti gave away a soft free-kick. Saint’s marking was poor and only a superb Richard Wright save denied Burnley. However from the resulting corner Saints let Caldwell wander from back post to front completely unmarked allowing him to head the only goal of the game.
Second half Saints continued to dominate without creating; a number of crosses and pull-backs narrowly missed onrushing or backpedalling players betraying a lack of composure in the final third. Saints best chance came when Wright-Phillips steered the ball onto the post from close-range and Euell couldn’t force the rebound home. Jensen in the Burnley goal made two good saves from Idiakez and Safri but the fact that Saints had to resort to shots from outside the area told its own story.
It’s all eyes on the other teams next weekend as Saints don’t play till Monday away at leaders West Brom. Leicester and Wednesday play each other in the biggest game from our point of view, anything but a Leicester win will see us back in the relegation zone but a draw is probably the best result as long as we pick up some points in our last two games. Unlike most sides in this division West Brom actually try to play attacking football so I’d expect Saints to have some joy going forward, however our brittle defence will mean a 3-3 draw is probably the best we can hope for!
Category: Match ReportsCharlton 1 Saints 1
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Saints inched a further point towards safety in an open game against play-off contenders Charlton. Both sides went looking for the win initially and Saints got a bizarre lead when Charlton’s young replacement keeper Randolph dropped a soft Stern John effort on to the back of defender McCarthy’s head and the ball bounced back into the net. From that point onward Saints looked to preserve the lead rather than extend it and Charlton deserved their equaliser through Andy Gray after a free kick from a Jermaine Wright handball.
Like last week against Bristol City, both sides had a number of penalty appeals rejected, this time Saints were probably happier for the referee to turn down all of them. Richard Wright made a superb save from Ambrose shortly after the Charlton goal to earn Saints the point. Leicester’s last minute equaliser against relegated Colchester was a shame but it was still a bad result for them which keeps the foxes 2 points back. Hopefully Plymouth can do us a favour by beating Wednesday and we’ll start against Burnley knowing that 2 wins from 3 games would definitely keep us up.
Category: Match ReportsSaints 2 Bristol City 0
By: Mike | Add Comments
Saints saved their best performance of the season for the visit of league leaders Bristol City and won a vital three points. From the off Saints played a high-tempo direct passing game, playing to the strengths of Stern John and Bradley Wright-Phillips up front, and City couldn’t handle it. Aside from a brief spell after half-time Saints outplayed City and would have won by more if it hadn’t been for some superb stops from Basso in goal and some dodgy refereeing.
The first goal came about shortly before half-time as Jermaine Wright crossed for Euell who twice headed the ball across goal before John volleyed in from a tight angle. Basso made several superb saves, especially from Mario Licka and Wright-Phillips, and Saints were denied a clear penalty when a City defender punched the ball clear from a cross. Eventually Saints clinched the points when Euell stabbed home from yet another save from Wright-Phillips after a superb cross by Licka.
Euell’s strong running and role in both goals probably earnt him the man of the match award but the whole team played well for once. Licka, Idiakez and Safri provide a bit of composure and creativity with Vignal (until going off injured) and Wright getting forward well from the full-back positions to support attacks. Perry and Lucketti did very well to form a new defensive partnership at short notice and contained City with relatively few alarms.
City were poor but credit to Nigel Pearson and the players who showed suprisingly good levels of belief and confidence after recent results. Thanks to some other results going our way we moved up to 19th, although Barnsley and Wednesday still have games in hand. Aside from the earlier result at Wembley the only blot on the day was some trouble after the game where City fans set about some local hoodies at the nearby car dealerships.
Category: Match ReportsEGM called by Wilde and Lowe
By: Mike | 1 Comment
Sheffield Wednesday host Coventry tonight and travel to Scunthorpe this Saturday lunchtime meaning that Saints could easily be 5 points behind Wednesday by kick-off Saturday. If Wednesday pick up more than 2 points then Saints’ nearest rivals will be Barnsley. And they’ll be a point ahead with 2 games in hand if we lose on Saturday! To rub it all in Saints’ opponents are top of the table Bristol City.
So on the field, relegation looms and it’s a disaster. Away from the pitch things are possibly even worse. Today Michael Wilde and Rupert Lowe called for an EGM where most of the current board would be replaced and Wilde and Lowe would regain power. Re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic seems to be what SFC does best at the moment!
Saints have also refused to deny that Arsenal have paid a total of £9.1m for Theo Walcott, rather than the original deal of £5m rising to £12m based on appearances and other clauses. Given that the last financial report by the club referred to “material uncertainty which may cast doubt about the group’s ability to continue as a going concern” it seems likely the money is being used to keep the club afloat while investors are sought but, if true, it cuts off another long-term source of income to the club.
Category: Takeover NewsCardiff 1 Saints 0
By: Mike | Add Comments
On a day when most of the other threatened sides got a result Saints lost tamely to a Cardiff side more pre-occupied with the F.A. Cup. Paul Parry scored the only goal early on from close range and the result seemed inevitable after that with Saints looking clueless in possession. The only way Saints look like scoring at the moment is if Stern John pounces on a loose ball in the area. We have no width, no guile in the middle and no pace.
The result leaves Saints just a point ahead of Sheffield Wednesday who have 2 games in hand, so in real terms we’re in the drop zone. And with only 15 points left to play for, Saints will probably have to beat three out of Bristol City(1), Charlton(11), Burnley(10), West Brom(4) and Sheffield United(13) just to have a fighting chance. Cardiff have shown that we can’t rely on mid-table teams to roll over and let us win, we need to make things happen ourselves.
Category: Match ReportsClaus announces he will retire
By: Mike | 2 Comments
Claus Lundekvam has announced he is about to retire due to injury. It’s sad that such a long serving player should have to bow out in this way but it always looked unlikely that he would be able to return to form and fitness after so long out at 35.
He joined in 1996 and initially looked uncomfortable adjusting to the English game. After a dodgy first season he settled down and became a comfortable ball-playing centre back, decent in the air and with good positional skills. He went on to form two of Saint’s best defensive partnerships; firstly with Dean Richards during Glenn Hoddle’s tenure and secondly with Michael Svennsson under Gordon Strachan.
Both times Claus was the less aggressive member of the duo and as a result was perhaps less celebrated outside of the Saints faithful. In more recent years as injuries have taken their toll it’s become easier to appreciate how good he was at his peak, as well as the importance of half-decent distribution from defence.
Claus probably has some sort of record for the number of managers/chairman he has worked with during his time at Southampton! My favorite memories of Claus at Saints will probably be a combination of the cup final, his partnership with Killer and his adopted Hampshire accent.
Farewell Claus, best of luck in the future and thanks for the past 12 years.
Category: Saints Team News
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