CACK

End of story.

-- Anonymous, May 01, 2001

Answers

We are a coward team afraid of playing with high pressure. We'll have to do something prior the match on Saturday- or else we're gettin' stuffed badly. These results are affecting my mood badly.

-- Anonymous, May 01, 2001

If it's not Le tissier it's fuckin' pahars. Southampton have taken more points of us than any other club. We now move onto to play two of the top three teams both of which are fighting for a champions league place. My prediction is we will be lucky to out of anfield and our own place against arsenal with mild beatings. How far we have fallen, its a pigging disgrace to see 50000 turn out week in week out for what amounts to a mediocre division one team. Still it could be worse, could be one of them.

-- Anonymous, May 01, 2001

More reason to buy Pahars. So he can score FOR us.

-- Anonymous, May 01, 2001

We didn't travel down as I was busy during the day and couldn't guarantee getting in down in time and missing some of the game.

We were hopeless. I came close to switching off, if it had been any other side I would have done. Us having one shot in the second half summed it up perfectly.

Defence played okay until the last 15 minutes when they started to succumb to the Sky commentary and become nervous, and then Quinn just started to be unable to cope with Davies.

The midfield was non-existent. I expect to see a few people on here having a go at Lua Lua for wasting a few opportunities. This is true, he did, but he was the only one who tried anything all night. The rest of the midfield was an absolute disgrace and if a 20 year old kid on the wing is deserving of criticism then his international midfield teammates should be instantly put on a final warning before they are dismissed/sold. Apparently Speed and Acuna do a lot of work off the ball. Lats night they must have done a shed load of work off the ball cos they never did anything with it. Acuna kept being on the wrong side of the tackle, Speed was non-existent, and as for his booking, I despair. Speed has taken on the Batty (sic) persona of his last season with us where he blames everyone else, and particularly the ref for him being crap in a situation he doesn't like. The guy has got to go. Acuna is busy and committed but that's it. Bassedas is asked to play everywhere, he's been here a year and we haven't a clue where his best position is.

Up front they laboured. Cort can't control the ball when it has been hit 50 yards to him, but has nice fast feet when he does get it. Gallacher runs around and is infectiously enthusiastic but nothing really comes from him. He took his goal well.

I think this was more depressing than Charlton. At Charlton we could be angry at Marcelino and Solano. Last night there wasn't even the opportunity to be angry at an individual (although you can tell I wasn't in love with Speed). We were just clueless, pasionless, useless. Sad.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

I agree the match was drivel - we were the poorer of two bad teams.

I did think there were a couple of good points to come out of it though. I thought Bassedas had a good game overall. Some beautiful control and nice through balls.

I was complaining, like Macbeth, about Cort's inability to control a ball, then he started proving me wrong with some nice traps, turns and some great little through balls. I made him and Bassedas our best outfield players on the night.

It just isn't quite working for Lua-Lua but I hope he doesn't stop trying what he's doing. He never stopped working and I'm sure there's better to come from him. It was a pretty poor showing in Midfield though and I don't believe we can play Speed and Acuna together - at least not if they play like last night, particularly second half.

Console yourselves with the thought that five or 6 of those players aren't Bobby's first choice (I hope) and next season the team will look very different. It may have been a different story if Glass could have played or Solano had been available. We played with no width whatsoever and our fullbacks were exposed far too often.

I didn't understand the Hughes substitution. It looked like Bobby had conceded we couldn't win it and wanted to hold what we had. I'd also have liked Ameobi to have come on about 15 minutes sooner.

One last thought. We desperately need a defender or two who can play a bit. A Campbell or a Ferdinand. We seem to have a raft of players who can either defend or attack, but not both (I hope Griffin will be the exception) - or am I being to harsh? Is it the lack or wing cover from the midfield that makes our defence look so vunerable, and our one outlet the 'hit and hope' high ball?

I'm not looking forward to Liverpool - we need another Bobby miracle to get a result at Anfield.

Oh well - roll on next season.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

AND

if the other dubious method of getting into Europe is through the Fair Play League then well done Gary on getting yourself booked, again, for arguing.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

To be honest, I thought we played OK in the first half and Soton weren't in the game. But in the second - it was the worst performance I've been to in a long time. Midfield were clueless, tho I had Acuna as the best of a bad bunch. He made some very good challenges. Nobody else in m/f seemed to think it was important to get to the ball first.

However, my biggest complaint comes for the manager. Just WTF did he think he was doing leaving the substitutions so late? Barton should have been off much earlier to be replaced by Hughes. If that had been done in time, the defence would have had more organisation and perhaps Quinn could have kept his composure. I'd have taken Lua x2 off. IMHO, he has to undertand that very often the simple ball is the most effective. Fer Crissakes, he's not in the bliddy circus. I;d have brought Shola on in his place and dropped Gallacher back to wide right.

Sadly, just found out I've got a ticket for Anfield on Saturday. We'll get tonked. We're cr@p and Liverpool are going to try to relieve LR of £100. Men against boys.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

Forgot to say - that was the first goal Soton have scored since Hoddles departure. They could (and should) have had a hatful. Bah, humbug. :-(

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

Not sure what Sky showed, but Luax2 was left in acres of space for most of the game but after a first 20mins in which he gave the ball away with consumate ease they all simply avoided passing down his side. Given literally turned his head away whenever he had the ball and hoofed it up to Bassedas who challenges for these by bending his legs and crouching. The most dispiriting thing was that in every single 50/50 situation the NUFC "players" would challenge by conceding the ball but "masking" the Sotton player. This meant that every time a ball was going spare we had one of them with his back to our goal looking to lay it off to whichever of his teammates wanted it. Pathetic.

Our passing is an utter disgrace. Every ball weighted to reach exactly where the other player is standing. They don't even consider moving. Half the balls out to the flanks were made even less effective by the "wide" players angling away from the ball which meant that crap, telegraphed passes take even longer to reach them. Got caught out so many times it was painful.

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!! Tossers.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

This isn't a defence of Lua Lua, but of anyone who would have had to try and play positvely in our midifled last night.

Lua Lua didn't have the option of playing the easy ball cos there was no bugger any where near him in support. Barton's just crap, but how many times did Speed (and others) play the ball just behind Lua Lua so he had to make his first movement backwards. Then when he gets the ball the passing player hasn't moved into a position to give him an option but instead gone to do some 'work off the ball'.

Keegan's tactically niaive side passed the ball, moved into a position to receive it back, passed the ball ..... We ALWAYS had a spare player, nearly always two. Someone like Lua Lua, or Glass, would benefit hugely from actually having options other than just taking on the full back. When Soton got the ball towards the end last night Davies was supported, he could either pass back, sideways or take the full back on. Aaaargggghhhh

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

no I've remembered about it .....

how come Acuna ended up as last man so many times last night ?

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

Lua Lua, so shit they named him twice. Sorry, I don't buy into 'at least he tried'. He was awful. Look up 'hapless' in the Collins Football Dictionary and there'll be Lumano's clueless fizzog staring back at you. His mazy runs are the product not of confidence and but of panic. He thinks at Div 2 pace and holds onto the ball because he can't figure out anything else to do with it quickly enough. He did several embarrassing things under less than extreme pressure and for me that performance earns its place in the all-time Hall of Sucking Big Logs alongside Jim Pearson, Tony Cunningham mid-period Barton at al. One day, one of these runs will come off. There'll be goal at the end of it and everyone will say he's made the breakthrough. But he won't have. He'll still be totally inadequate.
Speaking of Barton,it's nice to see the pinpoint accuracy of his 50- yard backpasses to Given. This is obviously something Dick Wadsworth works on in training. Speaking of training, here's an idea. Why not play a game in training where a)you're not allowed to pass the ball more than 20 yards and b) YOU'RE NEVER ALLOWED TO FACE YOUR OWN GOAL. I'm sick of talking about movement. There was one moment in the first half - I think it's at around 34:20 if you'd like to consult your videos, assuming you haven;t already taped the Open University over the match as it's more entertaining - where a player made a good run with the ball through the middle. He three teammates ahead of him. One to either side who jogged along watching him and one in front who made a sideways run in front of the d. Useless. Not one option for the guy with the ball. None of them facing Southampton's goal, making a run into space.
It was indeed worse than Charlton, because Charlton are a good side at home. Southampton, on the other hand, are one of Earth's biggest pieces of shit and we made them look decent. I was glad they equalised, because I feared that if we won a) the crowd would have instinctively cheered them off instead of booing the sorry fuckers as they deserved and b) the players/staff might actually have believed they had done something right to get the result.
These players have learned nothing. We are a bad, technically inadequate team to start with, but it appears that incompetent coaching is hampering any chance of improving these players into at least Div 1 material. From Steph's reports it appears that training lacks any sophistication or attempts to improve players' tactical awareness or technical ability. Two hours of listless keep-fit is not going to transform a bunch of mediocre journeymen - I was desperate for LLL to be taken off last night, but dreading him being replaced by Cordone - into European challengers.
One redeeming feature last night - Cort. He looked a class above his teammates, which is a damning indictment in itself. Here was the true meaning of 'working hard'. Not just running around a lot, but running around, winning the ball (up front, wide left, in his own area) and then short-passing it to a teammate and running off.
Spend wisely, old man.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

Looking on the positive side, 'them up there' now can have absolutely no illusions of building a team around more than one or two at most of the bunch of deadbeats on show last night.

I thought my centuries of watching crap mag sides would help me take a more detached view of last night's atrocity. Not so. That ranks with, and possibly excedes, the worst I've ever seen a team in black and white play.

Who the feck do they think they're trying to kid ? Or have we collectively committed some hideously heinous sin that deserves this kind of punishment ?

We must be crackers. Sorry folks, the more I think about it, the more p1ssed off I feel, and there are even little glimmers of 'why the feck should I fork out 500 quid again for something that might be completely different but nothing's changed ?'

Softie summed it up exactly - Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!! Tossers.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

Yep, cack.
Acuna - a lot of hustle nad bustle to no real effect
Speed - missing in action
Bassedas - intimidated and overwhelmed in second half
Quinn - lacks pace, skinned by Davies.
Centre of defence looked disorganized
LuaLua - he tried hard. I am suspending judgement on him until he gets support. I don't mind his failed tricks and running up blind alleys, leastways better than watching mindless hoofs(?) upfield
Cort - best player on view for N'cle - his footwork was at times excellent.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

I notice that no-one is slagging off Barton who I thought was REALLY shit....he doesn't even get close to his man for a tackle and some of the balls he played upfield were disgraceful! the day he stops playing for us then I'll be happier...

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

Dan's eloquent rampage through the misery of last night pretty much sums up my own feelings. Luax2 should never pull on a black and white shirt again. Taking people on and 'having a go' is one thing. I could do that. And probably make a better job of it too. But I fail to see any redeeming features of his game last night. Missing the target from 4 yards says it all. As does losing the ball every single f**king time. As does his inability to pass the ball to someone wearing the same colours. £2.25m, eh? Colchester must be laughing themselves daft.

However, he was but one of 11 on the pitch and the others need to stand up and take their medicine too. Speed, Acuna, Bassedas...never noticed the f**kers at all - accept when Badd-ass got stood on. Or Speed get himself booked for shouting on at the ref ('cos they always change their minds when you shout at them).

Will the season please end now.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

Gallagher is the only one that moves

That was my positive comment. I don't have time to type in the negative stuff

0-0 would have flattered both teams :-((

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

I get the impression we're all a tad upset today! :o))

Of the team who played yesterday, who would be in next season's first 11? For me I'd go for Given, Bassedas, Acuna (MAYBE) and Cort and also MAYBE Dabs.

Of those missing yesterday I'd have a place for Griffin, Shearer (sometimes) and either Dyer or Solano but not both. We still need 4 or 5 players to complete our first 11, mainly at the back.

I hope that Sikora is a left winger (if it's true he's coming) because I don't think we need too many more forwards. I'd rather continue to develop Ameobi, LuaLua, Chopra et al.

I can't believe Bobby doesn't see this. Have a little faith.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

>>how come Acuna ended up as last man so many times last night ?

I noticed that as well. Thought he was one of the better players in the first half. Somebody tape Gary Speed's gob shut - how many cards has he picked up for moaning at the ref? Who was also bliddy awful!

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

Don't want to attack someone for tracking back, but when a combatative midfielder only appears when he makes last ditch challenges in our area, you have to question why they can't be tried a little further up the pitch, say around the middle of the park for instance. That way we could try using the interception as a starting point for pressure on their defenders.

It smacks of the mackems getting all excited about Varga with those two goal-line clearances at the start of the season: some might prefer a centre half who stops his man getting a shot in. With both Varga and Acuna last night it's like those guys in hospitals who inject patients to send them into cardiac arrest and then "miraculously" arrive with the life-saving equipment in the nick of time: they get jailed for that you know.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

A colleague works at SJP and told us a fascinating little snippet from last night. Mrs Robson called a steward to her box to pass a message to Bobby at half-time. She wanted him to know that if he wanted to get a haircut he would have to leave the ground early since his brother (who cuts his hair) was going to have to be away back down to Darlington by 11.00.

So, the source of the troubled expression on the after-match interview is revealed. Trying times at SJP, so many decisions to make, so little time to play with…

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

Embarrassing & crushing disapointment, how do these people live with themselves. It's time to look to the manager to get it sorted, nothing to play for? what about PRIDE, my coat was zipped up on the way home last night.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

Utter shite. No other word for it. Acuna and O'Brien are the only players to emerge with any credit at all. Dabs and Barton stood out for resuming their traditional panic-stricken, rabbits caught in headlights crapness after a spell of relative glory. Cort's first touch is about as good as mine and Lua Lua was shocking. Why weren't the subs brought on earlier and what was the f....g point of bringing Aaron on at 86 mins (despite the fact that none of the subs had been warming upfor the past half an hour). Honestly, the football really gets in the way of a happy, fulfilling life. Were we Man United supporters in a previous life?

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

We brought subs on to wind the clock down, sadly.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

Random selection of greetings to Buff today after last night from a x selection of Rangers, Celtic, Hearts, Aberdeen. Hartlepool supporters,

(a) And they knock Scottish football!!!, I don`t, remember pre-season

(b) Did you watch that shite last night, 50,000 , the mind boggles.

(c) Any other manager than Robson and the Geordies would want blood.

(d) Need to clear the whole lot out apart from the keeper and Dyer.

(e) Nothing to play for , that`s crap , 50,000 nothing to play for!!

(f) 7 mill for Cort, nae first touch, canna heed the baa,

(g) That blondie full back, Barton is that his name, mocking laughter

(i) Whose that Lua guy ?, reply 2.5 mill , shaking of head .

(j) Need a new midfield Buff, that lot are pathetic , just nothing,

(k) Surely the supporters have had enough, watching that rubbish.

* Could go on all day on the negative side, nah , from previous comments I would like to pick two out which in my view go a long way to indicating the depths we have arrived at, -; "Good job we did not win 1-0 or the staff and players will have thought they had done the biz," then Softiecame out with one very close to my way of thinking when he compared the initial adulation from the Mackems to Stan the Man Varga and a Newcastle player. A posting from myself about 8 months ago `Instant Heros` covered this when I felt that we were too quick to elevate a new player to cult status and as supporters were easily pleased. Being easily pleased plays right into the hands of board ,staff and players. they then take a loan of you , got to be a way to keep em edgy.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

There is Buff, and it won't take much more of the kak they dished up last night for me to go back to being an admirer from afar - it'll be a bliddy sight cheaper.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

>>> being an admirer from afar <<<

Nah Pot Belly. At your age, your heart and lungs would never get you up to tier 7. And even if they carried you, your eyesight isn't good enough. Hmmm - on second thoughts, see if there's a spare seat up there for me too.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001