UP FOR THE CUP AGAIN.....

Gallagher is out on loan?

Crazy decision for me, we only have Gabbi, Long and Austin as strikers and need some variety, no more so than tonight.

Short report as we were dire, no effort, no character, ponderous going forward, no cutting edge, ineffective in midfield.

Went 3 at the back which seems an odd game to do when at home as we didn't use the extra player up front. Then had Bedenek in the middle where you would have thought Yoshida would have been but guess he cant kick with his left foot so might ask why do it! Could work with good wing backs, Bertrand and Cedric but while McQueen did a good job getting forward Pied was totally ineffective.

Tadic again started, played all 90 minutes and ineffective again, missed our best chance when easier to score, he must have photos of Les Reed in compromising position. Ward Prowse played in the middle and had a terrible game, cannot tackle and poor passing, he will go back this season if not careful. Boufal tried first half second disappeared but again played out wide.

Made subs far to late to have any impact. think 65 minute is earliest sub so far, Gabbi and Long brought on with about 10 minutes left

Forster 5/6 not great probably should have come for the corner for first goal, bit exposed for second.
Stephens 5 not great and really slow bringing the ball out
Bedenek 5 don't expect to see much of him this season, well off the pace, hope not another Gardos.
Yoshida 6 decent blocks but again not strong in the air
Romeau 5 poor game, didn't work with JWP alongside him
Boufal 6 frustrating but does try, made 3 good through balls for McQueen first half and at least made goalie make a save
Ward Prowse 4 really poor, thought he would have wanted to make impression but was the wrong one.
Pied 4 hardly got forward, seems to get a nose bleed near opponents penalty area.
McQueen 7 only bright spot best player on the night got forward well, plenty of crosses also got back well to cover.
Tadic 4 such a selfish player poor all night typical went down off the pitch near the end when we are chasing the game rolling around in agony, hardly touched. All he achieved was running the clock down as ref told him to get up, Play should have gone on as off the pitch ref useless.
Austin 5, didn't get a shot on goal but service was dreadful

Subs

Redmond 4 did nothing when he came on other than give away needless fouls and lose the ball
Gabbadini & Long not long enough to make an impression.

I appreciate early days but I am worried Pellegerino is out of his depth. Tactically seems negative, still only 1 up front in 3 home games. Reluctant to bring on subs and change it, unable to fire up players who should be staking a claim for first team, thinks Austin and Gabba are to similar to play together.

Lemina and Hoote will be critical, new faces and hopefully quality to inspire the others but in Tadic and Redmond think we have a major problem as they are both selfish, but also not that good. If you are selfish and score lots of goals like Ronaldo it doesn't matter, I think these two bring the rest of the team down.

Thanks Matty, must have been tough enduring that!

They will need to improve dramatically to get a result on Saturday..... Huddersfield are going to be well up for it, could see us losing by quite a few, maybe 4-0!

Any chance that someone could offer a quality playmaker and keeper in exchange for VVD? I think I'd be happy with that at the moment......

Faark ! A poor result.

That's putting it mildly Pete......I am sure Claude has a big grin on his face at the moment

Just as well Puel doesn't use twitter, could see a pic of him leading out saints at Wembley with a thumbs up!

First priority must be the League position...... but it's important Saints do well in this game.....another defeat would have an even worse effect on confidence.

I am sure Fulham must really fancy their chances of getting through.....and they are on a roll at the moment. 3 wins and a draw in their last 4 Championship games, scoring 12 goals.

Fulham win, will at least put pressure on Reed and Kruger to get off their fat a****s and sack MP while there is a faint hope of doing something.

Hope to see Sims, Targett, McQueen all start, ideally someone else at RB than Pied, no Tadic or Redmond and at least would be a team that might battle.

well a win and in the draw for the next round but far from convincing and very similar to recent games. Decent first half performance, then a half time talk by MP leading to a negative sit deep second half performance that against a better team than Fulham would have seen us lose.

Positives were
We scored a goal
Hojberg and Romeau had strong games yet again
2 clean sheets out of 3 for McCarthy so some confidence for him.
In the 4th round
Bedanek wasn't as bad as he was earlier in the season
4700 saints fans there so support still strong

Negatives
Again we failed to take our chances
Clueless substitutions again, with Redmond on for Boufal and stuck on left wing, Hojberg playing well taken off (to a chorus of "You don't know what you're doing") Long shattered left on far to long, think he went down with cramp to force Perigrino's hand.
Davis started while Lemina warmed the bench.
Stuck with just 1 up front up accept we were playing the mighty Fulham.
Probably keeps Pellegrino in the job for a few more weeks.

First half Ward Prowse should have done better with a decent opportunity but dragged his shot wide then scored when ball richoted in the box to fall kindly for him but at least he made himself available. Boufal got down the byline and hit a low hard cross that the goalie partly saved but looped up to the far post but we had no one there. Second half Hojberg was unlucky having started a run took the return in the box but a bit to close to goalie who saved well. From the corner kick Stephens had an open goal from 6 yards out but hit the bar then Gabbadini had a great chance set up by a back heel by Lemina but blasted sky high, not really surprising in view of his lack of game time.

McCarthy didn't have a lot to do, he came for a cross and dropped it with the shot going well over but at least he came off his line. Bedanek had a few scary occasions due to his positioning but was playing at RB and he actually did win some headers in the air, should have been loaned to a championship side to get proper match experience but did show signs of improvement

McCarthy 6 one fumble but okay and his kicking is much better than Forster and also throws the ball out
Bedanek 6 better than what I was expecting
Yoshida 6 typical Yoshida some good blocks along with some weak defending
Stephens 6 quite solid most of the time, missed an easy chance
Bertrand 6 always comfortable in the game no mistakes, one free kick shot over the bar
Davis 5 works hard but did give the ball away quite a bit
Romeau 7 tireless throughout and back to his best
Hojberg 7 another good game does occasionally give the ball away but that is because he tries to get forward
Ward Prowse 6 Solid game, glad he scored from open play hopefully start of more
Boufal 6 did try to do something but at times doesn't want to track back , really a team player and needs to start adding goals
Long 6 cannot fault his effort ran himself into the ground, should have been subbed much earlier but MP just doesn't see what is in front of him.

Subs
Redmond 5 pretty useless when he came on, but stuck out on left wing when he is right footed
Lemina 6 won some decent headers which is what he brings us defensively, why he should play instead of Davis
Gabbadini 5 missed a great chance but as MP has shown no faith in him can understand why.

Thanks Matty. A good report.

Thanks again Matty

Saints to yet again face a club with a new manager, does this always happen??

A decent cup run would make a happier end to the season..... provided it does not take the team's concentration from the all-important League position. Think I want to see Saints beat Watford, as anything less could see the team's confidence take another battering.

I am not going to this one though my son is. Not sure what to make of it, will need to rest a few for Brighton game on Wednesday which is a much more important game. Would expect Gabbadini to start plus Davis and Boufal. Chance for McQueen to get a game and Sims if fit.

hard to predict the result, we should have beaten them comfortably the other week but we struggle against physical sides and no doubt they will want to impress the new manager. Won't be much in it 1 goal either way, draw would not be good

Well a win and a clean sheet so should be happy though son was frustrated that again MP nearly blew it, took off Boufal who was playing well and replaced by Yoshida, with 10 minutes to go can sort of understand but was after 60 minutes and apparently Boufal not a happy bunny. Again should have started Gabbadinbi having at last got a game but no brings back in Long, who we could have kept fresh for Brighton.

Well, get through against West Brom and it's the last eight. I suppose it's just possible Grino could follow in Puel's footsteps and get Saints to a Cup Final. I see you can currently get odds between 25/1 and 33/1 for Saints to win the thing.

To many top sides left in for us to get to final so I am hoping we get hammered and maybe, just maybe Pellegrino gets sacked. Would have to be a hammering, if we lose by a couple will get the usual rubbish, that improving getting there, need to be more courageous. The last one, players have to show more courage which he made this week has to be one of the funniest things he has said so far. Never played more than 1 up front since he has been here even when at home, brings on Steven Davis when we are losing. negative tactics, be interesting to see how the players react to that dig at them.

Well slightly disappointing we won!

As predicted an away tie to Man City the "reward" unless Wigan pull off a shock so will mean another game, distraction from the real prize, premiership survival and an illusion we have a manager that know what he is doing.

Same as normal from what I saw on MOTD, decent first half then ease of let the other side take control and in the end down to McCarthy we won.

At least McCarthy was a bright spot with some decent saves. Tadic scored then gave the ball away in midfield for their goal and did the same later for another chance. Mr Courageous went with 1 up front again having said Gabbadini needs more game time!!!!

Looks like FA Cup semis will be Man City, Man U, Chelsea and Tottenham the romance of the cup, I wont be watching any of them and while the FA will be delighted if that pans out because of the TV rights, genuine fans will lose even more interest in the tournament and then they will moan when they have low attendances

Typical Wigan win so we now have a distraction as the players and manager start dreaming of Wembley, just when we needed to focus on the league games and give their all in every game. Blimey that could be interesting if Tadic plays with even greater fear of being tackled!

Think it could work either way.....a distraction as you say.....or just possibly fire them up to try to do better all round

Ever the optimist Mike!

Yep, that's me..... glass always half full, sounds better than burying my head in the sand!!

Still, not going to get excited about the cup, think we will lose to Wigan. And even if we get through and reach the final, we are sure to have to face Man United there, as usual.

Well, it should be interesting to see if MH manages to give the players any will to win.....what his team selection is..... how many strikers he plays.

Suspect this game will be a bit or an experiment by Hughes and wouldn't be surprised to see only a couple of changes. Pretty sure Gabbadini will start but think could still be with Redmond and Tadic as he will probably be guided by those at the club such as Kelvin, though hopefully he will have worked out in his couple of days Tadic left, Redmond right side. While I know many are thinking of a trip to Wembley I am not that fussed to be honest. It really will be a chance for him to see what the players can do work wise.

I think with fired up players wanting to put on a show we might sneak this one by the odd goal, 1 - 2, would be good for morale though W Ham away far more important

well managed to get through, from watching first half we were quite poor though did see a comment from someone there that paying against the wind and freezing first half. Second seemed to move up a gear which suggests a good half time talk, though also a Hughes trademark, keep it tight first half then be a bit more adventurous second.

At least he will have seen his players in action for the first time and now has a couple of weeks to work with the players, doubt many will be away due to internationals, Yoshida has an injury, Long only just back from one so probably Bertrand and Lemina away?

Stoke fans were moaning about Hughes playing 2 up front, something he wasn't willing to do at Stoke, sounds like Pellegrino!

Chelsea at Wembley, will be tough but they didn't look that great yesterday against Leicester so not impossible.

I get the feeling that Sunday's game will be one of Saints' most luke-warm semi-finals ever. Whatever happens it's still the League that counts.