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Oh When The Saints... - jjamez - 25-11-2023

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Come marching into Town, for what really should be a stroll in the park, I for one haven't seen anything from this side under Darren Moore to suggest that we even have hope of laying as much as a finger on them. Or attempt for that matter taking into consideration some of our recent performances. I feel that Moore must really interview well when it comes to jobs, he hasn't shown it in his pre or post match pressers yet but i'll put that down to there being a camera shoved in his face. If this was the best we could do, or what we wanted, then what are we expecting for January? a late christmas miracle?

Our guests have finally got themselves going in the championship this season after an indifferent start, with some saints fans calling for the head of newly appointed Russell Martin. The Saints are unbeaten in 8 games, winning their last 3 games, including Carlos Corberans West Brom, they have also beaten Hull and Leeds in this unbeaten run, two teams that we made look like prime Barcelona. Its fair to suggest that this approach to matches is what is or will switch people off coming to games and once again we shall be in similar position as to what we were back when Chris Powell was manager, that is if we remain in this division, if we go down, then who knows what might happen. It could be a case where people wont want to come to watch as it is a poorer standard, it might be too expensive or some might stick around or come back as we could well start winning more. Although the last two are not guaranteed.

Going back to our visitors, they initially settled fairly well when they came down, beating Sheffield Wednesday on the opening weekend before a high scoring draw against David Wagners Norwich side. They rounded the opening month with wins against Plymouth and QPR. September saw the Saints struggle, a heavy defeat away at Sunderland followed by another heavy defeat against Leicester saw them concede 9 goals in two games. Two more defeats came against Ipswich and Middlesborough and this is when Martin suddenly found himself under scrutiny, mainly as the goals conceded were coming from mistakes at the back from their playing style. Which after watching Swansea last season, is heavily focused on having the ball, keeping the ball and moving it around, starting from the back. Since that defeat against Boro,  the Saints have gone unbeaten and the pressure that was on Martins shoulders seems to have lifted, with a further 3 points expected tomorrow.

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In the summer transfer window, the Saints were quite active, and quite willing to spend some money, even if the only transfer fees went onto two signings, some of the loan deals wont have been cheap. Firstly the free agent market was raided for Joe Lumley from Boro to come as 3rd choice keeper, whilst Ryan Manning followed Martin from Swansea. Loans wise, Taylor Harwood-Bellis joined from Manchester City after impressing in the Championship the season before with Burnley. Former Barnsley academy graduate Mason Holgate joined on loan from Everton, the defender is rumoured to be on nearly £80k pw so i wonder how much Southampton are picking up here? Flynn Downes joined on loan from West Ham, he was at Swansea for a spell but I'm not 100% sure how much of it coincided with Martins time there. The final loanee to join was Ryan Fraser from Newcastle who moved back to the south coast where he played a lot of his career whilst at Bournemouth. The big fees were spent on Ross Stewart from Sunderland, who despite being out with a serious knee injury, Saints saw fit to spend over £9 million on. The final signing was another splurge of cash on a Manchester City youngster, something Saints fans are all too familiar with over the recent seasons, this time Shea Charles joined for £12 million, at the age of 19, this season is his first as a senior professional. Quite a big risk when you think about it, but Saints do like taking educated gambles on players and when you look at the recent past of having the likes of Van Dijk, Mane etc it is something that has worked.

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Leaving St Marys, now this is where the money spent starts to make more sense. Some of the higher earners from when they were in the Premier League left, some on loan like Lycano, Romain Perraud, Paul Onuachu, Duje Caleta-Car and Armel Bella-Kotchap, whilst Theo Walcott and Willy Caballero both retired. Leaving for fees were Mislav Orsic who joined Trabzonspor for £2million, Moussa Djenepo joined Standard Liege for £3million, Mohammed Salisu moved to Monaco for £15million, Nathan Tella joined Bayer Leverkusen for £23million. Now we are talking the mega bucks as James Ward-Prowse moved to West Ham for £34 million, Tino Livramento made the move to Newcastle for £37million and finally Romeo Lavia joined Chelsea for £62 million. Oh to have players worth that much.

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On the performance side of things, Adam Armstrong leads the way for both goals and assists so far this season, with 9 goals and 3 assists. Scottish international Che Adams is joint second with 3 goals along with midfielder Will Smallbone. Creatively Kamaldeen Sulemana is tied with Armstrong on 3 with Adams, Kyle Walker-Peters and Ryan Manning all having 2 so far this season. Compare that to Town who have Helik on 4 goals and Rudoni on 3, with Sorba Thomas having 4 assists, the next best is 1...

Team news for tomorrow sees Town hopefully welcoming back Danny Ward and David Kasumu, whilst no other injuries have been added to the list, we will still be without Rudoni, Turton, Burgzorg and Pat Jones. So this could see us possibly lining up with a few more attacking minded players in the side, we may also see Thomas moved away from wingback, into a position where he can focus more on pushing defenders back. Despite me not really liking the fact that we resigned him, i think Danny Ward coming back could be a big bonus, even if it is just from an experience point of view.

My lineup for tomorrow, considering i cant see Moore ditching the 3 at the back system, would be Nicholls in goal, Pearson, Helik and Lees as a back 3, Ruffles and Kasumu at wingback, with Hogg and Wiles in the centre of midfield, leaving Danny Ward to be flanked by Thomas and Koroma in attack.

As for Southampton, Ross Stewart made an appearance from the bench last time out but it may be a case of gradually building him back up. James Bree featured out of position at left back, and may see Manning replace him. Harwood Bellis and Holgate have been the heart of the Saints defence so far this season and I expect that to continue moving forward.

In regards to ones to watch, obviously Adam Armstrong is first to the plate. The striker has been around for a while it seems and initially struggled to make an impact in his career, maybe due to bouncing around on loan a few times whilst at Newcastle. He finally made his mark and got a move to the south coast, where he has found a happy knack of scoring goals. One of the Armstrongs captained the side last time out, but I'd imagine that was Stuart, the Scottish international. He had a good loan early in his career at Coventry which showed his goal scoring prowess, but it wasnt until he moved to Blackburn that he caught the eye of Premier League clubs.

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Another to look out for is Kyle Walker-Peters. The Londoner started his career at Tottenham and featured sporadically for them, but often found himself down the pecking order. He joined Southampton in 2020, originally on loan before moving permanently. He had a half decent first season but soon found competition for places from Livramento, resulting in him moving to left back on occasion. During the relegation season he looked out of sorts, but since dropping down to the Championship he has started to look the part, with his pace causing teams trouble down the right hand side.



If you are interested in what Russell Martin said, he mentions something about Moore having what it takes to turn it around. Not sure what else he's said, but ill find a link and Bob it below. Not that it'll be all that interesting. Probably be more about how he won't be on the touchline tomorrow after picking up three yellow cards this season, and will be watching from the stands.

https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/match-pack-huddersfield-vs-saints

Our head to head record against Southampton isn't too great, we haven't picked up a win against the saints since 2010, that being said, we haven't played them too much during either sides history. We have had a few draws against them of recent, mainly when we have met in the Premier League.

Played for both...

1- Giant goalkeeper Scott Bevan had a loan spell at town when we got relegated under Mick Wadsworth, he was useless and went on to have a pretty nondescript career.  [Image: scott-bevan-of-huddersfield-town.jpg?s=6...A_W7A1rmI=]

2- Jason Puncheon. He's number two and that's all he's getting

3- Oscar Gobern. The lanky midfielder began his career at Southampton before making the move to town for nearly a million through a tribunal. The midfield had moments of promise but really his main claim to fame is at saints when he got a straight red for a karate challenge.  [Image: cup-oscar-gobern-huddersfield-town_31780...0725150243]

4- Neal Trotman. Old 50p head, he went on loan to Southampton the season before he came on loan to town. He played 21 times for town and was a bit hit and miss really, we've had a lot better but we've had a lot worse. He ended up as a lower league defender for all his career but will have made a decent living from it.

5- Adam Hammill. The winger had his first real taste of English football on loan at Southampton where he featured 25 times for the saints. He joined town on loan from wolves and impressed in a 16 game stint, leading to town signing him on a permanent deal. His time at town saw him being the mercurial player capable of moments of magic but his off field problems would sometimes catch up with him, his confrontation with a paramedic being one of them. His spell at Barnsley was where he featured heavily and put his past behind him.  [Image: JH240813Atown-40.jpg]

6- Chris Lucketti. The centre half joined town from bury and was a key member of the town backline before leaving to join Preston. He joined Southampton on loan from Sheffield united but only played four games. He rejoined town when Stan ternant was manager and was for want of a better word, awful. He's now assistant manager at Bradford.

7- Martin Craine. The versatile defender was signed for town by Chris Powell, but became a key squad member for David Wagner, operating in multiple positions. He began his career at Southampton and made a handful of appearances but made his name at Coventry and Barnsley whom he played for before moving to town. After leaving town he went on to play at Middlesbrough, sheffield united and Luton.  [Image: JS131282697.jpg]

8- Scott McDonald. The attacking midfield began his career in Australia and made the move to Southampton, he made two appearances before coming on loan to town. Another who didn't amount to much, but he did go on to have a good career in Scotland and later Middlesbrough.

9- Chris Marsden. Played over 100 games for town and Southampton. Captained Southampton in the fa cup final against arsenal. His time at town came a bit before me so I can't tell you much about him.  [Image: 0e1e6415abc9155db0f65791afa20eb4.jpg]

RE: Oh When The Saints... - theo_luddite - 25-11-2023

Is Snoots having another walk round Shibden Park? Not even promoted your excellent thread yet jjamez. Angry

The bad news: Lee Nicholls (neck), Josh Ruffels (groin), Ben Wiles (hamstring), Kyle Hudlin (groin) and Danny Ward (illness) all miss out this afternoon. That means Chris Maxwell gets his first Championship start for the club, and only seven subs are named.

Good news: David Kasumu and Josh Koroma are both back in the starting line-up, with Delano Burgzorg back among the subs.

Chris Marsden was a wonderful midfielder jjamez, who looked older than he was due to his solar panel hair style. He had a thin thatch from an early age. Of course, Town being Town we let Saints have him for a relative snip but he had many a good season for them too.

RE: Oh When The Saints... - Lord Snooty - 25-11-2023

Been at work since 6, theo. Was in bed for 9. Only just seen it posted now.

RE: Oh When The Saints... - theo_luddite - 25-11-2023

Just thought I'd give you a nudge Laugh
jjamez was burning the midnight oil it seems.

RE: Oh When The Saints... - Lord Snooty - 25-11-2023

Still no Danny Ward then. He was back in training before the Hull game. What's happened there then?
He's ill apparently.

RE: Oh When The Saints... - jjamez - 25-11-2023

Well it definitely wasn't ten past one when I posted it! It was quite late when I did though, long week at work coupled with a race night meant I did a lot of this week's in a pub!

Not gone today been to an Xmas market and couldn't be bothered having an argument again because I wanted to leave early to go to football! Neither are worth it!

RE: Oh When The Saints... - Lord Snooty - 25-11-2023

Absolutely appalling!

RE: Oh When The Saints... - theo_luddite - 25-11-2023

We have at least crossed the halfway line but we lose the plot shortly after

RE: Oh When The Saints... - theo_luddite - 25-11-2023

2nd half was more like it. Yes we fluked the goal but it was always looking like we'd need one off someone's backside or similar. Had Thomas's header gone in earlier we could have nicked it.

RE: Oh When The Saints... - WakeyTerrier - 26-11-2023

It’s an improvement on previous performances and as a whole I thought we defended quite well, second half was much better but once again it shows we badly need a centre forward. Nothing else really to add that’s not been said before