Malcolm Dawson writes...with M. Salut at the pantomime (no not Old Trafford) he has forwarded MON’s post match personal e-mail to me. More of the same I’m afraid, just like the performance! No good the manager taking part in Radio 4’s “Just a Minute” as he regularly commits the cardinal sins of deviation and repetition, whilst his team provides the hesitation. Still here are his words of wisdom…..
Dear Colin,
It was a really spirited performance in the second half.
Coming to Old Trafford can sometimes be daunting and I think we gave a very good side a little bit too much respect early on in the game.
We really improved in the second half and created some very good chances.
Their first goal was a mistake on our part and we probably should have dealt with it better.
At that point it could have got a little bit more frenetic.
We pulled a goal back in the second half and with the chances we had it could have made for a really interesting finish, but we were unable to put them away.
[Stephane] Sessegnon helped us get our goal back but we were unable to reduce the deficit any further, which was naturally disappointing with the chances we had.
We can take a lot of heart from the second-half performance.
There are a lot of big games coming up and they’re going to be important for us.
All the best,
Martin O’Neill
Good afternoon guys, sorry for the late post on this one! I went to the game and was quite optimistic that we could cause United problems. I thought Connor looked useful, strong and composed on the ball. We should have cleared the first and the last goal. The second goal was well worked and a worldy finish so not too much we did wrong.
My main gripe however is the thousands of our fans spending more time singing about the oppositions rivals than encouraging our boys?! I’ve been going to watch our boys for 20 years and I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous and childish. It was bad enough on the last day that instead of giving our boys appreciation for their efforts during a mixed season, we did a stupid celebration that City fans do.. Christ. Can anyone who was involved explain what I’m missing that us doing this at Old Trafford was better support for our team than getting behind the lads?!
Not me.
Puzzled by the radio pundits who seemed to think they were unstoppable and all over SAFC.
Yes, they attacked swiftly and cut through us on occasion but we had as many good chances as them – even in the first half. I think the stats’ will show that.
Reasons to be optimistic (in part caused by enforced changes) :
1. Campbell scoring
2. Wickham looking comfortable and good at holding the ball
3. Heads never dropping despite the opposition/score
Reasons to worry:
1. Fletcher’s injury
2. Defence looking shaky and down to the bare bones
For me, I’d change things up a for Southampton. Give them a surprise tactically.
Back five the same with hopefully Rose in for Bramble.
Then AJ, Gardner, Vaughn, Sess (or McClean)
With Wickham and Fletcher up front. 4-4-2.
Ask McClean/Sess and AJ to get the ball into the box. Tell both our strikers to get into the box as much as possible. Tell AJ Gardner, Vaughn and Sess to run their socks off. Tell Rose to overlap run. Tell them to put a shift-and-a-half in and give them an extra day off to recover.
Why should Bramble be dropped he is the only player who tries to pass the ball out of defence, Cuellar is starting to become a liability and his ricketts are the main reason we concedè, yes bring Rose back and Bardsley if fit but Cuellar needs a rest. Johnson is starting to show he can play but I don’t understand why he is always withdrawn. Saints away will need to give us something. All in all we showed some good things today but we can’t keep gifting goals
I fully expect to see Meyler in midfield for that game.
Meyler…he scores when he wants…for Hull anyway. When he returns, if he gets into the side I fully expect he will be instructed not to cross the halfway line as per our other midfielders.
Wenger brought in Keown in 2006 to coach the deefcne while he was doing his badges.We kept ten consecutive clean sheets in the run to the CL final, with Cygan at CB and Flamini at LB.Why on earth did Wenger stop doing that? Perhaps he doesn’t like being told, as he and only he runs the team. On a totally seperate note, it was reported on ESPN monday night, that in the last 7 years, Arsenal had spent less money (nett) than ANY other Prem team. How long since we won a trophy? Just saying! 12 1
Not really sure what this has to do with this particular thread?!
It should be taken into account that these are probably being written for O’Neill by the same unfortunate person who had to write them for Steve Bruce. It might be nice if the SoL would invest in a Thesaurus. “Disappointing” can said in lots of different ways: depressing, disagreeable, disconcerting, discouraging, disheartening, displeasing, distasteful, failing, falling short, frustrating, inadequate, ineffective, inferior, insufficient, lame, mediocre, unfulfilling, unhappy, uninteresting, unpleasant, unsatisfactory…
– or clueless?