The away game against Hull City earlier on this season was one of the more pivotal games that Saints have had so far. To refresh your memory, Saints, managed by Will Still, were abominably shit and got beaten 3-1, which was a scoreline that flattered us given that our consalation goal was scored in the 95th minute. We didn’t compete, we reacted badly to the first bit of adversity and we basically had a shocker. That game was the beginning of the end of Will Still, and things that happened between that game and the one after eventually brought in the night of the long knives as far as our first inexperienced manager of the season was concerned. Before the next game, THB, Jack Stephens and Gavin Bazunu had all been bombed out and it seemed that there was some sort of mini revolt not long afterwards and Will didn’t last much longer as the results continued to be crap.

The main problem that game was defensively where we allowed their rough-house striker Ollie McBurnie, signed on a free in the summer by the way, to win every header by not actually competing with him. THB tried to be fair, but having made a couple of mistakes, then fell to bits. It wasn’t just McBurnie winning headers however – the first goal was down to little tiny Joe Gelhart winning a header which Baz could’ve parried anywhere but of course he parried it into the middle and into the path of a Hull player to knock it into the net.

Gavin has a course been in the news this week because he’s gone out on loan to Stoke for the rest of the season. Stoke goalkeeper this season Viktor Johanssen, is statistically top of the expected saves table and Gavin is, as you’d expect, virtually last, as he has been in all three seasons where he’s been our first choice goalkeeper. I’ve been very vocal about Baz’ weaknesses this season in particular, namely his ability to dive and not go anywhere, his ability to move late, his lack of command of the penalty area and a quick look at some of the goals he’s conceded this season paints its own picture for anyone with a pair of eyes. Yes there have been catastrophes going on in front of him but there have been so many goals apart from the obvious howlers, where you think he could’ve done better. The angled shots into the far corner or sometimes not even into the corner, seem to be a particular weakness and in the Championship, the lack of command of a 6 yard box is a huge problem, exacerbated by defenders not feeling confident in him and dropping back towards their own goal, which of course brings all the forwards further towards the goal as well. So the weaknesses are there but what’s the mitigation and I find myself asking why he has got no better in the three and a half years he’s been here.

The mitigation for me is the fact that when we signed him, it was in the first Sports Republic transfer window and it’s not his fault he got pitched straight into the Premier League in a struggling team at 20 years old. When you are a first team player at 20, the temptation is to think that this player is ready and everything will be plain sailing from here on in. Not the case because when you are young, you need your support network from the club including and especially good coaching. Have Saints given Gavin the environment and the platform to fulfil his potential over the last three and a half years? I would almost certainly say not. I’d love to know how many different goalkeeping coaches he’s had in that time, bearing in mind he has had EIGHT different managers. Hard to believe but Ralph Hasenhuttl was the manager when he came in and since then we’ve had Jones, Selles, Martin, Juric, Rusk, Still and Eckert.

Daniel Peretz has clearly been promised that he is the first choice goalkeeper this season and McCarthy as always is an able backup, so it makes sense for all parties, except possibly Stoke, for Gavin to move on. Stoke must hope that they can unlock some of this potential over the rest of this season and also that he doesn’t derail their promotion challenge. There’s probably a goalkeeper in there somewhere. Remember, before his injury, Gavin was first choice for the Republic of Ireland ahead of the very highly rated Caoimhin Kelleher.

Back to today and apparently, Hull have a load of players missing through injuries which is all well and good, but that has not stopped ayone against us recently. Disappointingly, the players who did well up at Doncaster like Matsuki and Welington have not been rewarded and so it’s back to the usual for Tonda – three centre backs with Wood coming back in. Manning is also back and so it Azaz. I expect they’ve been amazing in training.

Away we go with a lack of optimism but we start ok and Azaz slides a ball down the sie and Armstrong needs to hit it first time and doesn;t and the chance disappears as the ball runs away from him. Hull have a big guy in midfield called Crooks and he’s on the rampage as Jander, Downes and Manning all take it in turns to bounce off him. McBurnie is pulling onto Josh Q and Wood and we look a bit uneasy any time Hull get near our goal.

The first big chance is not long in coming as a cross comes in from manning’s side as per usual and though we have an extra centre back today, they are all under the ball and Millar comes in off the left, leaving the non-defending Fellows in his wake and gets in a good downward header which forces Peretz to get down low to his left to claw out. Good save.

We should take the lead when Fellows get in a good cross to the back stick and Scienza gets in a powerful downward header which hits the keeper and plops out to Azaz wheo can;t sort his feet out to shoot but does feed it back to Jander, whose weak effort is blocked out to Azaz and he shanks it into the near side netting. We are lookgin the more likely side right now and a build up on the left sees a pass across invite THB to hit it, which he does and the keeper gets down well to block.

So, all good and back with our keeper and out to Josh Q and we settle in for another bout of passing it amongst ourselves. Josh Q gives it to Manning and he plays one of the shittest passes you’ve ever seen stright to McBurnie. Peretz comes out to try and recover the situation but McBurnie does well to turn out and feed Joseph who dispatches it into the top corner. Good finish to another absolute fucking gift. The stunned silence is the sound of “here we fucking go again”.

We briedly respond with Fellows making another un from right back and cutting onto his slightly less shit foot for shooting and lashes it over the bar. We win a corner and Scienza takes it from the left and THB gets up and plats a header onto the post and in the resulting rebound carnage, Azaz has an effort blocked and Scienza also sees an effort go the same way.

Hull go forward again as half time approaches and win a corner, which Millar puts in from the left and it’s deep to the back post and Wood gets beaten in the air comfortably by Hughes, whio heads it equally comfortably passed Peretz, who has probably misjudged it again. Fucks sake. My anger is more aimed at Wood, who is 6 foot 3 and doesn’t get off the ground. Basics.

It can’t carry on like this… cue Mick McCarthy… it can… as Millar takes us on down our right and cuts into the box where Flynn Downes has got wrong side and down goes Millar. That looks like a penalty but not given and we break and the ball goes out to Scienza and Hughes comes flying in and takes out Leo at hip height. All eyes on Sam Allison as Hull want a penalty and we want a red card. There are probably two correct decisions that the ref can give here but in true Championship fashion, he gives neither and it’s just a booking for Hughes with Leo with stud marks all over his upper thigh.

Half time and that was wank. Tonda has to put his boy boy PE Teacher pants on now and change things, formation and personnel. Maybe hand out some detentions or something. In the event he takes Josh Q off and brings on Jelert, which means a change to 4-2-3-1. Personally, I’d have taken off Wood, Manning, Azaz and maybe even Armstrong. Anyway, we have a change and Hull have changed as well as they’re just sitting back and not bothering to press us at all until we get in their half. They are content to let us passit around in front of them which of course we are happy to do int he main.

Having recovered fromt he Hughes assault abd with the change in formation, Scienza is now out on the left wing where he plays best and gets a superb cross in, which skims off the top of Arma’s head and out for a goal kick. Was he just too short for that or did he time it wrong? There’s some momentary excitement a few minutes later as Arma reacts to loose bouncing ball on the edge of teh box and lashes it on the volley but it’s a bit of a slice and hoops well wide.

Time for some more Tonda-vision and it’s Ross Stewart and J-Rob on for Azaz and Fellows. The removal of Fellows brings a deserved volley of ‘You Don’t Know What You’re Doing’ from the Northam. I’m kind of numb to it.

Arms has dropped a bit deeper but it’s basically 4-4-2 now and what a difference actually having a focal point makes. Scienza gets in another decent cross from the left and there is Stewart in behind a defender and in front of the keeper to get a foot to it and guide it into the net. Get in. Twenty to go.

For a normal team I’d be banking on writing about chances, saves, blocks and general action in front of the Hull goal but not a bit of it. There was about three minutes of increased intensity but then it died and nothign happened. More subs came on with increased lack of logic. First Matsuki came on for Jander in the centre of midfield, then Archer for Manning in a final gurrgle as we disappeared down the plug hole. Leo Scienza is still trying though and he definatly cuts in from the wing and lets fly but it’s high and wide.

Do we put any pressure on their goalkeeper in the last few minutes? Do we fuck. The End and general anger in the stadium. The lack of urgency and intensity is virtually the same as it has been for the whole 90 minutes. Yes, we were better in the second half once we changed information, surprise surprise, but it still wasn’t good enough, down some basic failings of the manager and the players.

Tonda of course bottled it and went back to his three at the back formation, including players who shouldn’t have been picked, like Manning, Wood and Azaz. Predictably it was an absolute shower of shit in the first half. Still, it was nice to have the extra player at the back so we could knock the ball square at will, until Ryan Manning was so comfortable with knocking it about that he decided to do it with his eyes shut and wave a lazy leg at the ball and play it straight to an attacker. He actually had the audacity to try and blame someone else briefly. Wanker. Then we had a good old-fashioned back post header from a corner because one of our bigger guys, Nathan Wood, who should actually be decent in the air, didn’t fucking jump. Nice round of applause for Nathan Wood.

Even before we went behind, Hull had the best chance with a downward header, a free header of course in the middle of the penalty area and Peretz got down well to his left to make a decent save. We had a couple of decent chances in the first half but they’re both fell to Armstrong and he has very firmly gone down from his 10 out of 10 performances when Tonda was the interim manager, back down to his 2 out of 10 efforts that he quite often gave as the main central striker The bloke is captain as well, which is an absolute fucking joke as it has always been. Other chance fell to THB, Jander and Azaz as the result of scrambles, but nothing clear cut and not much for the keeper to do.

Tonda put his big boy pants on and changed the formation at half-time and fair enough as we went to a back four. The main plus of this formation is of course to have Tom Fellows and Scienza, possibly the best two wingers in the league, actually playing on the fucking wings. So, freed from having to play wing back, what happens to Tom Fellows after 15 minutes, he fucking gets taken off. Well played Tonda. For fuck‘s sake.

The other substitute that came on at that time was Ross Stewart. Luckily there was enough time left after Finn Azaz had dragged his arse off of the pitch at snails pace. Scienza. Doesn’t mess about and puts a ball in the box and Stewart scores, which should have been the signal to any vaguely half competent team or half competent manager to start putting balls in the box and up the intensity, but did we do that for the rest of the game? Did we fuck.

The substitutions got desperate as the game went on – Matsuki on in the centre of midfield alongside Downes and then Cameron Archer on in place of Manning. At least Manning could cause less damage once he was off the pitch.

There is a real conversation to be had as to whether Tonda needs to go. There is certainly an argument for it, bearing in mind how bad we are and the fact that like Will Still early on this season, he seems to have not a Scooby fucking Do as to how to get out of it. The players don’t help of course, but that’s what he’s got to work with and there is absolutely no way we should be this bad. Sheffield United on Wednesday and then Pompey on Sunday. Do you want this manager taking charge of those two games? I’m not sure I do. When he didn’t come out for his post match interviews for a hour, there was brief interest in that he might have been booted but no, out he came, expaining that the delay was down to some ohnest converasations being had in the changing room. Aren’t they same same conversations we have every week? So, maybe it was a kind of PE teacher detention.

If he does go in the near future, then if Johannes Spors doesn’t go with him, and he is the man to pick the next manager, then he’s got to break the habit of a lifetime and actually employ someone who is suitable for the division that we are in. I don’t hold out much hope because he hasn’t managed to do it with many of the players he brought in so far, I was watching Casper Jander today. Nice footballer, talented and a good player who will no doubt have a good career in the game, but he was getting battered in midfield so is he really suitable for the Championship. Elias Jelert is another summer signing who just looks too lightweight and I note with interest that we are bringing James Bree back, which covers Ronnie Edwards leaving but also gives us a bit more height and strength. How desperate is it that we’re bringing back such an average player because we (Spors) has fucked everything up.

We keep losing games to teams who have 10 injured players and the reason for that is that all the opposition have to do, no matter who they’ve got in their team is work hard, attack with a bit of purpose and put a couple of corners into our box and then we are fucked. Doesn’t take any ability to do that all it takes is doing the basics of effort and application. The opposition do them and we don’t and until we do, we will keep on losing and I can’t see us beating anyone. I am tired of the argument of people saying that Saints have got good players. Yes, we have some players who probably look great on the training ground when your heart and attitude is not there on display and you don’t have to make a challenge or you don’t have to win header in order to have a good training session. As soon as that competitive edge is added, then our lot are not good players, they are shit.

We Limp On – to the match before the match and it’s Sheffield United at home on Wednesday night. They lpost to Charlton today and had two players sent off so they’re going to be depleted on Wednesday. We’re depleted as well because we have lightweight, feeble minded players and a lightweight PE Teacher manager..

What a time.

Up the fucking Saints.