A game where both sides seemed determined to gif tthe other goals.

At times Saints played the best football of their season against Forest, at others especially defensively they were woeful.

Nigel Adkins selections were a little baffling to say the least as he opted to change 75% of his back four from the side that started at Leicester, it was no surprise that Danny Fox came in for Dan Harding but if dropping Fraser Richardson wasnt wholly unexpected, replacing him with Jack Cork and not Danny Butterfield was, Jos Hooiveld also being preferred to Arron martin to partner Jose Fonte. Even more strange was the fact that neither Richardson, Harding or even Butterfield appeared on the bench, however Ryan Dickson did a man who seemed to have disapeared from view so far this season.

Early on it was all Saints so it was a shock when the visitors took the lead, carving Saints open on our right leeaving Derbyshire with an easy tap in, the lead lasted barely a minute though, Guly superbly taking a couple of touched and playing in Connolly and although Camp in the Forest goal blocked the rebound sat up nicely for Lambert.

The second was another well worked goal, Connoly crossing and Lambert steaming in at the far post to head home the flicked on cross, at this stage it looked like Saints would win handsomely.

But just before the break Forest again passed right through the Saints defence and in a copy of the first goal Majewski had another simple tap in from an unselfish pass.

Saints almost again scored a minute later when Lambert was given the ball by a Forest defender and put Connolly through, Camp again made a great save, this time however the rebound went a fair distance from any Saints player to take advantage, at the break Saints really should have gone in ahead and you thought it might be the same old story of two lapses in concentration costing Saints dearly.

The second half was open and Saints had their chances, but they almost gifted Forest a third when Davis put Fox under unneccesary pressure, the left back did the safe thing and returned the ball to Davis, strangely though the keeper didnt do the basic thing and clear his lines as most in the ground thought he would, but instead seemed to try and dribble it round Derbyshire who blocked the ball, a tussle ensued and Saints hearts were in their mouths as the linesman flagged, but his verdict was that Derbyshire had dived and hadnt been fouled and the decision went Saints way.

Moments later the game turned, Fox went over to the right and took an inswinging free kick from way out, the ball was a peach and Lambert was there to head home from close range.

Saints were good value for their win, although as mentioned at times they seemed determined to throw it all away, the two men in for their first start in the main had solid games, first half Hooiveld looked solid, second less so, but that could be due to this being his first game in a while and a lack of match fitness rather than anything else.

Fox to be blunt showed why we bought him, he defended how a full back should defend, held his line well and as his free kick showed, he delivered balls in that caused problems to the opposing defence rather than the crowd behind the goal, not to mention the ball boys ears, all of whom Im sure where grateful to see him rather than Harding.

This was a good win, there were still a few things that need tweaking, but at the end of the day despite the problems we still took three points from the game and kept up our challenge at the top and thats what matters most, if we still win in games like this then that bodes well for the future when we do get things 100% right, but we do need to erase all these little errors in defence out of our game.     

Photo: Action Images

hortonsaint added 09:56 - Sep 11 Generally a fair assessment though I was not as convinced by Fox I'm afraid and thought he struggled positionally at times often conceding possession as well- for example a poor ball into the box near the start of the second half led to a dangerous break. I fear your Harding vendetta is getting the better of you there. Saying that both he and Cork were exposed throughtout the game as the way we play and the interchanging of positions often means we have nobody in the wide midfield areas if we lose the ball high up the pitch, leaving a huge area for the opposition to exploit and giving the full backs a real problem. The insistence on playing the ball out from goal kicks no matter what could have cost us as I suspect we were lucky to avoid the penalty, however KD does need credit for the save from the header that he made at 2-2 which I thought was a great save.

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Struggers added 10:47 - Sep 11 According to ND after the game, Harding and Richardson had picked up minor injuries in training and were not risked. Where Butters was though, there was no mention.
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legod7 added 12:07 - Sep 11 Y"Jos Hoovield also being preferred to Arron martin to partner Jose Fonte "
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hypochondria added 12:10 - Sep 11 Butterfield Harding and Richardson were all injured.
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131153 added 12:58 - Sep 11 As usual Nick you contradict yourself inthe preview you say play Fox, he plays, Seabourne had to be replaced, not too surprising he plays new signing, Richatdson injured plays Cork. Seventy Five % of back four changed not really surprising they are a bit shaky. Now I've seen the goals on TV Cork is way out of position especially the first which dragged Fonte across therfore short in the middle, no surprise they score. So your Comments about Cork being played out of position have some merit. All in all a good result against a reasonable team. I thinkk we all would have taken 15 points out of 18 as we sat and waited for the Leeds game to start.

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bstokesaint added 13:07 - Sep 11 Great result and happy for 3 points, but can't help be concerned with defence. That's 5 goals conceded in last 2 and we've only played 10th placed Leicester in top 10. We need to sort out right back situation. Cork is wasted there.
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schatfield added 15:07 - Sep 11 I listened to the game on the saints player and didnt sound like we were that good value for a win, sounded like Forest had a couple of good penalty shouts turned down and Fox didnt play that well. What i would like to know from those at the game, is how did Hooiveld play? does he look a bit of quality or not? I was surprised he played in place of Martin.
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saintBob added 15:40 - Sep 11 Hooiveld played well for his debut, looks like he will fit in well and looked more self assured than Martin. Agreed Cork was wasted at right back and we missed him in midfield but it seemed as though this was a forced decision due to injuries. Dan Fox was hopelessly out of position on numerous occasions and I didn't think he had a good game except for his contribution in the winning goal. Davis put the defence under pressure to often by trying to play it out from the back every time when sometimes it was best just to boot it upfield and his distribution was as usual not good. The team worked hard for their win though and it was a well earned 3 points in the end. Hopefully Richardson or Butterfield will be fit for next weekend. Ten out of ten for Ricky - star performance.

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SaintNick added 15:43 - Sep 11 I thought first half Hooiveld looked ok, but second half he was often caught out of position a little, as i said whether that was because of a lack of match practice or not we will find out
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Jesus_02 added 18:17 - Sep 11 from the Kingsland Hooiveld didnt look that impressive, while he won headers he didnt get any distance or rarely found a saints player. Hopefully it will just be a case of his timing is off and he will improve and grow into the team. Performance wise, it was a bit nieve. At 2-1 we were crusing and just took our foot of the pedel. Lallana was excellent again and if Guly plays like that every week i would be more than happy

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winchesterbob added 23:29 - Sep 11 Sounds like Fox was always going to be the best player on the pitch!
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Natural_Order added 03:56 - Sep 12 You certainly are bitter and twisted concerning Harding and it gets a tad tedious. I hope and expect that Fox will be a good signing but he did not play particularly well on Saturday. It was a win though and it can't always be champaign footie. A bit more objectivity would be appreciated.
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saintstowin added 14:28 - Sep 12 i can't help agreeing with much on here when it comes to fox. he wasn't terrible but by no means that solid and was directly accountable for their first goal allowing derbyshire to get ahead of him. their 2nd was more a break through a fairly weak offside trap and he was left marking two. i'm sure he'll play better as he has more games but i wouldn't put him in as a definite when harding is fit. nice to have the choice i reckon. plus yes, wherever possible get cork back into midfield but it seems injuries led to that decision. there seemed a lot of space for their right/left sided players with both full backs dragged in at times. and the playing it out short by kelvin, only to get it back and have less time to then play it upfield led to more problems than just the possible penalty, i think their second goal came from us having the ball at the back? decent debut for hooiveld. we won!

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