Saints had a good first half at Pride Park, taking the lead through Adam Armstrong after only 7 minutes, but then a lack of concentration just before half time cost them dearly and we didn't seem to be able to find any sort of cohesion.

There were no surprises in the Saints line up and you hoped that would mean that Will Still had finally found not only a settled side but a winning formula, for most of the first half it looked like they had, Adam Armstrong hustled and bustled his way through the Derby defence to give us a 7th minute lead and we had plenty of chances to increase that with the Derby keeper having to be at his best on several occasions.

On 30 minutes came a blow, there were those that before the game suggested that after his two years of injury woes and his relative inaction in the first phase of the season, asking him to play a 3rd game in the space of a week might not be a good idea.

They will say they were proved right after Stewart limped off on the half hour mark with a hamstring injury, different to his previous ones it perhaps showed that his game time needs to be managed and on this occasion it wasn't.

Up to this point we looked good and as the break loomed we looked good for a half time lead, then came yet another calamitous moment of a lack of discipline and organisation.

With 5 minutes to go to the break a Derby cross field pass seemed to have been left to go out for a throw in by Ryan Manning, he seemed to have initially looked to head it to dummy a nearby opponent, but then let it go, however the linesman felt differently.

At this point Manning should have just accepted the decision and got on with it, but instead he ran over to the the linesman and disputed the call with the ferocity of a penalty claim.

Whilst he did that it enabled Derby to take a quick short throw in, into the space and the man that Manning should have been marking and plenty of time to put a curling cross into the box that caught us napping.

Some Saints fans on the day thought that this was a ball that Alex McCarthy should have come for, but I didn't agree with that view then and watching TV replays confirmed my initial opinion, it was never the keepers ball, it was just a good cross.

But it shouldn't have happened, Manning momentarily lapse in discipline and concentration cost us dearly, if he had just got on with the game then this probably would not have happened.

I don't usually like to point individual blame, after all most goals conceded are usually down to a collective team issue, rather than individuals, goalkeepers get a raw deal on this, as their individual errors are more likely to be punished than out field players.

But for this goal it highlighted that lack of leadership and organisation in the squad, why did Manning lose his rag for such a trivial decision ? it was a throw in far from goal, why did he not just get on with it ?

The answer is frustration, not just in this game but in general, I would suggest the players themselves are not sure of what they should be doing and when and this led to manning's temper boiling over.

Whatever the reason it was uncalled for and cost us dearly, but it was not just Manning, the incident had cost us concentration, if we had marked our man then the ball is headed out and the ball cleared and no goal scored and this incident might well have been forgotten by now and this article would be much different.

But for me this suggested that there is something deeply wrong within the squad, why is such a talented squad under performing so badly.

This moment changed the game, the second half was poor, we rarely looked like getting the goal that won the game and indeed had Alex McCarthy to thank for some timely saves that kept us in the game.

The second half subs just muddied the waters even further, although Will Still only made 3 second half substitutions it was hard to see what he was trying to do, when he makes a substitution it doesn't ever seem to be a like for like change, it seems to always involve shuffling the side around to bring on the new man.

When Stewart went off, why did Still not bring on a forward, he could have used Cameron Archer of Damian Downs, but it was Tom Fellows an out and out winger, we now had 3 wide men on the pitch.

After being at the club for over 4 months it seems the manager is no nearer knowing his best formation or line up than he was back in the summer, we had 5 of our new signings on the bench, they were joined by 3 players who were the spine of the side that won promotion two years ago and finally Cameron Archer who seems to be out in the cold after scoring against Watford a Month ago.

I would doubt that there are many Saints supporters who can really describe how the side lines up, especially after the hour mark when scattergun substitutions seem to upset our rhythm.

So where do we go from here, we have no identity, we have no organisation, we have no leadership and for a second season we seem to have a manager who after bringing players into the squad decides not to use them.

It is probably too early to sack Will Still, but our Director of Football Johannes Spors has some work to do here, he needs to be counselling Still about how we move forward, things can be turned around, there is still time.

We are still only 4 points off the play offs, some will say that if we had held this lead we would now be in 10th place only 2 points off and yes that is true, but we are not, it is unacceptable for Southampton FC to be in 16th place in the Championship at this time given the money we have spent in the summer, the problem is that we cannot see progress, back in August we gave the manager leeway, gave him time, but here we are two months later and we are still no nearer having a settled side dominating games as we should.

I said in a recent article that Will Still's problem is that he has too many players at his disposal and I think that is true, he is swimming in a big pool with plenty of fish and he has too many options, he has not stuck with players through sticky periods, no one gets the chance to play through a bad period, that breeds uncertainty in the squad, it makes players do the simple stuff as they are worried about giving the ball away and then getting dropped.

Perhaps Will Still is the man for the job, perhaps he will turn it around, but we haven't seen much evidence of that yet.

This game seemed like a defeat and not a draw, that is perhaps telling us something.

All Photos Via Reuters

beynali73 added 10:17 - Oct 6 Might soon be time for him to return to Albert Square.
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Bawdrip added 10:23 - Oct 6 Maybe telling us that expectations are high but as yet we’re not a settled side. It wasn’t a bad away point but we do need to start winning our home games. The support was great as usual and we had Derby on the back foot but couldn’t capitalise on it. Losing Stewart really affected the balance of the side. He was so close to scoring before damaging his hamstring and things could have been very different at 2-0. Still a reasonable away point in my book.

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Farlow added 10:24 - Oct 6 Great display from Macarthy my man of the match.Fingers crossed Stewarts injury is not too serious as hes starting to look really good gives us another dimension,I dont understand not playing Jay Robinson,
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kingolaf added 10:30 - Oct 6 It seems to me that the players don’t know how they’re supposed to be playing. That is on Still, he’s had long enough with him. Sadly, I feel the same sense of inevitability of Still’s sacking as I did for Martin’s last year. We left that one far too late to make any difference. I doubt the owners have learned, as they are a bunch of clowns.
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underweststand added 10:39 - Oct 6 Oh yes -the match. Best players were undoubtedly the two goalkeepers. On any other day, it might have been a 4-4 result. After Stewart's exit, the formation changed and whatever game plan (Will) had, went out of the window with it. The new CB combination looked OK although Quarshie needs to be a bit sharper at the back. Jander seems to be a good fit, and Scienza looked like a real jack-in-the- box who wasn't afraid to shoot on síght. After seeing Ross Stewart playing like a real centre forward in the Sheffield game, I thought we might have turned that corner, but seeing him limping off ruined that storyline. Hamstring injuries can be many weeks / months before returning to some sort of match fitness and so we are back to square one with Armstrong showing some form, but neither Archer or Downs look to be replacement - but for different reasons. Hopefully, Will can devise an Plan C, as I still prefer his "new look" to the poor showings we had in the first 4 games - starting at the back. Rightly or wrongly, getting JWP back maybe solve the midfield quandary, but for the second season in a row - we still need a recognised-striker, even if (like Rickie Lambert) we have to dredge through League One prospects, but preferably someone who knows his way around the English leagues.

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Ali_Diarea added 10:46 - Oct 6 I just can’t see where the goals are going to come from….and that is down to Still and Spors
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onetowatch added 10:56 - Oct 6 JWP....PLEASE, NO!!!!
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Bowlercow added 11:05 - Oct 6 Alex getting the MotM says it all really Was 3 games in 8 days too much for our young guns in the back line? Just when we thought we may have a talismanic striker who,by trying so hard,does a ham string Minimum 6 to 8 weeks out.Perhaps 3 in 8 was too much for him as well You can't blame the coach because he surely is guided by the team of physios we have.They are constantly monitoring the squad and would alert the manager of any potential problems. At the end of the day we have 5 points from 3 games It is the equivalent of win your home games and draw your away games.That is a winning formula at any level Talk of sacking Will Still is absolutely ridiculous Do we want a third consecutive season of having 3 managers? We should learn from Watford who are probably the only other club to have had as many managers as us.Done them a lot of good hasn't it

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Jellybaby added 11:27 - Oct 6 Far from what we want, but I don’t buy in to the doom. This is a demoralised club from our painful embarrassing episode last year, you can still see Russball hanging on in the psyche of the team. The Stewart injury was the turning point, a lack of confidence in Damian Down meant a like for like substitution was not going to happen, so he moved AA into the centre and brought on our most skilful sub available. At a later point he was ready to use Downs to get some height back into the team. I was more concerned about removing Leo and Charles from the team as they were our best players on the day. The clamour for a change of manager already is based on sentiment and not logic.

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Staycalm added 11:56 - Oct 6 Agree with Bowlercow. It is one thing when your goalkeeper is man of the match against a high flying opponent. It is quite another, when against a relatively lowly team. We certainly look to have paper thin confidence and once pricked, we become very porous at the back!! Once Downs comes on it is almost like playing with 10 men. You feel that Still is determined to prove that the right decision was made to sign him. Currently, he is a Div 2 striker at best! Agree with others that Robinson should have been given the chance to come on, with plenty of time to make an impact.

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highfield49 added 12:05 - Oct 6 I'm confused by your rant about leadership, organisation, frustration, collective team issues, individual errors etc Nick. Even if Manning had stayed in position his concentration was broken by the official's error and he switched off. Compare that to Armstrong being allowed to avoid four defenders and score puts it into a bit of perspective. I agree that the team isn't yet finding rhythm but some of the passing and movement was streets ahead of where we were last season. Maybe I'm just being optimistic but the team isn't struggling in my view just bedding in some quality new players. We all thought Azaz would be a nailed on starter and Captain Jack was a perennial liability, but we know that one will improve and the other is unlikely to progress. However, McCarthy defies the view that the team has collective issues or lacks organisation. Once the blend comes together the results will also start to flow before very long.

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halftimeorange added 12:26 - Oct 6 That's a real shame about Stewart, he was playing really aggressively and stretching the Derby defence when he got injured and our game was seriously disrupted by that incident. Having said that, we still created a fair few chances, several of which could or should have ended up in the Derby net. Our bigger problem was our centre back trio who were bullied by Derby and thanks to McCarthy, we came away with a point. Wood didn't play so well as he has done and Edwards and, particularly Quashie were easily bypassed . Scienza looks to be a bag of tricks. It is true that the wealth of talent in our squad has yet to come together but, when it does, somebody is in for a thumping. The sooner that happens the premature mutterings about getting rid of Still will quite properly be buried.

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halftimeorange added 12:26 - Oct 6 That's a real shame about Stewart, he was playing really aggressively and stretching the Derby defence when he got injured and our game was seriously disrupted by that incident. Having said that, we still created a fair few chances, several of which could or should have ended up in the Derby net. Our bigger problem was our centre back trio who were bullied by Derby and thanks to McCarthy, we came away with a point. Wood didn't play so well as he has done and Edwards and, particularly Quashie were easily bypassed . Scienza looks to be a bag of tricks. It is true that the wealth of talent in our squad has yet to come together but, when it does, somebody is in for a thumping. The sooner that happens the premature mutterings about getting rid of Still will quite properly be buried.

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saintmark1976 added 14:37 - Oct 6 Currently 17th not 16th Nick. 17th in The Championship after 9 games, following not one but two relegations in three seasons and only managing to win 4 games out of the last 47 attempts. Think about that you Stockholm Syndrome suffering happy clappers as you post merrily that there is nothing to be concerned about and with Sports Republic at the wheel we will soon turn the corner.

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Farlow added 15:05 - Oct 6 I think we need to remember Damian Downs is only 21 it,s too soon to write him off.
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Farlow added 15:12 - Oct 6 I see Ballard scored again for Orient this was a beauty.Makes his sale,in view of our lack of goalscorers look even dafter.
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SaintPaulVW added 17:06 - Oct 6 A point away is always worth having. I agree that results need to improve but sometimes it takes a bit of time for a manager and players to click. With all the new additions, he's damned if he keeps players on risking injury and he's damned if he changes the team and/or rests them. In these days of high level medical science, I cannot believe Ross Stewart would have been risked if there was any indication he had an increased risk of injury. Manning made a daft mistake, he's a bit of a marmite player but he's played well over the last year or so. I just think this is our level of player, good but errors in them. Just got to keep picking up points for now. Even our record breaking unbeaten run wasn't all wins. COYR

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ItchenNorth added 17:22 - Oct 6 We are rebuilding. There is no point in limping to another promotion, as we'll just get relegated, again. We need a couple of seasons in The Championship, we need several transfer windows to build a squad imo and we need to stop changing managers every time fans get impatient. If we are to have run at promotion this season, the club must back the manager in January again and give him the players we need and at minimum that's a striker, in the Pelle mould. We've seen that playing this type of player works in the system, but we cannot guarantee Stewart's fitness.

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bryanK added 18:19 - Oct 6 I am not a patience Saints fan but having lived with the disaster of Russell Martin and being bored out of my skull let’s give Still some space. Yes we have too big a squad and that’s down to Sports Repubic not running the business well and Spors who we had hoped would take us to another level but has come up short. We have cried out for a target man and have totally failed the manager miserably. The hope in Stewart is at present short lived, which is a shame. I hear the view that Downs is only 21 and in a learning curve. What garbage he is an extremely poor signing and Spors is to blame I really hope I am wrong but the old adage of good enough at a young age play them.

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Saintandy66 added 20:33 - Oct 6 Like I said before the season started will still just isn't the man for the job he is like a man trying to be a football manager and the way he keeps apologising to the players he don't pick is just ridiculous it looks weak
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Farlow added 20:33 - Oct 6 You are nowhere good enough a judge to rate him on the few minutes hes had.Wve just sold Bllad when whe should hacve loaned him Big strikers are gold dust so you have to give them time.Hopw a mere fan can make these judgements is crass.We have lost so many good players from not haing patience.You cannot seriously evaluate them without game tlime.
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landsdownsaint added 20:42 - Oct 6 Iv changed my mind on wanting a quick return to the PL , we got some good players who are going to need time , the squads not together atm but we are going in the right direction, the new signings apart from Downs are doing really well , Azzaz will get there he’s got a lot of quality, WS just gotta stick with him. As fir WS he is just about doing ok atm , we really do need to stick with him , we won’t be going down but we might not make the playoffs, I think after Xmas we will be see really good football, it’s just a bit all over the place atm , stick with what he played against Derby let them make the mistakes . He needs to give Robinson more game time tho

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Boris1977 added 22:10 - Oct 6 Agree with others that there's no point going up this season as we will come down just as embarrassingly as last season. Sports Republic are a second string bunch of costermongers whose specialty is owning second tier lower level European league clubs so we are where we should be. COYRs.
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Boris1977 added 22:14 - Oct 6 In my first comment I was joking about Will 'Ian Beale' Still going back to Albert Square. EastEnders aren't interested in writing new tragic story lines for him so may as well let Sports republic so that as st Mary's square. I wonder what the big Christmas twist will be? Sports Republic sign a decent CB, GK or striker? Nah, bit too far fetched even for a soap opera.
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SainteSimon added 09:16 - Oct 7 You are becoming far too negative at such an early stage either new manager and largely new squad. We won 2 games last season; that is not turned around fast and I do think we are improving. Think he did know his starting 12 unfortunately a key part got injured when on top and leading; maybe he shouldn’t have been started for third game in 8 days though hindsight is a wonderful thing. Onwards and upwards!

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