S25/26 | The Official Match Thread | Swansea 1 Southampton 2 | 18/04/26 | Att: 17,776 | The EFL Championship | Swansea.com

[Ringwood]

Just back... really enjoyed today albeit having to tolerate over 6 hours of Saints banter in the car. The ref was appalling again, where is the consistency in this league with officials?

We have a mid table squad and credit to Matos for creating a competitive side with all it's limitations. The Cullen debate to start games rumbles on and our CB's are at their ceiling which isn't going to move us forward next season.

Personally, I would not play any of our loanees for the last three games unless there is a plan to sign them which hopefully isn't the case.

 

[Rhoshilljacks]

Obviously I’m going to have to recalibrate what i believe is a good performance from the team, reading some of the comments on here makes me wonder if I was at the same game.

First half we made Southampton look pretty ordinary ( maybe they are) sat directly in line with the Eom penalty claim, seen them given and like today seen them turned down I do agree that Downes was lucky to stay on the pitch.

Second half was more of what we’ve seen under Matos reign, a team slowly running out of steam and allowing both our wings to be continually overloaded with cross after cross coming in.

Genuinely don’t see any game on game improvement, no structure to our game at all, as one bloke shouted behind me …headless chickens!!
Widdel shouldn’t have come out for the second half he was blowing through the proverbial with ten to go in the first, Yalcoule was decent and Idah is a far better footballer with the ball at his feet than Vip, Nunes was absolutely dreadful…again.

Listening to the Southampton fans walking back to the station they reckoned Wood was outstanding I guess that says it all really.

Lots of people pinning their hopes on next season, a simple question, where do you think we’re going to get the quality from to improve on Matos style of play and where is the budget coming from to bring those players in? Like I said in a different thread … I’m just not seeing it.

I like your posts, well articulated and a fair perspective.
I’m a pretty cynical Jack, 35 years of the rollercoaster will do that, but I AM seeing it. The last 6 years or so have been dreadful, boring me to the point of little enthusiasm, but I like what I’m seeing from Matos. It’s a bit ‘headless chicken’ at times but it’s high intensity and it’s by and large quite entertaining. We have some big grey areas in quality and you’re right to query how we are going to fill them adequately, but let’s wait and see, there is some long overdue ambition seemingly being shown by the board. There is a world of very capable footballers out there, it’s not our job to find the correct fit, it’s the scouting department’s job.
Before Matos we were headed down, we’ve finished comfortably in mid-table. I’ll take that as arresting the slide, now it’s time to strengthen.
We’ll have a better idea of where we sit in September, how ambitious we are, how good the scouting department is, how good Matos is.
I think we’ll finish 8th next season.