By Turfmanphil
December 6 2005

The Sunday Papers Review continues as TMP looks at some of the match reports following the Saints game at St Marys. The papers reviewed today are Sunday Times, Independent on Sunday and Observer

What the Sunday Papers Say!

Southampton 1:1 Clarets-3.12.05

Today its back to the so-called Quality Papers for our review of the match reports. I made the mistake of not buying any of the Red Tops before I set off back from Hampshire to Cambridgeshire. By the time I got back the Newsagents were all closed and the Garages had sold out! If anybody can scan the Match Reports from the Sunday Mirror,People, News of World, Mail on Sunday etc please do so and send them to thelongsider@yahoo.co.uk

I have established these past few weeks that although I buy Sunday Times, Observer and Sunday Independent for the News their coverage of Football is woeful compared to the Red Tops. However I thought I was in luck this week because of the Harry Redknapp debacle and hoped we would have secured better full match reports compared to the normal pathetic couple of paragraphs summary. Well yes and no but more of that later!

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Man of Match?

Well if you asked the fans who went to the game who they would choose they would say either Graham Branch who did a sterling job in two different positions and made a peach of a cross for Ade's equaliser or Frank Sinclair who was as solid and dependable as usual. Only one of the papers gave player ratings,Sunday Times and they dont seem to have been too impressed with Sinclair but rated Branch giving him the highest score of 8! They also gave him the 'Star Man' accolade.

 Players Ratings

Player	Sunday Times	Observer/IoS
Jensen	6	No ratings
Lowe	6	No ratings
Sinclair	6	No ratings
Branch	8	No ratings
Harley	5	No ratings
Elliott	6	No ratings
Hyde	5	No ratings
Spicer	8	No ratings
J O’Connor	6	No ratings
G O’Connor	6	No ratings
Akinbiyi	7	No ratings
Noel-Williams	5	No ratings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All About the Goal!

Sunday Times: Saints Made to Toil-'The lead remained intact until midway through the second half.Graham Branch slipped the ball one side of Delap, nipped past him on the other side and found Ade Akinbiyi with the ideal cross. He out-jumped the defenders and headed past Niemi. That was their first chance and their last'

Independent on Sunday: Farce Stranger than Science Fiction-'Burnley's equaliser came after 66 minutes when Branch crossed for Ade Akinbiyi to head home at far post.It completed a misreable day for Southampton who not only lost their manager but two valuable points as well'

Observer: Bugger all!

The Positives

Sunday Times: Other than giving Branchy 'Star Man' award nothing despite the false hopes of being given a full match report!

Independent on Sunday: None that I could find,all about Harry!

Observer: Bugger all!

The Negatives

Sunday Times: This paper gave a full report in the Premiership section. I nearly missed it! Wow I thought a full report until I looked closely 6 paragraphs, 5 of them about Saints and Harry and just one woeful paragraph about our goal [mentioned in full above]and then they have the nerve to say 'That was their first chance and their last'

Independent on Sunday: I thought the Sunday Times was bad this lot go one better. They have a full article on Harry Redknapp on a separate page and then in a so-called match report of about 13 paragraphs devote 12 to Harry again and one to the Clarets written out in full above!

Observer: Pathetic, no match report and just a paragraph summary with some Saints fan giving his view of the match and a comment by Steve Cotterill

Other Interesting Stuff

Sunday Times: None unless you want reams of stuff about Harry Redknapp!

Independent on Sunday: You are having a laff!

Observer: Chris Colby a Saints fan from their Mad site wrote the following about the Clarets-'Burnley relied on direct counter attacks and it eventualy paid dividends with their equaliser' Steve Cotterill is also quoted as saying ' I was pleased because of our second-half performance. In the first half we didnt play with the belief and desire.It was the best cross of the match for the goal,absolute pin-point.But when you have got to get it past Niemi,there's work to do'

Sheffield United Match Predictions

Just one prediction from Sunday Times and that was a Home Win for the Blades! I think we are good enough for at least a draw and isnt it about time Sheffield United lost their first home game of the season?

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Comments by TMP

You know I am getting completely fed up with the Quality [haha!] papers and their lack of decent fair match reports. We have been awesome recently as well as being in the Play-Off places or there abouts. All the other teams in this position always seem to get full match reports and I thought this time at least playing someone like Saints it would inspire better reporting. It was all basically dross with just passing remarks about our goal and loads of stuff about Harry Redknapp and Saints' bleeding hearts!

I will be adding at least one Sunday Red Top to my paper bill soon but will it be tit-free or the Sunday Sport? There are plenty of tits in the qualities too, they call them match reporters!

 

Reviewed by Turfmanphil