Nordic Saint

Because we're playing a 'big club'. Anyone who thinks the officiating in the Premier League is unbiased, just has to watch our games against the 'big clubs' this season to see that it isn't.

Unfortunately, someone seems totally oblivious to reality: http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/southampton/news/reed-southampton-have-best-midfield-in-pl_276561.html

That's a real blow. Amazing what a difference the loss of our goal scorer makes. It's all about avoiding relegation now and we should have a enough points already to do that. The other results have gone our way. If we'd been told at the start of the season, we'd be playing nearly half the season with Stephens and Yoshida as our central defenders, we'd have been happy with just staying up anyway. Considering the financial reports that we've spent more on players we've bought than we've got for the ones we've sold, our dealings in the transfer market over the last 2 years seem to have cost us both on and off the pitch.

It seems to indicate that we have been selling players for considerably less than has been bandied about and buying them for more. But any accounts which show a profit have to be considered OK. I'd guessed the profit would be greater but the discrepancies in the reported transfer fees would explain that.

It's very similar to when they beat us at St Mary's, except we're a better team than Millwall. They camp their midfield deep in the opposition's half and spray passes from side to side until they find openings. If you let them do that, they'll destroy you. You really half to pen them back in their own half, which requires stiff, aggressive tackling from our midfielders on and in front of the halfway line throughout the game. That's something I've not really seen from our team this season. Romeu does it for 70 minutes until he tires as he gets little help in that department.

Yes, it looks like we only have to win 1 of our 2 games in hand to be fairly well assured of at least a top 10 place. A 4th consecutive top 8 finish for the 1st time in the club's history looks possible. We had 5 top 8 finishes in the early 80s but in the middle of them was the 12th in 1983.

Schneiderlin was very overrated by many Saints fans. His glaring weakness was always that he often lost concentration and was too easily dispossessed,as he was again today. Ironically, today he was up against a player who was very underrated by many Saints fans, Wanyama. Now, he really is a top class defensive midfielder: one of the very best in the game.

I'd pick Davis ahead of Ward-Prowse every time. If we can sell Ward-Prowse, than someone who can score goals from them, like Gabbiadini or Boufal, will be allowed to take the free-kicks, and that could be worth quite a few points to us over a season.

Clasie Gardos Martina Hojbjerg Reed Ward-Prowse Lewis Targett Isgrove Rodrguez

Watford just scored from a move started by an obvious foul throw. The thrower's foot was a foot in front of the line

You'll always gets some people who'll resits any from of progress. We'd all still be living in caves if everyone were like that. It's made both rugby and cricket better games and it makes sense to have proper results rather than games decided by referees' mistakes and whims, which tend to go in favour of the 'bigger' team. It would take less time than the time currently wasted by players' arguments with refs. We can already see how well it's worked with decisions over whether goals were over the line or not.

Artur Boruc has just given a man of the match performance, saved a penalty and made a string of brilliant saves to get 10-man Bournemouth a draw at Old Trafford. If the referee hadn't helped Man Utd so much, Bournemouth would have won.

It was a hooped Saints polo shirt with an SFC club badge on it. He was in the middle of the Fratton End when in the 2nd half he exploded, shouted, ‘There's only one team in Hampshire’ and started throwing punches and shouting abuse at everyone around him. This is the most objective account from a neutral who was directly in front of him: ScottDFC 10:23 PM on 01/03/2017 This happened just behind me and he was taken past me on the gangway - it was a Southampton shirt, a rugby type one with the badge on. He was a complete thug and those that saying they can't condone violence may think differently if they were in the row when he was going off - he was a big fella who was swinging hard. Someone had to punch him not only in self defence but also to nullify him in order to get the stewards up to get rid of him. Alternative was to let him keep hitting fans. He was a thug, intent on trouble, don't blame fans who had to deal with very difficult and violent situation.

We've got about twice as many fans as them nowadays, which is reflected in this poll, the social media and our attendances. If the poll were restricted to neutrals only, I doubt Pompey would get any votes at all.

It is amazing how much the presence of one great player can affect the performance of the other 10. The second Gabbiadini was taken off at Wembley, you could sense an instant change of mood on the pitch and after that there was only ever going to be one winner. I guess the opposite would have happened if Mourinho had taken off Ibrahimovic.

This is one of the first games this season that nobody is calling must win as there isn't a great deal left to play for. Absolutely anything could happen. We're on a 6 match unbeaten run in games against Watford and it would be good to extend that to 7.

Jose Fonte's West Ham have gone 3 games without defeat. His leadership seems to be having an effect: "Jose Fonte: 8 Was superb at the back. Distribution was excellent and made several brilliant challenges to put an end to Watford breaks." http://readwestham.com/2017/02/26/player-ratings-watford-1-1-west-ham/?index=3

Yes, one of the great things about our support at Wembley is that we didn't feel the need to constantly sing about Pompey. I expect 1 or 2 Pompey-obsessed idiots still tried to start singing about them but not where I was. Let's hope this actual support for the team, rather than giving Pompey as much publicity as possible, carries over to all our games at St Mary's.

The United fans at Wembley weren't mocking it. They thought it was part of our celebration of equalizing and it looked impressive so they copied it when they scored the winner. You can expect to see it copied at grounds all over the country for midweek games in the next few months. Celine Dion comments or not, it did look impressive as did all the scarves held aloft. Anything which brings colour to the increasingly dull atmosphere at English games is to be welcomed and let's face it the authorities are not going to let us have fireworks and flares like they do at South American games.

One thing we can take away from Wembley is our support. We saw how good it can be when we have a whole end for our singers and that there are more than enough fans prepared to sing to have a whole home kop of our own at St Mary's instead of 2 small groups of singers hidden away in the corners of the away end. It would be great if the club encouraged fans to form a home kop in the Chapel end next season and if the fans themselves made it happen. A pat on the back for the club for the free scarves which certainly made our end look livelier and more colourful than the United end. It would be great to see those scarves and flags used in our home kop next season.

You're absolutely right. United's only real game plan today was to cheat their way to victory by trying to win as many free-kicks as possible, until they could get a couple near enough our goal to score and trying to get our players sent off. Ibrahimovic is a master at it but they all must have been working on it in training with Mourinho like Chelsea did: the perfectly timed dives, grimaces and screams, mobbing the ref. We couldn't compete with that level of cynicism, and it is sad that in order to compete at the highest level you need to do that plus getting dodgy decisions from the officials going your way. Imagine if one of United's goals had been wrongly disallowed and ours hadn't. That's never going to happen though, is it?

We should have given everything by letting our best player Gabbiadini stay out there and win the game for us like Mourinho did with 35-year-old Ibrahimovic, even though he played a European game in midweek, and was United's best defender as well as attacker today. In a game as big as todays' was for us you lay everything on the line and you DON'T take your best player off. The whole game turned when Puel decided to give Gabbiadini a rest, which he didn't want, and when Mourinho sensibly did not decide to give Ibrahimovic a rest. He wanted to win at any cost, even if Ibrahimovic is a bit tired for their next league game, and he did. Today's should have been Gabbiadini's. He was robbed of it by the officials and our manager.

It was a great final and the atmosphere when we equalized was beyond compare. Sheer ecstasy. But, we were robbed by the officials and the media are all very much on our side over that appalling decision to disallow Gabbiadini's first goal. However, what ultimately cost us the game was Puel taking Gabbiadini off 5 minutes from the end. All Saints fan were perplexed at such a shocking decision and thought if we get to extra time who on earth can score our winner now? If he'd been left out there instead of Ward-Prowse that cross that flew across would probably have been buried in the United goal and we'd have won. It also lifted the United players spirits to see our main threat taken off. We'd have felt the same way if Mourinho had taken Ibrahimovic off 5 minutes from the end. I don't but this Gabbiadini was tired excuse. He looked more full of running than most of the players left out on the pitch and hurtled down the tunnel full of energy, frustrated at not being allowed to finish the game. If only Mourinho had taken their best player off before the end of the game and ours hadn't. If only... What might have been Nevertheless, even though he wasn't allowed by the officials or our manager to win the winner's medal he deserved, I am grateful that we had such a wonderful player playing for us today and the way he led our fight back and shook United's confidence.

My apologies. I only just noticed your thread after starting one with the same title, which admin can delete.

Anyone seen Javen Siu play yet? From this report he sounds promising: "The match got off to a slow start at Staplewood and was very much in the balance until Siu’s stunning strike gave Saints the advantage after 22 minutes. Picking up a clearance on the edge of the penalty area, the full-back shifted the ball into space and curled a sublime effort into the far top corner to take the lead." https://southamptonfc.com/news/2017-02-22/match-report-southampton-under-18s-brighton