Nordic Saint

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

Our scouts have been watching Huddersfield defenders Jon Stanković and Tareiq Holmes-Dennis, who impressed in the 0-0 draw with Man City.

Underdog victories in the cup are always good. Unfortunately though, big Millwall games are usually tainted by violence. If they get to Wembley and lose (or win), there will almost inevitably be violent scenes. Their first though after winning yesterday was to head straight for the Leicester fans: http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/article/2/10774158/metropolitan-police-confirms-three-arrests-after-millwall-pitch-invasion

Who's complaining? Lighten up. You obviously don't get the magic of the cup, do you? You're right, Fabrice, that was a strong Burnley team that Lincoln beat. Now for Huddersfield to beat Man City and, of course, Saints to beat Man United.

Non-league Lincoln City through to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, showing how far you can go when you field a full-strength team in every round. I've got a feeling Leicester might win it this year to complete a back-to back 'double'. There have certainly been some unfashionable cup finals in recent years, like Portsmouth v Cardiff, Wigan v Man City and Swansea v Bradford City.

I'd just like to congratulate the club on its excellent handling of ticket sales, right down to posting out the tickets as early as possible. Even the fan in Yorkshire who doesn't go to home games but goes to 3 or 4 away games near where he lives, who's been moaning online about not getting priority, got a ticket in the end

It was probably Koeman's career plan to go to a big club, preferably Barcelona or Arsenal, at what he expected to be the completion of a highly successful 3-year contract with Saints. I don't think any of us realistically expected him to stay here for any longer than that. If the club had made it clear they were happy with that, I guess he would have stayed until the end of this season. Would we have done any better? It's hard to say. The new contract he has with Everton has presented him with a bit more of an obstacle. He may feel he has to stay there for at least another year.

This seems to confirm it: http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/revealed-referees-your-premier-league-club-should-love-and-loathe#:XhvzHTtKw3rxsA

There aren't many teams in the country that would average more than 21,000 in League One. There have been none that have managed it in the last 4 seasons. When your stadium capacity is just over 30,000, part of that is allocated to away fans and there are 24,000 season ticket holders it is difficult to build a much bigger 'core support' than we already have. We have averaged over 30,000 in every top flight season we've ever had at St Mary's so there really isn't room for expansion of our core support. The same was true of our last 5 years at the Dell. But, the move to a bigger stadium showed how quickly our number of regularly attending supporters can grow if there is room for it.