Nordic Saint

Hopefully, there won't be a need for any sort of reception.

Adam Armstrong struggling at West Brom: West Brom: Tony Mowbray simply must stop this tactic involving Adam Armstrong

"If you’re going to start Smallbone and Aribo in CM then be surprised that you’ve been overrun, then you shouldn’t have a job in football. Absolute clown." I think you've summed up the feelings of most of the crowd today very well.

It was a huge relief when he was subbed today and you could see it lifted the whole team as well as the fans. Today's game really was a game of 2 halves: the first with Smallbone when we looked like we were just going to lie down and accept a heavy defeat, and then the last 40 minutes without Smallbone, when we really got stuck into Bournemouth and drew 1-1. You have to wonder what might have been if Ugochukwu and Dibling had started. I guess Juric would have just brought Smallbone on as a sub so the second half would have been as bad as the first was today.

home team,Brentford Manager: Thomas Frank Formation: 4 - 4 - 2 away team,Plymouth Argyle Manager: Miron Muslic Formation: 3 - 4 - 3 To be fair, he was only officially appointed the day before that game, so he'd done little more than meet the players. New Plymouth boss Miron Muslic gives incredible first speech to his players! | Football News | Sky Sports He obviously had much more influence on their recent games v West Brom, Liverpool and Millwall, and he's really transformed a team that looked dead and buried a month ago. If Plymouth can keep him and their new signings, especially their standout new centre-back, Maksym Talovyerov, they'll be a force to be reckoned with next season.

Plymouth are on fire. They won again tonight, beating Millwall 5-1. The new manager bounce with Miron Muslić has been phenomenal. They've already beaten Brentford and Liverpool, and some bigger clubs than Plymouth will be trying to get him in the summer.

It shows how quickly things can change though. Plymouth's new manager and their 2 centre-backs, who were the best players on the pitch, only just arrived in this country last month. Before that, Plymouth were really terrible and suffering abject defeats. They are still bottom of the table, but, of course, with all their new arrivals, who also include Puchacz and Boateng from yesterday's game, they won't be down there much longer.

Plymouth's new manager, Miron Muslić, arrived on January 10, and then brought in the 2 centre-backs, Katić and Talovierov, at the end of this January transfer window. In their first 2 games this month, they've beaten West Brom 2-1 and Liverpool 1-0. Now, that's what you call decent recruitment. If only we'd had a transfer window that good. I'd love to see Talovierov, especially, here. He's much better than any central defender we've got.

Well, perhaps not Liverpool.

Most of us had forgotten about that. The awful spectre of McCarthy rears its ugly head again.

Most Kingsland regulars are voting with their feet. The Itchen is sold out and fans who are used to sitting at the side are not going behind the goal for this one. Most Chapel regulars would happily move into what are usually the more expensive seats in the Kingsland, but not the other way around. The closure of the Kingsland has knocked a few thousand off the attendance.

Newcastle, Spurs or Aston Villa? It wouldn't be a great surprise to see a smaller club, like Fulham or Forest, in the final though. It's as wide open as it's ever been. If you have any idea who's going to win, you can get good odds on any team.

More likely by stretcher bearers. We'd probably need them to get him onto the pitch as well.

You have to admire the upbeat use of "recent" though. This is a season SO bad that in the 140 years of our history, nobody could ever even have imagined it would happen. The lap the players do around the pitch at the end of the season is going to be 'interesting'. They could liven things up a bit by all wearing their 'Record Breaker' T shirts. One thing's for sure: Everton are never going to live this season down.

The funniest moment of the game came in the 79th minute when that fan who'd won a prize to play in a Premier League game came on and replaced Ugochukwu! The manager had obviously told him. "Jog around a bit. Don't get in anybody's way. No need to worry, the ball won't come anywhere near you and if it does another player will run and get it. We'll give you a shirt signed by all the players at the end of the game."

Fair point. I don't think Martin actively disliked any of the players; he just wanted them to play his way. I'll delete the bit about him not liking him. 90th minute now and Bournemouth are still attacking, trying to score a 3rd goal.

He's a VERY skilful player, who likes running with the ball and beating defenders. He's not going to walk around in his own half, passing sideways and backwards.

Let's face it, although, by our standards, we played well for 70 minutes in it, Man United v Saints was a game between 2 of the worst teams in the league. I'm currently watching a game between 2 of the best teams in the country, Newcastle and Bournemouth, and it's a different class: much faster, more competitive and more skilful, with great players, like Isak, Gordon, Guimarães, Kerkez, Zabarnyi, Kluivert and Semenyo, organised by top managers into entertaining, winning teams. There's no slow, sideways and backwards passing. Both teams are going at it like prize fighters, hell for leather, to win. How on earth did anybody ever see Russell Martin's walking football as being 'entertaining'?

Smallbone should never have been allowed anywhere near that pitch. We knew what he'd do.

I wouldn't get too carried away. This first half team might win, but the team after our subs come on is unlikely to. We'll end up with the likes of Smallbone, Armstrong and Archer looking lost as Man United players run by them.

As we saw against Swansea, it's Sulemana and Dibling up front that make the difference. They are our best attacking combination by a country mile; not that they have much competition. My concern tonight is when the subs come on. Again, as we saw against Swansea, we then turn into the toothless team we've seen all season..

I'd like to see Juric continue with Dibling and Sulemana up front. They combined very well today, with 3 goals and 2 assists between them, and were a much more potent attacking threat than Archer and Armstrong. There's nothing to lose, so it's worth a try and might just give us a much better 2nd half to the season.

Thank you, Whitey. It's nuggets of information like these that reassure me as I sing, "We're by far the greatest team the world has ever seen." I was beginning to have doubts: a bit like one of those singers at the end of the Lumberjack's Song.

Leicester also won the FA Cup recently. In fact, 5 different teams have won the FA Cup in the last 5 years. It's as wide open as it's been for years. Bournemouth are 20/1 to win it this year and I wouldn't be surprised to see Forest do at least as well in both the league and cup as Saints did in 1984.

How bad are Brentford? They only won 5-0 at St Mary's and now they've lost 0-1 at home to Plymouth.