Nordic Saint

Comfortable win. The whole team worked their socks off. I was particularly impressed by the 2nf half performance. We never took our foot off the pedal. Confidence oozes through the team when Forster and Walker-Peters both play. Another great goal from Adams. He's certainly scored some spectacular ones. Ward-Prowse was back to his best too.

McCarthy let in 19 goals in his last 6 games Forster let in 1 goal in his last 6 games

Portsmouth haven't beaten Arsenal home or away for 63 years and they haven't beaten Chelsea home or away for 61 years, in any competition.

With the right team, I think we can win 1-0. What the club need to do is look at the players who were playing as well as the ones who were not playing when we won games. 1 or 2 of them may be fan favourites on here and even manager's favourites but it's better to field a winning team than a losing one. You don't change a winning team but you need to change one that is always losing. It doesn't require wholesale changes. Just one or 2 changes in key positions can make a world of difference to the way the whole team performs.

The team that beat Wolves 2-0 in the FA Cup:44Forster2Walker-Peters35Bednarek22Salisu3Bertrand17Armstrong8Ward-Prowse6Romeu12Djenepo11Redmond9IngsThe team that beat Arsenal 1-0 in the FA Cup44Forster2Walker-Peters35Bednarek5Stephens3Bertrand17Armstrong8Ward-Prowse27Diallo32Walcott9Ings10AdamsThe team that beat Liverpool 1-0 in the league:44Forster2Walker-Peters35Bednarek5Stephens3Bertrand17Armstrong27Diallo8Ward-Prowse12Djenepo9Ings32Walcott If Walker-Peters is available, we start with the first 2 names in the lineup and at least we'll keep a clean sheet.

Make that 23. They certainly know how to defend a lead.

There's probably another stat that shows without Zaha they never win. A draw would be the ideal result for us.

This statistic is quite remarkable for a team which is in the lower half of the table: Crystal Palace have not lost any of their last 22 Premier League games when leading at half-time (W18 D4)

Yes, I was at all of those games and our away support was tremendous then although there were even more of us at Orient in '66 than there were in '78. I'd say, the late 60s and late 70s were the peaks of our away support. I remember being one of the 10,000 Saints fans filling the whole of the Park Lane End at White Hart Lane for our league game in 1966 and in the 13,000 packed in at the City Ground for the cup match in 1977. !977 was the year our home support was at its loudest and most passionate. All 4 sides of the ground used to sing and visiting sides were clearly intimidated. Gong back to Tony Funnell, as you say, he only really had those 2 months as a Saints first team player and I was disapppointed to see his career here falter after that but the goals he scored in those months were some of the most important in Saints history and I'll always remember them as some of the Saints goals that got the loudest cheers ever.

All those of us who were around during Saints promotion run in 1978 will have great memories of Tony Funnell's goals. This video shows what a wonderful character he still is. It's the best interview with a footballer I've seen for a long time: (42) Flashback Part 6: How Much Did Ex-Cherry Tony Funnell Earn In The Top Division In The 1970's? - YouTube

There is a reason why he has kept nearly 200 clean sheets and it's not just because he has got a world class defence playing in front of him. The thing about Forster is that he is so big and his positioning is so good that he doesn't usually need to move very far to stop goals. But, take your pick from this lot. The one from Mane is a real worldy: (31) Fraser Forster 2016/17 Amazing saves - FC southampton - YouTube

Yes, McCarthy makes himself small at the near post and leaves a lot of space to aim at. Forster stands tall there and leaves no space. There was a similar goal McCarthy conceded recently where he crouched right down at the near post so the striker could shoot into the space above him to score. I think the injustice of their penalty vs our non-penalty took the wind out of the sails of our players though. They've had so many demoralising refereeing decisions go against them recently.

Our penalty shout for a handball was clearer than theirs was. and McCarthy beaten at the near post again. Every striker in the country knows about his weakness there. Forster would have saved that easily.

It's hilarious reading the Bournemouth fans' comments about Long on the Up the Cherries match thread today:langhamLong having a dismal game, urgent to get Surridge on.TopfarrierShane Long has to come offlanghamLong is soooo slow ... where’s Surridge??stanthevan3 against 3 and Long stops to play it backwards.KudosI wonder if Forest will allow us to swap Long's loan contract for Grabs?TopfarrierWhy doesn't Long just play the fckin ball!!drdLong really is dreadfulnorthstandmarkHow is Long still on the pitchandyredPlease take Long off. CherryBare Long finally off drd Thank **************** for that

So many positives have come out of tonight's game and Salisu's performance is definitely one of them. No wonder Ralph has been talking him up. He looks like he is going to be a really important player for us

A very impressive team performance. We have a great spine to the team again for the first time in years: Forster-Salisu-Ward-Prowse-Ings We've had some bad luck with injuries but let's hope those 4 can stay fit all the way to the final.

This is our 35th major cup quarter-final, including the European one, and it's one of the rare occasions we've drawn the lowest ranked team left. Let's hope we can capitalize on it because we're probably the only team in the country that has been in that many quarter-finals and only won 1 cup. With Fraser Clean Sheet Forster in goal and Salisu in front of him, we're going to very hard to score against.

As well as ego, Dean is also driven by greed. "Mike Dean has been suspended after officials were told of his involvement in a betting website." Referee suspended over betting site | Football | The Guardian

It seems to be deeply ingrained in most Premier League officials to always err in favour of the big teams. But, in the case of Mike Dean his bias in favour of certain teams seems to be at its most extreme. He has his favourites, Man United and Spurs, and teams he doesn't like, Saints and Arsenal, and his decisions will always reflect that. Last night, Mike Dean awarded his 19th penalty to Man United.

So was Maguire's boot. There were two United players' feet clearly playing him onside. When they showed it on TV at the time, it was obvious from the picture that Adams was onside by at least six inches. I just don't understand how the VAR ref couldn't see that. Perhaps he just saw what he wanted to see.

I wrote this before the game: You do realize how arrogant Mike Dean is? He is right and everybody else is wrong. He'll be looking to dish out more of the same. He's the worst referee we could possibly get against United because he always favours them. He'll do anything he can to ensure they win including wrongly dishing out red cards and penalties. He even got demoted to the Championship for doing so."Ex-players such as Niall Quinn and Alan Smith described Dean as ‘arrogant’ and ‘attention-seeking’, while ex-Ireland international, Stephen Hunt, claimed Dean was ‘the most arrogant person – player or official- that I ever shared a field with’.Arsenal fans launched a petition to prevent Dean from refereeing another Gunners’ match. Although naturally doomed to failure, the petition raised over 100,000 signatures within a week.Two years later Dean again had the humiliation of a decision of his being overturned retroactively by the FA. After just fifteen minutes of an Old Trafford clash between Manchester United and West Ham, the home side’s Phil Jones had a coming together with the Hammers’ Sofiane Feghouli.To most neutral observers, Jones was the more likely of the two to have committed a foul, yet to the amazement of most, it was Feghouli who was shown the red card. That United went on to win the game 2-0 did not help matters, and not only was the red card overturned, but Dean was also demoted to a spell refereeing in the Championship."Dean has awarded Man United EIGHTEEN penalties already. I'm pretty sure that must be the most penalties any referee has awarded to any team in the history of football and he'll certainly be looking to add to that total tomorrow night.Everybody in football knows Mike Dean has it in for Southampton.https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2019/10/28/garth-crooks-says-referee-mike-dean-instigRemember this one?https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/14993139.southampton-will-not-appeal-nathan-re

Good post. It's good to see Yoshida is happy in Italy too: (8) Parma-Sampdoria, Yoshida: «Doppia gioia: primo gol e clean sheet» - YouTube

I've seen his appearances for Liverpool. If you combined the best bits of Shane Long and Che Adams then you'd get Minamino. He's got a lot of pace and energy, works hard and looks good for 1 goal every 4 or 5 games. Bearing in mind the fact the club has no money, I think they've done well to offload Long and Valery and get Minamino. A good transfer window under the circumstances.

Bearing in mind our debts, I think we've done as well as we possibly could in this transfer window. No complaints from me. Let's face it, the competition is intense and there are very fine margins but Minamino looks like an upgrade on Long + Valery.