Nordic Saint

99 times out of a hundred, league clubs in dire financial trouble are saved at the brink or reborn under a slightly different company name so the odds are that they'll both survive in some form or another. The worst case scenario is probably that one of them might end up reborn in the National League North after a short hiatus. The rise of Salford FC in an area already dominated by Manchester United and City hasn't done Bury any favours though.

That looks like a very exciting starting lineup for Saints. Happy with that. McCarthy Cedric Danso Bednarek Romeu Ward-Prowse Hojbjerg Boufal Djenepo Redmond Obafemi

I have fond memories of our last 2 home games v Bury: the 2-0 FA Cup win in 2008, when they brought a fair number of fans down, and the 6-2 league win at the Dell in 1965 (4 goals from George O'Brien and 1 each for Wimshurst and Chivers in our promotion season), when they didn't. There must be a few posters here who were at the away game at Gigg Lane that season, which we won 3-1. It must be tough for both Bury and Bolton trying to survive in the ever growing shadows of the two big Manchester clubs. Bolton have always been a bogey team for us though and I remember some trouble with their fans up there on the way back to the station in the late 70s, which was reciprocated when they played down here.

That's why we all went to the Koln game but they still wouldn't let us buy tickets for Liverpool. New fans would have the same hurdles preventing them from buying tickets for the Man United game. The Club is very much aware that attendances are all at or close to the stadium's capacity, the only exception in the last half year being the midweek game v Fulham. So, they don't want to encourage a lot of new fans, as the last thing the owner would want would be to face pressure to spend millions on stadium expansion, which would mean ticket prices could not be increased and might even have to be reduced so he wouldn't make any more money. The city's population and the club's fan base inevitably continue to grow though.

PS I used my address (in the Southampton area) for their membership cards, not their overseas address.

They are trying to discourage new fans, especially from overseas. I had relatives visiting from abroad and bought membership cards for them which they used to go to the Koln game but the club wouldn't let them buy tickets for the Liverpool game with their cards nor let me buy them for them using mine. Meanwhile black market tickets were selling on StubHub for £200.

Of course it will. About the only league game that hasn't sold out in the last half year was a midweek game against Fulham. The club prices games to JUST sell out, not to have games sold out weeks in advance with thousands left clamouring for tickets, hence the £65 ticket price.

That second goal was the icing on the cake. It makes such a difference to morale for players and fans alike. If it had only been 1-0, people might have felt we'd just scraped home against 10 men but 2-0 away from home is a very good result. In Djenepo it looks like we have a real star in our team again.

Especially as it is almost sold out, in spite of the high prices. The only blocks which are not listed as either sold our or nearly sold out are in the corners of the Northam. I guess fans don't want to sit near the away fans.

Schneiderlin seems to be Everton's equivalant of Clasie: #bbcfootball or text on 81111 (UK only) Don’t understand why Marco Silva bothered to put Morgan Schneiderlin back in, he goes backwards, looks a liability on the ball and players jog past him frequently.

That's all right. It shouldn't have been necessary. I was a bit slow on the uptake. But, there are still a few people on here who still appear to believe that LD Sports is some sort of dodgy deal orchestrated by Gao, when in fact all such high profile deals will have been approved by the Chinese government.

No, it isn't. Espanyol are owned by the Chinese billionaire, Chen Yansheng, alongside whom, Gao is just small fry.

Well, they seem to have been successful as the match is heading for a sell out.

No, it isn't. Gao owns no part of LD Sports.

I agree. The only reason we need a third central defender is to cover for Vestergaard. With two central defenders with pace, we wouldn't need one.

Interesting stats: Vestergaard didn’t complete a single tackle and also made no blocks. https://www.footballfancast.com/premier-league/southampton/southampton-fans-slam-jannik-vestergaard-for-his-performance-against-liverpool

I think you can

I feel more optimistic after our performance yesterday but several bookmakers, including Betway, Bet Victor, Betfair and Betdaq, have now cut our relegation odds to 7/2 so clearly they don't think it's silly to see us as already being in a relegation struggle. They will have based those odds not only on our first two results but also their assessment of the strength of our squad relative to other teams in the league. A lot depends on how much Kevin Danso can transform what is arguably the worst central defence in the league. As yet, that is an unknown factor.

The Liverpool fans' reaction. He wasn't initially going to give it but the reaction of outrage from the Northam end prompted him to.

Our first half performance was very good and we spent most of it camped in the Liverpool half but you just knew we'd concede a goal just before half-time. You also knew that at some point a Liverpool striker would leave Vestergaard sitting on his backside while he ran on to score, as Firmino did for their 2nd. Adrian was clearly struggling to kick properly with his ankle injury and finally Ings took advantage of it but that was a terrible miss from Ings late on. Ultimately, the difference between the teams was that they had Mane while we had Ings. But, overall it was a much better performance than against Burnley.

They are making it difficult to buy tickets, shirts and even programmes.

There were no programmes left for sale either inside or outside the ground, twenty minuted before kick-off. Long queues were turned away. That's more money thrown away by the club.

We need Yoshida's pace. Playing Vestergaard v Liverpool's pacy attack would be suicidal as Mane, Salah et al would run straight past him and score.

We're playing the old game of how many wins can a relegation threatened team hope for and it's not many. We all hoped that we had moved on from that but signing a 20-year-old, bit part Bundesliga player on loan because we couldn't afford a transfer fee for a player who is probably not even Premier League standard suggests that we haven't. We are where you'd expect a poverty-stricken team to be in the Premier League.

Let's hope for a complete turnaround v Liverpool. I'll be there, along with all the other Saints fans at a sold out St Mary's but will the posters who only post on here to criticize Saints fans when we lose be there too? Unlikely.