Nordic Saint

I feel as optimistic about this transfer window as I did about our managerial appointment because Les Reed won't be involved. We should see some much needed common sense prevail at last. We can look forward to some of the dead wood being offloaded and the squad being strategically strengthened.

I've thought that for a long time. Wing-back is incredibly demanding as it combines the duties of the old positions of left back and left winger, which used to require 2 players. In order to regularly cover the whole length of the pitch, a wing-back needs incredible pace and energy. Neither Fox or Targett ever had it but they'd both have made adequate, not great, left wingers and in an earlier era might have been OK. Neither of them was ever capable of performing the defensive duties well at the top level, when they are up against pacy forwards. Ryan Bertrand has got a lot of unfair stick on here as with our weak defence he has often had to do the defensive work of two men, whereas, in contrast, Targett needs an extra defender to cover for him. I'd be tempted to put in a bid for Wendell in January: a player Ralph would be familiar with from the Bundesliga.

We were beaten by a team with better players. Ralph has done well so far with the limited squad at his disposal but it is going to take at least 2 transfer windows to sort out the mess Old Les left us with. From the Academy products like Targett to the expensive buys like Lemina, our players simply weren't as as fast, as skilful or as strong as West Ham's. Even their goalkeeper is a class above ours and we have no one anywhere near as good as Felipe Anderson. I still feel optimistic though. We have got a good manager and he will bring in some good players.

Top 3 home games v West Ham? I've missed a lot of them over the years but of those I was at, these 3 stand out for me: 1/ March 1967 Saints 6 West Ham 2. We beat what was referred to at the time as West Ham’s World Cup winning team, as it included Moore, Hurst and Peters, in one of the most entertaining games ever played at the Dell. 2/ August 1988 Saints 4 West Ham 0. Paul Rideout scored 2 goals in one of the best debuts by a Saints striker. 3/ August 2017 Saints 3 West Ham 2. Austin's 93rd minute penalty gave us what stands out in recent years as a very rare injury time victory. Looking forward to another good win tomorrow.

#littlejerk And Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you too, you miserable ***t.

We are the form team. They've lost 3 of their last 4 games. Good set of results for us. If we beat West Ham, we'll have pulled away from the bottom 3. Meanwhile, Pompey are beginning to falter in League One like City are in the Premier League. I'd expect to see Sunderland & Luton and Liverpool & Spurs finish as the top 2 in their respective divisions.

In my post #39. 8 and a closing bracket have accidentally produced an emoji, so, for example we have only ever lost 8 games v Brighton. Fortunately,we have nothing as bad in our records as this: Pompey haven't won any of their 51 games against Arsenal or Chelsea over the last 60 years.

We are a bogey team for Pompey (W19 D10 L9), in what is statistically the most one-sided of all the major derby games in England, Brighton (W23 D13 L8), Bournemouth (W13 D8 L7) and Palace (W42 D16 L28). We have a winning record against about half of the teams currently in the Premier League as well as the vast majority of teams outside of it. Until they moved to the Etihad, we had a winning record v Man City but they have just edged ahead. Our poor overall records v Everton (W29 D23 L48), Leeds (W27 D20 L45) and Spurs (W37 D30 L55) are still better than our record v Arsenal (W21 D26 L49). So, in terms of results, it's Arsenal, although not so much recently.

These things change. Right up until the early 90s, we were known as Liverpool's bogey team. We have played far more games against Spurs than any other team and so we have an exceptionally high number of both victories and defeats against them. In recent decades they have 'owned' us and have become our current bogey team but hopefully Ralph will change that. Conversely, Arsenal used to be our bogey team but we have become a bit of a bogey team for them in recent years. Overall, apart from the obvious teams, i.e. the ones that every team has a bad record against, like Liverpool and Man United, I agree with ericb and Green: Everton are considered to be our traditional bogey team. We have still beaten them 29 times though (not 5, eric). Contrast that with Pompey's recent record v Liverpool and Arsenal:

How exactly do you know he was doing this? Were you there? Did you see it? None of the TV cameras or reporters who were there saw anything like it and if they had, you can be sure, they'd be highlighting it. Hopefully, Austin doesn't read this forum because if he does he may have a case for taking legal action for libel against you. I don't know which club you support but stop trying to bring shame to our club by spreading rumours like this.

Although he'd been OK for Liverpool, he never kept a single clean sheet for us until the bribery scandal finally hit the headlines on the back pages of the tabloids. Then the very next game, at home v Arsenal in November, with Saints fans holding up 'Bruce is Innocent' banners and cheering him like he was a hero, he 'miraculously' kept his first Saints clean sheet and then kept another one in the following game at Palace. It was about the only time he deigned to show his Liverpool form for us. As for that FA Cup collapse v Spurs, it's a hard one to forget and ranks along with the nightmare at Tranmere as one of the worst memories for us Saints fans who were there. Another one I wish I hadn't been at was the 7-2 loss at White Hart Lane in 2000. The 6-1 defeat there in 1968, didn't seem so bad, as at the end of it we scored the final goal of the game and all sang, 'We're only warming up.' The 5-3 defeat there the season before was even better, as 10,000 of us completely took over the Park Lane End and sang ourselves hoarse for 90 minutes so took some pride from the fact that off the pitch we had taken over at White Hart Lane

He seems to be going through a similar transformation to Raheem Sterling, from being a player with obvious skill but little end product to becoming a really dangerous forward and a game winner.

You do wonder where we might have finished if Ralph had been our manager from the start of the season. There is still an FA Cup up for grabs.

Two great wins. Now let's win the next two as well. Redmond for England.

Those stats certainly indicate that Austin contributes a hell of a lot more. He is ahead in every category apart from passing the ball backwards. Anyway, rumours abound that the decision has already been made and that Gabbiadini is going to be sold. I have total faith in our manager to make the right decision and to use the money wisely to strengthen the squad.

Objects getting thrown at players is not good but one problem with this particular incident is that the plastic bottle hit Alli on the back of his head. He then put his hand to a spot on the left side of his head, which was untouched, and continued to rub that spot as if it was painful so it was reminiscent of the cheating players do when they feign injury to try to get another player sent off. A bottle being thrown at a player is bad enough in itself so an honest reaction would have been better.

He also scored the goal which got them a draw in the league this season at Fratton Park. If that is what ultimately stops Pompey getting promoted, that's another feather in his cap.

Not world class but he is certainly an underrated manager, who is particularly good at motivating underdogs in cup matches. He's done a fantastic job in his 14 years at Burton Albion, taking them up from the Northern Premier League all the way to a League Cup semi-final. Remember when he knocked us out of the League Cup to take Sheffield United through to the semi-finals? And he also took them through to the FA Cup semi-finals. Good luck to Burton in the semi-final. It would be great to see them reach the final.

It seems that everybody associated with the club is upping their game. Hesketh is a skilful player, whose progress stalled a bit over the last couple of years under the old regime but it would be great to see him back here, playing for our new manager.

The chorus of this song has to be one of the best in years for a football anthem. Our Ralph! Our Ralph! Hasenhüttl He's the best manager in the land

Sheer class today. I'd never really considered him to be a top class Premier League forward but it looks like he is finally maturing into just that. He is still only 24 and has the potential to get even better. Let's hope the injury is not too serious.

He is a top class goal scorer. Ings and Redmond really caused problems for Arsenal today. Redmond obviously had to go off injured but I was surprised Ings was subbed because, although he took a knock too, he still looked full of running. But, Ralph knew what he was doing as Long and Austin came on and conjured up the winner. Every player just looked so much better than they've looked all season. Ings was good when he first arrived but today he looked even better than Arsenal's £60 million striker, Aubameyang.

Simply brilliant: our best performance for years. What a miracle Hasenhüttl has worked already! St Mary's hasn't felt that good since May 2016, and the indications are Hasenhüttl could be even better than Koeman.

I can't see him lasting the season. He's never going to be a popular manager and, in spite of the good players they've got, they are beginning to look like they might just get dragged into the relegation battle.

Not forgetting Charlie George. Once you hear the words 'knee problems' associated with a player, it never ends well. On balance, though, perhaps it is better to have them here scoring goals for a few games than some waste of space, who never scores, playing every week. The alternative is to have a scouting and recruitment team and/or manager good enough to spot up and coming players from lower leagues both here and abroad, like Lambert and Mane.