Disco Stu

Missing our captain.

Half time change I hope. Need someone to hold the ball up.

Excellent block from Bree but we've been truly awful so far.

Can't believe I had to explain why Wood is a massive downgrade on Stephens 🤦‍♂️

I think Ross Stewart is better in the air. Larin is the better finisher.

Exactly. I think Stewart is better at holding the ball up and then bringing others into play.

Stewart better at laying the ball off for wingers. I would have preferred him for this specific role.

If the game plan is long balls up to the head of a target man, I think I would have preferred Ross Stewart.

Fast start from Middlesbrough to be expected. They won't be able to maintain this intensity. Just have to weather the first 20 mins.

As much as I'd love us to kill the tie today, I'm expecting a cagey affair like these first legs always are. I wouldn't be surpised by a 1-1 draw which I don't think would be a bad result to take back to St. Mary's.

Depends what Quarshie's numbers are like.

Wood - 25 90 minute appearances, 2 clean sheets

No Stephens is a huge blow. Not looking good for a clean sheet.

I'm confident the players have more backbone than you do.

We've surely got to take a leaf from Dortmunds book and come up with our own Tifo like this...

If only this forum had a search function.

That's the disguise he changed into in the toilets.

I agree.

I've seen a few reports suggesting Wrexham are after him.

As you say, marginal gains are a real thing. A fine will feel pretty insignificant and probably worth it if we get promoted. I don't like it, but I also don't think it's any worse than the cheating we see every week such as diving or time wasting that achieve marginal gains illegitimately.

Saints playing a bit of theft and shrubbery!

No search function on this forum unfortunately. I wish there was!

Hard one to predict but I imagine the players will want to avoid Ipswich celebrating promotion at St. Mary's. They did a lot of running out of possession in hot conditions on Saturday so tired legs on should be expected. I'll go with a frustrating 1-1.

Perhaps this just passed me by and everyone here has already heard this but I don't rememer seeing any discussion about it. I always heard the story that a Bilbao player called Juan Elorduy, struggling in his task to bring back 50 Blackburn Rovers shirts while in England, ended up buying 50 Saints shirts before leaving port and thus, Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid both wear red and white stripes to this day. While its charm means this version of events remains the most popular in Bilbao, it seems a fan group called Bilbao Black Cats and some historians dispute this. Their evidence... Elorduy was reportedly training in Bilbao during the Christmas he was supposedly in England, making the last-minute purchase in Southampton physically impossible. The voyage of the steamship Bachi, owned by the family of the Athletic president, sailed from Sunderland to Bilbao in December 1909, arriving just days before the team debuted the red-and-white kit. The specific text "H. A. Murton, 8 & 9 Fawcett Street, Sunderland" is found in Athletic Bilbao museum documentation. This was a sports shop that sold Sunderland shirts. Juan Arzuaga and William Llewellyn Dyer, two key figures at the club in 1909, had significant ties to the Sunderland area and may have been active proponents for the change. The rediscovery of an antique decorative ceramic plate, gifted from Athletic Bilbao to Sunderland AFC, proves the two clubs had close ties at the time. It was seemingly compelling enough that last year, Athletic Bilbao acknowledged this alternative origin when previously, the Southampton link was the only accepted story. At least we still have our connection to the purported "father of football" in Brazil, Charles Miller... for now.

We can blame it on a soggy pitch or the linesman but ultimately, it was the heavy rotation that prevented us from winning today. Victims of our own success I suppose.