The9

Oh, and I'm going to a wedding on May 29th, so we'd bloody BETTER get automatic...

But it's still an entirely different set of circumstances. Your analogy would only be relevant if we'd been playing well and leading all match and they'd been playing pretty well and then scored late goals to win it, which didn't happen. Walsall were fundamentally a bit crap and took their chance well, Saints finished badly and lost. So you're basically suggesting that this season Saints are generally crap but opportunistic, and AFCB are doing really well but it isn't translating into success. That patently isn't true.

I did the BBC predictor last week and I had us down in 2nd (with one to play, the Plymouth match not on there). The result against Brighton settled the title and we finished comfortably ahead of 3rd even with a couple of defeats thrown in. Then we lost to Walsall...

Perhaps that is because the point was extremely poorly made ? There is no link whatsoever between the concept of being worse [shots on target, possession, comments from both managers] but winning (Walsall), and the idea of being better (more points over the 46 games) but winning (Saints if they finished above Bournemouth). The analogy is even MORE weak because one of the reasons they're "deservedly" in 2nd is because at the moment they've played more matches and had the opportunity to win more points than three of their immediate rivals.

Ten seconds to turn it into "we're just not good enough" for some people on here !

I'm assuming that given Ferguson's history of slating Atkinson (notably after they contrived to lose to Cheats FC in 2008, the season the FA Cup wasn't awarded) he wouldn't be relying on him anyway. He did quite a good job for them at St Mary's though that was their reserves so probably doesn't count.

Hah, your rabble-rousing arguments are getting weaker and weaker - no, the season consists of all of the teams playing all of the other teams twice, come the end of the season where you end up is what you deserve, injury crises, suspensions and "being up there for 6 months" or not. It doesn't necessarily even itself out over a season either, but life's like that.

Count me in the middle somewhere too : glad when we win, annoyed when we lose, not agreeing to sacking any managers until they've tangibly done stupid things on a repeated basis or got us relegated, happy to occasionally go to Hartlepool but Good God not twice in two seasons, that kind of thing...

I don't care what you assume other clubs' fans think, because I exist at our club and I don't think like that.

What, when the only goal of the game came from a long ball in behind a defender ?

Umm, people want to be in the Championship because they know we're unlikely to go into admin and field a half-baked team of kids next time around, plus it has many of the same benefits of League One without all the drawbacks of the Prem. Although I will admit this season's Championship is full of utterly dire teams, hence Leeds and Norwich being in with a shout, a year after being worse than us head to head and "more better" than the rest.

Yeah, I do. It's still bloody marvellous compared to turning up week after week to watch 11 random scandinavian international scuffling nobodies lose to 11 other better and more cosmopolitan random international nobodies in the Prem. I'd rather we were in the Championship though for the time being, and then if we can fast track straight to the Champions' League and save all the rubbish beforehand, that would be fine too. Then after a couple of seasons of winning the World Club Championship we should get the club transferred to MLS as a franchise and I can satiate my need for interesting competitive matches between decent pros without any pretence.

Call me slow for only just noticing, but you do seem to spend about half of your posts telling everyone on here "how they would think", don't you ?

It's usually the right way if it's the best way to win in the circumstances, and Ollie Lancashire was one of their centre backs. HTH. I'm surprised this thread has lasted this long, it's utter garbage to even consider sacking the manager on the back of dominating chances (not just possession), coming up against an excellent keeper, and losing to one of few efforts on target.

Either that or you've been scammed by some really stupid criminals.

Honestly, we've got some flappers on here... "I've been to 5", "I've been to 8 aways, will I get them ?" Yes, of course you will get them, assuming you haven't been ass-hatted and applied with 30 people who've never seen a football. Even when we were in the Prem and had to apply via post people who'd been to 4 or more matches ALWAYS got tickets, the cut off was 3 or sometimes 2 - and that was with 20,000+ ST holders and a staggered system that allocated to 6 and more, 5, 4, 3, 2, etc. and for away ends that were sometimes similar sized...

Because they wouldn't know until the applications were submitted, and they only had to be in on Monday.

Well if you're in the temp stand I'm sure you'll only be surrounded by plastics anyway, so it's not really a big deal unless you start giving it the large one.

Actually there was no such thing as "free speech" on either Saints Forever or here, you either stick to the rules or you get the boot. The "free" part is nothing to do with cost, it relates to liberty, and that's pretty clearly defined legally.

I think not.

Too many users, clearly. If the moaners would all sod off then the rest of us could use the site happily...

Or alternatively you can choose "Southampton dominated the game from start to finish and we never looked like scoring."

To be fair to Lee Dixon, he's at least trying to put a tactical perspective on some of the MotD and MotD2 output without dumbing it down or joking around about it. The fact that the BBC thinks that 10 minutes of Lineker / Hansen / Shearer banter is more important than actually showing the games, and the fact that they think ANYONE gives a crap about the idiot messages Lizzie Greenwood-Hughes reads out on the Football League Show is an embarrassment to their sporting coverage - but it's the exact same over-familiar celebrity-based jocularity they have on all of their coverage, and I absolutely despise it as it just detracts from the actual sporting event, the feats of achievement and how they are achieved (including tactical analysis) which SHOULD be the focus.

If I had to bet on it, I'd be inclined to think that what was meant was either "he significantly improved the side that got relegated from the championship when he briefly played at the start of the following season" or more likely "oops, I meant our League One side, have we really been in this division that long?" I also thought Murty did well for us at the time, but then any right back who was able to clear the ball without slicing it off the pitch looked good at the time - he ALWAYS tried to get it down the line if he could avoid putting it out. As a 38-year old who is still (just) playing myself, I'm pretty sure that he won't be back at the level he was at 18 months ago, he wouldn't bring anything Butterfield or Richardson wouldn't already on the pitch, and they've got youth on their side, relatively speaking.

I once made the mistake of attempting a diving header at a corner that was absolutely hammered into the 6 yard box. I met it with my forehead, and though it didn't actually knock me out but I can see how it could. Mind you that was in 1995 when we used "proper" footballs, you could leave your door open, etc. I also missed a penalty in the same match due to the ball sitting in a hole where the penalty spot should have been, so there may be some differences to the environment in which Dickson had his accident...