CB Fry

If anyone can beat our genius current manager, it will be his ex-boss. Can't see us getting a bean out of this game. Well done on sticking with your man Les Reed so much braver than those clueless knee-jerk reactionists like Swansea.

Brilliant. And anyway, who does our Roger think appointed Paul Mitchell?

And the team that Katharina put in place took the club to far higher heights than that cretin ever achieved.

Plus, he was actually dead before we got out of the third tier. So the 'legacy' of establishing us as an Premier League team is Katharina's, not her fathers.

But he definitely scores every other game though because the statistical experts said so.

Delighted to see James Ward-Prowse has been dropped amid the continuing rumours that he is definitely a sleeper agent working for Portsmouth Football Club in order to relegate us.

Seems unlikely they would want him after a pretty patchy first season - driven by injuries and our dreadful manager, but patchy nonetheless. He hasn't quite proven himself yet. I think we'll keep him on for a full and barnstorming season next year (assuming we stay up) and then cue the vultures.

JWP's family are not PFC season ticket holders. They used to be but stopped several years ago, because something happened. That sonething being their son became part of the first team for Southampton Football Club. You know, that. And JWP's father is a barrister, they're not some chavs from Paulsgrove ashamed that their son is a scumma. They're delighted. Like normal people would be, not that you'd understand that. And JWP was ten foot high on promotional posters kissing the SFC badge about five years ago and has never done or said anything ever to go against that sentiment since. He's on his way to being a SFC lifer at present. So, although it is a lovely little trolling routine you're trying to construct here, it's utter garbage. Keep trying x x x

The club are responsible for the highways and byways of Southampton now? Fu ck me.

Personally I'm glad he's dead.

None of that means we couldn't have employed a replacement that would do better than Pellegrino has. We very obviously could have done that - Puel's sacking is not the issue. His dreadful replacement is.

We won't need four wins. 3 plenty with the league as it is, plus a couple of draws and thats 38 points. Not saying that is easy or that we'll do it.

You might be on to something. I remember last year we had to play on the Saturday and then in the cup final the day after. Must be because we're not one of the so-called top-six elite "big" superior main major elite big clubs.

Yes but the question was why Sky have planned a Friday night game on FA Cup weekend when the answer us they've planned it because it is FA Cup weekend. The only odd thing is picking a team with a high likelihood of being in the quarters but there you go.

It's international week so it will not be the Monday. Sky are probably showing a game on Friday night because, errr, it's cup weekend and BBC and BT will have big games across Saturday and Sunday. Pretty obvious really.

Why is Matthew Parris writing directly to Saints Web contributors? Any chance he can do one for me? I read his column every Saturday and everything.

The day the fixtures come out is the day they reset all the league tables.

Cup win and twenty thousand fans die in stadium fire?

What's childish is conflating one relegation with spiralling into oblivion like Coventry, when it took even Coventry about a decade to get to there. On that logic, we could stay up this season and then go down next and still become Coventry anyway. If you think do little of our prospects that we couldn't even weather one season in the Championship then I don't really understand how you think we have much chance in staying in the Premier League for much longer anyway. We're clearly doomed I tells ya, doomed.

Indeed. The option isn't win the cup and be relegated into liquidation and becoming the next Coventry OR don't win the cup but stay in the Premier League for infinite seasons and never ever be relegated. Win the cup and go down this season, don't win the cup and don't go down this season. This season. Just this season.

Jesus wept.

And me. Unspeakable night. Still annoyed about it.

Presumably we'll be on the BBC as fourth choice tie.

Delph off. Name on the cup.

All pointing to a Wigan procession in the second half. No bother.