Ted Bates Statue

I still don't understand how that we managed to reach the point that the club made an actual complaint over Lallana's hurt feelings. If Clattenburg had done something genuinely unprofessional in that incident it surely would have come to light.

Abramovich stepping away from Chelsea, I did not expect that to happen. Don't know too much about their finances but guessing there has been a fair bit of work in recent years to make them self-funding. No new stadium though...

I think so too. Via the FA Cup, of course 🙂

Scott Joplin's The Entertainer, if it is the same one.

Indeed. The flirting between the two of you is beyond tedious and devalues this forum, even in the afterglow of another good result.

Diving to gain a goal scoring opportunity has been a problem in this sport for decades and nothing of substance has been done about it. Think this little titbit will be filed under the 'mildly interesting' category in similar fashion to how it was received back in the autumn, and those outside our catchment area bubble will move on swiftly to other matters. As for The Athletic, whether you care for them or not, now that the NYT have acquired them (overshadowed by Wordle lol) I expect it won't be too long before they will start swinging the axe on the less popular sections of their site, which will no doubt include reporting on the likes of us.

If only we held onto Saphir Taider <3 a bit longer, maybe our profile would also have been boosted in a similar manner.

Thanks for checking. Think I made a typo myself for the H2H though as it should therefore also be increased by +1 to make it +23.

My calculation for the GD difference against last season is +2, on the basis of it being -9 last year, vs -7 today (which would result in +22 on the H2H). I would appreciate a sanity check though.

When I spotted that upcoming group of six fixtures a few weeks ago it consisted of the only sides below us in the table minus Newcastle, and we were 13th. It must have been years since we had such a kind run in the calendar so on one level, I'm really looking forward to them. On the other hand, we're watching Saints and we can't get complacent as supporters and start counting our chickens. It is coming to the time of year when the relegation-threatened teams finally start picking up results as they make a serious effort to claw out of trouble, so I'm personally expecting at least a couple of results similar to our Norwich debacle.

After such an unexpected and satisfying 3 points, I read the match day thread from just before HT all the way through to the end, and then thought I'd treat myself to having a look on here. OK then, I'll have a go at this. Match Day 23 Match Day Comparison : -1 points, +2 GD Head-to-Head: +15 points, +14 GD Next up: Manchester United for match day 24. Last season, Saints' corresponding match day was a 1-1 draw against Chelsea, earning our first point after a run of six straight defeats following that emotional win against Liverpool. Buried among that collection of defeats was our away match at Old Trafford which yielded... a 0-9 defeat, according to last season's wiki. Distant memory for me at this point in time. COYS!

I reckon we might be able to learn the words to "We hate Zouma". With a bit of luck, he might be able to get the message too.

"That's how your cat feels" from the Watford support as he lay down on the floor. At any rate I look forward to our supporters giving him dog's abuse at the FA Cup match

Nile Ranger on for Boreham Wood as they lead in added time.

I think Willy would be up for an extension on the basis of yesterday's showing. He seems to be growing into the role well.

Minsk, sorry to see you stand down on this. I've been looking forward to the comparison posts - especially more recently as we have started to pick up wins this season. All the best to you.

Redknapp once said managing Southampton would be his last job in football. Think he ended up saying that a few times about different clubs. Agreed it is a bit odd though as I thought Hodgson had some genuine sentiment towards Palace. But then again it must be reasonably local for him, he's not battling against any of his former clubs and as it's Watford, it's a one month rolling contract, so no big deal.

Wonder what they think of him over there? 🙂 Currently in 2nd place in Ligue 1.

Good shout. Can we make this a Golden Thread despite being from another forum? It deserves archiving for posterity and hilarity.

Last time we won 4-1 was against Everton under the mighty Pellegrino, over four years ago. It seems like since the West Ham game we've managed to overcome our goal drought.

I considered taking the piss out of your post at the time as thought the timescales were much too short to be anything more than a coincidence. Fair play for calling it correctly. Also, I had a look at the guy's website and it looks full of motivational woolly bullshit. However, his record at Brentford has to be respected. I, for one, welcome our new Les Reed.

Young ✅ Hungry ✅ Guaranteed to improve ✅ Like Bale returning to Spurs, Ronaldo to Man Utd, Lukaku to Chelsea, Rooney to Everton, we need to bring this hero home. Hell, if we can find room for Theo, I'm sure we can do the same for Alexandre.

I heard it was happening before the end of the year - turns out they meant before Chinese New Year.

Surprised nobody has mentioned ourselves yet, given the usual levels of self-loathing.

Hope this means we've had our regulation bad half already