suewhistle

No, and I'd also add he has very little backlift on his shots. Way to go but none of the kids looked out of place on that pitch, regardless of "it was only against nnnnnn".

My friend from Hamble sat next to me on the sofa says 'take flippers'. Mind you, she hates football, even if she did sponsor my team. What sort of crowd are we expecting today? Now the rain has stopped might be a few more willing to splash out a tenner?

Huh! You should see our grass roots park pitches! A sea trout, a lost bass, and three mullet.

Bree not even on the bench so assumed injured which might help explain Stephens. So now the question is do I splash out £10 on Saintsplayer or try and find a dodgy stream..

Your post reminded me of the difficulties of manpower planning for football. It's not just "We'll need a new cost accountant in a year when Bert retires" and you get somebody new who just has a couple of months' notice to work..

A chance to give him the bird..

Hah! I said Black Jacks to myself before I saw Whitey's comment. Normally you'd splash out and buy 4 though..

That's actually quite a good summary of our game. Some of the coolness in defence and lack of panic looks like risk, but they manage it very, very well. There are long diagonal balls occasionally, Harwood Bellis and Bazunu have both contributed well but we still allow too much time for defences to reset. Speculative crosses someone called them, and although we've no CF at the moment we have enough quality players to benefit from them if we mixed it up a bit occasionally. We do create chances but either our finishing is woeful or we do one too many passes. On a separate point I thought Stuart A lost rather too many tackles and Che just a bit slow too: are they fully fit or just slowing with age?

Don't know that one, how does it go?.. There's always 'To be a Farmer's Boy', marching tune of the old Hampshire Regiment.

Yep. Presumably my local pub in the PO area has the red button on Sky, whatever that means. Not sure what the competition is that evening but they've split feeds before now so I'll go and dangle some turnover in front of them. There's a couple of other random Saints fans who occasionally go in so a vague chance. I'd rather spend £10 on a couple of pints than a dodgy feed.

I went along to the game today as a teammate had a ticket she couldn't use and Havant is a cycle ride for me. A patchy, scrappy game in all honesty and not such good football as I've seen before from Saints. The first goal was an OG as the number 6 tried to deal with a wicked cross, their headed equaliser was up the other end from a free kick and the number 9 left unmarked (although good movement). A back post header for our winning goal and although Portsmouth tried hard to equalise our subs helped see the game out, and started to get their passing game together, along with some excellent timewasting in their corners.. Edit: for those that don't know H&W is an artificial pitch which may have made a difference. I've trained and played on it and it's hard on the joints, plus plenty of petroleum jelly needed for your knees to avoid nasty scrapes..

I'll definitely check the replay..

Didn't I read on here that he wasn't that good, a bit pony in fact, and we shouldn't expect to get too much for him?

If he manages to outgrow his first babygrow unbeaten we'll get him the next size up!

To add to the chorus of positivity here I'd say that the game was really enjoyable to watch and the only stress was mild frustration at not seeing more goals! I commented to my neighbour that this should add a few hundred on the gate next time: not just the win but all the rest. Clean sheet too..

Cold! The pubs are busy and we'll all be leaving them as late as possible! I'm playing in goal tomorrow and am going to freeeeze!

It's not often I agree with Charlie Wayman, but as quoted above Blackmore made an obvious leading question ("I thought") which isn't particularly professional. 'Well done on the clean sheet, how did you read the game' perhaps? It was a hard watch, and in the first half there were times that all the outfield players were in their half, which seems to be standard MO for most teams playing against us, and we find difficult to cope with. As it opened up in the second half after KWP's goal we played better football and some good interplay, but will nobody shoot or take responsibility please? At least the trains were operating and I was able to have a few drinks. Incidentally, The Junction in St Denys has reopened and it now looks like the new owners have decent standards including hygiene: I know someone who did some work there for the previous tenants and they would have struggled to get 0 stars!

Including age, by nearly two and a half years, which makes a big difference at this age. Personally I think he has more potential than Tella: faster, a decent and better touch but still lacking the decision making that experience will bring. I've seen signs of better movement too. So all in all not an "insane opinion" and I wouldn't make quite such dogmatic statements for such a young player, new to English football.

I didn't know that, thanks. That's why I kept quiet about it. Unfortunately I couldn't get there last night but I'll arrange things that I get to the next midweek match at St. Mary's, it sounded like a good game, and good to see Millie Mott back from suspension.

Exactly this: there was an Everton fan's article in the paper I read (the usual moans), but unfortunately they didn't open it for comments as that would have been exactly what many other fans would have commented..

Possibly, but he's right about CB Fry.

Sorry mush, I was playing, on a soggy Southampton rec pitch with tufts of grass that a cattle farmer would look on with avarice, a fine sea fret and a cross wind that a tea clipper skipper would have exploited for a record passage.. Plus I pay subs for the privilege! LOL

Dodgy pint and the shits?

Interesting article in The Guardian today: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/nov/14/james-ward-prowse-set-piece-mastery-football-west-ham Some pointed comments below the line about how he's only getting the attention now he's playing for WH.

Can't comment on how we are going to play but am sure it will be better than the two times I have been. Jake Thomson ISTR coming on as sub in a 3-1? defeat back in div whatever, and more recently when I think it was a draw but courtesy of some really good pubs and getting in by train I can't really remember. The Rat micro-brewery was good as were the station pubs, and the first time there was a food festival in the station approach. As you can tell, the football wasn't memorable!