Shroppie

See above.

"Saints maintain it is just as a fitness precaution and hopefully he will be fit to play against Burnley on Saturday" 😀👍 Phew.

I want three points (and three more at West Brom) so we can relax and win the semi.

I assume it has to be then to avoid clashing with PL games on Sky. Annoying.

Utterly ridiculous.

Great as always. 😀👍 Thanks.

I'd agree we're less likely to suffer big club bias.

It takes true dedication to be so negative. You can only beat what's in front of you and the big positive yesterday was seeing some of the energy and bravery returning after a slow, nervy start.

As I've said above, they don't need to be mutually exclusive. But IMO the consequences of relegation are far worse than the consequences of not winning the Cup.

Some seem to think that if we go down, everything will be ok, and it will even get better. Whilst moaning about current lack of investment, quality of players, the manager and all the other things that can only get worse, not better, with the huge loss of income. We become less attractive to a buyer, less attractive to incoming players, stuck with players who won't move for lower wages, we probably lose Ralph and our better players are cherry-picked with no prospect of replacement. Our business model and survival at present rely on staying in the PL (and, although it's very unlikely to happen, finding a generous buyer). I'd still love us to win the Cup but not at the expense of survival. Hopefully the two aren't mutually exclusive.

I struggle with the lack of understanding that relegation means ripping the non-playing side of the club apart, with a lot of jobs lost. And it's just as likely that we would sink (see Wigan, Stoke, Hull, Huddersfield, Sunderland, etc) as bounce back.

Three years ago we beat Wigan in the Cup quarter-final. We were PL. They were League 1 after gloriously winning the Cup in 2013 but being relegated and fading into oblivion. To those who would prioritise the Cup, just sayin'.

Spoken like a true Saints fan. Are you living in some sort of surreal world where we get relegated, the club is close to bankruptcy or worse, players leave but we somehow are better off? Some fairy godmother going to produce a squad of top players and a billionaire owner who really wants to lose as much as he/she can? Utterly ridiculous. I am reasonably comfortable that we won't go down, but if we do, we are in deep shit.

Relegation isn't all that? Try telling that to the 60% of Saints backroom staff who'd lose their jobs if we went down. And you obviously wouldn't care about the exodus of our best players.

We won't play five at the back, and I'm dubious about swapping the full backs over, but I'd possibly go with a more fluid front four. Mccarthy KWP Bednarek Vestergaard Bertrand Diallo JWP Djenepo Armstrong Redmond Adams

Yes I did, and thanks for a balanced and sensible view.

And Theo

Would be pleased to see Chelsea, WBA, Everton and Man C win today.

I don't disagree but suspect Redmond will start, possibly instead of Tella or even Armstrong if he isn't up to another start.

I've read so much utter tripe on this forum over the years, but this is probably the most ridiculous. Please stop trolling. You really aren't good at it.

You should try actually watching games

A bizarre game because we lost 2-5 but overall we played well, except for stupidly gifting them the second and a few moments of very poor defending. But objective achieved. KWP rested fully, Armstrong, Diallo not full games. We played some good football in the right way. Keep doing that and we'll be fine. But a couple of observations. Mccarthy might have done better with at least one goal. Che should forget his big crossfield passes out of defence, Stephens isn't a midfielder yet, Salisu will be good but has dodgy moments. Tella was great. Redmond was better. Djenepo is injured. Again.

Well. This has been fun.😀 Prompted a couple of replies.

Catching crosses is not his strong point: he flapped at a couple yesterday and I prefer McCarthy in that respect. But otherwise he was sound, although he had little to do.

That's a relief. I hate being right.