John Boy Saint

Don Ballard having fun at the Orient this afternoon

Need to switch from faffing about at the back Coventry so far are too good for us to be playing that game - we panic it out and straight back it comes at us

That was a great moment - at 3-3 the whole stadium had risen to its feet to add a bit more oomph to push the team on - it was electric. When that seemingly Daisy cutter hit the back of the net, WOW the noise and emotions were immense, it was mentioned at the time that people in Shirley could hear it. So many of the above already mentioned FA Cup obviously - Granny being woken up by Grandad, my sister and me bouncing round the living room like loons when Bobby scored "have we won!" no WE scored, and so began the longest 7 minutes in living memory. Keegan signing - getting home from school and the phone ringing - my mate round the corner "quick turn on Newsround, you will never believe who you have just signed!!!" - You would never get the absolute joy of that signing surprise ever again thanks to Sky Sports news and the cesspool of the internet. Neither would Saints have gotten away with increasing match ticket prices the 50% that they did, hardly anyone noticed such was the Keegan effect. you got a split of the gate receipts back then, that first season with Keegan especially, every other teams highest attendance was playing against Saints. And all thanks to Lawrie needing a particular light bulb for his house. I think the journey from League 1 to the Premier League when "our Nige" was in charge was great, we weren't a big fish we were a damn big Shark - some of the football was sublime to watch - football finances wouldn't allow what we did then now. Leeds thinking they were introducing Lee Barnard to the crowd alongside a feature in their match programme, the same night we were getting the news that Lee was 250 miles from Leeds sat in SMS having signed for us last minute.

Wouldn’t have stood with VAR

Even with Saints specs on bit of justice there

Probably sticking him in the shop window

Oh dear - one WBA corner had to stick they were coming in like missiles

I think any of these would make a refreshing change to the usual bland reoccurring teams we seem to get 45. Macclesfield 47. Shrewsbury Town 48. Swindon Town 49. Weston Super Mare 50. Barnsley 51. Boreham Wood 54. Fleetwood Town 55. Salford City 56. Mansfield Town 57. Cambridge United 58. Brackley Town or Burton Albion 59. Blackpool 60. Walsall 61. Exeter City 62. Cheltenham Town 63. Doncaster Rovers 64. Port Vale All unknown quantities who will likely give us a game. No doubt Joe Cole will pull out number 35 and Crouchie number 30 - and only he will note the significance.

Matt Oakley can sit in that same bracket, WGS always said he set the midfield tempo. Those who know football could see their influence, to those less knowledgeable they were merely “Meh” players.

Ah well

Shithousery

A few hours late to the conversation but here goes. Fonte was getting the short end of the stick after he came back from winning the Euros, alongside his bezzy mate Christiano, all Billy big bollocks, there was a bit of noise in the background that he might get a final pay day with the likes of Man Utd, or some other European competition club. So with all this chatter to escape generated from the Fonte camp off the back of his summer glory, Saints most likely decided not to lessen their return on him by European cup tying him, plus if he was making enough noise to say that he'll be out the door at the first chance, we had best bed in a more reliable longer term centre back pairing over one that could be broken at the drop of a cheque. Think there were a few wry smiles when his ship did come in - destination the East End of London.

Today??????!

Good to see that I saw the same game with a similar view of proceedings.

It’s a funny old game As you can see from the top of this page (and my post on the previous page) that was my view of the game, perfect spot for our goals though, I nearly jumped up at Leo’s strike and blew my cover! It was funny reading some of this thread when I got home, I’d hate to work for some of the in match posters. What are we expecting instant Brazil in their pomp! Since winning the “Having a Season back in the Premier League” at the Wembley raffle we have been enduring a slow motion car crash. Last night we had battle weary Saints up against a team that started to season giving their fans hope that had fizzled out and coming off a shellacking at home on Saturday. That first half was all huff and puff with an underlaying fear of cocking up to give the other side the keys to the door - the fireworks outside the ground were more entertaining. First half and being close to the pitch I did get a good view of our defence, and despite his knockers Captain Jack did seem a steadying presence with much of the play across back deferring to him to send the ball up the pitch, which is probably why Fellows seemed to be having a quiet game. Boy the R’s fans don’t like Manning! Second half started timidly, until the ball up to Jay Rob that got the QPR defender in a bit of pickle, but sheer presence of mind and persistence resulted in a one two for him to be in on goal - I saw on here “he got lucky with a big deflection” I was sat right behind that strike, without that deflection it would have hit the back of the net even more impressively. Leo’s goal moments later from side on was sort of “who is he passing that to?!” to seeing the keeper suddenly in trouble - Wow! What I could see of their goal when the ball appeared from behind the post in front of me was “bloody hell Gavin why you tamely flapping at that - that’s shit” - then seeing the replay on the screen, ok, it was an inert clip towards the box and the Rangers player going “I fancy my chances to get on to this” and caught everyone by surprise, including those home fans sat around me. Rangers tails were up, and we were “oh no not again!” And fair play we properly dug in for it not to, god knows what Bazuno was doing giving away that timeout corner - referee could not have been any clearer with his generous countdown! Very nice once again at the final whistle to have a quiet smile, and see my R’s supporting Boss grumbling whilst chewing a wasp 😁. Being so close to the pitch I was surprised at how small Scienza is - but he is like a Jack Russell chasing the postman, then looking at Jay Rob he is very slight too, he wears his shorts like they didn’t have anymore smaller sizes after Leo raided the kit box, as result he wasn’t getting much change out of Rangers players as experience and greater bulk brushed him aside more often than not. You could see the experience of Scienza and his guile versus the game naivety of Robinson, if Jay can learn from Leo he will be very good. Quite funny listening to Rangers fans walking out, it sounded like us lot “Need an effin win, just come to Loftus Road and we’ll gift you one” 😁 Persian pre match meal was very nice too.