John Boy Saint

and Lawrie Mac standing on the touchline conducting the Saints fans to sing.......................and a pitch sprinkler randomly going off? Worst was the second leg having to listen on Solent in the days before full match commentary

We should fill the place to roar them on - probably scare the whatsit out of them playing in front of 30,000 home fans.

Sad news today that Charlie Whiting the man with his finger on the rules of Formula One, the go to man and the race starter for many years unexpectedly passed away in Melbourne on the eve of the opening race of the season from a pulmonary embolism.

Nothing much is going to be for the next 2 and a bit weeks.

Probably find it 5 pages into the Holiday Cruise section of adverts just down in the bottom left hand corner.

Hardly a surprise, those were still nasty days to go to football in, grim facilities, not at all family friendly pleasant stadia, and the chance of being set upon to or from the ground, away games weren't much of a day out but a good chance of getting in a scrap. We stayed with my sister in the Peak District for the recent Man U game, she wanted to go along with us. We hopped on the train from hers into Manchester, I had my Saints coat on, which you would never have done back then, she was a bit surprised that nobody said anything to me aside "Hello" and other pleasantries.

One of the most satisfying things from yesterday was Valery scoring a goal all thanks to Rose not seeing him sneak up behind him letting the ball roll through his legs and Valery pop it over the keeper into the net. Amazingly as a fat fan in the stands I was aware of Danny Roses Oscar winning performances in close combat, but I had no idea just how B movie standard they were in the flesh, even more so that the officials bought into them by the carrier bag full. Ball goes out off Rose in close proximity to Valery suddenly Rose has donkey kicked his legs out tripping g on a blade of grass, and is down holding his face, free kick spurs, minutes later Yan breathes on Rose, Rose stumbles to the floor Valery booked. Valery out of his face for much of the afternoon having learned his lesson from Leicester. So after getting Romeu booked again for a fall worthy of an award, Not to mention the sly swing he had at Yoshida defending a corner. To see Devine retribution delivered on him at St Mary’s by Yan Valery was very satisfying.

What beggars belief is the referees don’t help themselves by persistently buying shoddy feigning of being clattered, from persistent cheating offenders, they.should also watch a bit of Rugby just to see how much contact is actually required to hit the deck performing a double back somersault with tuck. On the flip side Long gets no protection because he was a regular feigner years ago, Vertongen smashed him yesterday but the refs view was pretty much “oh it’s only Shane Long he’s putting it on” Yet Danny Rose who is an excellent exponent of the dark art of making out he has been tackled by an oppo player fitted with Sythes for feet. Stupid refs buy it every week from him and he gets better at it every week and they buy a little bit more,

Wow - Having now watched MOTD if Kevin Friend is on the whistle or even a 4th official for the next round of games then we know for certain that the game is bent! Sissoko was full hands on shove with minimal contact from Redmond and right in sight of Friend then to compound it further Sissoko makes to head butt Redmond right in front of the referee, yet Friend deems both players are equally culpable. Absolute bloody joke! Right I am off my high horse now. just as an aside, Tierney who overturned the Lino and gave the goal for Sterling in the City v Watford game, was the same ref who let Kompany off for a 2 footed studs up challenge against a Saints player, leaving him down injured, with a yellow card, but couldn’t wait to get the Red card out for PEH for a robust challenge on the city player who got strainght up to get in PEHs face. Cobblers do they even themselves out over a season. ok honestly of my soap box now

My Fillet Steak and Red Wine are going to taste roight noice tonight. ............that’s if there is any wine left in the bottle as it’s sliding down a treat.

I wouldn’t get too excited about Fulham just yet, when we played them the other week as soon as we scored you could see all the glue falling out of their joints, one of my bosses has a Fulham season ticket and he knew exactly what I meant as he had seen the same week after week. He said last Sunday, despite losing, it was a different Fulham out on the pitch, and it wasnt just him saying that. The normally empty stands at full time were still pretty full of fans applauding them off the pitch. We just have to get on and do our job for the rest of this season, as gifts from elsewhere are likely to be a bit thin on the ground. Cardiff v West Ham will be a funny one as West Ham can be a bit flakey, that said Bamba is a loss for Cardiff. Palace in the form they are in likely to beat Brighton who struggled v Huddersfield Newcastle v Everton is another funny one depending on which Everton turns up Liverpool v Burnley, can see an upset there, Liverpool are having a wobble and Burnley are the last team they will want to play, Sean Dyche teams might not play the prettiest football but it’s dogged and effective, with goals scored from hard graft. Leicester V Fulham could be interesting, New Manager v New Manager all depends who has been the most effective in training this last week. We play like we did last Saturday and we are more than in with a shout.

Away from the Handball stuff, did anybody watch the Chelsea game last night, and in particular the conversation about Kantes new contract at Chelsea alledgedly being worth £290k per week!! Just made me think once again - what chance to we actually have in keeping any decent player when money like that comes knocking on the door?

That’s exactly what Danny Mills was saying as co commentator on 5live in the aftermath of the Penalty awarded against City in the Shalke CL match, that the current VAR interpretation of handball in Europe was open to that kind of abuse - in a Cul de Sac being ushered away from goal attacker just flicks the ball up at opposing players arm in the box - spot kick. As an ex player he was less than impressed at this thought, as were Hargreaves, Owen, and Ferdinand on BT the other night. All of this makes me think of a home game we had v Chelsea a few years back, we were losing and under the cosh a bit, damage limitation had become making sure GD didn’t get worse. Chelsea on the attack red and white bus in front of goal showing no way through, Saints player (ok stupidly had an arm slightly raised) as he ran to block Lampards forthcoming shot, Lampard, and fair play to his quickness of mind, instead of taking the shot at goal flicked the ball in the direction of no other Chelsea player, but he was purposely aiming at the closing Saints players arm. Mike Dean the ref duly obliged pointing to the spot pretty much as the ball left Lampards boot. You can see the definition of Handball, as the referees briefing in Europe has stated, being abused, and the 4th official having to get a bigger board to show the double figure VAR added minutes. If the same directive is taken up in the Premier League next season we won’t be getting the final whistle in some games until after 5pm!!

As I said in the post match, when he did this it did put a stupid grin on my face. As Billy mentioned a few weeks ago in League One minus 10: Young Master Valery plays with a "I don't give a F*** who you are attitude".

Virgin will probably walk away themselves especially as the mass digging up of Hampshire at the start of their sponsorship to lay fibre has pretty much ended.

As it says he is unrecognisable from the player Saints fans knew, and were not too upset to see leave. About the only blistering performance we saw from him in the last couple of years akin to last night in Madrid was against Bournemouth last April, when he was subbed he received a stand ovation from pretty much SMS, coupled with quite a few comments from those sat around me of "I can't believe I am standing and applauding Tadic off the pitch". In another interview he complained that he didn't enjoy the premier league because he got kicked too much every week. I can't recall any other foreign player making such a comment, but he qualified his comment that on the continent if you get the merest touch you get the foul: I guess he felt that the going down like you have shot by a sniper in the floodlights that he practised diligently every Wednesday afternoon was going to waste. Ralph might have gotten hold of him and squeezed a bit more out of him, but when Puel said he wanted to build the team round him, he needed grease for his ears to get through the door, when he didn't deliver the goods and Puel subbed or dropped him he got all narky, so Puel relented and persisted with him. Hughes wasn't going to take the same cobblers, which was probably the thin end of the wedge.

The drip drip of the Womens game is obviously working, as you took a peek at the game if only to comment on the crowd....... goals were pretty good. The Americans are reported as only showing coverage of the Olympics from an antisocial time zone if an American wins an event, 2nd and 3rd's are losers so not worthy of airtime, so they ain't going to rock up at a stadium to watch a game they can't win between Brits and Japs. In the grand scheme of Womens football the 25,000 in St Marys to watch England v The Welsh National Parked Bus Company was impressive.

Pretty much always been the way even at the Dell - play towards the water Second half. St Mary’s points the same way as the Dell did more or less. Second half was always played towards the Milton Road end, I guess when the move was made playing the same way was the easy choice.

As a further aside. I thought the “Oh Prowsey Prowsey, use to be a skate but is alright now” wheeled out in the Fulham game the other evening was a bit pea brained and disingenuous towards him.

Valery against Rose should be fun, although the way that spawny git squeals and rolls about when someone farts near him, no doubt Mr Friend will be buying it all afternoon.

Yup goalie can't catch a cold, defender can't stop the goalie being threatened by the ball coming at him. Blame the quiet bloke who chooses to live a personal life away from football, preferring to play golf, he isn't the first player not to talk about work the moment he walks out of the "office". I can't believe after 6 years he doesn't speak any Spanish, if he was carp Real would have moved him on with ease, Sorry lads you are going to have to grow a pair and put a bit of effort in, now the bloke who shielded you for years has buggered off to Italy.

Nice interview on the OS https://southamptonfc.com/news/2019-03-02/video-yan-valery-post-man-utd-vs-saints-premier-league-1819 He was surprised it went in.

But if he was on the whistle Saturday he wouldn't have given them either!!! Always remember him at SMS not so long ago v Liverpool, probably Oriol, cleaned out a Liverpool player in their half, (no surprise that) the ball broke in their favour, so he signaled for advantage being played, it went through 2 Liverpool players and was punted forward to Mane who failed to control it sending it out for our goal kick. Nope Clattenburg whistled and brought the ball back 70 odd yards to the original offence and gave them the original free kick, for another free attack on us.

Something else I noticed on Saturday, especially in the first half, we have gotten a little bit nasty of late (in a good way). For far too long we have been very polite as a team not questioning decisions from the officials just rolling over and accepting them. We seemed to be regularly having a word with the ref, and aside from the first half pressing the players also looked to be niggling the Man U players, which was making them raggedy, into making un forced errors, and questioning each others errant passes.