John Boy Saint

Err he was recommended by WGS!........do keep up! They had known each other for years, he could have been alright were it not for the alleged horsepoo c o cking about by certain players.

As above Lewes is the better option, even more so if you are going by car. Park at the station, have a beer round the corner take the train to the ground, get “Sardine” train back to Lewes and you are out of dodge on the A27 easy peasy.

He must also be the only manager ever to be roundly booed by his own fans when his name was read out over the PA at a Wembley Cup Final.

When he was at Reading I worked for the Reading Evening Post - as a paper we use to do loads with the Royals; Reading FC sold Papers locally (I worked in circulation - sales) so met him loads of times always a pleasant bloke. The full on vitriol towards him I struggled with, but jeez his football was not nice on the eye, which was a surprise as Reading went on a storming 13 game un-beaten run at the start of one. We use to get free tickets so Elm Park just round the corner from the office it was a little footie fix, especially as you had to work past 1pm on a Saturday. But we all know, even back then, the top division is different gravy to the 4th & 3rd division

Probably still shaking his head at how the hell they got beaten pretty soundly in the Asia Cup by Super Heavy Weight footballing Minnows Qatar..........possibly why no Japanese Internationals they had em for a month'ish back in January

Being a cynical old Hector, somewhere in the detritus wafting around the place when he signed, pretty certain I saw that he mentioned the move to Saints would set him up for life..............the boy ain't going to be on his toes in a hurry during the course of his contract, unless its for a pay rise elsewhere. There is obviously a player in there somewhere lets hope the desire to play football is stronger than an easy wedge in his pocket!

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Flipping Spurs game played out exactly as it was - after receiving the delayed text I only got last night from a mate who bets seriously and never ever encourages me. Goodness knows what he pocketed, but if I had done exactly as he said Me & Mrs JBS would have been booking a week in the Maldives!!! That said, if I had we would have no doubt lost.................as my Dad always says if it was raining Bank balances he would probably catch his own or worse!!

already on the agenda - came out in the Meet The Ralph’s night at SMS

No surprise really with Mariner in charge. Hardly surprised to see Friend on the whistle at Watford, after last weeks failure to send off Sissoko.

Wow what a pretty goal from Celina for Swansea 2-0!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup ref was pushed as he went to seperate the Linesman and Prutton who was in full rant, don’t think he knew it was the ref he was seething so much, probably thought it was a team mate so gave him a good shove as he hadn’t finished his rant, Fair play to him he didn’t go down like the late Paul Alcock did when pushed by DiCanio.

Sorry Lighthouse I have to correct your correction Sir. The fuse was lit when Senderos tripped him clear as day in the box Lino did nothing (on MOTD later how he didn’t flag for it was amazing). The game trundled on, then Prutton got absolutely trashed by Cashley Cole, the linesman flagged as vigorously as the foul deserved, Alan Wiley the referee on the day waved away the Lino’s flag and let Arsenal carry on their attack. Unknown to everyone in the ground the red mist had descended on Prutton the ball went across the Arsenal back line with Prutton chasing it like a Jack Russell, ending up with the last Arsenal recipient getting clattered with the same ferocity as Cole had minutes before trashed him. Referee Wiley quick as you like ran over brandishing the yellow card at Prutton which sent him over the top, at which point he went to the Linesman to confront him as to why he didn’t ignore the ref and keep flagging the foul on him, then it all went very wrong. The Red was given when he started on the Lino and pushed Wiley away. Sad I know, but we were in trouble and just watching it unfold with the Refs involvement had me spitting chips. Best of all the following year I ended up at a Social Club event “Ask the Ref” hosted by Dernot Gallagher and Alan Wiley, Gallagher could say what he wanted, Wiley was gagged slightly as he was still refereeing. A Saints fan asked Wiley “what do you think happened to make David Prutton react like he did in the game you reffed at St Mary’s v Arsenal last season”. He replied “I have no idea, bit strange as he is a nice polite lad”. Alas I couldn’t just sit there............a moment of silence when I finished, and Dermot Gallagher took it away in a funny direction. ...........yes I remember drunk stuff from years ago too: trust me it’s not nice!

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.