John Boy Saint

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.

We certainly do, be good if we could squeeze in a friendly game like the one WGS sorted out v Bayern Munich (I think) all those years ago, when the club thought one man and his dog would turn up and it ended up being a very over full house. Just to keep the competitive engine ticking over........... that said with Internationals being played in the next big break hopefully a few will be called up and they will be a bit more match ready for Brighton.

I have to say goal aside, there was a moment in the first when he pulled Pogbas pants right down and effed off with the ball. That did put a big smile on my face.

Very rare to walk out of a stadium after a Saints defeat and not be looking for a cat to kick! Played well - as for comments about Maya standing off Lukaku with a 12th man clown of a ref like that, it does make players wary of even breathing on the oppos. Pleased for young Valery to open his account with an absolute screamer!!

Need to turn the PA down first, otherwise windows would be shattering from Sholing to Totton!

Never got that myself either, the moment she stepped onto the pitch she looked very uncomfortable. Made me think of Kirsty Gallagher hosting the presentation ceremony for Sky on the 18th green at Wentworth, she tottered out uncomfortably to the middle of the green on her toes, and stood like that for the duration, as if she had been told the head groundsman was hiding in the trees with his snipers rifle and should a mere millimetre of heel puncture the grass she was getting liquidated!

Just make a couple of crunching clean tackles early on and politely pull them to their feet saying “hope you’re ok, I would hate for you to miss the PSG game”.

Worse than that, whilst the game was in play(as in players actually attacking and defending not waiting for a corner) they showed a Highways Agency advisory advert about not hogging the middle lan of the motorway, just as I thinking why is a Space Invader getting bigger on the screen, just as the nippers sat behind “that’s a Space Invader, why is a space invader on the screen?”.

Not much wrong with the lad, improving every game, last night he was moving to receive the ball up the line and it either went across the other side of the pitch, or behind him requiring him check back and play back or sideways. Yes he could have been more dynamic but you got the feeling they had been given a rocket about the gift wrapped giving the ball away leading to a goal of late and he was thinking more about what to do next if he loses the ball this far up the pitch, rather than sticking it on Charlie Austin’s head in the box.

Penalties at half time are a bit lame wherever you go - bit of “that’ll do”. But then it was all up the spout, blokes setting up the boxes of fire pre match on the centre circle, the message on the screen for warning us of the impending light show. The PA volume turned up to distortion levels. I hasten to add I don’t mind it loud but distortion from those big new speakers - why so loud. Players trundle out, no disco no balls of fire, the pyro men are wondering what to do “if I go and collect it will some idiot press the button to ignite it while it’s in my hands” Everyone knows the relay works - there is no effort to watch it while you are chatting, if it rains it’s a bit more fun you can tell many are watching by the reaction when one of the nippers takes a tumble or misses a sitter. If you ain’t having the relay either don’t bother, or get the Police dogs, Dagenham Girls Pipers, or the Albion Band in. Best regards Miserable Old Git

Job done, on paper what you would expect.........but as we all know Saints don’t play on paper. As soon as Romeu banged it through the crowd for our opener, you could see the glue falling out of Fulham’s joints. MOTM JWP (that brick wall challenge in the first half leaving the Fulham player in bits on the floor summed up he meant business out there tonight) was impressive and yet another goal in the bag. Maya Yoshida in the middle of defence was a rock, directing the 2 Jans made their job so much easier. Few more goals would have been nice, but that shows the issues up top, that said we breezed the second half, at full time the players looked like they had put in a shift, but that was probably the fear of Yoshi promising to kick them round the dressing room if anyone dropped a clanger and threw away his clean sheet bonus.