John Boy Saint

It’s the razzle dazzle of the Premier League. if you notice it only happens for dark kick off TV games, so more than likely the lighting company getting a free advert in. There is a YouTube knocking about of the new White Hart Lane running through their disco with their new lights. Certainly ain’t worth getting your knickers in a twist over...........and they do give you fair warning of it happening on the big screen: so the option to skip it in the future. Im just waiting for the fuse to blow - followed by Terry Gilliam Monty Python old lady voice booming out “see! How many times have I told you to stop messing about with that light switch”.

or being positive spot what tweaks he needs to make to make him the better player we hope he could be. Alas we ain’t blessed with an oil rich state sugar daddy and relatives to wheedle endless pots of dosh into the system, allowing us to the money to bin the squad and replace with perfect players. So hopefully Ralph will have a good idea by now as to which players to hone (like Poch did) and which ones to bin. “We’ve been tracking him for 6 years” what waiting for the price to drop? ”coming to Southampton will make me financially secure for the rest of my life” Where’s the motivation, turn up to training for a few hours each day and not have to actually play a game, and still get paid handsomely without any danger of seeing a callous on your hands, or a blister on you foot for that matter. Bit like Alexis Sanchez c£450k a week for 20 hours work

Regardless of what some folks think of him, he has a few of the qualities Ralph seems to like, a good engine to get up and down the pitch, and tenacious as a Jack Russell. Versus half @r$ed Lemina and powder puff Eloynoussi the boy has some bite about him and neither of those 2 supposed better players have exactly wowed us with wondrous football.

With a sea of 55,000 Red & White adorned jubilant Saints fans inside the stadium it probably felt like a Champions League final.

if behind the scenes Cedric ain’t getting with the programme like it appears the majority have done, then tough if he is being hung out to dry by the Boss. McCarthy with regard to positioning in Ralph’s post match comments, when the new regime took over McCarthy commented about how things had instantly changed in training, and that being a goalkeeper he wasn’t involved in the new things the outfield players were. Maybe Ralph was having a dig at the keeper coaching methods, and just shaking their tree, especially when you think Dave Watson has worked under 4 different managers and Ralph might see his goalkeeping department as being a little too comfortable. Just a thought not a fact.

That award of a penalty makes the decision when Bednarek was wrestled to the floor on Thursday even more galling!

Blimey I guess that’s what happens when you pull the Tigers tail!

Up the @R$e that’s made Anfield go quiet

Oh dear that float went under like it had torpedoed twice - you took the bait in style Sir!

Just watching Soccer Saturday there are a fair few players across the leagues with Parties to go to on Monday night red cards all over the place!

Forest Gump..........Sorry David McGoldrick getting in on the ex-Saints playing in stripes goal rout for Sheffield Utd - set up by Billy Sharp.

MOTD due to be changed to penalty save of the day with Lossl and Etherington saving spot kicks. Oops Spurs!

Billy Sharp still shooting fish in a barrel for the Blades 2 in pretty much 2 minutes. No one has ever answered my question of why we cut him loose when we hit the Premier League - yet we’re happy to give Rickie a spin who similarly had no top league experience.

Applemakeyoulookatit auto correct always kicks you in the bottom at some point

They say things happen in 3’s so we can always hope............we can always also hope that with them having such a prolonged winning run, this strange happening of losing twice might play on their minds and make them play with a bit more caution. Be nice to see a repeat of the last time we thought we would reap the full force of the table topping team beaten soundly the previous weekend 5-0..............need to stop drinking really.

As mentioned before I have a friend who blew his chance at being a pro footballer, his hobby and main source of income is betting and his observation of the game is impressive. He stumbled on Ralph at Leipzig by chance and made quite a bit of money on their games but worked out the games to avoid, games like last night would have been one of them. I could see why. Pelligrini has them drilled how he had City drilled the big difference is West Ham players don’t have the money no object finesse that he had with City, but he knows how to work with what he has, he has a winning pedigree he would never have got the job at City if he didn’t. The players he has certainly ain’t pretty but as we saw last night they are effective playing under him. Last night we ended up with 2 teams one drilled and settled against a team under a new regime playing a new style under with different disciplines, if reports about our training under Hughes were true then the Christmas schedule would be doing us no favours with the added intensity the team would now be playing. In the past West Ham would have hoofed the ball over Ralph’s system for players like Antonio to chase. Last night they bambozled us with their liquid midfield formation, using the width of the pitch and pretty much bulldozed us to suit them. With us still learning a different style of playing when that style wasn’t working we just resorted to our default setting for about the last season and a half, which as we witnessed is fairly inert. Which against their monsters at CB and our Kryptonite between the sticks Fabianski (as my mate alongside me said he can’t recall him ever having a bad game against us) we were pretty much piddling into the wind. All that said I certainly didn’t walk away from SMS as disappointed as I have after a defeat before Ralph rocked up. Pretty miffed at the officials though, which was perfectly summed up by my little donkey entering the fray flattening Oriel then kicking him when the ball was gone with no punishment, the ref spoke to him at least 4 times, yet from my seat he flattens Bednarek, seemingly in my view, from behind and Jan instantly gets a yellow for, I guess, the rare offence of impeding. Let’s get these last 2 Christmas games and the cup done and dusted and knuckle down to the ways of Ralph if we have enough petrol in the tank City and Chelsea might be better games for us as both will try to pass trough us, rather than bulldoze us like West Ham.

I watched that then ended up watching another hour or so of Saints highlights in the videos that followed

Partial to a Bullseye myself - blame my Granny for that cheeky little number - when you make the 3rd you know full well you’ve probably drunk enough!

But Shaqiri is only appearing a £12m bargain due to the players he has been blended with at Liverpool. If we bought him he would have probably been an upgrade on Redmond in that he would have goals in his boots and the bloody mindedness to go past folks instead of slowing down to think about doing so. If you watched him in the game at SMS last season he persistently moaned at just about every team mate for not being on his wavelength, which was for much of the game. Maybe he would have worked well with Ings and Austin both being natural predators. At the end of the day the bloke has gone from a relegated Premier League club to Liverpool without having to step on the Southampton stone along the way.

Need to remember the first Rule of Holes: when you are in one stop digging. ..........probably time to ease up on the Snowballs too!!

Norwich v Forest just as bonkers as the Leeds game at the death, Forest 3 - 1 up cruising into 7 mins of added time, final whistle Carrow Road going mental 3-3 ............those kind of games you go home feeling like you won.........flipside Forest fans will feel like they have been hammered 10-0

Wow - Leeds v Blackburn what a ding dong! 1-2 down in the last knockings of the game Bang Bang 3-2!

Alas not anymore - absolute shocker from the Fulham keeper I was actually nodding off watching this game until 14 minutes ago

Craig Pawson on the whistle for this one - think he’s one of those who will allow a bit of physical contact ride without being to whistle happy.

Merry Christmas folks