John Boy Saint

Secondedddddddd. You also have to sprinkle in that, with us now playing in a remarkably more cohesive progressive style as a team, how much does our superior performance make Huddersfield performance look worse than it might have looked a month ago. Last Sunday sitting in the stand at SMS v Arsenal with my full view of the pitch, 10 minutes in I did think “blimey can we keep this up for another 80 minutes”. Even before Austin had wrapped the game up Arsenal didn’t look like a team that was on a 22 game unbeaten run, after a week and a bit of the players buying into the Ralph philosophy the overall Saints performance made Arsenal look nothing special. Back to yesterday - I will readily admit that for quite a while I have thought Redmond, more often than not, to be a waste of space. Yesterday he looked like the player we hoped he would become when he first turned up, it’s like he has been let off the leash, had the lead taken out of his boots and Steak is for diner if he is good. The boy was electric yesterday (crikey did I just type that) wonder if Pep will be having another chat with him next Sunday afternoon.

What’s also good to see is an upbeat Dalek- Merry Christmas Sir!

Redmond wrapped that ball to Obafemi up in nice paper with a bow

Shaped to go right rifled it left fooled both Bernarek and McCarthy

Great pass great finish and NO fannying about.

That second one was no surprise really after those clowns somewhere else had the same song with the flowerpot. At the same time, as anyone who was there will testify, that game had descended into a bit of a dull affair on the pitch as we were 5 or 6 nil up at the time and coasting to the point where 2 players at a time could have taken turns to sit down on the bench to relax for a couple of minutes. Being positioned not too far from where it was dragging on, it did give some relief from the woman in the row behind me letting everyone know which Saints player was on the ball, and she was on first name terms with each and every one of them.................well all except Oriol Romeu: bloomin foreigners with their fandangled names!

I can remember Leeds at the Dell late 70's someone amongst them brought a family selection pack of Fireworks with them and were letting them off towards the Saints fans in the next pen.............. Leeds scored a goal and a couple of their psycho fans obviously cheered in the middle of the Archers this bloody great big hole appeared in the people with 2 blokes stood like an island in the middle then the hole closed it was like a Windmill convention. Silly Buggers

but rarely go off the rails

Could never work out why we didnt give him a spin when we came up, the guy is a penalty box predator even now.

We had our own numptie living in the Chapel on Sunday afternoon!!!!! After Austin had scored and the air had filled up with paper clackers, some bellend decided that wasn’t enough and somewhere in their pin sized brain the solitary brain cell sparked into life with the dumb idea to launch a partially full water bottle from the rows in the upper letters of the alphabet at the already annoyed Arsenal Goalie.....Why??!! Thankfully it missed and he ignored it aside from kicking it into the advertising board with gusto. So if you are treated like a criminal next Thursday upon entering SMS you have some **** in the Chapel to thank!

You forgot to add the audacious bit. You can’t beat the Sensational(ist) Current Bun

Les Reed on Sky Sports The Debate tonight. 10pm

Everytime someone mentions Branfoot I can't stop thinking about being sat at Wembley for the Zenith Data Systems Cup Final (remember that little tournament to replace European nights after Liverpool fans managed to get us banned from Europe). There were 2 chaps sat in front of us, one was obviously along with his mate as he had a spare ticket, the Saints team was being read out big cheers followed each name, chap says to his mate as the players were done "just listen to this"......... PA "And the Southampton manager is Ian Branfoot!" Wow the Boo's were immense!

Late home listening to Radio 5 after the footie, nearly home and Kelly Cates tosses a comment made by Paul Ince earlier, into the Man Utd postmortem phone in - Sponsored by Kleenex - ince reckons the interim gig is perfect for Hughes and Bruce working together as a management team!!!

There were almost riots the length of Archers Road when that clown got given Frannies number 3 shirt!!

Thought I heard directly from the horses mouth in an interview that compared to Saints fortunes of late Alex was pretty happy with his lot: kiddies, England appearance, new contract. Probably some stuff and nonsense probably overheard while we were casually wafting our way to the bottom 3 and possible exit strategy's were being discussed at St Georges Park. "Oi Kenty we need a short snappy filler for a gap, got something that no one in general will actually notice? and those that will care, well there won't be enough of them to worry about"............. "just don't even think of submitting that piece about The Queen due to announce a day of national mourning for Manchester United not having a manager in the middle of the season".

We could let a couple of them make a guest appearance on here, couple of sound observations about us

Hard one really, but at last Cedric has a challenge from a lad who looks perfectly capable. Under Ralph and his analytical football if he is willing to learn Valery could thrive very quickly, if Cedric responds to the new mans techniques we could be very spoilt for choice. It could then come down to pace and the opposition. I would give Valery another spin v Huddersfield, rest him v WH if Cedric is fully fit, then bring him back for City. I thought him, Bednarek and Redmond made a tidy right sided trio on Sunday...........................but once again how pleasing it is to have viable competition in that position. You never know Ralph might give them both a go Cedric left Valery right.

That was the position as of last Saturday morning Cedric, Hojbjerg, and Romeu (amazing considering how few minutes he has had on the pitch this season) are all one card away from a day off. Bednarek, Armstrong, and Long got their names taken yesterday. The cut off is final whistle of the West Ham game I believe

Cheers

There is bound to be someone far more adept than me at lifting an image to post on here from the Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6501277/Southampton-3-2-Arsenal-Ralph-Hasenhuttl-earns-win.html The lead photo of Charlie Austin heading the winner, has a blurry JWP warming up on the touchline also rising to nod it home, just thought it quite funny.

Agreed I think he did extremely well yesterday, ok he lost his man in the build up to their first goal, but then we have seen the vastly more experienced Cedric skinned by lesser players. When he saw the ball out under pressure at the end of the game, voices around me were going "no not there, thats not the place to be doing that", when the ball went dead the cheer that went up from the Northam must have taken away all the aches and pains he was feeling from a full game against a very good side. Even a blind man could see what a difference Ralph has made in a week, intelligent young players like Valery being given his chance are going to thrive in that kind of environment. How many times have folks been calling for a viable challenge to Cedric, no doubt Jan is the kind of competition he needs too.

Interesting that when Redmond got lumped in the first half, he was the first one warming up just in case, then only joined by Long a couple of minutes later

nope eating bread and jam tonight - claims he flushed sixty notes down the pan on today’s game.

You had better hurry up and get round mine just putting a decent Sunday Breakfast on! That’ll set you up a treat