John Boy Saint

Disappointed there’s no Geri Halliwell - Look at me, every time Mike Dean is mentioned

Of course being Shane Long and his reputation, he will have no doubt have fallen into the path of Alonsos foot on purpose.

With one eye on Sunday, as its now Tuesday are we safe to assume that Alonso faces no retrospective action regarding his seemingly deliberate stamp on Long?

When they started off down in the Chapel / Kingsland Tunnel they looked pretty uneasy as if they had been asked to do it against their wishes. They started very quietly with a samba beat like you hear at Brazil games, I have to say because it wasn’t too loud where I was it wasn’t offensive, then they seemed to shuffle up the sidelines to the Northam. The Ingerland band who turned up at the Ladies international were a pretty pants by comparison. if anything the flags in the Kingsland were more cringeworthy.

If you watch Willian whenever a free kick is awarded against Chelsea he makes a point of standing in front of the ball to prevent a quick kick being taken.

Does no one else in the team, beyond JWP, actually practise taking Corners and Free Kicks. Stoke game I think, it was like no one had ever taken one before. Its almost like everyone else sits in the Staplewood stands checking their Twitter account while Prowsey practises on his own. Saturday after he was subbed we got a free kick and it was like Bertrand suddenly realised James wasn't on the pitch and with Tadic gone too it was his turn. Last season Ryan was whipping in some evil corners from the right hand side but this season he seems to have become last resort with Tadic taking them when JWP isn't on the pitch, an all he seems to do is float them deftly into the keepers waiting arms more often than not. I just find it bizarre that without JWP on the pitch corners and free kicks for us are nearly always pointless.

I thought Staplewood was equipped with accommodation for the team, the original thinking was the players arriving back late from a game wouldn’t be disturbing the rest of their own house when getting home in the small hours. That’s was something I recall from all the alleged state of the art sport science we were applying to help make us the wonderous phenomena we once were.

For 70 minutes the oppos weren’t trying as hard as we were.

At least going to Leicester he can nip into Bicester Village like every other Chinese visitor to our fair land. Probably here to make sure everything is going to plan with regards to our falling through the trap door so he can syphon off a lump of the parachute payment to service his debt.

There’s an echo in here!

There’s an echo in here

Errrr all very well pointing at the easy targets our defenders, and who hasn’t been replaced or replaced with allegedly inferior players who wouldn’t get a game up the Sports Centre. You have seemingly absolved the actual first line of our defence, our strike force. Our front line has been powder puff for the last 2 seasons, most teams know the are pretty unlikely to get caught on the break playing us, so just push up at will putting everyone under more pressure in defence ultimately.

Bottom line was as a team we were bloody thick! Chelsea were taking and trying to take all their free kicks quickly, yet to a man we were snoozing ambling into position. Once they scored you could see the fragility run through the team like wildfire. Their second goal was like our defence were in the middle of a bad dream where you can't run away from the monster fast enough, except we were hemmed in and no one could put their boot through the ball and get it away. The upper management of the club should be bloody ashamed of themselves, they have F'd the whole thing up spectacularily - but in reality don't give a tinkers cuss because Football is probably the only business where failure is rewarded by @r$e armouring contracts Oh look it's Wine o'clock!

Considering they are still digging up Hampshire to install fibre to folks front doors, and making an absolute hash of connecting it, they probably need to keep supporting Saints to keep them in peoples minds when they finally get it sorted.

Brother in law, who is a Chelsea season ticket holder thinks so too.

Liquorice straw is intact, plus beautifully enhanced with a light coating of pocket dust (maybe even a bit of bogey), conker is a twenty-er........... crikey! going on Pilchards valuation, find another marble and I should be in the market for an executive box!!!

And they cover themselves with the $h!tty spiteful little gem of : if you have the temerity (and that is the word that has been used) to challenge the decision we'll double the punishment. They managed to retropectively Harshly punish Tyronne Mings last season in the Cherries game at...............oh hang on...Man Utd. But Ashley Youngs leg breaker just evaporates, they really do think we are stupid. Truth is we should be use to it by now

Ok.....I have 2 marbles. a conker, a picture card of Bobby Charlton, a Sherbet Dib-Dab and a half chewed toffee? ​I might grow up one day!

sorry....... And bloody loose the damn thing 90% of the time. His assist for Arsenals 3rd on Sunday was shameful, for a player with such "mercurial" talent he should have seen Iwobe off. Anyway as we can see here, without doubt Tadic is a Marmite player. As for sleepless nights, that's probably down to the relegation salary cut clause in contract, and the fact that no other team has considered taking him off the shelves of Southampton FC Players'R'Us Superstore.

I have mentioned elsewhere (probably further back in this thread) that I have an acquaintance who was at Bristol City then Villa as an apprentice (in old money) played against Wallaces and Shearer, but blew his chance. Having been in the game from a young age the game is drilled into his brain, go to a game with him and it's an education far beyond what most "experts" on here pontificate about. He commented about Targett while Shaw was with us asking "who's that young left back of yours blond lad" I obviously said Shaw, he instantly said "no, you have a better one in your academy" I said Targett "that's the one". Like I say it's been commented on elsewhere so I won't babble on. But this chap has no affiliation with Saints and lives away from the area yet he had been aware and seen Targett play in academy games. I just don't get it on these pages why whenever a nipper comes through our system more often than not they are viewed as not good enough, when in reality having passed through the longest interview process in the world, someone far better qualified than most have deemed him to be suitable for the job of professional footballer. All these Johnnies we would rather the club spent squillions on were just as green as Targett etc once, just we didn't see them when they are making the odd naive error.........I struggle to recall when playing for us, if actually let us down. Funny how many Fulham fans believe Matt is player above their current level, yet our armchair "experts" think he is at the only level he is capable of.

Don't think that was so much heads being buried in the sand, smarter fans of theirs must have gone Hmmmm just as we are right now, but they were repeatedly snaring............apologies; finding a willing mug......... sorry; investor with a fat enough wallet to keep them trundling along, how many times did you see that rag tag bunch with a crusty stadium, no training facilities of their own change hands and at the same time think, strange that no one has knocked on our door with a suitcase full of money to buy us with the package that we are. Good ol' Arry taking us down kept them in the premium league in the world as sole players on the south coast, and kept the shop window on smart street looking all sparkly with players they couldn't afford, tempting the money in from all sorts of characters but there are only so many of them, and the Emperors new clothes can only be sold a couple of times at those prices. With us, most folks know the Swiss in business play their cards very close to their chests, on the flip side modern Chinese are a bit more materialistic if they have it they like to show it, so its slightly odd that right now the club is a bit like North Korea in its silence.

In the EFL Cup Final when Lingard popped their second in our onion bag, there was a chap just in front of us who left his seat we presumed to release some of the beer that had been processed, we never saw him return! My Daughter was on the upper deck and she said when Man U's second went in a few up there got up including a group, like us she figured they had gone to use the facilities or for an early beer, but noted they never came back. So you are probably right in your observations.

We certainly do seem to be going to the dogs all over the place where protecting our assets are concerned, Premier League status aside. Not talking to one of our products just leaving him to his own devices under the charge of another team for 4 months, when lads from Chelsea, who in all honesty are never going to see a Chelsea first team appearance, are in regular contact just seems wrong. Add in the Olomola nipper ripping up the pitch at Yeovil for half a season, they request to extend his loan or even buy him, we drag him back and pull up the drawbridge stick him on the bench for the under 23s if he's lucky, unless I have missed something his contract is up in the summer pound to a penny he will turn his back on us and probably go back to Yeovil for bobbins. If this is a general trend in the academy there are a whole heap of what were promising nippers currently out on loan, who we would be no doubt relying on should the worst happen come May, that have seen that whilst the grass might not be greener over the, fence its a perfectly acceptable green and just stick two fingers up to Saints and move on through not being "loved". Weird

As I said elsewhere, I think the team we played on Sunday will be the core of the team over the next few games more workman like than finesse. To be honest Carrillo and Austin up front is attacking with the handbrake on, whilst Long might not have been prolific for a couple of seasons and is lacking in certain areas the one thing he brings to the party is nuisance, the first defenders in your team are your strikers, someone like him makes defenders cautious of pushing up especially when they know with a head start they have little chance of catching him. Play like Sunday and better, we're in with a chance. If what Batman posted elsewhere is true, then we have Mike 'bloody' Dean on the whistle, and it's on TV so the perfect stage for him to be the only star on the pitch- 50/50 in our box you just know where he's pointing. Just be a treat to do em twice in a week.

You have to hope that Sunday gave the players a bit of belief, having watched the West Ham game admittedly online, that was a car crash, I was picking bits of windscreen out of my face for most of last week, whilst having a ticket for the Emirates I was more looking forward to dinner out with friends (who are Arsenal ST holders). At full time I didn't have a face like a smacked backside, because for the first time in weeks we had a bit of fight, another week on the training pitch with Mark, Eddie and Mark who knows. Think we saw the core of the team for the rest of the season on Sunday, no frills just players prepared to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in, yup you cynics the boy might of been brought up in a house of fish (who cares?!) but there is no doubt JWP is a Saints player through and through, given the choice picking teams in the playground and just JWP and Redmond left to choose from; the other kid is getting Redmond. Tadic can slip on a bar of soap, might do us a favour when the muck and bullets are flying during the run in, we don't need players selecting reverse..................... Not seeing Iwobe off yesterday backs this up, you can point at Cedric and Jack all you want, but that cross should not have come into the box, Tadic should have seen him off. As for recruitment we all know its pants, we don't have one nasty B@$t@rd in the team its too polite. regular readers know I have a pal who knows the game, I said a couple of months back "dunno whats gone wrong with Gabbiadini" his reply......... "Thats why he is at Southampton, and cost less that £20m". Get a couple of results in the next couple of games, and the season gets interesting. Come on Saints don't let the hope kill me.