John Boy Saint

Good to see both Maya and Jack driving out of defence into attack in an effort to get something to happen, Jack in the last 2 games made me think of VVD when he glides out of defence for a change of scenery. Young Jack has had a bit more of an air of confidence about him these last few games, I think the best thing for him was having Maya alongside him because even when Yoshida was flitting in and out of the team you could always see that he is very good at reading the game. Plus he was invariably looking to protect Jack, which is how they sometimes ended up in the same place at the same time. If Virgil stays, wouldn't object to us going all Chelsea with the 3 of them at the back!! Romeu, as he has been all season, was again getting stuck in and against hurley burly Stoke the kind of player you want on the pitch to hand back at them. I liked in one of those videos the club do where they ask the players what they like for their tea etc. "Who do you least like tackling in training" just about all of them said Oriol!...... Even Charlie Austin. Good to see Charlie back too trying to get things going and getting in where it hurts, and fair play to him when he made an error instantly holding his hands up in apology: unlike someone else who would blame a swooping seagull circling above the pitch if he could. Just a shame not to see Gabbi playing off Charlie.

This from further down that article would have made things interesting!! Paul Doyle: Teams should be docked a point for losing without scoring.

Sat down the other end didn't hear any of the Puel out, just the "you don't know what you're doing" which seemed to gain a bit of traction with quite a few fans in other stands. Best chant has to be "we're on the pitch if someone scores".

That's me out of the game then. Didnt want the £10k anyway

The only players who deserve pick up this weeks pay packet from today's game were, Stephens, Yoshida, Romeu, and Austin. Those of you getting your knickers in a twist over the reaction of others in the crowd to the substitutions, you must be the people who order a steak in a restaurant and ask for it to be cooked medium, when it turns up it's well done and your mushrooms are tepid and when the waitress comes round and asks if everything is ok with your meal, you just say yes thank you. When the average fan in the stands sees the deck chairs only being changed and not rearranged week in week out, at some point they are going to stop sitting on their hands and voice their opinion. They have invested good money and time to watch the games, Yes you can call this season the transitional one that's probably been long overdue, but Claude and his team are paid handsomely to find solutions to the problems and we ain't seeing any solutions being tried out. Finally I noted in the paper yesterday that the ref today Lee Probert had only reffed 3 premier league games this season, boy did that show today, he was woeful. The lass running the line in front of the Kingsland also looked like she had been picked at random from shoppers at West Quay 30 mins before kick off. Well that's it folks, 38 games, 8th in the table, a Cup Final, memorable trips in the Europa league: maybe if we hadn't been so bloody dull over the last few weeks our glasses might have been just over half full.

Don't let the door bang on his backside on the way out. Said for a long time he flatters to deceive, shows odd flashes of brilliance, but overall not as good as he thinks he is, when he loses the ball for the umpteenth time in a game he blames everyone else in pointing distance.

Because Thorpie bagged the 11am hour I will go for between 10:00 and 10:59 tomorrow morning. Les already let the cat out of the bag at the Awards dinner when he said "it will be a quiet summer".

2003 probably stood out because after many years of getting away with it, ok Hoddle bucked that a little, Strachan suddenly had us Saints fans reaching for the oxygen and enjoying the view from an unfamiliar position high up the table. The last 10 minutes of games were fun because Strachan had the team fit enough to last 120 minutes. I always remember driving home from the Boxing Day Spurs game which we won 1-0, Mrs JBS said "did you feel the atmosphere change in the ground when the clock on the screen clicked over to 80 minutes? It suddenly became tangibly tense and nervous!". I said that I didn't, probably because I was contributing to it. We actually got to a FA Cup final too, the first final for 20 (?) years, we weren't sweating on needing ours and others results to go the right way on the last day.

was that the one where Olomola came on, and went on a mad rum across their defence like he was being chased by fierce animals and Claude rushing out to the edge of the technical area telling him to calm down.

Blimey there's an echo in here

No it isn't they have put it on ice because of the.M3 being closed for tarmacing and finishing the replacement bridge.

As others have said the cup final when Gabbi scored that second especially, plus the singing of OWTS as one. That has to be closely followed by the trip to Milan, we had a bit of a road trip having flown into and out of Geneva, what a wheeze.......... but almost 7000 Saints fans in the San Siro singing their faces off (again as one) for a club of our size that is bloody impressive. So it's all been about we the fans!!! On the pitch West Ham away was fun.......... But Jack Stephens getting a toe to the ball in the box ahead of the slimy diving Origi, the resulting corner coming into our box and being headed away to Josh Sims who just put his foot down and was off up the Anfield pitch, having the presence of mind to run across the front of the retreating Liverpool player, then passing to Shane Long who simply just puts it in the back of the net. Lets hope this thread is a bit more action packed next May

Cheers for that hopefully a 3 hour spread for 13k will be easier than 31k all heading to one place at one time. And with the M3 closed again from Bagshot (3) to the M25 (2) all weekend probably means the usual jam at Winchester.

Another of Lawries "roadsweepers", just did his job relatively quietly in midfield leaving players like Beattie to run around in the spotlight, without doubt in the WGS times he set the tempo for the team.

Just tap up Erwin, a few of my Dutch friends have always said Ronald is the face but Erwin is the brains.

Horses mouth I am afraid.

As an aside: Markus wanted shot of Pardew, because he allowed the team to take their foot off the gas for the rest of the season after the JPT win. Cortese told him not to be so hasty.

Weston Shore will be busy then............ hope the tide is in

For those who believe we were playing a lesser Manchester united team last night, I was talking to one of my customers this afternoon who is a United season ticket holder with his son (believe it or not he actually has a Manchester postal address too). They both said that was a much stronger team than even they were led to believe Jose was going to put out against us. Think the BBC website only mentioned 4 changes. Still the fact remains that we should have beaten them last night even if it was only 1-0 from a generous penalty decision.

Beat me to it .................what about the other way round where someone ACTUALLY sticks Shane Long up in the air, and the ref waves away the incident based on Longs reputation?

Twinge in his Groin I think I heard when Blackmore asked Puel on Solent post match

There is no doubt he has ability, I think he knows he had the ability. Obviously the down time he had following surgery at the end of last season has not helped, and I think the petulance is more as a result of frustration with himself not doing what he knows he can do, sensed more recently that maybe he is trying a little too hard. The time to really start judging him will be after a full pre season and a few games next season.

I think you will find that the Booing was more for the decision of who was being taken off not who was coming on, there were at least 2 other players much more deserving than JWP to be coming off.

Only a complete tool would argue with that..... spot on.

I have to say I didn't walk out of SMS feeling flat and despondent, like I have a few times too many this season. At least we had a go especially in the second half where we were actually knocking on the door. Man U were there for the taking as many have said but to say that was a weakened team, probably in Manchester United teams terms you could say that, but aside from Smalling and Jones (and possibly 'Wane' Rooney) they still had a team capable of keeping Hull Sunderland and Boro up, out on the pitch. its that final third still though, shabby service up to Gabbi, Redmond giving the odd flash but overall driving you up the bloody wall, and Tadic losing the ball again and again then blaming everyone else in a red and white shirt (surprised he hasn't blamed some one in the crowd yet). Some clown further up these pages commented that Davis was always losing the ball, there are others on the pitch who make Steven look like a rank amateur on the losing possession tally up, and if losing the ball very cheaply counted double Mr Davis would be pretty low on the table. Whilst whispering Dave on Solent does spout some cobblers, he is right about questioning why the hell Puel doesn't tweak the formation in an effort to make us a bit more dynamic in front of goal. Last season when we had our mid winter slump, Koeman suddenly decided to go 3 at the back 5 in the middle 2 up front, hey presto! we had stopped the rot. Anyway we shall see what happens following the end of season de-brief with Claude, I think he is a capable enough chap, maybe Mrs Puel is putting the squeeze on him to return to France, and the way the contracts work these days he may as well get the most money out of the remaining 2 years of his deal............. I still think Mr Black isn't the best option as a number 2. Still back to tonight, I thought young Jack looked good again, ("3rd / 4th choice CB" some numpties on here haven't a chuffing clue) thought he had a touch of the VVD about him as he increasingly had a wander up field carrying the ball and off loading it without too much fuss. Nice to see young Matty back too again a tidy performance looking the part, that said I think he was hanging a bit towards the end........... not many players play the full 95 minutes after as long a lay off as he has had. JWP Again played well, just wish he would tell Tadic to bugger off when he is setting up to take a free kick, and Dušan is spouting cobblers in his ear, his 2 free kicks dropped right in the box had the Man U sphincter twitching. Why take him off when the obvious choice was Tadic or more so Redmond. Liked the Cameo from Pied too, you can see he has a few miles on the clock where experience is concerned. After Long getting beaten up on Saturday (poss metatarsal I swear Claude mumbled on Solent), and Cedric taking his turn tonight, I wonder who will be getting battered black and blue by those nasty Stoke boys on Sunday?. Finally Mike Dean must be getting close to hanging up his whistle soon?