John Boy Saint

Lallana seems to have become a powder puff player, one tackle matey tapped his shins and he went down like a sniper had dropped him from the floodlights and stayed down............ Or is that Liverpool believing they have the officials in their pockets. With this in mind did anyone spot the pally chit-chat between Brenda and Mr Friend on the weekend following his poor display for us v the Scousers where he had been dropped as a result of dodgy decisions to be 4th official at Anfield!!!! ????

Thought he offered the Brett Ormerod role to Mane's James Beattie partnership..................... and that proved to be a potent combination.

Bit harsh on JWP as this thread is based on his performance yesterday afternoon, both he and Djuricic came into a side that was for want of a better term were under the cosh of a strong Chelsea poking and probing for a winner. Everyone on the pitch in a Saints shirt was tuned into the task at hand and the ping pong breathless nature of the game, Koeman threw the dice and changed up, freshened, the midfield with 2 players who are more than capable to make something happen I think the intensity of the game was such that both of them found themselves having to get up to speed very very quickly whilst not dropping an expensive clanger, as a result they both became anonymous in the grand scheme of things. Just as an aside, Not sure which Chelsea player it was who sent JWP sprawling just outside our box, but I bet if that was up the other end of the pitch the ref would have blown.

Bloody hell I am exhausted!!

Probably because he looked so casual

Forster looked like he was on the training pitch!!!

What an interesting thread, aside from a bit of a wobble part way through. My wife suffered from DV in her first marriage what I saw done to her would make your blood boil thankfully she had strong enough family around her and was stubborn enough herself to walk away. When we got together there were times when we would have the odd ding-dong, not Queensbury rules but verbal nothing nasty but an annoying child like why, why, why and I would just bite my tongue but could see how her first husband probably just lost it. The root of all this was that she naively was of the belief that she could change her man to conform to her ideals, which is probably at the centre of most DV towards men and "the puppy" soils the carpet for the umpteenth time. I think I was an enigma to her having grown up in house where my Dad was the domestic "Godess" ( get a clip round the ear for that) I followed his lead without a second thought: the confusion this caused dissolved these ideals over the years. Reading Whelks post above just made me think of a friend who has been ground down psychologically over the years. He basically can do no right for doing wrong, he has earned very nice money over the years and given his wife a life many women would envy, but can't spend it as a surprise on his wife. Even if he bought her the Koh-I-Noor diamond it would have to go back to the shop to be changed because the colour was wrong or the cuts were in the wrong place: it wasn't her choice. When we lived closer to them, me and him would go out for a walk a few evenings a week as time passed he would be more free with the chat and quite frankly his domestic world is like an Orwellian 1984 existence, his only sanctuary seems to be the Church which is like a crucifix to a vampire to her, but her psychological dominance over him is such that, even at his age of 54, I have to go through his wife to get him a pass to come out and play golf with me! He has never once phoned me up to arrange a game, but within seconds of heading out to the course in the car the first comment he makes is "thanks for getting me out"!

As I understand FFP it doesn't matter how rich the owner is if you are spending beyond the set percentages v income the club generates you fall foul of FFP rules. You can't have a Jack Hayward at Blackburn where he had money to burn and hoovered up all the good players and won the Premier League with them. With a mega rich overseas owner you could set up exhibition games like Man City in the Far East recently and "charge" a mega bucks appearance fee paid via a convenient sponsor to boost the clubs generated income without the FFP committee being able to do owt about it.

"Tell you what boys, this jock is far too big!!"

Mike Dean on the whistle for the game, be interesting to see how he fairs.

They are up against the Voice on BBC1 who have a Saturday Sunday extravaganza, it's a tactical thing to get the voyeurs to watch TG in greater numbers the following Sunday. So much of this is staged for effect, Porsche number plate in Argentina, Asian gentleman on a bridge with what most of the viewing public had a slope from left to right on it but someone of Asian upbringing hears the word and bingo controversy when most folks watching had never even knew the word slope had a derogatory meaning! Top Gear is the Beebs biggest export by a country mile with Clarkson bumbling at the helm they are not going to knife it.

Yorkie got to have been in the fridge for at least a week Dark Bounty Twirl Topic And a dark Chocolate bar I stock up on in Spain with Almonds in. Anyone remember the Chocolate bar Machines that were around years ago, stick in your pennies and pull the drawer under the type you wanted. Arriving back in Basingstoke station after a Saints game in the late 70's we still had money burning a hole in our pockets so went to one of these machines put in the right money and pulled the drawer, got the chocolate bar out and closed the drawer but gave it another tug just in case, hey presto another bar appeared again and again we did this until that choice was empty and tried another drawer and that delivered too again and again until that was empty being 14/15 we were crying our eyes out with laughter at our good fortune so was a bloke on the train, as we had pockets bulging with our booty we passed a couple of bars through the window to him....... Sadly only 2 drawers were wonky.

Rich Tea with a Cuppa Dark Chocolate Digestives Bourbons Choc Chip Cookies Shortbread

Black Jacks Traffic Light Lollies Sherbet Fountain Parma Violets Those Lollys that were made from Cement of different colours, lasted for ages would shatter your teeth before you succeeded in cracking it......... Unless the stock had got old or a little damp in the stockroom.

When he popped up and scored for Wimbledon the other day the first reaction was wow! he is still going despite his regularity in the treatment room when he was with us!! You have to wonder what not playing league football will do to a chap like him, especially as he has managed to keep himself going for so long. Enjoy your retirement David.

This will keep Bearsy going when he has finished viewing the first one.

Bloody hell how thick are they...... All of them must be knocking on the door of 30 if not over by now!!

To start with Palace are not the Palace we rolled over on Boxing Day far from it since Pardew stepped in, this was not going to be a walk over even more so since Palace had their tales up from the weekend win. I thought for the first 30 minutes we looked tidy with a lot less of the fannying around as their 18yrd box loomed into view, then it seemed like frustration crept into the team as despite a good long spell of Football they still were not getting anywhere closer to scoring and Saints heads seemed to drop a little. Palace went for the smash and grab after the break but we repelled that. The desperation for that goal was showing with the crowd and the players as they pressed harder for it than we have seen of late, when the goal came you could feel the relief from all round the stadium. Then the players teased us with their Mickey Mouse the ball is a bomb with the fuse lit defending, the refs whistle was a relief. Djuricic looks to be settling down now and looks a bit handy with it, Yoshida is proving that he is a player who with a run of games under his belt keeps on improving, Mané just seems to be a man on a mission and listening to his interview on Solent a happy soul with it, Long when he came on despite being a little rusty added a different twist to our front line as he is so lively. Big Vic was his usual imperious mountain in the middle eager to get stuck in with some deft touches, my MOTM, what made me smile was any other Saint player with the ball being closed down was getting the "man on" shout from the crowd, Big Vic being closed down not a peep as if folks are assured that whoever try's it on will invariably just bounce off him!! Phew a win and a goal at home.

Don't know a bit of sunshine might be a little too relaxing, it's still not Summer here so a not too dissimilar temperature to here but different scenery............ Anyway Liverpool could only afford to send Sterling to the Caribbean due to UEFA breathing down their necks over FFP!!

Premier League Tinlids!............ It will be Lambs to the slaughter as proper league one and two players rumble over them and put a few up in the air!!

My girls were 9 and 10 around that time and liked getting the players autographs on their shirts, after much pleading we hung around after a couple games waiting for the players, on a couple of occasions Prutton would be in the first wave of players out signing for fans as he went. When my girls had seen everyone who was coming out we would wander back to the car only to pass David Prutton 30-40 minutes after walking past us still in the car park talking and signing for fans.

It's all a cunning plan make it look like we are wobbling and then bang off on a run. That said this afternoon listening to the game it reminded me of what my late Grandad always said about Saints once February stumbled along " they always start the season well then drop off towards the end".

Sadly Ohio that's old school thinking, these days if you know you are off somewhere else folks don't give a flying Fk, footballers will still be paid dopey money regardless of how they play they are untouchable.

As I remember This wasn't a sudden rush of blood this was the lid coming off the pressure cooker. Prutton or someone broke into the box and Senderos was facing the wrong way hung out a leg deliberately behind him in the box tripping the Saints player for a clear penalty in clear view of the Lino nothing given. Not long after Prutton was cleaned out spectacularly by Cashley Cole the Lino waved his flag like a dervish indicating a free kick to us, Alan Wiley just waved him away for no foul as if the man was a buffoon!!! The crowd was obviously whipped up by this, the ball from the tackle broke across the box and the red mist had descended on a normally nice mannered Prutton and he skittled the Arsenal player with the ball with as much gusto as Cole had used to wipe him out, Wiley blows his whistle for the foul and Prutton exploded marching over to the Lino and probably telling him to grow a pair and stand up to the referee then it all went wrong, pushing shoving....... Red Card! Alan Wiley was the catalyst for this, at a meet the ref night with Saints fans in attendance someone asked him what went on with the to which he said "I have no idea he just lost it"........ I had great pleasure in telling him very politely that it was predominantly his fault.

All the courses now booked for the summer, deadline normally 10 days before.