John Boy Saint

Just noticed that there are 6 Hampshire teams competing in the FA Cup 1st round today, good luck to all but 1 of them: come on Aldershot in the big "Navy v Army" game.

Voted for David Conn, as he knows his onions and is a mate of my Sister.

That Warrington v Exeter game was quite exciting at the end............. Warrington 100 places below Exeter in the Footie pyramid.

Excellent player and a real worker, without him the "star" players, everyone gets excited about, just would not shine so brightly in the team. Said it a million times, Lawrie Mac's blueprint for a good team was to make it up from Violinists and Roadsweepers. You could eat your dinner off the street Steven Davis keeps clean.

Surely we want them all in the Europa league as that Thursday game seems to mess with the head of most teams in that competition when the league weekend games come up.

Me too after watching an older chap tapping away at his iPad in Palafrugell then seeing an extensive match report later that evening on here under your name............ Unless that mop of hair is really a syrup!!

Cheers for that. For a supporter who has followed Saints since being a nipper and being allowed to go to games from 1977-78 season, my interest in Saints is a long term addiction. Seeing this facility and the attention to detail, whilst it all may come across as a little anal to some, the fact the club are doing all they can behind the scenes to improve player performances by sensible percentages continually is fantastic. When you see what we achieved out of Portacabins whilst this place was being built Skies certainly are the limit. It definitely is a very long way from the "old school" gym at the Dell and players only taking to field 5-10 minutes before kick off on a Saturday. You must have been buzzing after your tour.

One big danger of him coming back is it could upset the current balance that the team seems to currently have, the last thing we want right now is a crack in the dressing room. When you look at the amount of finite detail the club goes into beyond just sticking 11 players and 7 spares on the pitch on a Saturday afternoon, maybe in all the analysis they knew that Rickies abilities were on an accelerating slide hence the chat of him being halfway out the door in January to West Ham, selling him to Liverpool his boyhood club provided the perfect sugar coating to the departure of Saints most popular player since Matty. And to Saints fans he retains his legendary status as he hasn't fizzled out into retirement before our eyes in a Saints shirt.

Fat from the Pies would also ensure it lasts a long time too!

No wonder Villa park was peppered with empty seats yesterday afternoon for the TV game.

That is the family stand if you look at the number of Young uns so the effin and jeffin will likely be curtailed. Although as I said above the Hull fans we spoke with walking back to the car, said they were behind Vic's shot and is was a superb strike. These guys saw it from the opposite side............. We could of course be their second team :-)

And superbly observed (except by the catering staff clattering about behind us). Just back from an eventful day, as we departed Watford Gap we were smug in the car as to how far ahead of schedule we were then bang someone drives up our backside on the slip road. Anyway got to Hull in plenty of time which was a relief especially with big Vic lofting one in from well over 30yards out with 2 minutes and 1 second on the clock, walking out of the ground after the game we were chatting to a a Hull fan and his lad and they said they were right behind Wanyamas strike and were amazed how well he hit it as "the ball started well outside the post and curved in beautifully". Now Hull knew what they had to do and we knew what we had to do, and to be fair to Hull they certainly had a damn good huff and puff at our defensive door and we remained stout and resolute in the task. Wanyama was solid breaking up play all the time. The chances we had, especially on the break, to put the game to bed were numerous, but then grinding out 3 points away from home having scored in the second minute was very impressive. Now to the so called Saints fans around us. It's a damn good job the traditional old flat razor blades are not so readily available otherwise there would have been blood pouring down the terrace from the number of opened up veins, the moaning and mithering at the merest minor error was amazing.......... I think some of our fans spend too much time thrashing their 2 year old kids or Grandpa playing FIFA15 or whatever, as listening to some of the cobblers this afternoon they expect CGI football in real life!! Take a chill pill guys and enjoy the ride. All in all a smashing day out all round.

Having got fed up with Radio 5 entering Radio Luxembourg reception we switched over to Radio 2 (being slightly older buggers) and were shocked when the sports section of the new LEAD with "Southampton won 1-0 at Hull to remain in second place" we nearly passed out with shock!!

Lucky enough to go twice to attend cocktail parties on the terrace the bit that overlooks the Thames, once on the Commons side the other on the Lords, they were both with the company I use to work with. The first time I was with the forward last touches set up party so drove in through the tradesmans entrance which was interesting from being check for an Audi full of Gunpowder to walking down corridors past MPs little offices. As guests and the work coach folk turned up, everyone kept talking about the spectacular main hall that I hadn't seen, so I went for a snoop about, as has been said both chambers look so much smaller than they do on TV, probably explains the need for the despatch box keeping both sides of the house an arm and a swords length apart. Saw a security guard from when we came in as I was looking about, and he said get on the end of that tour they won't notice, so I did and it was fascinating. Another stunning place to see the inside of is the Painted Hall at the Naval College in Greenwich, better known at the Wow room: and that is not an understatement.

Biggest frustration with him was that he had so many opportunities to shine and be a superstar for us, but because his vision was clouded by thinking he already had that status handed to him on a plate when he signed he always came up short.

Can't agree with that either, aside from his sprout wearing the shirt with Louise at the games, despite being one bad tackle away from being seriously damaged for the rest of his life with his shot knees, he put a damn sight more effort in than most of the other pit ponies his father brought in. Thinking back after reading about him going to the States to get his knees fixed by the specialist who sorted out many American Football players after the end of the season, that his own father was prepared to risk his son being crippled by asking him to play for him with us. I also thought it a shame that his career came to an end with relegation as he was a good footballer.

I better go to bed my Taxi to Hull says he is picking me up at 7:30ish this morning!!

We were prepared to buy Antonio, but after Reading thought we had honed him into a good player (no one can deny he wasn't a bit exciting in a Saints shirt) they had him back off loan gave him a new contract and then just let him fester in the Reading FC backwater we had freed him from for a while. I always thought it was a shame for him, but pleased he got a Wembley cup final appearance and a goal too, even if it was the JPT there are 1000's of players who will never experience that: especially in front of 55,000 fans.

That is such a great video.

That is a blast from the past on the Milton Road terrace.

You just cant argue with facts like that............... That Honey he found must be fermenting to Mead to provide such clarity of thought.

The Bear must have had his snout in a good quality Honey Pot this afternoon, the boy is on fire I can clearly remember him posting this word for word. ................ a few thought he was on another planet at the time: fools.

......... oooooh you and me could practice it in the car driving up there!!

And I think it might just be a tad more expensive than the £2.50 My Dad and I paid each to stand on the upper terrace behind the goal. Like you say counting chickens needs to stop.

There was a tale of somewhere, might have been Spain or even in the conference leagues here, where one team had noticed how one defender in one team did this grabbing and got away with it week in week out despite it being a penalty just about every time he did it but the officials just waved it away. So this one team had some of those woven paper shirts made to look exactly like the team shirt. The ball goes into the box and the pushing and shoving starts and the striker walks out of the melee with a hole in his shirt after a few corners and free kicks the striker walking away from this particular defender looks like his shirt has been in a fight with a Tiger the ref tells him to change his shirt, which he duly does after 2 more skirmishes in the box the striker has most of the bottom of his shirt missing and tattered sleeves at which the Referee books him for not being properly attired. The ref calls the manager and the player in at half time to tell them to ensure the striker remains properly attired during the second half or he is off, to which the manager tells him to do his job and take action on the player ripping the shirt in the first place or he will be filing his own report. Second half the striker goes out on the pitch with a proper shirt on, ball into box: penalty. Again ball into the box: penalty yellow card. Once more: penalty, yellow card and early shower. i wish I could remember where I heard this from, might have been from one of my Dutch friends. Some of you may recall the evening we gave Man Utd a real workout at Old Trafford, with SAF being very complimentary post match, in the first half Rickies shirt was ripped from the V neck to the his breast plate after the endless close attention of Vidic, but despite the rip the officials just seemed to wave off the endless fouling on Lambert by Vidic. In the Man U v Chelsea game the officials must have been in the land of confusion as not knowing who to take action on as both teams get the favourable decision week in week out for the rest of the season for the same offence: especially John Terry.