John Boy Saint

I kind of hoped that WGS was pulling some sort of Rope-a-dope to soften Arsenal up for the cup game - watching Claus "waterskiing" on his knees whilst holding on to Henris shirt, and Mr Halsey being extremely charitable in the opening moments, snuffed out that flame. Wengers alternative plan to make us jibbering fools for the cup worked a treat by getting into WGS's head. I see we have Simon Hooper on the Whistle for this one, bit of a funny one lets lots go, then changes his mind and gets picky, seems to find the 0.6% in 50/50's against Saints (but that could be my Red & White prescription!). If by some fluke we are 1-0 on 89 minutes he'll find 7 minutes to start with and another 2 magical minutes from somewhere.

That’s like Saints window shopping at Harrods en-route to B&M Bargains 🤪

I did cover my arse with the proceeding caveat of “along the lines of” - still doesn’t let him off the hook for not taking A leadership role as a senior pro

Watching the game on Saturday I was sat next to my occasional neighbour who gets to use a club supplied ST from time to time, he is quite good company as we see similar things on the pitch and comment to each other. At one point in yet another inert period of play from Saints, we just just said its like they have never played football in the real world, and a comparison to when we were kids playing with mates and jumpers for goal posts, we all liked to believe that we were Pele, Cruyff et al (obviously nothing like them). But the one thing we did know even when playing like sheep chasing the ball en-masse, was the object of the game = to score goals: go a goal down you tried your hardest to get one back. I asked my "mate" if he had ever listened to "That Peter Crouch Podcast" a while back. One of the things that came through on that was the incredulity of Crouchies co presenters at just how cossetted professional footballers are, with the underlaying gag about Crouchy admitting that at Stoke he didn't have to think about anything other that playing football, not even what underpants to wear on a matchday as the club supplied them laid out with the kit too! I commented that this lot look to be so pampered that they don't seem to know how to work out football on the pitch for themselves as its not what they have been told from the side line. Playground football you knew Willy was the fastest in the school get the ball to him, as you knew he would get it to Richard in the middle and he had a right foot like a hammer. Driving home after the game, listening to Solent and they interviewed Theo, as he was going through his ramblings on the game he uttered something along the lines of "I wouldn't know about that, we leave that to the manager"!! I thought I can't believe a casual musing to a fellow supporter at the game has been pretty much answered by a senior player with years under his belt. Hey ho its nearly all over

They’d roll out the blue carpet for them ………………….literally

Needs dropping - the boy is a rabbit in the head lights, says much for the opinion behind closed doors of the other options. His lack of vision is pretty poor. First half he got the ball in his hands if he bothered to look up through the gaping hole in the players and not scan the 10 feet in front of him for scary worms in the grass, he would have seen Charley screaming for long punt up to him………….It’s not just today. I do wonder if he needs an eye test!

If you’ve got a shovel and some stout bags, please feel free to pop round and dig the excess of shit that has been poured into my eyes these last few seasons - the quantity is impressive and it should be be excellent for Roses and especially the Rhubarb you are emitting.

Seeing as its Italy probably a lovely Villa on the shores of lake Maggiore buried in the brown envelope, quite a few people I know who have been to Naples thought it to be a bit of a dump: so an easy choice for which one to take 🤪

If you read any of the stuff about him when he was with us, he pretty much fell into football whilst deciding "what he wanted to be" as he was growing up. From there seems to have mastered the art of blowing sunshine up the right backsides, whilst keeping his smoke machine in tip top condition and his mirrors suitably polished.

If I remember correctly from doing the Stadium tour a good few years ago, there is some requirement to provide alternative seating for situations like your friends If by some misfortune you suddenly find you have mobility issues and you have a season ticket up in row FF its going to be a chore to get all the way up there, and also should the stadium need to be evacuated, your lack of mobility makes you an obstruction. My Daughter likes being at pitch level and when I have bought her tickets in the Chapel, seldom have Row A been available, she has often been on B with empty seats in front of her

Your coat is hanging up next to the door!

Jeez - Leeds have collapsed like an Easter egg sat in the sun.

Mick McCarthy has just become available after a very short stint at Blackpool 🤪

Fair play to him and well done - we piddled away money on someone like powder puff Edozie

Doubt we'll see Edozie - seeing as he fell ill just before the away game against his "parent" club.

You are not alone mate! I have never felt so emotionless about it all - which is weird given the efforts I went to as a nipper to get from north Hampshire to Southampton.

£25,000,000 in his sky rocket - he couldn’t give a tinkers cuss - I would bugger off into the sunset.

More like B&M Bargains or Lidl Middle Aisle There just isn’t any substance to our team.

Just looked up that Super Cup - blimey what a farce! Just one season and such a car crash that the final, due to fixture congestion (god knows where from with no Europe), had to be held over to the following season in which it was defunct and to magnify the absurdity of its being - Liverpool won it. Actually even this Full members Cup was a shambles too Liverpool Arsenal Spurs and Man U chose not to enter it ever. This was for the top 2 leagues, as leagues 3 & 4 teams didn't have full voting rights - so they ended up with the EFL Trophy: which we won. Reading did win it once beating Luton - Luton won the 1988 League Cup or Littlewoods Cup, or was it Rumbelows beating Arsenal, that gave us endless views of David Pleat in his flashers mac gambolling across the sacred turf at the final whistle. Reading really milked winning he Simod cup locally, it was the only thing they had to crow about until pipping us to Championship title with a hopefully soon to lost - record points haul.

As was mentioned on the first page - before kick off teams were being announced. Forest first every name cheered by theirs including Cloughy - Saints turn cheers through the team - chap in front of us with his tourist mate “just listen to this”. “And the Southampton manager - Ian Branfoot” - the crescendo of boos was almost deafening. A cup to fill the void left by the ban from European football that had absolutely nothing to do with Liverpool

Penalty was at the the Carlisle end - but the image I am thinking of was taken from behind their goal = you saw the back of their keeper.

Always a good on to have in your pocket for Spurs fan friends telling me how great they are compared to us - “you do realise that even we have won a Wembley cup final since you last did” - Just like the reply in the stadium “Johnstones Paint Trophy you’ll never win that” perplexes most fans. Although I think Chelsea fans coax that response out of us on purpose as ones I know think it’s a great come back to their Champions of Europe chant. it was indeed a great day out - the photo of Rickie slotting the penalty from behind the goal with a wall of Red and White to the sky behind him always induces goosebumps

Met a heap of Scotland fans in Krakow airport back in September, they love Che but not overly fussed with Stu

Would anyone notice if he didn’t😜

The FA will do…………..F A! They will do every thing they can to avoid a stain on the “Product” - the Man City can kicked 4 years down the road. They even bailed out our friends down the M27 when their pot ran dry, well there was no pot, they’d sold that too. The PL financed their appearance in the final fixtures of that season to “protect the product”.