John Boy Saint

Bit of a shame as a mate has invited a few close friends to join him in the Halo Lounge for this one as part of his 70th Birthday celebrations - even thought it was already scheduled for a Sunday, being on a “school night” will be less fun 😢

Good to see Saints win 2 days running in person - said it before this lot are relentless and show no mercy. Bit of a cagey affair early on, couple of quick goals went in and the Plymouth mindset seemed to be changing to avoid being slaughtered, goalie didn’t get the memo oops - 3. On to Wednesday

I thought that all came about after, I think Broja, had contact with the Arsenal defender, both hit the deck ref gave the foul to Arsenal as the defender writhed about like he had been taken out by a couple of rounds from the Sniper up in the floodlights. Cedric crossed the pitch to tell Mr Banks in uncertain terms that he had to show Armando every card he had in his pocket - and have him burned at the stake for good measure.

Bloke behind uttered “that’s the equivalent of a goal”.

2003 Cup Final in the warm up a wayward ball ended up in the crowd right in front of me, no one looked to get it back on the pitch - it was one of the special FA Cup match balls - Silver with all the previous winners on it - chap with his son looked about furtively, no one looked to get it back, nearby steward just motioned to him “stick it in your bag - I didn’t see it land at your feet” : what a souvenir.

Hmmmm - I have a dilemma (see OP) as I started the thread and was sporting new Calvins! 😳 That was much better - on reflection easier than expected - Fraser was immense. Lyanco has a screw loose, but I like him. Just watching him after Arsenal missed chances, he’s like us lot in the stands - clenched fists “yes”.

Oops wrong thread 🥴

I think pretty much everyone outside the Burnley boardroom thinks that this is insanity. His football might be a bit industrial but I know who I would like alongside me in a fight. Lampard will probably sleep better tonight.

Jeez those ladies are just nasty - they just don’t know where the brakes are. Looking forward to Sunday

Trouble is how much will he cost to buy? Then given that we gave him a new contract not too long ago, how much would he cost A N Other team to put on the pitch. Then sprinkle onto that what many of have seen (and driven up the wall with) - aside from his purple patch a few seasons ago - his slow decision making, that "fair few" list could be diminishing like sand through an hour glass. A change of scenery could be very good for him.

Maybe we should all bring blow beach balls - and when it starts going wrong we blow them up and ping them about whilst singing “we’re on the beach” 🤪

Been that way for a while in the EFL games on Good Friday and Easter Monday - Donkeys years ago in the days of Nick Holmes in the old money 1st division pretty certain we played Friday then Monday over Easter. That cup game could well be due to the furore about both Liverpool and City fans not being able to use the railways to get to the game due to engineering - The FA were getting serious stick over it from all quarters - don't even know what time it was originally scheduled - to guess if 3:30 is a bit of a concession from the FA

I thought Lewes Town getting the jump on us for a Championship spot in the same process, was seemingly more galling. Man U is Man U they get special treatment - whatever.

Trouble is after years of massively living in the shadow of the men’s game, the quantity of teams able to put together a quality team is quite thin, most of the England team is made up from the top teams in the WSL. The men’s game in the top 4 divisions is very well established but has been going for over 100 years, the women’s game is, obviously, massively playing catch up due to the more recent inclusivity agenda. Unlike the men’s league set up where the feeble attempt to shut the stable door after the horse had bolted with FFP - the women’s game has financial solvency rules, and a few years back in the teams had to show they could attract at least 400 spectators. The whole thing looks harsh when you are in ours and Wolves positions - but the step up to the championship is a bit more precarious than jumping from the National League into League 2 in the men’s game. Sustainability seems to be the overriding factor. Maybe a Women’s National League will evolve at some point to provide 2 up 2 down. But in Saints men’s own history we declined being promoted to a higher league once or twice, simply because the bean counters had done the maths of every other week heading invariably north beyond London, the travel expenses alone would have put Saints out of business

Surely you mean Crucifixion. 😜

I thought when Valery came on he looked like he was the only one thinking about the job at hand - actually the last few times he has stepped into the back line he hasn’t looked any worse than what was already there. He also looks like he has filled out a bit.

I haven’t read through all of this simply because I can’t be arsed - I was there so I know what I saw. Media team must have had their head in their hands having just launched season tickets

As our Nige would say draw a blue line under it and move on Well I have exhausted my supply of lucky underpants - so I guess I had better find a new pair. But now I’ve corrupted that idea with hopefully starting the next match thread. Here we have another game where the visitors will be smarting from a couple of wrong results - we just have to hope that we are smarting enough from a home humbling to put on a performance we know is lurking beneath the surface

I think the ream were expecting more and playing within themselves, until Ralph told them at half time to stop playing with their food and get on with it.

Because of his movement he distracts the eye of the defender opening the space for Adams in this case - and given the uncharacteristic porousness of their defence these last 2 games the last thing they are going to want is route one running at them.

Given your location I think we can forgive you for being influenced by a diet of Hockey - influencing you to consider who you could get 2 minute stints of productive ice time out of and be good at changing efficiently on the fly - 😜😜

That looks a horrible run of games for Everton - you can see the way Liverpool are playing they could really open the taps on them. Burnley might not be everyone’s cup of tea (although they were on here tonight) they could dig their way out of this, Watford are the joker in the pack as Roy seems to have given them a bit of steel Leeds and Newcastle just have to make sure they don’t do anything silly

Burnley!

0-0 then

No good trying to hide, we all nose it’s you Thomas