John Boy Saint

Seems this Andrew Sparkes has had a positive influence on Fraser for one his kicking out has been much improved. The other thing with Fraser, the bloke is a unit with an Albatross like wingspan so anyone looking to shoot at our goal has to think a little more about putting it out of his reach which you hope gives the defenders that little bit more of a window to snuff out the chance. McGoldrick looked to chip him yesterday without shooting over, Fraser just stood there and picked the ball out of the air.

Watched a couple of Watford games - bit flash in the pan, not jumping out as HCDAJFU by any stretch of the imagination - the fact he is still there despite the Oooo's and Ahhhh's when he turned up for them says much about what folk in the game think of him, 2 windows gone and he is still there. £30m they paid for him

When Redmond signed his contract extension, Nathan obviously brought his Mum along (His Mum who he lives in fear of "I have no tattoos because my Mum would give me a thick ear" or words to that effect). As Ralph mentioned in the associated interview following the signing that he had met Redders Mum at the same time, "I quite like her" - maybe she told him "my boy won't be signing anything unless you can guarantee he will be on the starting team sheet if he is fit" followed by a stern menacing stare. ☺️

Aside from my mate shouting “run Forest run” whenever he set off in pursuit of the ball. Went to an evening locally put on by the local Saints Supporters club - they had roped in some guys from Saints to give a talk. One of the guys (can’t for the life of me think of his name) was head of the academy at the time, quite highly thought of having overseen some bright talent that have gone on to make a decent career in football coming through to the first team. Not long after the talk this guy got lured into a similar role with the FA overseeing the England youth set up. On this evening the one young player he really talked very highly of was McGoldrick - who was “destined for the very top of the game”. We all know he became part of the grand young player sale to pay the bills when we were heading towards serious strife. After the move to Forest he seeming just disappeared into the wallpaper of football, until he notably popped back into the semi limelight with Sheffield United. I often wondered if as a nipper having had so much sunshine blown up his backside he thought he had made it before he had even started with us, so didn’t need to put more effort in - then the sudden move away from the cosseted life of a Saints academy player, he just found himself with the tiller in his hand but his rudder on the end of it was snapped in half, and many years later navigated his way to the port of the Premier League. Did we let him go too early - no. The money we got was useful and his career since leaving hasn’t lived up to the top billing he was given as a nipper.

Brief intermission chaps Fish boy Mount just put Chelsea in front

"One Swallow doesn't make a Summer", springs to mind at that.

Sheffield United must be licking their lips at this game, a scrumptious 3 points on the table, sneak a spawny goal and pack the final 1/3 with all 10 outfield players watching us pat the ball back and forth. I can’t believe I just wrote that...........but I have watched some shite dished up by Saints over the years but at the moment even the huffing and puffing from us is half arsed.

Oh in training he’s Fucking dynamite, but then if Ralph has told them to watch the training contacts due to injuries, he’s going to look the dogs doo-daas with none of his team mate vaguely easin* him off the ball - job done first pick on the team sheet. 🙄

Because he wimps out of every effin challenge!

How the hell is Armstrong getting a yellow when Digne gets chuff all for what has been a red in the past this season

Mrs JBS is getting increasingly pissed off with the tater on Sky - “he’s more depressing than reading some of the wrist slitters on SaintsWeb!”.

Given the choice of the 2 I'm with you - Ramsdale just seems a bit "err I'd better dive in that general direction in the hope i get lucky".

Play bloody Ramsey at right back Jan is too slow

If Tella had Rashford or Salah on his back - penalty 38 games of the season 🙃

Rather bizarrely whilst watching the Arsenal v City game Sterling had marginally almost invisibly impeded a player, ref blows Sterling gets the arse and spikes the ball like a spoilt brat denied sweets by his Mum, and Moss just has a chat with him - Martin Tyler is amazed Sterling has gotten away without a card, then pipes up with a gem he should deliver more often - saying how certain players in certain teams seem to get off much lighter than players in lesser teams or words to that effect - I immediately thought you just had to watch the assault on Djenepo the day before, Kante was a card, Werner I could see why not, Alonso got pinged, and Kovacic if that had been Romeu would have been carded.

Right we are at last into the 30 points now - let’s get the hammer down. Leeds are proper Jekyll and Hyde - who knows what’ll be.

We must have gotten something right if Tucal is mithering about being ineffective in the final 20% of the pitch. Salisu looked comfortable, as has been said already some of his piercing passes through the Chelsea midfield were sublime, Djenepo certainly earned his corn today, poor bloke must be black and blue after the beating up he repeatedly took. Best part of the result breaking into the 30’s at long last.

Just about everyone slipped about at United due to the rain down that dugout side (as mentioned elsewhere Djenepo made it look like he was playing on Ice) - it also probably didn't help that you have been given your chance, and at Old Trafford too, and your mate is trying out the showers before 2 minutes of the game are up. Playing against a potent attack, one thought possibly trundling through his head "please please don't f**K it up, just win the ball" - again as I said previously, he was about the only bright spot in that game. We don't have the money to go and splash out on a secondhand right back with a season or two on the clock - so we have to make do with what we have, there was obviously huge reservations about Valery and Vokins for them to be shipped out. Derby in the cup for Ramsey was 2 seasons ago, thats bloody harsh to make that then 18 year old still wear the badge from that night - if we did that for all the nippers given a spin, then we may as well pack up the academy. And as I have also said before, actually sat in the ground watching Wayne Bridge, Gareth Bale, Luke Shaw, when they came in for the first couple of games they all looked a bit shaky but the seasoned pro alongside them kept an eye on them and helped them through. Jan had his hands full at OT that night so the lad had to muddle through pretty much on his own.

I say Ramsey too. The lad had a baptism of fire in the Man U game but for me was the brighter glow in a pretty dim night, might be scarred by the scoreline, but was likely more worried about Djenepo over with him flying into challenges like a Pigeon tagged by a passing car, a few of which he was lucky to get away with.

Given that we have played a game nearly every 3-4 days since 16th January, and now having nearly a full week to recharge. Hopefully we will be able to get back towards the type of performances that we are all use to seeing from Saints before Christmas. We looked leggy yesterday especially after the air vanished out of our balloon on that penalty decision, Redmond looked to have had a slightly better game for us, but that is likely down to the fact that he hasn't played as much as most of the team over that time period so was a tad fresher. We now know that KWP is broken once more, so we have a week to get young Ramsey bedded in more rather than fanny about at right back with square pegs for round holes (personally I thought that he was about the only positive from the OT game), he has to be better than Djenepo back there as he looks like an accident waiting to happen, or maybe that his legs going in all directions fooling my eyes. On paper and given our recent form it does look like a bit of grim prospect of a game, but as a Saints fan of many years as always I have hope.

Pen against Bertrand just let the air out of our balloon - “not again”.

Armstrong’s been hogging the hairdryer at half time 😀

At the end of the game I thought we had moved through it with a minimum of effort, after an opening flurry of activity the game seemingly dropped to a pace that suited us, to conserve energy and bide our time. I have a customer up in Wolverhampton and all the lads in there are season ticket holders at Molineux, so just for a bit of fun we have a WhatsApp group for our games (they use it for their own games too - which is quite amusing) they weren’t to happy with their teams performance and a bit of falling out of love with Nuno seems to be building up there. Thought Salisu did pretty well for a first outing, especially given how long he has been out from competitive football, on first viewing seems to have all the tools in his box to be a fine addition to the squad.

Reckon Redmond said to Long when he left for Bournemouth - “Shane - if you have no use for it can I have your first touch of a trampoline?”.

PEH having a stinker in the Everton v Spurs game, helped Evertons first then gave a sloppy pen away.....ooops