John Boy Saint

Shame our one of those deploys the parachute, pulls on the hand brake effecting an excellent 180° and heads in the other direction.

Mike Riley needs to look in the mirror himself - the bloke was a arrogant self centered egotist when he was on the whistle. There was friction after our Villa game with Dean then the not too insignificant events at the back end of the game at Old Trafford, he should have been taken of the roster after Jans red was rescinded. But nope let’s wheel him out again Saints must have been going “eh” Fulham and West Ham behind closed doors probably also went “hmmm”. Unless Riley himself is keeping the field clear of any “upstarts” with an eye on his throne. Dean is one of the refs allegedly on £200k per year, think he is 50 so heading towards the end anyway - but that’s a bit of hole in the wedge to have the tap turned off on. Of course the weird bit in the Beeb piece “he will still officiate the Brighton Leicester cup game” - you are still the ref and if you have numbskulls making threats why not just take yourself out of the spotlight.

Ha-ha Alison catches a case of the McCartheys 🤪

How soft was that Pen for Salah

Top and tail of it, once we went behind we were bloody woeful, for one Puel was screaming at VVD to play it to McQueen in acres of free space on the left, every time the ball out of defence went right into heavy traffic Puel and McQueen tearing their hair out in frustration - we could have drawn or won but squandered chance after chance - at the final whistle Saints fans voiced their displeasure at the performance - pretty much “we’ve turned up at some expense - and you buggers couldn’t be arsed to match our effort” - The majority of fans were voicing their displeasure at the lacklustre performance as the players came over to clap us - Shane Long got half way towards us (he hadn’t been great) hearing the noise wasn’t “good try lads” clapping etc - theatrically motioned his arm as if saying at the same time “ah f**k the lot of you!” Turned around and walked to the dressing room - quite a few other players faced the music - McQueen got a bit of a clap as pretty much everyone shared his frustration with ball after ball went the other side into the crowded side - With hindsight I often wondered if this game was an early player power 2 finger salute to Puel.

Fucking brain fart FC

The boy needs to strike a match blow it out and snap it - to break the bad luck.

I could swear Nicola Adam’s is on the co commentary 😁

I made sure that both my Girls got to see The Dell we sat up in the East Stand (as I had never been up there myself and felt I needed to) for the last pre season friendly Real Sociedad (?) so cheap too, they must have been 4 & 5 the 4 year old more fidget eyes than pants, "look at that what is it?" bizarrely the 5 year old locked on the pitch most of the game....... so you're spot on, very few born after 1994 are very unlikely to have known The Dell. My first outing was 21st January 1978 v Notts County 3-2 Saints - My hero back then Phil Boyer bagged a brace - which made my day. 13 years of age, 4 chums made our way down from Tadley north of Basingstoke on the 50p weekly shopping bus. 2nd outing 5-0 spanking of Blackburn 1st April 1978 - Phil delivered again, think I might have had my programme signed by him too. Great days 13-14-15 on the train down from Basingstoke sometimes in fear of our lives, having a great wheeze that has a smile on my face as I type.

Whilst being a year old, this goes someway to explain the (struggling to find the words)..................the bowl of Spaghetti that the rules are, into the whys and why nots of the retrospective diving bans. Up until Jan 2019 only 2 players have received retrospective bans for diving and that was back in 2017 when the rule was put into place. When you read it you can picture the scene in the reviews room "Right Charlie for Athletic dived, deceived the official into awarding a penalty, Bob the Town player received a yellow for being in the vicinity" - "Right Fred pull up the rule book pages on this issue" "Hmmmmmmm - f**k it: thats far too convoluted, we'll be here past midnight!". https://www.cityam.com/premier-leagues-diving-problem-fas-rules-have-failed-clamp/ Every single one of us has seen clear and obvious simulation on TV and not seen anything given. I would imagine after the Bednarek fiasco there is a full set of Encyclopedia Britannica (look it up kids - oldies google) sat on top of a can marked Worms, trying to stop a single one of the buggers coming out........many questions but as its only Southampton it'll blow over by the weekend. .......there you go (unless its been changed since) Mike Dean is the man on the Whistle for Fulham v West Ham Saturday night. So you can stand looking at a screen for over a minute, make a final decision that the everyone else in football is calling as wrong, then the appeals committee goes on to deem as wrong, and you are back out next match in your (alleged) £200K a year job, as if nothing has happened (His mate Lee Mason is once again standing with his hands in his pockets as 4th official Spuds v Baggies Sunday - for an alleged £48k a year I guess you don't expect to do as much running about).

Me too 😃

.........it’s the exclusive access to the VAR Comms that tickled me.

Same as you (except not in my 70's) - and the wall to wall footie these last 2 weeks especially has suddenly become numbingly boring. I've been going down the Saints for 44 years, it has become an addiction. I have had the odd period where, work, the arrival of children, (15% interest rates on the mortgage) have shifted the priority and my regular attendance has been curtailed. Watched absolute rubbish week in week out but still had my day out at the weekend to look forward too. There was once 4 of us who would go home and sometimes away together, the turnstile was a time machine when we clicked through onto the concourse we were 14 again, ribbing each other and laughing at complete cobblers until we had to go home at full time. Alas since being in the Premier League again one by one they have walked away mostly disillusioned by the product of the league. All of them found it hard in August but by the end of October/November the overiding desire to go had passed in them. Bizarrely its been Mrs JBS who has stopped me going the same way as them, she is footie mad, and knows her onions so enjoys the day out too. Like has been said, there is a danger that those ST holders who don't have Sky or BT might well have also crossed that threshold my mates have. As I have said earlier in this thread, fortunately going to football isn't a considered purchase these day, and the money in our heads has been spent, and like you it just makes next season cheaper if it comes.

Tad harsh, as the game went on he got better and more assured, of course United targeted him, if the boot were on the other foot I would expect us to do the same. To say he "clearly isn't up to this level" is a comment worth ordering a few bags of to spread around under my Roses and Rhubarb. Wayne Bridge first outings looked green, Gareth Bale looked wobbly first few games, Luke Shaw first games was being positioned by 1st Team regulars, lad from the academy had a baptism of fire last night he did alright...........in fact it might just turn out to have been very good for him.

The VAR referee apparently doesn't have any influence on the offsides, the final decision lays with the VAR assistant referee (thats not to say the VAR Ref doesn't resist leaning over and giving his tuppence worth).

Don't worry they will no doubt find a way of making it 3-4 games on the grounds of having the temerity to lodge an appeal. No Bednarek would be a blow as he does seem to be the boss in the back line. Someone above mentioned moral would be low, after he Leicester game we played City twice in a week and everyone thought we would get battered as it turned out, yes we lost both but the scoreline was respectable and not the Cricket score most expected. Ah well just get royally drunk pre match and avoid getting emotionally involved.

Anyone paying attention knows the midfield has been our engine room, JWP and Romeu since project restart have been a pretty solid partnership, we got lucky with Diallo as whilst not being an enforcer like Romeu he has a bit of finesse that JWP can work with and like he has with Oriel quickly had a football telepathy. To lose both of them on Saturday was bloody unlucky, Ralph knew and said before the game that this would be hard work tonight, as we know the the game got harder even sooner. There is a bit of moaning about the senior players not stepping up to the plate, I think they did what they could our engine room was running on two cylinders, Ralph couldn't shuffle the pack from the bench to get the other 2 running, Djenepo and Armstrong are not suited to that solid midfield role and we have poor Ramsey (who I thought grew into the game) had a baptism of fire. We had a ragtag and bobtail squad, 2 keepers on the bench, down to 10 men playing against £660m worth of players that have recently been playing to their potential - In a weird twist if someone said on Transfer deadline day that the whole Man U squad had been transferred to Southampton every Saints fan would be Cock-a Hoop at such a coup. They played a patient game and picked us off with the players of the calibre to exploit the merest opportunity. What BT failed to show us after fawning over a failed Man U attempt from every angle was passing round the box of Kleenex, was how on more than one occasion in the first half, when they cut back to live coverage we were getting set to take a corner or potentially promising free kick!!??? It would have been delightful to have seen how we got into that bizarre position. Like everyone else VAR seems a bit off. Being cynical bugger, after FFP pretty much kicked the ladder away for any other club outside the "top 6" breaking into it - I did wonder how long it would take to manipulate VAR to also achieve the same aim - which is to ultimately protect the product that is the Premier League: Saints, Wolves, Villa, Palace, Newcastle don't secure billion pound TV deals across the globe. You only have to listen to the commentators to realise that in reality 7th down is just cannon fodder. Hey ho

.......and me.

For a minute I thought you had seen him Out at the new Costa in Basingstoke! Yeah I'm with you on the boycott - I will support you by not going to the Wolves game Sunday week. Vive la revolution!!

That is a career dissipation moment 79 seconds into your full debut and you are getting first dibs on all the hot water in the showers. He may well be 19 and was a bit over eager but most of these lads have been at this game since they were 8, they have seen mates fall away as they carried on, they know the rules of the game, most of them know to be smart. Given this lads antics, even if it was the agents doing, this week, there will be clubs who might have been interested. After tonights showing now going, hmmmmmmm. Football is a nasty business, although the lad hasn't murdered anyone, with the transfer request and a sending off at 19 he now has a "criminal record" in the eyes of prospective employers, "is he worth the risk?". They will likely turn to the next name on the list as they are less of a risk. The lad has to now knuckle down and hope he can get another chance, if he has attitude and no remorse, Saints will likely grant him his wish and send him on his way. The Golden ticket of possibly 2-3 games whilst others ahead of him are injured, he has flushed that down the toilet. Its a long way back to the top table when you err as a nipper in football.

Fucking crock of shit

Hi ain’t turning this over - Jans off

No fucking left foot!

Not THE Diego "the Bastard" Costa?:............Simeone has obviously hung up his Lion Tamers suit

Hang on you missed the plot twist - Mike Dean is on the whistle and that equaliser will come in the 89th minute, but their winner will come in the 97th minute of the game when only 4 minutes came up on the board at 90, yet no subs were made, no shonky decision has gone to VAR, and no Man U player has gone down like he has been shot by the sniper up in the floodlights................don't forget that graphic pointing out the 123 points we have dropped from a winning position will have popped up at 88.35 minutes! As has been mentioned I wouldn't be surprised to see 3 at the back, Djenepo and Redmond sliding up and down the sides. Might even see local lad Ferry given a spin out too at some point as from what I have seen of him he does have a footballing brain between his ears. Either way, we walk away from this game with a point that is a result.