John Boy Saint

I just liked the fact that we kept him awake with a couple of lukewarm back passes, that quickened the pulse. :-)

A good few years ago now possibly (along with a good few thousand others) my daughter and I ambled down to St Mary's on a Friday evening for something like the Academy Final between us, obviously, and Aston Villa. Saints academy team was peppered with nippers who went on to make a decent living out of the game. It was an exciting watch, given where we were in football it was great to see kids especially sliding to the front of their seats in anticipation of Saints attacking play, something they hadn't seen for a while from the first team. The football from both Saints and Villa nippers was very good, which was why they were in the final, and why its stuck in my head still. There was one player in our team who had been given a couple of goes in the 1st team as main the season ran down, Gareth Bale. Having seen a few academy games that season where he was just part of the team, you could see the difference playing and training with the first team for just a few games and what it had given him. Whenever the ball was with a team mate it was a little frantic (a bit like we saw last night) when the ball came to Bale he suddenly had a little more time and poise in his play compared to his mates. It was then the penny dropped for me of the daunting chasm between Academy and First team. Whilst the opposition were not overly challenging as another Premier League team, those lads from the Academy who had a go on the pitch last night, alongside 1st team regulars will have likely made the gap to step up seem just that little bit narrower, whilst giving them a taste for more. Hopefully it will have given them the spark to knuckle down more to listen and learn.

Seeing as we play them again midweek - Ralph might stir well the pot, just to keep a few things up his sleeve.

Proper professional captains performance. looked like we could knock it up a cog or two if necessary - aside from the win a good chance to give a few lads a run out and put the Ralph way into practice against unknown players

No surprise - think Saints were trying to get out of this pretty quickly as UA seemed repeatedly incapable of hitting delivery targets. Talking to someone in the store a couple of years back, not one stitch of a home replica shirt to be seen, yet you could buy one online from the UA shop in Holland (or somewhere) without sponsorship, for a fraction of the £££’s Saints were wanting to charge us, they weren’t best pleased. Bit of a shame as I like their golf shirts, so always knew what would fit. Interesting read on the subject, might explain why popular colour keepers shirts, hit the rack sold out never to be seen again. https://www.footyheadlines.com/2018/01/here-is-one-reason-why-tottenham-did-not-renew-with-under-armour.html

Explains why Mrs JBS switched over to the Ice cobblers - rare for her to switch over from footie.

Have to laugh at folks all over Stephen’s for the goal, but he kept pushing Maddison out into an ever narrowing angle but McCarthy being too clever is leaning to cover the likely cross opening the smallest of windows between him and the near post. It was a well taken goal doing what Maddison is paid to do threading the ball through the eye of a needle. Yes Jack lost the ball fro their second nearly everyone was up in the Leicester half, loses the ball but Bednarek and JWP both freeze momentarily which gave Barnes the head start. Commentary said where would Leicester be without Vardy errr pretty much the same place as Saints without Ings. Given the amount of shit Saints have poured into my eyes in recent years, we didn’t just lay down and give up.

Sorry mate .................you’re wrong!😃

This tater is getting right on my Tits

Just for fun to while away the time - what have folk got on the menu for their pre match meal tonight. In the JBS house - Chinese has been selected and will be collected in a minute, washed down with Thatchers Katy single fruit Cider.

Mrs JBS may be a moaning old trout sometimes (30 years shackled to her - she can’t be that bad I suppose 😁) but with her personally wrapped in razor wire remote control, if there is footie on the TV all the soaps and other crap get shoved to one side...... except Strictly! Only downside is having to watch on the smaller screen and not the biggy in the man cave, cos I’m too tight to cough up the extra criminal £5 BT want to do chuff all getting to another box.

As Mrs JBS who sprung for ours this season, says “the money has gone, it’s spent, just leave it in the pot for next season”. Seems a pretty sensible decision.

I was conscious of my lapsed subscription, but seeing my Avatar become just a J this morning I thought a-ha the games up at last. I figured @stevegranthad bigger fish to fry than sending the boys round to sort us out.

Hey-ho I only lost my John Boy Saint Saints shirt avatar photo that was about - 15 years old when I had such silliness on my shirts (goodness knows where it is stored now) still makes good use of the Birthday card from this year that shows a rather disturbing self likeness.

Fulham slowly slowly popping points in their pockets.

Being cynical old Hector: The Premier League is their Jewel in the Crown - Cramping up Saints with fixture congestion is of no interest to them as its a convenient way to hamper another Leicester fly in the ointment at the top of the table. Arsenal have been written off to make the big table at the end of the season so long as the top 5 are suitably covered with the right teams they can live with it and sod Saints, Wolves, Leeds, and especially tomorrows chip paper team Chorley. You would think with the protocols they have in place to be as Covid secure as possible - that they would give teams the maximum time to manage them.

Ooops Fingers ahead of brain. Not everybody’s perfect............said the Dalek climbing off the dustbin.

Jeez Man Utd are Uber desperate to win at Burnley - all the dark arts they are applying is like they are whistle blowing all the Magic Circles secrets they are so transparent, and referee Friend for a moment almost had the view of “really is do you think I rode up the river on a bicycle”. Shaw nearly got a trip to Nando’s before they closed - lucky boy only got a kind yellow. Fernandes just “booked for whinging” to quote Neville Quite entertaining just for the sideshow.

The FA have jumped all over Grimsby for being nawty boys and not following the rules - even though the top line fine is suspended, there is a another more hefty financial penalty tacked on to it. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55605876

You can’t beat a muddy quagmire to level the playing field Stockport making West Ham work and they don’t like the sticky surface 82 minutes the non league boys held out for

The shame of it for him was Ferguson for a reputedly hard bastard as a boss, gave him so much rope because he could see this lad was the real deal with the ability to develop into a footballing superstar. Despite having the footballing world potentially at his feet and the immense riches that went with it, allegedly he couldn't help himself still hanging out with his spawny mates getting up to all sorts of naughty stuff, as an aside to the stuff with his girlfriend that did make the press.

Whilst smiling quietly to herself.

Exciting penalties too - got into the ones who shuffle backwards - 5 penalties saved by Steele in the Brighton goal.

Oooo Newport County take Brighton to penalties - Brighton thought they have won it scoring in 89th minute.

Who says he had no dosh, Chinese government slapped a ban on Chinese money they couldn’t control going out of the country willy nilly - so he had to go round the houses to get it out. Which looks a bit shonky all round.