John Boy Saint

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.

Or maybe they are uncomfortable with the thought of DaGrosa having to do what the Burnley lot are having to do, especially if Kat is in the mix, as her Dad wouldn’t be having any of that.

Beyond any doubt now - good old Sally Taylor on South Today announced it too - so it’s official. 😁

That'll be the toss of a coin then!

Still showing as 20:00 on the BBC Sport fixtures

Gosh - I wasn't far away with my comments!

Can't see what the issue is - the bloke has a positive Covid case in his house which turned out to be a false positive, unless we have experienced that scenario we have no idea what the personal effect that has on a person.............then at work you have your number issues hampering the preparations to play the top team in the land. At the end of 97 minutes you have pulled the rabbit out of the hat putting 3 points in the bag, with all of that going on the relief was probably immense: most of us at home watching were on edge for 95 minutes.............he might has had an eye watering win bonus riding on this. I had the last of 3 very very late to arrive 40ft Containers delivered to my customer on Christmas Eve - I was doing the funky chicken at home - Mrs JBS who will no doubt spending my commission from the sale was "Whatever".

Interestingly the Sky researchers fed Carragher (maybe I am being disingenuous towards him) an interesting point about that challenge by KWP later in the post match analysis. playing it back KWP as they were side by side and not KWP coming in angled from the side, KWP plants his foot square as if to block any cross rather than try and reach across Mane to touch the ball which would have been grounds for a possible penalty - that said the rough and tumble leading up to Mane taking the dive in many games has seen that as the reason to give one, especially Salah (anf (Rashford) can hit the deck if someone farts within 10 yards of them. Think Theo as he got straight up after wiping out Milner was likely viewed not to have been out of control - our senses were probably heightened whilst watching that we instantly thought it was the kind chance a ref would gift a cheap opportunity to our opposition for.

Whilst Gary Neville can sometimes be a bit one eyed when co commentating United games - to be fair if they are being given a good going over he will call it how he sees it and give credit where its due for the opposition - on the flip side Carragher is tunnel vision Liverpool and the opposition shouldn't have even bothered turning up. When they are being given the right run around by oppos the main commentator has to drag Carragher into the conversation. Last night when the cut back to the studio, he was funny as he was seething at the temerity of Southampton to beat his Liverpool - That was a pretty crap Studio though having 2 Liverpool players to pundit on the game and make it the Liverpool TV Show - There are plenty of non Liverpool pundits they could have dragged in for balance - but all you have to do on a week day is flick through the Sky sports football channels and you can be assured of catching a old Liverpool game - which is hardly a surprise when you look at Premier League money pay out spread, even when City have won the league Liverpool have won the money league through the amount of times they have featured on Skyverpool Sports. It ain't likely to change anytime soon

You never know might be given a spin out v Shrewsbury ahead of KWP - gives Theo the Weekend off, and with Redmond and Djenepo looking a bit dicky for a few weeks eases the load on Walcott and Armstrong.

Never had an issue with him always thought he was capable - stepping into VVD's shoes and not cocking it right up was good enough for me - the lad is 26, for a central defender he is still a bit wet behind the ears, far too many on here thought VVD was flawless, he wasn't, he made plenty of expensive gaffs in our defence when he was with us - I thought he was excellent tonight once again, with the last ditch block.

I have to say it took until the second half for the penny to drop. The lad is a ghost, quiet smooth invisible just gets the ball and moves it on effortlessly, an absolute joy on the eye. When you think that Romeu has been bloody good for us this season this boy is so subtle by comparison. JWP if you watch him sets a good tempo, Diallo tonight added rhythm. He certain is a fast learner, against Fulham he looked a bit powder puff getting easily nudged off the ball, this game he knew when the hit might come and stepped away from it with the ball at his feet.

Hmmmm if you read the thread about the Academy being a dead duck - and in particular the linked article from the Daily Mail with the new owner of Burnley. He says himself that he doesn't have pockets full of money, so that reported £100m shopping purse is pie in the sky. To make Burnley better than it is he pretty much says that ultimately (like DeGrossa would have to do here if he got in) he would have to pretty much get a mortgage against the club to fund them upwards. These guys obviously look at the Glaziers and their purchase of Man United, when they took over, they instantly mortgaged the club to finance the purchase, Man U were worth about £790m at the time, richest club in the world. If you read about it you wonder how anyone involved slept at night the numbers even now are mind boggling. The overriding fact is Manchester United are a very saleable "commodity". To re finance the debt of c£720m the Man U announced a bond issue which raised just over £500m in under 2 weeks!................can anyone see Saints or Burnley having the clout to pull off a money spinning stunt like that..........also if you read the Mail article a whole heap of money to buy Burnley has been borrowed from the chap who founded Dell computers. Would have been interesting to see where would have been if Markus had still been around.................minus a sports betting shirt sponsor for starters.

My Boss is a QPR season ticket holder (I was sat alongside him when Mane scored the winner at the death in our last game up there - thankfully as Mane got the ball he muttered "oh dear here we go" so I was able sit on my hands and curb my spontaneous glee - which was a good thing as the chap sitting behind me had eaten his family for breakfast that morning!!).......... Anyway I digress, he was so pleased last season when the transfer window shut and Eze was still with them. Like you I was amazed that he ended up at Palace as after a stuttering start to his QPR career, last season it seemed to click for him, and £17m could well turn out to be a bargain. I am quite surprised at how little Roy has used him, but then I guess there is quite a bit more to be squeezed out of £32m Benteke.

Madness! What a great game for the fringe players that come in to show Ralph just how hungry they are to be seriously considered for a starting berth - (I'm going to wash my mouth out with soap after typing this) It is the only game, on a Monday night, against one of the biggest football clubs in the World, if you feel your future as a player is no longer at Southampton and you get picked to play - there ain't going to be a much bigger shop window to pitch your stall in. Yes they may have ended up relegated, but Norwich played Man City last season with a team mostly cobbled together with a Rag Tag and Bobtail bunch of fringe players, at the final whistle City were scratching their heads at how they didn't have even a single point to show for their endeavors.