John Boy Saint

Stood on the 11th Tee of the local golf course the other day with my Nephew not long moved here from South Africa, when the dusty blue hue from the bushes caught my attention "blimey just look at all of those Sloes there's flipping loads", confused he was "whats? where?" then spent the rest of the hole explaining the mystical art of Sloe Gin and Vodka.

Just as aside I saw Southampton FC Women progressed with ease in the WFA Cup qualifying round breezing past Helston albeit 3 divisions below them 11-0, they are a pretty ruthless team that don't seem to know how to take their foot off the gas - just a shame the league was cancelled on them last season as they are currently playing well above the standard of the league they are in. Also it seems La Liga is a bit weird too, Real Madrid had an upset at home over the weekend with newly promoted Cadiz scoring in the 16th minute and hold out for the win. The La Liga top 4 looks different right now Real are top, Getafe (beat Barcelona) Cadiz, Granada - Barcelona down in 9th

I too was one of the handful who coughed up the £15, pretty glad I did (Mrs JBS said as much at the final whistle), obviously not as sharp as some on the intricacies of navigating the t'internet. Entertaining game and considering the money Chelsea had splurged in the summer, that money talked early on. Ralph had no doubt tipped the lads off on Werner but until you face him in the flesh, all the words in the world are going to leave gaps for a player like him to exploit. Bit like Danny Ings sometimes he squeezes off goals that didn't look possible just before he hits it. I thought even at 2-0 we didn't look that bad, just thought the way the ball was bouncing to Chelsea we looked small in stature as a team in comparison to them, despite being in White which is physiologically a team kit colour to make you look bigger. Despite being 2 down our heads didn't drop as they have in the past, we got busy and Chelsea quickly looked a bit ordinary. And well done Ralph for sticking with Che, last season you could see glimpses that he has football between his ears just at times a combination of trying too hard to score hampered him. The lad is a bit of a unit, strong, powerful and not that slow, his steal and pass to Ings for the opener, if that had been one of the media darlings pulling that off they would have been fawning over it for hours. Like Shearer said on MOTD once we got that goal our confidence shot up. The not giving up from Che for our 2nd was impressive, I did wonder if he had gone down after Kepas clip whether we would have been awarded that penalty, or if he hadn't scored it would have been pulled back on VAR. But that level of industry and endeavour from Che is the kind of blood and glory you want to see in a Saints player. Since project restart (and the first 3 games aside) there is something about the way we now play, one thing is for certain we are blooming fit I guess playing the Ralph way you have to be, which is probably why unlike other teams when we get a new body in they are not propelled straight onto the front line (much to all our frustrations) this is likely due to them not being Ralph fit. With Theo (who I thought played well) Ralph could see that seasoned experience would carry him through the game, and he would likely give a steady solid performance. I think most of us can see how Ralph wants us to play, last season pre season Martin Keown had an interview with Ralph, and the sideline from PEH was the "we want to be horrible to play against", obviously that fell out the window somewhat. More recently once we get a hold of the game we seem to have a flow that is a bit like Lava, in that when we apply pressure it is steady and relentless - still got away to to go but you can see the idea. What is also interesting is that Ralph is still willing to learn the vagaries of the Premier League, the kamikaze high line from the defenders seems to have been tempered from the first 2 games, but the keep ball we played in the dying minutes on Saturday at 3-3 in Ralphs RBLeipzig days, he would have been demanding the team to get the ball in the box and finish the job off, instead of taking what we have and walk away with the point.

What a goal to make it 3-3 football is bloody nuts right back to the IPL

Redmond gave up!!

Yesssssssss Adams car crash at the back

Not right now but have been - KKR my team as my Dad was born just up the road. very entertaining

We can get back into this - Chelsea deffo look wobbly under pressure around their box. Werner v Bednarek exposes how slow we know Jan is.

Woohoo easy Ings

Too easy

Bum

No it’s one of our original shirts from before football arrived in South America 😜

Tater cock up already “Southamptons Peru style away kit” do your homework matey

You might think some of them are on a trip

Gosh Vestergaard

Jeez what is he waiting for - England are treading water Denmark cruising oh Ok

The Mike Dean list of crimes against Saints in favour of the big boys is pretty long, and yes that's one of them. Bizarrely on one trip down the Saints we listened to the Peter Crouch Podcast when Dean was their guest, I have to say he was good value on it, well worth digging it out for a listen.

Not seen it anywhere else, if you want to stump up £15, rather than sort through the cobwebs to find the HDMI socket, its on BT Sport Box Office. We have a newly promoted to Select Group 1 Referee on the whistle for this one, only reffed one Premier League game previously BHA v The Blades last December - He will have Mike 'look at me' Dean in his ear on the VAR.

Bizarrely they kept making comments about the size of his calves on the commentary, maybe that’s the issue regarding his socks, anyway it’s not the rough and ready days of Norman Hunter agricultural tackling in footie any more.

Bizarrely they kept making comments about the size of his calves on the commentary, maybe that’s the issue regarding his socks, anyway it’s not the rough and ready days of Norman Hunter agricultural tackling in footie any more.

Bizarrely they kept making comments about the size of his calves on the commentary, maybe that’s the issue regarding his socks, anyway it’s not the rough and ready days of Norman Hunter agricultural tackling in footie any more.

Seems fine to me - thought I had spent too much time yet again in front of my laptop when I notices the little tweaks.

What a goal take a bow. Son

I believe for International friendlies there was a limit of 6 due implemented some time ago. This came about after Sven Goran Erikson pushed the boundary by subbing 11 players for England v Australia (don't think it helped much as I think we lost) "Honest" Sepp Blatter got the arse at this and as Sven had been slowly creeping up the changes in friendlies, a whole team rotation was seen to be damaging to the product, I think Fifa get a cut of the gate revenue and England games did become farcical as the second half wore on while Sven was tinkering.

I had the advantage of watching that one on a dodgy stream with cameras up every orifice coverage. Does show why views do differ on here, I've sat in SMS watching the game from behind the goal, tuned into Sky for the Match choice thingy and gone blimey that was a bit different to what I sat through for 90 odd minutes this afternoon (ok they edit out a lump - probably ball out of play time).