John Boy Saint

Abducted by Aliens?? …………or the Aliens came to take him home!

Don’t agree games he played last season the general observation even on these cynical pages was pretty much “good to see Fraser now coming off the line!!”.

I just looked at that first goal for Everton again and whilst many are pointing the finger at Salisu - that was more likely down to the cocking about swapping keepers in and out - that’s a deceptive looping ball coming in too high to jump for and being on the edge of the 6 yard box its flight is more a keepers ball - McCarthy, as has become his way, hesitates to come, the newer version of Fraser having seemingly had the screws removed from his boots on the goal line is going to come and likely punch it. Salisu looks wrong footed by the looping flight that McCarthy should come for and it’s in the zone where if he moves any closer to goal he is likely to impede the keeper, and be wiped out by the tree that is Forster if he is there. The Premier league is tough enough for defenders to keep out Apex Predator goal scorers - without having to also consider the nuances of which keeper is between the sticks this week. We are the only team dicking about rotating the key position of a defence - make a choice stick with him and take one less thought out of the defenders heads. To me, give Forster a proper run. If you have stood on the pitch at St Mary’s and looked at the goal from the edge of the box, it is remarkably much smaller than it looks from the stands and on TV. Stick a unit like Fraser in there, also having the wingspan of an Albatross, and the target is even smaller, meaning whoever is going to take a pot shot is having to consider the shot more, it forces that brief additional moment of thought and allows the defence to close him down even more. You can’t have settled defence when you are playing lucky dip with the keepers.

Super Frank AND John Terry Ying and Yang - nice Frank and his enforcer John Adkins was nice but Andy Crosby was the enforcer. just thought I’d toss in some cobblers

We had a Golf tour at Celtic Manor and a plan was forming to go out on the town in Newport - I said I’ll be skipping that as it’s renowned as the Wild West especially on a weekend night - they just scoffed at that and carried on with a bit of a plan. Until one of my local mates stepped in to cover one of our group who was taken ill, he heard of the plan and told them that not even he would go to Newport for night out if we paid him “if you really want to go out - trust me, get on the train to Cardiff”. This will likely be on the box as Newport have given a few higher teams have been given the runaround or bloody nose in recent times.

Oh aye.

Last time we went there 5 years ago ish - we aimed for the parking at Walton Hall Park as it seemed to offer a trouble free escape back to the M57. When we got there we noticed lots of cars parked on the roadside with more arriving and Toffee people getting out their cars. No yellow lines or restriction signs - we said “chance it” pulled up parked, another car pulled up parked in front of us, Dad and his Daughter scarfed and shirted up. He said they had parked there for a few seasons with no issues whatsoever. We said we'll follow you as you know where you are going “we’re going to the pub” yup we’re definitely following you 😁 M57 towards Southport exit A580 East Lancs Road towards Liverpool - passing retail parks and Cineworld - you should soon see pleasant houses on the left and Walton Park on the right over the central reservation U turn to be facing the right way for home. 10-15 minute walk from the ground. Having typed all that probably Yellow Lines now and a ticket machine - worth a look still and an easy escape

Must be another Putin plan to unsettle the West as I have Sexy Russian Babes in Basingstoke!!

Just watching that You Tube, he has deceptive feet that don’t tell your eyes what they think he’s actually about to do. Can see why we went for him, because that’s what Ings had. Actually being in the stadium real time some of Ings goals left you thinking how did he just do that……….as they say the proof of the pudding

If you think about it easy to close the North car park and funnel the away fans straight to their coach’s. I just thought it strange the police cells were put just off the Northam end tunnel

For many years when strips were not an emotive issue our away strip was Old Gold shirts and black shorts or knickers as shorts were referred to in those day…….. (like wolves home). But then up until 1950 we had Blue home shorts with our Red and White shirt.

Who knows with an obstacle now out of his way and more pitch time will enable him to evolve and shine

Has anyone checked on the stock of match day Nuns?

Pick that one out!! Hmmmmmm

Ah well he’s gone, nothing new in the cycle of Saints and the various players over the years. Good ones you learn to enjoy seeing in Red and White knowing to make the most of it while they are with us, because in the cold light of day there will be another club with better finances to pay better money. From a players point of view past 30 and the end of your playing days are on the horizon, 35 if you are lucky that’s it. If you have lived in the top flight, no one is going to be paying you a stratospheric weekly wage any more and you have to make what you have accumulated last for possibly 50 years or more to live the lifestyle you have become accustomed to. Unfortunately that’s the way of the football world, there is so much money sloshing around now, we all know the gap between the players and the fans world is beyond infinity. Him leaving us might be a blessing in disguise, we all know that he has medical record that probably has to be wheeled around on a fork lift, most of us all had a sharp intake of breath sat at home last season whenever he got clattered, grumbled when he was out. Goodness knows what Saints had on the table for him, but these pages would be too hot to open if he had signed a new 3-4 year deal and it came out that he was the 1st player to break the Saints £100k per week barrier, then got crocked late August to the point where we hardly saw him before Christmas. This forum would be beating each other up questioning why we renewed for so much money over such a long time knowing that he had the potential to break. None of us know what the Saints medical team could see under the skin of Ings, they could have advised that it was a 50/50 risk to extend his contract we went through the motions to see what would happen and who might come sniffing, none of the big boys seemingly looked through the window, out of nowhere Villa pop up with a pleasing wedge. “He doesn’t want to be here, means we don’t have a potential millstone” “Fans will be upset, but pleased we made some money, but they will asking why Villa thats a sideways move - we don’t get quite so much grief”. He gone that’s it, none of us knows what went on behind closed doors but if it was brewing for the 3 weeks mentioned above, with the media seemingly able to find out all sorts, the lid was superbly screwed down: which is intriguing in itself. Just when he steps out on the pitch at SMS in his Villa shirt, don’t boo or sing silly songs, we all know he can be lethal in the blink of an eye so no point fuelling him up to shut us up.

…………oh bugger fresh socks tomorrow now!

Hoorah - no more midfielder threads with some loon posting what a mega star the wastrel could still be for us.

Sorry but Sako should not be hung out to dry for that - he hit the ball no effin about - Rashford is the one to be rinsed his was bloody appalling

Saving themselves for Saturday night😉

You’re not wrong there - enjoyed that.

When we got evicted from our block in the Chapel for the expansion of Kiddies corner - we left our mate to decide where we going to sit from then on. A few games in, we had been ribbing our mate for such a crap choice of seats, it was pissing down and had been for hours, then all of our eyes were caught by something? Back to watching the game few minutes later it happened again, then it was half an eye on the game - then splat! Chap 5 rows in front of us was catching a sizeable drip right on his shoulder - and looking annoyed. Bob pipes up “that was the other row I was offered when I booked our 4 seats” you chose well was the unanimous reply……………the drip is still there 8(?) years on. At the Leeds game sat on the back row - looking at the “ceiling” there were more cobwebs that a haunted house……….but someone had been and given the seats a wipe or hose down, normally first game back you can write your name in the dust.

No surprise at all - a late friend was very good friends with him when he was at Coventry. He said football was just a job to him, he had no interest in it’, they would go out and there would be no football talk “Paul had clocked”.

This is a game in isolation Ingerland could have been on a 1000 game imperious winning streak - and Scotland would be the fly in the ointment.

Matty didn’t go because Glenda couldn’t live with the fact that Matt had more sublime skill than he could even comprehend being in possession of. That Tranmere game if he had not a jot of green eye and put MLT on at half time, second half would have being a breeze as the whole Tranmere squad would played more concerned at accidentally giving a milligram of a chance to Matty.

.......even Jack Stephens is better alternative.