John Boy Saint

No We’re trying to get rid of deadwood on silly wages to bring in fresh young blood, not add to the lumber pile.

Havant & Waterlooville smashed their representative side 7-0 back in October. Just hope the nippers make a better fist of it than they did last season against Basingstoke Town (then staring at consecutive relegations 2 leagues below where Eastleigh are now) in the semi finals. We had a "good" U23 team out that night including some lads who have made 1st team outings this season, Vokins springs to mind. We were 2-0 down inside the first 10 minutes! Town had their tails up from the off, we looked like we had won before the game had kicked off and the part timers punished our sloppy play especially from the defenders, who included Klarer. Even as the game went to extra time Saints still looked like the part time team and just needing to be in the Camrose Ground to make the final. About the only player of note for Saints was Will Ferry as he worked his socks off but no one else bothered to join him in his endeavours, only putting in guest appearances. Just looking it up we haven't won this since 1976 admittedly we had missed entering for a few years more recently - think we only went back in due to the Premier League 2 fixture list was looking a bit thin on games so gave the lads another and very different match day experience.

Shareholders of Kleenex will be watching the game from behind the sofa, knowing that if the "Club Football Champions of the World" falter and fail to get any further in the CL, the share price will dip due to reduced sales to the sporting media, knocking £000's off their investment. I think now is the time to invest in buckets, as just about every supporter of every other team in the land is going to need one to cope with the nauseating media outpouring that will go on for months (even years) when they finally end 30 years without a League Championship.

Breaks your heart...................Isn't Schadenfreude a terrible thing. That puts Spurs right up the pictures - Moura is hit and miss and Dele doesn't seem to be able to hit a Cows backside with a Banjo and could also be in Hot Water following his Coronovirus tweet that would leave them even more short handed up front if the FA decide to act as they have in other cases.

Best summed up by Shane Long being deemed as offside before being fouled for the penalty that was over turned at Leicester. the point at where the VAR ref had decided that Long was offside using his onscreen lines etc, every man and his dog could see that the ball is blurred and in a lozenge shape meaning the ball was already well on its way to Long at the moment taken for the decision. With Mike Riley at the top of PGMOL (?) you are going to get bloody minded stubbornness until the cows come home.

Watching this Chelsea game Football is becoming a farce - VAR is becoming as inconsistent as the the referees were before it came in, now the player who should have been sent off for a Son on Ruduger type challenge scores a goal!

I thought I heard that had he played the bill for playing 90 minutes would have been eye watering

Some may say itÂ’s mumbo jumbo - but it worked after her last visit, she did her stuff outside and we won our first game at St MaryÂ’s. The ground is built on the site of an ancient settlement, if you look at the glass windows at the front of the stadium the map of the settlement is featured in the glass..........maybe she need to come in for top up. Something else I noted was the colour of the home dressing room, itÂ’s very black. A few years ago in the hey day of Wimbledon there was something about needing to be repainted as it was predominantly black which was what made them aggressive. Trouble is these days you canÂ’t get away with roughing up the opposition, so maybe the Black is psychologically firing them up but then during the game the are having to keep themselves in check and dulling their game. Some will be all over the above as complete hollyhocks - colour has been proven to have psychological effect. Soldiers on parade have for years been told to look at something green if they feel a bit queezy. As has been said already the football more often than not over the past few Year has been less than uplifting. As for this cobblers about playing towards the Northam second half to fire up the team, well we did that Saturday, Burnley turned up with one man and his dog and tucked themselves in a little cluster up in the corner out of the elements the awesome Northam were making out like Church Mice even when we were chasing the game.

I stand to correct myself - (having now seen it) that first goal was flippin bizarre - whilst Ings looked to be trying to avoid deflecting it into the net and giving Alex a clean catch, McCarthy looked to be unprepared for any aspect of the corner - no wonder it all looked weird from the opposite end of the ground.

Bit of a strange game - there were moments when the game sort of stopped but carried on. The first goal viewed from the far end looked really weird as not only we searingly stopped but Burnley did likewise except one person. We did look like a team that had set themselves in their heads for the break after Liverpool but then found themselves having to play at Spurs when they hoped to be on a beach. Burnley are just one of those teams that our game doesn’t suit playing against, that Vidra(?] who scored was probably their smallest player on the pitch. Didn’t think KWP looked as bad as some made out, he was a bit rusty to start but soon got into the game, certainly didn’t look like a fish up a tree like Danso did the other week. Played himself out of trouble against “the bigger boys” with a neat bit of skill a couple of times. Now I know I have different view from row EE to that of McCarthy the amount of times today he had players showing for the ball left and right with acres of Hampshire to run into but more often than not he just stood with the ball dithering about what to do.

Actually in the ground watching KWP looks ok from my seat - just a bit new that’s all. But on here every newbie has to be XBox pro straight out of the box. Wind is a bit swirly in the ground a few good cross field balls have just died mid flight.

banged to rights - posting under the influence buggered up my Saints chronology.

All this chat about the weather playing into Burnleys favour, Rain might not be an issue but 60mph winds are going to play havoc with their hoof it up front game. If the winds are that strong a hoof into the penalty box is going to have to be starting out aimed at the control box in the Itchen Northam corner for the wind whipping over the Kingsland roof getting caught under the Itchen roof and blowing back across the pitch towards the Kingsland. Should see some wayward football all round.

That is sad news, Dave Watson was top drawer, if he hadn't shocked the World signing Keegan Lawrie getting Dave Watson would have caused a spin in itself. Think the moment he he smiled at the oppos in the tunnel after taking out his front false teeth, half his afternoons work was done!

Said already - 10 minutes to put on a replacement pair of football boots at Wolves, can be slotted in alongside that - anyone still holding a candle for this guy................

Having listened to a very good 40-ish minute interview with him on Radio 5 one evening whilst on a long drive home from Scotland, my opinion of him changed - I have to admit I quite like the bloke.

...................Because you keep listening to it??

Donkeys years ago the away was Old Gold like Wolves

Deja Vu?! ...........bet they are still dining out on that in Monte Carlo

He played right back against us last season, felled Armstrong for the foul JWP scored the winner from.

Beat me to it - most league one and two teams have a grasp of reality in realising that divine intervention is the only likely way they will be finding themselves in the final. When the 3rd round draw is made and the remaining minnows and Lower league clubs are interviewed they just about all want to play a big team with a big stadium - players to tick a box, club for a lumpy cash injection.

Just seen Tranmere have taken Watford to extra time and are leading 2-1 with 2 minutes left!

Thought I saw something about the Sport Science department at Southampton University and its tie-in we have have had with them for many years, when the boys return after their summer break most of the body analysis is done by people from the Uni who crunch the numbers to both parties benefit. They learn, we learn and the depth of knowledge over the years of working together must be quite significant most likely helps to develop the right maintenance package for each player.

I spoke to Glenn about this a few weeks back at a St Marys dinner. I asked him did he see it coming "obviously I didn't, I knew nothing about it, I only knew what happened when I saw it on the News". "I didn't realise my jaw was broken until I found I couldn't eat my Fish and Chips that evening!". "The one thing I do recall was earlier in the game during a skirmish with the ball we both fell over each other I landed on top of him and he said that he would get me for that.......just thought it was one of those things people would say". Glenn said apparently a few season before they had a little insignificant run in during a game - which obviously had been simmering locked away inside him until that moment. Beattie who was also in attendance said he was shocked that Davis had it in him to do that, as he sees Davis on the FA coaching courses and has done for a few years and doesn't seem to be a person with a nasty bone in his body.

We had the whole side stand for that game - the locals were up in arms about our generous allocation - Steve Parish their chairman was a poster on their version of SaintsWeb and he pointed out something along the lines of by giving us such a huge allocation we pretty much financed their academy for the next couple of years - seeing as he had on recently stepped in to save them from administration- the majority went “oh Ok”.