Miltonaggro

Don’t think so, and not seen the footage before today.

Yep I was there too, gutting and stopped us dead that season. Shitty frenetic game and Chrissy Nicholl as manager:

At the very least this is likely to be strap in, quite possibility strap on. If we lose badly Russ should refuse to shake the Liverpool players hands and nut Klippity in the centre circle - retain some respect.

I used to love watching Chris Nicholl for Saints, especially alongside Dave Watson, the epitome of a no nonsense hard as nails centre half. Superlative in the air, and with Watson that pairing provided the best aerial pairing in the top flight at the time. I can't recall him giving any less than 100% and he played more games for Saints (in those great Saints sides), than any other club. His time as manager also provides a lot of fond memories, and he got as near to anyone else to creating the nous / youth flair of those McMenemy sides, the likes of Case and Co. pulling the strings and Flowers, Shearer, the Wallaces, and Le Tissier coming through the ranks. We realised what we'd lost very soon after he left the club, particularly with that 4-2-4 disembowelling of cocky Liverpool frequently spoken of through the lean 90s. Last few years have been tough for Chris and his family by all accounts, but he'll always be loved by the Saints family. RIP big man.

Yet another CoT exclusive and still no universal gratitude.

You’re pessimistic here Weston if you think Russ will stick to the same tactics. Put a fiver on Ryan Manning as our target man.

Absolutely, you need to work on the pyramid and splits…

Watch it you beastly lot, the Bazunettes will be out in force shortly to iron you out!

Sulemana should be nicknamed the Ford Capri, flatters to deceive, only fast in a straight line, and repeatedly fucked over by the professionals!

It will go down in history as our invertebrate era!

Midfield Colossus 😂

With zero penetration (another KP analogy).

Brave as you like!

This is a repeat of hull, but worse as we seem to be degrading as a team. Trying to walk it in, dull and blunt in attack, no urgency, no fire on view. We deserve fuck all on this form. Worrying.

Fuck close!

Turgid lethargic shite! This side look like strangers again!

Officials in this league are appalling, and the lower league journeymen know just how to play them.

We should have too much for the Bermondsey batty boys, and this line up is much more solid, Bree over Captain Jack would improve it but relieved that Mind the Gap has been hooked. 3-0 Saints and some positivity returned.

It might have been that manning was a star in that Swansea side but he’s very much the weak link here. From where I am at St Mary’s I get to see him closely (no refund) and two things that really stand out are consistently poor positioning and a lack of decisiveness in terms of interceptions. Both mean he is constantly trying to recover during games - frenetic firefighting which unbalanced the team. It’s a lack of footballing intelligence seemingly tolerated by RM. Bree seems a solid old school up and down full back, streets ahead defensively, and for me a much better first choice option when fit.

There was a lot of afters in real time that day - frustration release across north London. Never seen so many scousers morph from Yosser to Cilla Black so quickly.

My main view is that we need a competent geographically aware left back in for this one, so channelling the Burnley bint. 20 games in captivity Boots too small to fit his feet His body abused but his mind is still free Are you so blind that you cannot see? I said¦ Bree is the key fella, I'm begging you James Bree there is no dilemma * Drop Manning

Yes, I saw that too. Right from get go Saints were far too casual and second best to every lose ball and gap. Unconcerned and it appeared arrogant that we had a second gear a la Huddersfield. No urgency until the triple sub at half time and even then you didn’t get the necessary reaction. If Fraser and Adams are the best we’ve got in those roles they need to start.

Hull certainly had our number and the difference appeared that they had been well drilled tactically and were extremely fit, prepared to press and put bodies on the line. Carvalho also looked the best creative player on the park by a long way. Saints short passing around at the back is all well and good if you are looking to frustrate and tire poor teams but when it’s used against decent opposition it’s a deathwish. Play like that against Liverpool and we will be humiliated. What Saints don’t do in terms of starting from the back is zip it forward decisively, you need more than one footballing brain cell in midfield for that. Last night within ten minutes it was clear that Hull were attacking our left side, pulling manning apart whilst mobbing and nullifying Edozie. Similarly central midfield was targeted as a weakness, with smallbone obliging. In that sense the rotated team selection was disrespectful to the opposition and consequently negligent, and we were punished for it. We are now in the business end of the season and it needs to be strongest 11 starting, barring injury. Downes is the key it seems along with playing a full back rather than a frustrated half-baked forward in manning - clearly not the player he or RM, thinks he is. The lack of natural goalscorer in the middle is also going to haunt us, and yesterday five or six times that kind of player would likely have had a clear chance with crosses coming over and passing players by or going over their heads. Frustrating as hell, but an obvious area to strengthen back in January. We have to go all out and auto promotion is clearly still very open but we’ve now been exposed and choked twice in a fortnight. I don’t fancy us at all for the play offs for the reasons we saw last night so we need to play our game in the remaining matches and hope that Leeds and Ipswich blip. Final point that dawned on me last night was that all of our decent players are loanees, we’ve tried to be clever in preserving funds this year, but only clever if we go up, otherwise will look like a form of disaster capitalism. Fail in promotion and another full rebuild will be necessary come May, so no solid guarantee that we will be immediately challenging again next year.

Targeting our left side all that half and harrying all the tippy tappy round the box, worked a dream. Huddersfield Deja vu. About four changes due early second half.

Player we were crying out to sign last summer, but better late than never. You watch him close up at games and oozes class, proper quick footballing brain, rare as hen's teeth.