Patches O Houlihan

Big Vesty looks ruined 😁😁😁

Reminiscent of our Swiss nipper at Man U...

To the tune of Rio by Duran Duran. His name is Leo - and he’s dancing past your man He’ll twist, and turn, and shoot - and take apart your plan And when he plays, he’ll really show the Saints - ‘we can’ Leo Leo, celebrate with the Northam Stand [repeat] Note: Northam can be swapped for which ever stand the singer is sat in, or we can use Away when we're not at home

I guarantee you that at least one of the four will be 😉

That was only the second game they have lost at The Valley in 2025. We had only seen that many home wins in the same period. I suspect that might have an influence on the halftime vibe 😉

Playing around at the back to beat the press was the key to most of the goals - Jander's particularly. Clearly there is some residual memory of Russball for our defensive unit, and he did get them to be on average pretty good at that playing style in the Championship. The problem was when it didn't go well. What makes it better than under Russ is that the players now seem to be allowed to play it long, or chip it forward if they feel under pressure and want to play it safe - it felt like they knew they would get a bollocking for doing that under Russ. It's not going to be very helpful against teams that will play a low block against us - as most teams in the league now will after that performance. After a dispiriting 13 minutes with so many gilt edged chances missed that was a lovely 20 minute spell of total football. More please.

26 minute interview with Leo by the club. Clearly they are trying to get onside with the fans. But at the same time this is a great story. Following Saints can grind you down, but hearing about the soap opera that has been his life might remind you that there are lots of reasons why we follow this club - not just for wins. Hearing the story in detail explains why we see him play how he does on the pitch. I'm hoping that his positive energy, and Oriel's steadying professional outlook will combine to improve the atmosphere in the dressing room. We have a few talented players. It would be crap if we ended up losing them before we had seen them shine properly. I've been a fan since the first time we were linked and I watched one of his videos. He will get bought by West Ham/Wolves/Leicester/Leeds at the end of the season unless we get promoted. So we ought to enjoy him while he is here. COYR

Maybe that's the plan?! They'll keep Tonda until he loses two consecutive matches. Then appoint Lallana as interim to get the new manager bounce again. We'll keep working through the staff roster, until we get to Doris the tea lady who it turns out is a rockstar at Football Manager.

AT QPR we had Downs on the pitch for the last half an hour. He was worse than useless because he spent the whole time camped out in our area so we had no 'out' ball with which to relieve the pressure - it just came straight back at us. Because we had no proper leader on the pitch and everyone was maxed just trying to keep the ball out of the net, there was no one to tell him to pull his head out of his arse and go and occupy two of their CBs so they couldn't;t press right up and create a pressure cooker. You might have expected the manager to have spotted it and had a word - but Tonda was likely maxed as well...

No wonder the betting odds on OGS have dropped: I listened to the whole of his recent Stick to Football podcast on the dog walk yesterday. It came across as one big “Come and get me Southampton” * I’m not a regular listener but I think Jill Scott said he was their first returning guest. * Roy Keane reiterated twice about half an hour apart that he would take a ‘mid Championship job’ and that he would want to work with top talent not cloggers. * OGS talked at length about how he likes turning the mentality of a club around (not something Middlesbrough need) * Has some history with young players * Bestiktas job sounds like he did ok and they are a bit mental * He has had big gaps between jobs and has a cushy number with UEFA so easy to be overlooked in a manager search unless his agent makes an overt approach - but he said he prefers to be approached (don’t we all!) * Sounds like OGS has had his Man U mates do him a favour. If I was a bookie I would be dropping the odds. He comes across reasonably well, we could do worse.

He looked good technically but did look like he would be muscled off the ball regularly in the Championship. Its like Sports Republic are size blind: They spot the technical ability, and assume that they've paid a bargain price, failing to realise it is because the player will struggle with the English game which must be a big driver of player pricing.

I see JWP has been linked again. We know that he can play alongside Oriel, but it would be a shame to squeeze Shea Charles & Casper Jander from playing time. That salary is probably better spent with a striker. We have Scienza for free kicks (and Manning bizarrely). But if we did get promoted it would be lovely to see him break Beckham's PL free kick record in a Saints shirt. Would he even come? Alongside Oriel he would definitely drive up professional standards in the dressing room. Thoughts?

Or maybe it was a response to Shea Charles' injury and a recognition that the 'new' team was on average too young and not streetwise enough. He might be a free transfer but he'll be on a good salary and we already have a big squad. Maybe the plan was to bring him in once we'd shifted Aribo & Edozie to keep numbers and the wage bill reasonable. They are consistently inconsistent at recruitment. We'd all be reasonably happy if they had spent that £7m on a different striker...

Fancied joining in with Gary O'Neill song to win hearts and minds with the fanbase

Glad we’ve got Ori back - we need someone in the middle of the park to bully the guys trashing Scienza every 3 mins

Scienza has been fouled that many times that he starts the second half with a shirt that makes him look like a rugby league player!

Watching back the half time highlights interesting to note that several start with loud very audible renditions of the Gary O'Neil song one would imagine the board have heard the Northam's opinion.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0mds4j7 Shane Long 8m interview on this weeks events

On the plus side that's Championship goal of the season sorted out 😁

Downs played the last 15 mins inside our area - so there was no out ball and their defenders could push right up without worry

We played the same as every other game this season; Easy tap in missed on their goal line One of our shots takes a massive deflection and hits the bar (but goes in) Long range worldie from Scienza crept inside the post instead of hitting it Really shit goal given away 2 mins after we score Useless subs hand the game to the opponent for the last twenty minutes Manning was fucking woeful Baz has the goalkeeping IQ of Graham Norton Made a shit team look really dangerous

Have we enough subs left to bring McCarthy on?!

£20m for THB...

Stephens & Manning cut through like a knife through butter for the fifth time?!

Downs might be crap, but this is his best game for us