franniesTache

Wiltshire is full of Druids so surely they'd be Druid Cunts As for the game it's hard to predict the outcome i think, we probably should've lost to Preston at theirs and their form has been really good the last few games, we have also dropped off a bit and are at the stage where people can figure us out (play wingers and press the backline) which has meant we've reverted to the same style that meant we were losing a lot at the start of the season. Saying that though we've got Downes back who's probably the most important player for the team, Brooks looks good, and hopefully KWP will be fit. If i had to stick my neck out i'd say I think we'll probably get a draw in this but honestly wouldn't be surprised if we lost it too (now watch us go out and smash Preston completely out of a nowhere)

Funnily enough Saturday's game showed me why i don't think moving the away fans will help the atmosphere. The set up of St Andrews was similar to what's being discussed for us, with the main home end with safe standing opposite to the away fans. You could see the fans clapping (and presumably singing) in the Tiverton end directly opposite us but you couldn't really hear them as the sound didn't travel, whereas the brummies to our left and right made a proper racket when they got going. Unless we have similar either side of the away fans at st mary's the atmosphere will actually be worse than it is now.

I've been going since the early/mid 80's and can remember it being sung by teams other than us pretty much the entire time i've been going. It's obviously more associated with us than others but it's never really been "our song". Then again loads of clubs used to sing you'll never walk alone too, but don't anymore. Funnily enough it actually reminds me of the old version of OWTS that was done on the milton road terrace in the late 80s, the one where you'd hold the note of each word until your lungs nearly burst before speeding up. Haven't heard that in years sadly but used to love that as a nipper.

I'm completely the opposite to that, that's why i'd prefer the itchen north to be over 25, so all the little try hards can bugger off back to the Northam and do their shit bantz there instead. As for having an end that generates real noise it's never really been like that for saints, even when we had the Milton the noise was different to the west terrace or under the east. Maybe the bikeshed would be the one example of a noisy end we had but that was pretty short lived in all honesty. What will happen with "The Red Wall" is that it'll be 90mins of dogshit anti pompey songs and OWTS that will make me want to stab myself in the ears with blunt objects. Much like our away followings are at the moment to be honest. Maybe if they made the back rows of the chapel safe standing then i'd be in favour of the northam as a home end, because i'd be far enough away from the "bantz" to not care, but at the moment the away fans provide a nice buffer to the cringe

Only increase come from gaining seats beck from segregation, though presuambly you''ll still need that elsewhere, the whole thing is a nonsense though, it's really only "fixing" a problem that doesn't need fixing. They should just keep the layout the same, make it safe standing from the itchen north to the kingsland north, keep one block of the walk up pay on the day only, make the itchen north over 25's only. The idea that making the northam and "end" will help atmosphere is weird too, for a start we've had amazing atmospheres in the past with the ground as it is, plus I don't actually believe we have the extra 6k noisy fans we'd need for it to be filled, so it'll just end up with the same amount of people making noise anyway. It's all pie in the sky b*llocks based on some fantasy of what creates an atmosphere that hasn't existed for a generation in the game, and arguably has never existed for Saints as a culture anyway as we've always had small groups split to different parts of the ground (archers, west stand terrace, under the east, milton, northam, itchen north etc.)

Can't believe that lad didn't take you up on using the shortcut through st mary's to be fair, you were just trying to be helpful 😉

The one who's idea it is

honestly it's such an incredibly shit idea, shame the ego of one man is going to make the ground worse for everyone

Coca Cola competition was where the Bradley Wright-Phillips money came from, that team was fucking awful in terms of actually giving a shit though. Remember losing to Watford away in the cup 4-0 where the only player that looked even remotely interested was Surman.

Still think the rain at that Derby play off probably prevented some serious crowd trouble, there were some seriously angry saints fans that night and some very game Derby fans. Had it not been sheet rain i'm not convinced that combination would've ended well

Everyone know what the score of this will be already. It'll be Southampton 0 Hull 4, of course. Hopefully i'll make it for happy hour and still see the flag day, though i might be anxious.

That's exactly the reason why I want Leicester to beat Leeds. I still feel like we have a loss or two in us before the end of the season and having Leeds drop points is far more important than some batshit idea of us catching a team who are 90% promoted already.

This year is my 40th consecutive season of watching Saints and from those years of experience i can tell you exactly how it'll pan out for saints. The most Saints thing in the world would be for us to achieve a recording breaking points figure for third, then proceed to lose the first round in the play offs on penalties despite being the better team over both legs.

What goes unsaid is as important as what is said right? If only our fans could learn to read between the lines with what the club puts out into the public they'd see so much closer to the truth

What i find interesting is that when Danny Rohl left you heard shedload of noise from inside the club about how the wrong person was going. When Paul Mitchell left the noises from the club were of massive panic. When Joe Shields started talking to Chelsea there was real anger behind the scenes, but with Wilcox the noises seem to mostly be a case of "we haven't heard about this and a shrug". That reaction alone makes me not as worried as other people about him going.

Out of interest what has he actually achieved?

Something other than the fact he was a season ticket holder at portsmouth, born in a PO postcode, a matchday mascot for them who said andy awford was his favourite player, and said their 2010 fa cup win was the best day in his life? I mean if that's not a skate i don't know what is? Lovely bloke is Al, got a ton of time for him and i think there's a bigger case to call someone like him a legend than any player that's played for the club in the last 30 years. Proper southampton, committed, and never makes a song or dance of it, just always there. And yeah like you say that period would include friendlies and even closed door covid games (allegedely)

Come on now mush you know we all have standards I heard that one of us was learning the words to songs from the woman behind him last night, and helping her understand how to read the tv's to get players names as she didn't know any of the Bristol City subs How was Al Scarf?

I think the Gabbiadni song is the result of the lack of real "heroes" for the younger generation. Lambert aside we've not really had any notable players in recent years, even the skate ward-prowse didn't actually achieve anything when he played for us, so those nippers who only really started supporting Saints post the last promotion to the premier league don't have much more to look at than a lost League Cup Final and a last minute win at Swansea to stay up. I guess it's probably similar to if those of us who've been round the block had watched the Saints of the 90's without Le Tiss.

Been saying all season our support is as bad in quality as i can remember in my life. You really can't argue about the numbers, but it feels like those numbers have been bused in straight from red lodge. It's really depressing the lack of quality there, especially as it's the nippers that seem to be leading the charge of the shite brigade. Traditionally the nippers are the ones trying to do something different and new, instead it seems now they're just proving they have the intelligence of a wet breeze block and the style of a meth head offering tricks to buy drugs

Rovers played in Bath because City fans burnt down their ground tbf. Now that's proper rivalry, none of this shouting scummers stuff or singing about fathers guns there. Just burn the fucking thing down 🤣

It's really weird how popular this game is, we've played at Anfield loads in my lifetime (usually losing) and didn't even sell out our allocation for the league cup semi final there. But a fifth round FA cup fixture, midweek, in a game we'll probably get tonked and everyone's losing their mind trying to get tickets to. I genuinely don't understand the mad rush, it's not even like it's a novelty for us.

One thing i'll find interesting is how many of those that have bought tickets will actually turn up. I've noticed this season when big allocations, or unpopular games are released you get a lot more people buying tickets to immediately move them on on social media. I guess the fact we're getting smaller allocations in the league means it's more incentive to do this so people can qualify for the games it'll be hard to get tickets for. This lad for example bought tickets half an hour after they went on sale and is already trying to shift them, doubt that's travel arrangements or work https://x.com/jchann14/status/1755600557807665154?s=20

I'm giving it a miss, probably in the top percentage of away fans for games i go to but i've been to Anfield loads and can't get the time of work easily. Way more bothered about Brum and Blackburn to be honest.

Yeah the Northam creche decamping to the IN has pretty much ruined it too, we moved out of blocks 1/2 because of the dinlows turning up and singing their shit noddy songs and waving at the away fans. That's why my preference would be an age limit there, only sell tickets to over 25's and hope these numpties fuck off back to the northam. We absolutely get involved in the atmosphere, but it makes no difference because the god awful city clone songs, songs about the skates (or at aways) songs about libraries take over. And there's only so many times you can call someone an embarrassing little prick before you give up. Better to boot them to a different part of the ground and have our own thing