Teamsaint1

I think it was terrible weather that night too. Or it had been during the day Certainly the smallest crowd for any first team game I can recall. I was stood on the Milton with a large area all to myself. And we played badly. And Lost.

Charlie Taylor anywhere to be seen ?

Thought we were decent in the first half, and lucky in the second, but the goal deserved to win a game. might just help to settle nerves a bit.

Probably did what they could today. Stay in the game, at. 1-0 there is always a chance. But the next two games are the real thing. Time for excuses runs out very soon.

The four defeats in a row followed a pretty unconvincing start , two very late winners and a soft pen equaliser would be one way of looking at it. Things didn't look particularly rosy 8 games in, not least because two of the defeats were heavy ones. I guess there were reasons for optimism then, and there are some now, if we are looking for reasons to be cheerful. And , looking at Forest's excellent result on Saturday our start may actually have been harder than we thought it might be. Who knows ,at this stage ?

The Bournemouth performance against Chelsea , despite defeat, definitely backs up your point. And we are going to have to work out ways of countering their dynamism, which was impressive. Their subs slipped straight into gear too.

From where we were,admittedly 70 yards away it definitely looked initially as if BBD wanted it ? Which really , if he wanted it, he should have done with a very decent track record, and in the absence of AA.

We lost 4 in a row this time last year. this season is going to be really tough, and realistically we could well go down again. But I think we have a depth of squad to at least make a go of it, and if we do go down it is important that we go down in good shape, with a side that will mostly not have to be sold off , either because players want to go, or because of financial necessity. IMO the board have invested with half an eye on the possibility of another relegation,( BBD for example) and they are probably wise to do that. the next half a dozen games may well tell us a lot more about RMs ability to cope at this level. If we are really struggling to put anything like enough points on the board, he will surely go. But just possibly he will come through.

And a double pivot table.

And that is how it should be .6 is the more “ball playing “ of the two centre halves, ideally. if I was a central DM I would want the 4 shirt. Going back to SOGs post, didn’t England play a kind of diamond midfield in 1966 ?

And thats £1.4 Bn without Grealish. Who Southgate thinks would make us less good than his current selections.

You might assume that Che's people will want a deal tied up pretty soon, as he is ( I assume) without an employer from 01/07 ? If he does leave, I guess it is not impossible that we go with Tall Paul, Stewart and AA as our main striker options. Any discussion about Brooks coming back either on loan or permanent ? I would think he'd be a more than useful squad member at worst, and might not be too expensive .And I guess we are stuck with Sulemana due to the large outstanding transfer payments and presumably heavy wage costs ?

Looking at those, it seems a little bit less daunting than I thought it would. Not that it is going to be easy. And we do need a decent number of decent players incoming. But otherwise......

Yes, really, but a return to the earlier yellow and black would be a nod in that direction.

Definitely our best non yellow away kit for a long time. We should always have yellow as our second kit. A return to the old Yellow shirts and black shorts would be good.

As others have said, one of the best days I have ever had following the Saints. My first game was 1970. And , given that supporting my home town club was the only choice, I have been really lucky with long stretches in the top flight, some wonderful teams and incredible players. And plenty of success along the way. But I couldn’t be at the final in ‘76, although I was at the semi final, and since then every big Wembley ( or Cardiff ) occasion has ended in more or less glorious defeat (the JPT aside, which was lovely, but doesn’t really count as major success.) And often I have thought that maybe it just wouldn’t ever be. So it goes. And then suddenly, this team made it happen. A huge win, on the biggest platform ,in one of those games where the clock seems to go slower the more you look at it. Finally, it really happened. Feels a bit selfish , but I still feel the disappointment ( and the thrill of the good parts, like Peach’s goal ) of Wembley ‘79, Cardiff ‘03,even the Zenith Data, Wembley ‘17, and the semi final defeat. And today I can really make my peace with those nearly- days. Today made all that good . It was ( football ) wonderful.

FWIW the bookies have Leeds as quite strong favourites, As ever, some terrible prices on offer. I like Edozie, but with Adam Armstrong at 6/1 first scorer, 11/1 Edozie looks poor value., with Kamaldeen the same price !! Smallbone at 16/1 looks worth considering though.Stephens at 66/1 looks value, .Mara is 8/1 .No, really. anyway, I won’t be jinxing any of our brave lads. No sign of my ticket yet ……