SWLondon Saint

I thought he was trying to back header it away and was too tired. He couldn't just jump and head it full on as it was in the perfect place to score an own goal.

Yep, I agree they knocked themselves out as much as anything. They could / should have put the tie out of sight in the first half at theirs but we did defend well. They let the whole angry revenge thing wind them up too much. Their coach should have been doing the opposite of stoking the fire really.

I honestly have no clue why so many people are just assuming we're guilty when not a soul has seen the evidence. One time when I did jury duty, there was a sexual harassment case and it looked bad from the initial accusations and stuff, and the bloke had been in the paper for being suspended from his job. Turns out the evidence from the accuser was absolutely paper-thin and though she was clearly upset about it, it was just not the bloke accused due to the laws of physics (he was simply too far away and too pissed judging from general CCTV footage). That bloke's name got dragged through the mud and he had been suspended from work so I don't know how he was surviving. All because of a overreaction / mistaken accusation and the CPS believing the accuser and going ahead with the charge. Feels a bit like that to me, but who knows? Daft to pre judge at any rate.

I mean, since literally no-one has seen this 'evidence', it is entirely possible that the club can prove this guy had no official link to the club and it actually was just massive overreaction.

I mean if so, the obvious defence is that THB had no clue he had a stutter, why would you even know that about another player?

GTFI. 40 yard cross is the best way to win a game like that 😆 Didn't see their goal as I only watched from about 20 mins but I think they actually got themselves too worked up about everything and you could see they would run out of steam - I just didn't think they would do so from quite early in the 2nd half. But having said that I think Tonda waited too long to swap Leo for Edozie and we could have won it in normal time otherwise.

From any kind of procedural perspective for an actual panel, surely the accuser here has to provide some concrete evidence more than a couple of witness statements and a photo of some bloke whom it sounds like they've identified from LinkedIn as connected with Saints since there's no interns listed on our site. I can see that could be considered enough to start a charge, but the burden of proof when push comes to shove is always on the accuser and not the defendant. This bollocks about forensic phone and bank trails is simply not going to happen unless Boro have cast iron facts from, say, a private investigator of their own. Which all the news so far points to them not having. If they had it, they'd already have leaked it for sure.

One final thing - whatever the rights and wrongs may be in this case, I would bet that literally every club is doing all of it and more, whatever any fans may think of their club being 'above dirty tactics'. It's an arms race out there and everyone has the same info these days.

The number of holes in the whole thing are just ridiculous. If you were getting someone to spy, how fucking thick would you have to be to check them into a hotel under their real name, which they have on your website? When confronted by a random angry other private citizen, who the f*** is going to tell them their name when most people wouldn't give an angry officious rando the time of day? Or delete anything off their phone?

Sorry, but that article is complete unfounded bollocks. Nothing is proven at this point so this is pure speculation, and the journo should not be writing shit like 'Southampton may claim the staff member is an intern' when they know absolutely nothing. EFL charges apparently rely heavily on witness statements - and if the only witnesses we've heard from are all Boro staff, it's hardly likely to provide a balanced opinion.

Only watched the first half, but even though they were all over us I didn't feel particularly panicky - the players seemed very calm about the situation, maybe a bit too calm and passive tbh. Thought Larin, Fellows, Azaz were all poor, the few times we had it they all seemed out of sync and gave it away too easily. At the back Wood was awful, I think their plan was to let him have it then press him hard when he stepped forward and he duly coughed up the ball a number of times. Couldn't watch the 2nd half but sounds better. I do feel Azaz seems a bit out of sorts the last couple of games, could play one of Bragg / Charles there or Matsuki even...?

This just looks like complete bollocks frankly, if it's this student mentioned, he only did a placement here and LinkedIn is not reliable at all. How would they even get his name, you're under no obligation to give your name to another private party in a public space? How would they check his phone, again, no rights at all to look at someone else's phone? Made up outrage to try and fire up the crowd. Hopefully we smash them and do the binoculars celebration 🥽

Guess I'm not allowed to watch us live till the end of the season, only times I've been able to watch the last few weeks were first half of Derby and today 😆 I switched off at half time today thinking 'Surely this won't work again, will it?!'

Hadn't had time to watch much lately but caught the last half an hour or so. Thought Charles looked a bit leggy, not busting a gut to get back a couple of times. Matsuki did all the hard work with that lovely first touch to take the ball away from the defender off the pass and then blasts it over when it looked easier to hit the target. Archer, lovely finish though, hope he can take some confidence and kick on from that because it was a proper striker's finish, first time bottom corner. Loved seeing Larin with his defending at right back and then after he lost it in the midfield, getting back after their right winger and forcing him back and winning the throw too. Pure quality. He looks more than quick enough as well on the break for the Matsuki miss and recovering to defend. Sign him up!

Games gone, ludicrous pen. Just another reason not to bother watching this summer 👍🏼