adrian lord

Interestingly, Riyadh was looking to "normalise" relations with Israel. So it would have been fine, but... Riyadh is a sworn enemy of the present Iranian regime, who are fighting Riyadh via their proxies, the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Iranian regime has of course expressed the wish to eliminate Israel from the map Hamas (and Hezbollah) like the Houthis, are in effect Iranian proxies fighting against Israel Hence the warming of relations between Riyadh and Tel Aviv, has among several motivations, that they share a common enemy in Iran and her proxies. There is therefore a school of thought that the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7th was in part motivated by an Iranian desire to torpedo the imminent normalisation of relations between Saudia Arabia and Israel. If so, it has certainly postponed any such diplomatic thawing for probably at least several years and therefore been a success on that front. ...so who knows now? It is 11 years away so a lot can happen.

You can just see Alcaraz is good for dressing room morale. I like him.

Goodness knows where 8 minutes came from. Getting on for 10% of normal duration.

Overall this has been an immensely improved performance, most notably Martin's much-vaunted passing game has finally clicked for long periods. Crucially, the players' movement has been far better, and accompanied by more rapid, and more accurate passing. Some great finishing to cap it all off. We remain vulnerable when harried aggressively by teams - I believe the youngsters call it "pressing"?

YES!

Fraser??

come on Saints

Dare I say it, but we may have weathered the storm from Wayne Rooney's Birmingham.

Better.

Our passing has collapsed.

oh my giddy aunt.

FFS

This is a classy performance.

nearly....

Smallbone having a good game.

So far so good.

ooooh

Passing speed and accuracy is immensely improved today.

'bout time we had the rub of the green.

Birmingham are going to regret Rooney.

YEEEEEES!

So much better without the hated VAR!

commentator banging on about offside??

1-0

When all is said and done, we are in the playoff positions which is the minimum target this season. But we are making very heavy weather of it all.