trousers

I tell you what, we're going to f***ing walk the championship next season with these players

And for good reason IMO... I've been watching him... He does the simple things really well and is always looking to thread a ball forwards between the lines. Most good players in this position tend to go relatively unnoticed... It tends to be when they cock up they get noticed more...

Assume we'll see some early rotation from Russ as there's at least 4 players here that need to go straight into the starting 11 on Saturday.... (Yes, it's only against Cardiff's 2nd team, but... )

Now that's a f***ing superb goal!

Ha, that's quite amusing 😂

1-1 New keeper anyone? (Yes, I know it was a cracking shot... #Banter)

Watching on my phone via the Now TV app. All tickety-boo on there.

Somewhat dull tangential observation.... When the 3rd kit was announced they wore pink shorts in the photoshoot, whereas we've worn white shorts in both games we've worn it so far. How come? What colour are the replica shorts on sale in the club store?

On parole, 8pm curfew

Amo should lift that over their keeper for the 2nd

If he can do that consistently against PL teams as well as vs Cardiff's academy side then defo a pat on the back for SR

Boom!

Did you just press the middle button on your predictive text to reply to that?

Well, that's one way of describing our tactics...

Great minds thinking alike. Can't beat a bit of Saintsweb harmony on a Wednesday afternoon

The thing is, he doesn't have to be "much better" to reduce the number of dropped points. If he earns us, say, a mere 3 more points than our incumbent goalkeepers then that could be the difference between safety and relegation. I, like most, happen to believe that he'll contribute more to our points tally than a meagre 3 points but that would be a bonus.

Another member of the 'Blocked by Crook' club here! So long ago I can't even remember exactly what for.... but no doubt would have been politely pointing out something he got wrong. It's almost as if these 'football correspondents' only want to be followed by sychophants blowing smoke up their arse.... can't for the life of me think why they'd want to mask any criticism and have people undermining their self-appointed credibility...

How many more days of this to go....? #exhausted

The loudest alarm bell for me was the open-training session at St Mary's on 1st August. It wasn't really a training session at all. More of a warm down session from the Oxford game the night before and/or a 'meet the fans' event. I'm pretty sure there were other players there who weren't in training due to fitness issues, but no sign of Stewart, even in a meet-and-greet capacity (if I recall correctly). And I'm also pretty sure this session came a week after another one of Russ's "he'll be back on the grass next week" declarations. One assumes the club would defend their furtiveness by saying they are being protective of Ross, not just from the physical injury side of things but I would imagine he won't be in a good place mentally either if his career is in jeopardy. Which is fair enough really.

Oh

Impossible to answer given the club's furtiveness and/or subtefuge on the matter... if only we had some investigative local journos who could get to the truth rather than sit there meekly not challenging it every time Russ glibly trots out the "two weeks" line...

I see they're discussing the income from stadium naming rights on that thread, which has got me thinking.... given "we've got to be careful with our spending" to avoid breaching the financial rules, it seems bizarre (on the surface) that we seemingly haven't sought a stadium sponsor deal to boost our player spending potential. Anyone with inside knowledge know why this might be? I don't know what the going rate is for stadium naming rights (must be upwards of £10m though?) which potentially puts us in the market for another player and/or players in a slightly higher quality bracket. Indeed could/should Dragan's media company not be exploring this as a way of legitimately massaging the figures, a la Man City etc? Just seems like we're missing an obvious trick here....

No, but that wasn't the gist behind my thinking. As I say, it would give our "best" 11 players chance to gel as a unit. Arguably better to integrate new players in a cup game rather than in a league game? Anyway, as I say, was just me thinking out loud and I can also see the benefits of alternative approaches to this match.

I'm in two minds. Part of me thinks that playing a second stream team is a bit of a wasted opportunity to field our best 11 players (on paper) to give them chance to gel. Russ has stated that he's showing loyalty to the players that got us promoted at the moment, but that could change if/when any said players are struggling to maintain the same levels of form in the Premier League. So, with that hat on, I'd probably have gone for a line up along the lines of: McCarthy Suga - THB - Bednarek - KWP Downes - Ugochukwu Fernandes - Dibling - BBD/Armstrong Archer (Would that be our current strongest starting 11 on paper? MLG caveat: Yes, I know I've listed 12 players but can't decide between BBD and AA) But, as I say, I'm in two minds, so I also see the merits of playing all the fringe / new players too.

Anything to be concerned about...?