trousers

I remember the loan but I've got a feeling we never played him and Villa understandably got a bit narked so recalled him....?

:-)

At least The Sun are on our side.... http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/3338181/Southampton-2-Blackpool-0.html "IAN HOLLOWAY lost his sense of humour as Southampton sent his Blackpool side tumbling." "There was one big question on everyone's lips: Was this a Cup shock? The League One title favourites have great strength in depth and thoroughly deserve a fourth-round tie with Manchester United. Yes, Holloway made nine changes, gave teenage midfielder Liam Tomsett his debut and packed his bench with youth-team players. But opposite number Nigel Adkins also made eight alterations and should have utterly squashed the Tangerines."

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/3339263/Crawley-star-Matt-Tubbs-will-ask-to-quit-if-a-big-club-comes-calling.html Published: Today MATT TUBBS will plead with FA Cup giant-killers Crawley to 'Let me go' if a big club comes calling. The 21-goal Blue Square Premier hitman has been linked with Leeds, Peterborough and Southampton. And the 26-year-old is determined to prove his worth against Championship club Derby tonight. Big-spenders Crawley have already said they will match any offer that comes in for their star. Tubbs insisted: "If a big club came in I'd like to think Crawley wouldn't stand in my way because it's my career. All I want to do is play at a higher level." I'm guessing we would count as a "big club" from his point of view....?

Alternative view alert.... I know we made a similar number of starting line-up changes to Blackpool but, to give the British press a smidgen of credit, isn't there is a subtle difference between the players we left out of the starting line up and Blackpool's? As I understanding it, Blackpool played a team of players that have largely not played week in week out whereas the players we brought in were players who have seen relatively regular action during the course of the season. In other words, we were simply rotating a squad of 'regulars' whereas Blackpool picked a team of players who rarely get a look in? Don't get me wrong, I still think the media are under-valuing our victory but I can see what they're getting at.

The Guardian isn't a tabloid, it's a highly respected broadsheet ;-)

It's human nature for people to latch onto events and quotes that satisfy their pre-conceived view of a person or organisation. Take the coalition government for example, they're doing some positive things to address the country's debts but people who have a vested interest in knocking the government 24x7 will focus on the negatives and conveniently ignore the positives. You're simple caught up in what us old fashioned people call 'human nature'...

I think that's a tad harsh. Deppo's not that bad... ;-)

Those damn nasty Tory cutbacks are even starting to affect the Guardian. ConDems out FFS!

Alps - fret ye not. If/when we win tomorrow there will be plenty of people doing what they're baiting you to do, but in reverse...i.e. "so, cup games affect our league performance then do they Alps? Lol" or words to that effect. In other words, there are "I told you so" folk on both sides of any argument.... Mark my words when, after the game tomorrow, you'll hear me say: "I told you so that there would be 'told you so' people out there" ;-)

The Daily Mail's (albeit short) write-up this morning focused on Lallana. Now there's a decent newspaper... ;-)

Might I suggest that Lallana is now the most popular and revered Saint of recent years? Given this is the case, perhaps he should join Mr Lambert on the forum banner.....or, if there's no space, dare I suggest that he should be up there instead of Rickie (by a short nose)? That's got to be worth a few pages of debate, surely?

(a) I still think it's a 'magical' tournament (b) I wouldn't have been unhappy if Saints had gone out yesterday © I was excited when we won yesterday (d) I was excited by the draw today (e) I will not be unhappy if we go out to Utd in the next round (f) I will be excited if we beat Utd in the next round None of these statements are mutually exclusive, contrary to some of the opinions on here.

Indeed. Not necessarily....

Very surprised the FA allowed us to play a player we were yet to sign at the time

No, the Cup is far more important than the League now.... ;-)

I hope they don't come along....we don't want people labelling them 'plastic' for coming to see a 'glamour' game... ;-)

if it's about who pays more money to the club i usually pay more on a pay-as-you-go basis than a season ticket holder does over the course of a season. Does that make me equally deserving...? ;-)

But Adkins can't 'man manage' subconscious human behaviour. Even God ****ed that one up.... ;-)

Austin, Danns, Stock, Owen, Skacel...

At least it'll give those of us who were wary of the cup being a distraction some thing to hark on about... ;-)

This will obviously be a severe test of whether the cup will distract the players too much. Here's hoping we don't see any players subconsciously over protecting themselves from 50/50 balls in the games leading up to this one. Human nature and all that...

Less of the sensible posts if you don't mind sir.