trousers

We've had a couple of injuries recently whereby it looked like the players would be out longer than they were (Armstrong and JWP) so for fingers crossed that Redmond falls into this bracket

Chomp chomp chomp

Annoying result. Creates a 9 point gap between us and 5th

No reason to be amazed. Life is always more rewarding if you predict failure rather than than success. By predicting failure you get a degree of satisfaction either way (i.e. you get to play your "told you so" card if said failure ends up occuring). Predicting success only gives you a degree of satisfaction if said success ends up as the outcome.

With us having the worst home record and Villa have the 2nd worst away record I guess a draw is the most likely outcome

Yep, that's another possible outcome.

Villa are (as it stands) 6 points behind us and with the same goal difference. They play us next so could be 9 points behind us and in danger of being cut adrift if we beat them

Just back from the game. 'Typical Saints' territory... an excellent run of games where we were 2nd only to Liverpool in the form table then games like today. Ok, the weather made it a bit of a lottery, especially in the 2nd half, and they won it with a moment of individual good play, but that doesn't explain why we didn't play with the intensity and desire that took us to the aforementioned heights in December / January. A draw would have been a fair result today as neither team shone but hey ho. By the way, would be interested to know what was going through Ralph's mind when he picked Vestegaard over Bednarek. Not because one player might be considered better than the other but because the foundation of our recent good form was built on a solid and consistent defensive unit. So why make a seemingly unnecessary change to that unit, especially with a debutant at right back? Strange. Today's result means we have to start looking below us again, however we're still as close to top 6 as we are the bottom 3 so some pivotal games coming up.

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Yeah but.... Part of the reason for our recent good form has been a stable back 4. Ergo, why make more changes than we need to, especially with KWP starting for the first time. That said, maybe the manager knows more than me...?!

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Vestegaard for Bednarek? WTF?

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A bit like your typical "glad I was wrong" doom and gloom Saintsweb poster then...

House [video=youtube_share;ACSeVC6umzg]

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Textbook https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?61388-Saints-0-9-Leicester-Reaction&p=2770454#post2770454

Kirklees

Good read

Has he ever predicted a win and no one on Saintsweb commented on someone who commented on it?

Baussenque

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I'm only interested if he owns a super-yacht

So, with it looking like JWP will be available, the starting 11 pretty much picks itself these days... McCarthy KWP Bednarek Stephens Bertrand JWP Hojbjerg Redmond Armstrong Long Ings Which leaves the bench looking something like: Gunn, Valery, Vestegaard, Romeu, Djenepo, Boufal, Adams/Obefemi (or maybe sacrificing one of the defenders to include both Adams and Obefemi?)

"You know you're getting old when.... the Chancellor of the Exchequer was born in the 1980s...."