trousers

I can't even be arsed to laugh at Pompey anymore

Things getting out of control at West Ham. Behind closed doors next match...?!

And Huddersfield and Swansea drawing. Several results going in our favour which keeps us in touch with mid-table and probably helps keep Pellegrino in his job....

Ok.... Where do I sign up? #pellegrinomustgoimmediatelyclub

From a quick 'skim count' of remaining seats, I reckon there's about 1,000 remaining, give or take. So, whats that? About 3,500 sold so far? The middle 3 sections (blocks 3,4 and 5) are pretty much sold out. Blocks 2 and 6 have about 60-70% remaining and the outer blocks (1 & 7) have 90+% remaining (although these outer blocks are c.half the size of the other blocks)

Trouble is, I've lost count of the number of games where the desire and effort from a second half performance has not been carried forward to the first half of the next game. Therein lies the story of our season... Performing for 45 minutes rather than 90 for the majority of games (and after each game a different player is wheeled out to say: "we must learn from this and carry it forward to the next game")

Rumour in twitterland is that he might be back.... (which, given its twitter, is probably bunkum...)

I prefer Uranus

Not a bad guess there Trousers old bean

Other than counting the green dots online (or asking the ticket office) I don't think this info is readily available. Just had a quick eyeball of the availabilty in each block, and it looks like we've sold about 50% so far (rough guess)

Yep, it switched over to 'Season Ticket + 2 aways' bang on 9am this morning

1) only defeated in 38% of our league games this season 2) one less defeat than the team in 6th place 3) scored 5 more goals than the team in 7th place 4) only 6 points off the top half of the table 5) an FA Cup semi-final beckons 6) 38 places above Pompey 7) I can't count

Just saw the Palace v Man Utd result and then came over to read this thread, scrolling back a few hours. Thanks for the retrospective entertainment. A Saintsweb classic

He can't be a troll. The mods would have done something about it by now if he was, I'm sure....

He almost single handedly got us a win away at Watford ( until the inept officials allowed an illegal equaliser in the dying seconds) Edit: needed to put a space between the bracket and 'until') !!

Sims needs to start from here on in IMO. He has an instinct to attack, and has yet to have that knocked out of him by the management And I would start both Sims and Boufal. Caution to the wind and all that malarkey

Indeed. I guess what everyone wants is refereeing consistency, but we ain't gonna get that anytime soon whilst human beings are involved. If we'd had yesterday's ref at the Etihad then Man City don't score a winner against us...

You won't find a single football fan of any team that wouldn't rather the ref blows up for full time at the exact moment time is up rather than arbitrarily wait for a passage of play to complete. The observation here though is that 99% of the time, the ref would have allowed yesterday's free kick to have been taken. That's what makes it bizarre and/or annoying. Furthermore, I believe it's 'fair' to add on additional time to allow such a free kick to be taken (whether the current rules/guidelines allow it or not). Otherwise, if you send out the message to defenders that they can get away with a cynical last ditch foul to prevent a goalscoring chance and/or a follow-up free kick, then you're giving unreasonable advantage to the defending side in those last few seconds of the game, which can't be right/fair.

Austin has been "3 to 4 weeks minimum" away from a return for about 2 months now. Indeed, Pellegrino said he was back in training at the turn of the year. So, sounds like one of those annoying typical Saints injuries, whereby the player's return date gradually slips out to the end of the season whilst raising false hopes that he'll be back sooner. Anyone know why his recovery from a seemingly bog standard hamstring injury keeps getting set back? He seems to be going about every day life without too much mobility issues.

-------------------------- McCarthy ------------------------- Cedric ---- Stephens ------ Hoedt ---- Bertrand ----------- Hojbjerg ----------------- Lemina ----------- ----- Sims ------------- Gabbi ---------- Boufal ------ ---------------------------- Guido ---------------------------- Subs: Forster, Bednarek, Romeu, JWP, Tadic, Redmond, Long

I accept that venting our spleen now rather than later *might* have a positive effect on the outcome of our season, but I also recognise it could equally have a negative effect. Whichever path we choose (protest vs non-protest) we won't know what the best approach would have been until the end of the season. That's what makes hindsight such a wonderful concept

I guess the fact that every team from 7th and below are bang average, and that we're still only 6 points off the top half, despite our lacklustre form, means that there's still plenty to play for and protesting now would/could/might be counter productive

Indeed. Absolutely bizarre. Surely the act of committing a cynical foul in added time should add to the added time? If not, then all a defender needs to do, with 15 seconds or less on the clock, is to hack the opposition down in the knowledge there's no time left to take the free kick. And when was the last time a match had anything less than 3 minutes added time at the end of the 2nd half? I appreciate we'd probably have never scored with an extra minute and/or if we were allowed to take the free kick, but doesn't make it any less fathomable

Just back from the game. Dullest 1st half game of football in the history of the world ever. Saints improved a bit in the 2nd half, but the bottom line is, if we can't beat a team as woeful as Stoke then we're in trouble. Sims was our only spark of inspiration IMO, so not sure why he was subbed. Should/could have nicked a win, but didn't. Story of our season right there. What's that, 13 draws now? We limp on.

Greetings from St Mary's... ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz