ooh it's a corner

holy ****, defender for centre forward. flat back four.

bookmakers still have us as favourites to win this. Not by much, but still favourites. Come on Saints, you've got a goal in you, we know this.

makes you wonder if the shenanigans will continue during the game? slow ball-boy activities for one side, using deflated balls occasionally? It wouldn't surprise me if Swansea time waste from the off, thinking a point is better for them than us, but we just need to recognise over 90 minutes we will get chances to score. Rise above it Saints and just beat them.

on the bench tonight. A chance to come on and score a last minute winner and secure his place in folk-lore?

School-boy error. I'm not meant to be drinking during the week, but have two bottles of Doombar looking at me. Two. Just two. I'm going to open one, but with the nerves being so high, they'll both be long gone before kick off. So, beer run now? Beer run after the first? Or watch it after two and only two? Or head to the pub and watch it there? #firstworldproblems

It's all down to expectations I reckon. Once you become established in the premier league, and nobody thinks you have a chance of getting relegated, then you are expected to be knocking on the door of Europe. Once you have tasted European football, your fans (and possibly your board) expect you to qualify every season. It's almost like there is a greed amongst all the clubs to over achieve and nobody wants to settle for mid-table obscurity, but ultimately, there are only so many top table seats to go round. Burnley will feel this next season.

This is what is wrong with football in this country. I appreciate the nature of this thread and the mocking of our rivals, but for a third tier professional football club to have to close their U23's side due to cost, has to be detrimental for the development of young players in England. What does it cost to run an U23's team? 100k, 250k, 500k? The premier league money ought to fund each and every 92 league club's youth development programs. It might be Portsmouth and reason to poke fun, but it actually saddens me. All the more so when players are resorting to LinkedIn to try to get their next contract (and presumably pay cheque).

Three pages of 1 star reviews. Very funny and not one response from Serban V. the front office manager. His last post was against a complaint from a customer whose room was not ready because Chelsea FC had stayed the night before and too many rooms had been vacated on the same day, with not enough time/staff to ready them. Perhaps he just doesn't like the agro of a 40 room get out, caused by premier league footballers coming to town. Bless. I bet they are wishing they'd just honoured the booking...

Teams in the bottom half of the premier league are not good enough to guarantee their clean sheet. Swansea can try to play for a draw and then hope to better our result on the final day, but that is a very high risk policy. I think Swansea will try to win, just as much as we will. Only 6 points from the two games guarantees Swansea's safety. 4 points and they would likely stay up. Lose to us and they are almost certainly relegated. Draw with us and it is out of their hands. They have to be minded to try to win. As do we. Two crap teams, both needing a win. Should be a cracking, low quality, game of footie

we're going to get a point at Everton and Swansea will lose to Bournemouth, Stoke lose to Palace. We will beat Swansea and that will be that, barring a very large swing in goal difference. We will enjoy the Man City game with the sun on our faces.

Why do foreign investors get suckered in with this stuff? Surely if he realised he needed to move the stadium, he would have understood what restrictions there were on the current one? Surely he would have spent a little bit of time thinking, "I wonder if anyone else has ever tried to move a football stadium out of the city it is currently in?". These folks have a lot of money and a distinct lacking in common sense. Fratton Park will never be allowed to be built outside of the city of Portsmouth, which is the most densely populated patch on this little island of ours. They had their chance to build a better stadium by turning it through 90 degrees and using the land alongside it. They chose not to do that. They are now stuck with a time-warp of a stadium that must be getting to the age where it would be cheaper to tear it down and rebuild, rather than maintain it each and every year. What on earth did Mr Eisner think he was going to achieve? Buy the club for £5m, sell Fratton Park for £50m and build a 15,000 seater stadium in Havant and trouser the difference? Mental.

There was a lot of internet noise about pompey fans joining in yesterday, which is probably why there was such an over-the-top presence. #fakenews

https://mobile.twitter.com/peckham86/status/990356595455479810?s=12 Bury's goal. Really rather funny.

We played boring football under Puel. We played worse football under Pellegrino. Everyone would have sooner had Puel than Pellegrino, but that doesn't change the fact that we were boring under Puel. I was surprised we sacked Puel, but not disappointed. I would have Hughes over Puel every day of every week. Assuming Puel gets fired in the summer, I don't think we will see him in the Premier League again.

What happens if we get a point against Everton and Bournemouth beat Swansea? We will step out of the bottom three on goal difference, meaning that our game in hand against Swansea becomes a "don't lose" game, rather than a "must win". We'll all take a point away at Everton and I think 4 points sees us safe. It might be as few as two points.....

Pleasing to see some of the yellows that we picked up yesterday means that the players have listened to Hughes about being too nice. Lots of fouls in the middle of the park, when we wrong side. Sensible, professional football.

It is this sort of behaviour that alienates these overpaid young men from the people who pay to go watch them. And this isn't isolated to SFC, or even the Premier League. It's only at League One levels that this type of behaviour is rare and that is such a shame for this sport. What causes it? Too much wealth too young? Too many people chirping in their ear that they are the greatest thing since Maradona? I accept that the world's best sportsmen and women need a touch of arrogance, but the true greats manage to balance sporting arrogance with humility and I don't see much of this on display. It would be good to see the club offer induction training that aimed to give these guys a basic grounding. Make them work in the hospital, rather than visit sick kids. Carry bags off cruise ships, load cars onto transport boats, sweep the bloody streets, anything to make these gentlemen realise what an incredibly privileged life they lead. Then maybe they would go about their working business with a bloody great smile on their faces and what a difference that would make.

Like many on here, I think we'll be playing Championship football next season, but that is based on an awful year and the odds on us winning 2 or 3 of the remaining games... But, we are capable of winning tomorrow. I know we have forgotten what that feels like, but play with as much commitment as we did against Chelsea and we may sneak the three points tomorrow. Then the world will look a different place. Keep the faith everyone, in the fairy godmother we trust...

They have a good barometer of current levels of fan interest by the semi final. Selling tickets at £500+ for championship football next season, will see season ticket take-up plunge. Probably to the lowest levels since we left the Dell. We have been served ****e football for two seasons and there will be a wave of the better players leaving. Whatever peoples' attitudes to those who leave, the quality will be reduced. I think £450 is still steep, but would see season tickets at around 15k. Still makes the queue for the half-time toilet easier, and makes the get out simpler...

I feel sick just thinking about that scenario. Needs to be 5-0 Saints at half-time, or 0-0 until we nick the 95th minute winner, with 3 minutes of stoppage time quoted. These two scenarios are much healthier for my blood pressure.

Hughes already hinting at a degree of squad rotation, with a primary focus on remaining league fixtures. He could go for a wholesale swap-out of 8 or 9 players. Just as the premier league big boys do in the early rounds of this competition. That'd go down well.

If the rumour of a 60% staff cull with relegation are true, then Reed and Kruger will know that there is no place for a Chairman and CEO in a Championship football team. I think Kruger will bow out with some grace ("...relegation happened on my watch, so it is only right that I offer my resignation..."), Reed I think will jump at his first opportunity, but given his age and his performance with us, I don't think he will get any takers. So, I would not be surprised at all, if he is still here come September. He may take the opportunity to retire, but I am not convinced. Either way I bet he doesn't have a relegation clause in his contract, so presumably we'd have to stump up £500k a year, or whatever he earns, to pay the useless tosser. £19m on Carillo. Just utter utter madness. Not even an ounce of good governance in that decision. Cheerio Les, it was fun for a while, but we always thought you had an inflated opinion of yourself and for what it is worth, my season ticket renewal hinges on your departure.

I thought one of the consequences of denying the offence (which he did apparently) was that 3 games became 4 games. Why does he only have a 3 game ban? Missed decisions do change football game outcomes. I can remember being incensed that Paul Davis was ever allowed to play professional football again, didn't get charged with ABH/GBH and Saints weren't awarded the game as a penalty to his club. Not that I am suggesting we should be given the three points from Sunday, due to a poor tackle that wasn't seen by any of the officials. But the frequency of big clubs gaining advantage with poor refereeing seems to have increased due to Leicester winning the league. We can't let that happen again chaps, or else the Chinese will pay less for their EPL rights.......ffs

The biggest miss for me is the profile. The Premier League is the highest profile domestic league on the planet. People all around the world know Southampton for Premier League reasons. The consequences of relegation are felt throughout the city, not just by football fans. That said, I can honestly say that the League One promotion year is the most I have enjoyed football, even going back to the early eighties and coming second. It was attacking, goal scoring, winning, big fish in a little pond, fun. We're on a down-wards trajectory and I don't think that will bottom out next season, and unusually for our fan base, I think we will be aligned in our distaste for the board and senior figures within the club. Gao will need to pull a rabbit from his hat in the summer, or we will quickly turn against him and he will quickly recognise that a Championship side, or possibly even a league one side, is not the vehicle that he wanted/needed. Our revenue in League One was something like £15m if my memory serves. Not a lot you can do with that from overseas. From being a financially well run club, to being £200m in debt to someone, with Championship income levels, is one almighty reversal of fortune.

Fraser has to be leaving in the summer. Must be on an enormous wedge and we can't afford to have substitutes earning that much, whatever division we are in.