VectisSaint

Couldbe,seemstoworkfineonFirefox,Edge,IEandevenonAndroidChrome.

No surprise at all. Guess that Ralph is on his way out, and there seems to have been a complete lack of any activity by Kat/Ralph recently. Other than the transfer business not much has been happening in terms of development of the Club recently. Not a fan of investors from the Far East, but if its gong to happen lets get it done sooner rather than later.

Havingsameproblem, only on here and only when I type (if I backspace and insert space it is fine).Are you using Chrome on PC?

Odd, most teams wait till after they lose to Saints before sacking their manager. Maybe we dodged a bullet after all, think we were pretty close to having him here before Puel was signed.

Surprising. Don't really understand why Taylor got that one and Lewis the EFL - they were both there in the warm-up. Lewis played tonight for the u23s.

Your stats are correct, but hides the fact that he has played the last 5 league and cup games. Took a while to break into the team but is now playing regularly. I said when he moved on loan that we wouldn't see him back. I stand by that notion. Why would we bring in McCarthy and have Lewis in the background if Gazza was expected back (let alone Taylor)?

Why is everyone surprised that it was quiet yesterday. Loads of day trippers, football tourists and Chelsea supporters, added to which the Chapel contains the Family Stand. There are so many "empty" parts of the stand due to exits and other things, unlike the Northam, it will never be loud unless it is redesigned and reconstructed. There is usually more noise there (I sit in the Itchen) than the Northamers give credit for, but agree yesterday was quiet. Whole ground was quiet yesterday (apart from the Chelsea supporters - the ones in the Northam), apart from one rendition of OWTS and a couple of usual crappy Pompey songs our Northam Kop really don't have much to crow about. Crowd react to the game, after Chelsea went ahead so early we never really looked like scoring and most of the crowd just sit on their hands waiting for the 80th minute before they can go home (and miss our best few minutes).

Sam won't be coming back this season. He is on a season long loan. Players can only transfer during the designated transfer windows nowadays, so unless he was recalled in January its not even technically possible. We can't just recall him when we feel like it.

Doubt it, he wasn't on the bench on Wednesday. Would imagine Lewis will be there again.

David, 8 of the Man City starters were aged 18 or under, none of their subs were more than 18. Even without Gardos, I suspect the average age of our team would have been higher than theirs. I don't think you can claim Man City's team was any more experienced than ours.

Reminiscent of Jack Sparrow's goal.

He comes from Paris France He'll lead a merry dance clap clap clap clap would be more geographically correct, though no mention of the Skates means this will never catch on (thankfully).

How would he have got those appearances? When would you have left out VvD and Fonte and/or Yoshida to give Stephens a run out, especially as he has been on loan for the majority of the last 2 seasons (where he gained over 60 first team outings at different levels of the FL). Reasonably confident that he will eventually be Fonte's replacement, then again I thought Turnbull was heading that way as well till he was sent to Coventry.

Agreed, does look like him. Even more puzzling, because he can hardly be match fit, can't recall (without going back through the reports) the last time he actually played a game.

Looks like Bertrand may be ready for the weekend though.

Isgrove hasn't been involved in the u23s for a while. I think its unlikely he will be in the squad for Wednesday, suspect he is injured. Gardos could be on the bench Wednesday, he will probably only play 45 tonight, if he comes through that I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the EFL squad.

Highly likely Fonte will be gone in January, hence why he has not played in Europa League games. VvD is obviously being lined up for captaincy. He will be here next season, despite Sky trying to sell him yesterday.

Because the group tables are currently being sorted alphabetically when there is a tie on points (or in the case of Group C numero-alphabetically, as "1. FSV Mainz 05" comes before "AS Saint Etienne"). There is a set of 12 criteria for determining FINAL group positions when there is a tie, the first factor being the number of points gained in the matches between the tied teams, then by goal difference between the tied teams in the matches played against each other in the group, then goals scored. Overall goal difference is only the 6th tie-break factor. [Away fans singing is the last unwritten criteria if all else fails] [http://www.uefa.org/MultimediaFiles/Download/Regulations/uefaorg/Regulations/02/35/92/45/2359245_DOWNLOAD.pdf Article 16]. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to apply these factors in the interim, but rest assured as things stand we would qualify 2nd above Beer-Sheva, due to goal difference overall. Note that if we were to draw our home match against Beer-Sheva 1-1, AND we ended up on equal points, they would qualify because of away goals.

Didn't even consider the shots, it was the giving the ball away, misplaced passes and poor tackles that made his performance poor. We looked much better when P-E came on. Good point today (excellent (point actually), really could have won it, Austin should have done better with Boufal's lovely ball. Boufal looked promising, but his Gaston-esque give away very nearly cost us dear. Well done to Sam McQ, he had a tough afternoon, and was clearly feeling it with 10 to go (cramping and blowing), but with some help from Davis and VvD he really did a good job defensively today, which was the question that was being asked.

How did he "not create a chance"? Maybe the author has a different idea of chance creation than me. Thought he also slotted into the Romeu position well when needed as well, most of our MFs now samlessly fill in on an as needed basis when Oriol gets forward, Hjojberg and Davis also do this very well. Still think his future is more defensively oriented than creative.

Good performance except in front of goal, though the Inter keeper made some great saves. Shame we got to play them when they decided they needed a result, that was not the Inter that played in the previous two group games, they weren't brilliant but they were much better organised and had a determination to at least not lose. One piece of finishing quality was all they needed (it was ever thus in Italy). Still, as far as qualification goes it doesn't matter. We should get 6 points from our 2 home games and that will be enough, but will need to get something in Prague to win the group (which has to be the aim). Back to full strength in 2 weeks should see us get the points at SMS.

Don't really think Austin is rested because of his age, he is only 27. More to do with managing his overall fitness. Find it a bit odd that Jose does not get to start in these games, would think his experience on big occasions would be beneficial. Would prefer to have seen Davis play as well, we nearly always lack pace and intensity when he is not in the side, but maybe that is not so much of an issue tonight.

Looks like some people have trouble with English comprehension in their comments. The DM does not say Cortese was popular, it was Markus that endeared himself to the St Mary's crowd.

So why did you bring up how boring the Boro game was? You seem to be the one that has a problem with understanding. FFS.

The first half yesterday we were awful after Targett was injured (14 minutes). We had looked OK before then. Not clear what happened after the substitution but the team just lost their way and Burnley got into the game, it may have been partly due to the reluctance to get Sam McQ into the game, he hardly got a touch after he came on, and that's not necessarily a criticism it is good tactics to ease a youngster in to the gamein such situations (second half he was an absolute star, instrumental in 2 of our 3 goals). We were fortunate that Burnley were appalling throughout the 90 minutes though, one of the worst displays I have ever seen by a visiting team, goalkeeper excepted. We were excellent in the second half and should have scored 6 or 7, but to say that we were brilliant yesterday (as some have) is an over-reaction. Our manager seems to agree with this view that first half we were poor, it is testament to his ability to motivate and re-organise that we looked so different second half. A couple of observations. I have never see Virgil lose so many challenges as yesterday, it was quite a shock. Redmond had a lot of touches and got involved a lot, but he seems to lack the confidence to attack defenders and most of his offloads are sideways or easy - he could learn from McQueen who drove at the defenders and got his reward. Very well struck goal though, most players balloon chances like that. Austin is scoring a lot of goals and long may it continue, but he still looks agricultural to say the least, will be great when he is and looks fit. Romeu was excellent yesterday, so much improved on the first couple of games of the season, now back to how he was at best last season. Can't comment on their pen as I did not see it and had no idea what happened, the McQueen pen was a stonewall and any suggestions he went to ground are well wide of the mark in my view, the first half shout against VvD? must have missed it, nothing I saw that warranted a pen. Good to see JRod actually looking fit.