VectisSaint

Presumably not eligible for EL 3 Qualifying Rd, so would have Stephens and/or Turnbull on bench for these. Is he eligible for Play-off round? I know the squad list gets resubmitted for the group stages. Also gives us an extra association trained player when he does become eligible. Good signing on loan obviously to cover for Gardos being out most of season, covers anything that might happen to Jose, still need left sided CB to replace Toby, presumably this will be VVD.

Any African's what?

Reminiscent of Sparky in his prime. Maybe thats what Hughes sees, reliving his youth.

Is it really a spectacular fall? He is getting towards the end of his career, 32 this year, looking to continue playing regularly more like. Was always better than Fox, as shown at Forest. Michael Poke is also joining Eastleigh on loan. Looks like the Spitfires are looking to push on from last season to get into the FL. Good luck to them.

Steven Davis will start, 99% certain. I would suggest instead of Juanmi or Clasie. Otherwise the team almost picks itself as above.

7, of which 3 can be used, same as PL.

Duncan could probably help, there is at least one picture (of the changing rooms) in one of his books and another on the Wiki page. My Great Granddad was briefly the landlord of the Antelope Hotel (1889) which was the opposite side of St Mary's Road to the ground (presumably why the ground was called that). Not sure if there is a picture of the Hotel anywhere. 1889 was the year St Mary's started to use the Antelope Ground on a regular basis.

You'd have to include the Antelope as well...

Loaning him to Feyenoord might be better, at least he would get some competitive games, unlike the SPL.

So Egil wasn't prolific. My response was to someone who suggested he was. For Davies you completely missed the point. Of course he scored more than 10. He scored 12 in his first season/stint with us in all competitions (9 League, 3 LC) and then left. He came back after a year or so at Blackburn and in 4 seasons after his return he scored 10 more league goals (plus 3 Cup) in 82 league games (+13 cups). So my numbers were slightly wrong I was trying to highlight 10 league goals in 82 league apps (not 86). The point though is that he should never have left (in 98), but having come back he should never have stayed because he was really poor when he did.

I was thinking get Lovren back on a year-long loan as well, definitely not permanent. Low on confidence, probably won't get many games for Brenda, is basically sound when playing alongside a good leader like Fonte, would be decent cover for Yoshi and as said it would mean his head and body were reunited.

What question? I was just providing some information, on the basis of perhaps helping others with something observed.

I see that in the Buy Tickets section on the OS, they now have the kick-off time stated as 20.05 (already have my tickets but needed to get confirmation of k.o. time as I will probably be travelling over from the IW on match day). Odd that the two Europa League games are not even mentioned in the Fixture List http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/fixtures-results/fixtures-list/

Inver Caly Thistle out

I know he was on the bench, but think he may have tweaked his hammy on Tuesday. Certainly saw him holding it after his last goal. Probably not serious.

I hate them as stats, but just thought it should be mentioned, assist for Steven Davis.

Spoiler alert :-) Mine took another couple of minutes

They may have been but Sky probably weren't paying too much attention.

Ronald thinks otherwise, like many others who don't rely solely on number of assist stats which do not tell the whole story. Agree he could do with adding a few goals this season hopefully the 2 on Tuesday will help his confidence in front of goal.

Don't know how to break this to you but they lost 9-2 to Debrecen today, no Latvian trip this season.

I wasn't sure what to read into Koeman's comments about Gaston in his interview. The interviewer missed a trick really (though maybe the questions are pre-agreed) by not following up about either of them. It sounds like Gaston may have a light injury concern, or it may just be that his overall physcial fitness is not up to much at the moment. Still, its clear now that we only have 2 fit first team CBs, not even 3, so unless we are going to rely on Stephens and Turnbull we need to move into the transfer market pronto, sounds like Gardos will be out for a long time.

Agreed, almost seems like Hesketh has gone backwards a bit, given he was in the first team squad last season.

Usual issue with MLG, thinks he knows everything and is a pedant when others post but seems to have an inability to read/comprehend simple English and proceeds to make himself look more of a t** than he probably is. I'm sure he is a sensible bloke really (after all he supports Saints). Still it was useful to have it highlighted for those who didn't know who our first choice players might be, would never have worked that out on our own I'm sure. I guess there will now be a typical reply from said MLG, something insulting or other.

Do we know for sure that Gardos is injured? Haven't seen anything. We also have Stephens and Turnbull as backup, surely they should be enough for the Europa League, even if not for the PL. Seems no point to me not playing our full team in the final pre-season friendly before the competitive games kick-off (yes, I know there is the home friendly as well AFTER our first competitive match). That's what pre-season games are for. Unless they play they really aren't match fit.

Chelsea shirt on twitter, Saints on instagram. Koeman said originally that he would be back in training (starting his preseason) about the time of our first PL match, so was likely to be 2-3 weeks into the season before he was match fit, so maybe now a week or so earlier if he/we are lucky.