VectisSaint

Playing/benching regularly while Osvaldo served his suspensions. Seriously though it would have made little difference, Sam would still have made the bench regularly, we are so short of striking options. The point is the B League needs to become more competitive and then there is no point in loaning players out by PL clubs, that's Read's valid point and how we develop PL players. The same system does not necessarily develop players for the Championship/L1/L2, but that isn't Southampton's (or other PL team's) concern.

Why does 3rd place on November 22nd not count? I seem to recall that during the Arsenal game on the 8th we were 2nd at one point but the record books will show us 3rd at the end of the day. Pity that the international break and the injury crisis that exposed are thin squad came immediately afterwards. I enjoyed the WGS era, but to compare that team to today's is stretching credibility a bit far. OK so the wee man got a great deal out of a bunch of journeymen players due to his fitness regime, but really the quality of the football was nothing like what we see today. The PL has moved on apace since 2003, the top 6 or 7 teams are vastly better than the top 2 or 3 teams then. To be fair WGS was also hampered by a very thin squad, outside of the first choice XI and a couple more we did not have much else.

Luke just needs to avoid going to the Theatre of Pompey then. Why he would want to go there next Saturday or at any other time is anyone's guess.

Post sums it up for me. Cannot see why people are "angry". Little or nothing wrong in my view. Boruc was ill or injured, so Davis had to play (unless people would have preferred Gazza). JRod replaced Guly in 2nd half. Otherwise it was pretty close to our first team despite what so called pundits Lineaker and Savage would have you believe (ignorant of the facts). The only thing I thought was a bit strange was that the team travelled back down to Southampton after the Hull match, I would have had the team stay up north in between. We lost to Sunderland, 4 times this season and we failed to beat them 4 times, but some folks seemed to think all we had to do was turn up and Sunderland would roll over. We didn't play a weakened team and to suggest we should have played a weakened team against Hull is just plain silly and naive. By the way Hull have smashed Sunderland this afternoon, who is to say that they wouldn't have done the same to us.

Mayuka at CB you must be kidding, too small, Maya Yoshida is far better (I recall I was crucified when I made the same silly posting error). I know this may seem a bit daft at the moment, but Mitroglou may well be worth a punt once Fulham are relegated. He looked absolutely **** yesterday, but once he gets into the way of things in PL (a bit fitter with the help of Magath) and sheds some of his rustiness he may well turn out to be exactly what we need up front. I think he may turn out to be a decent striker.

3 hour time zone difference would have caused some jet lag whether in 1st class or not, plus return flight from Nairobi to Khartoum (probably 2-3 hour flight each way) only for the game to be called off because Sudan tried to switch the game to Darfour without agreement. I know I would be ****ged after that little escapade, I assume he only got back yesterday as well, so no training.

Not really much of a supporter in that case. No-one screwed up at Sunderland, too many of the players simply did not perform against the Sunderland reserve team.

I don't think you understand Davis' role in that case. If you think he is CAM then why does he spend a lot of time in the right back position allowing Chambers to bomb forward. The two of them interchanging down the right is a striking feature of the way we play. At other times Davis gets forward more and provides some assists, it would be good if he could score a few more but that will come I believe. To say he has been "consistent" is a poor summary, he has been MOTM or close to it on several occasions in the last few weeks, his engine is amazing, it is a shame that Poch does not see him and Gaston on the field at the same time. Last week it would have been better to have replaced J-Rod with Ramirez, other times maybe SRL, but I would like to see SD and GR playing together more often, with GR in the more central/#10 role.

Keegan was still technically a Saints player in 82 when he played 26 minutes and missed a sitter. Of course he never played for us again, but I'm reasonably certain he signed for the Barcodes after the WC finished. Delgado was with us when he played in 2002. Maybe if he hadn't played in the WC he may have actually performed for us.

Not until the banner is updated to include Big Ron.

Don't quite get the point of Milner. **** game, usual crap England performance, Lallana made the difference and Shaw settled in like an experienced pro. Sloth should play for England he would the England style well. Wish we could sign Schmeichel, with Boruc we would have two top keepers. I would also take Wellbeck, I think he would link up well with Lallana and we have already seen him play well alongside Lambert. Won't happen of course.

Found not guilty of rape.

So what do you think has gone wrong? What is your take on the injuries that hit us in November and which have only just now (last Saturday) finally played out (and even now Vic and Lovren are nothing like the players they were pre-injury). What are your thoughts on the Osvaldo issue? How do you feel about the lack of depth of strikers partly, but not completely caused by this issue? There are many factors that have contributed to a perception that you have that something has gone wrong. But has anything really gone wrong that cannot be explained by, for example a serious injury crisis. We had and still have a first XI that is capable of beating any team in the League when they are all playing and fully fit, but take 2 or 3 of those players out and our squad is threadbare, and the Osvaldo factor just made things worse, because one of those who is clearly not fully fit is our only main striker. It will be interesting to see how we do over the next few weeks now that we have our full team back, assuming that Lovren and Wanyama can get back to their pre-injury form (which is not a given). Last year we had very little in the way of significant injuries, except for a long absence for Lallana. I still think we will struggle because we do not have options up front. That is something we should have addressed in January but I can see that with the Osvaldo situation it may have been very difficult to achieve so late in the day. We have to address this in the Summer, but for now we are stuck with what we have. You are a troll/wum not because you question things and post interminable negative claptrap but because you offer nothing to show what you think are the issues and how they could have been resolved. You offer stats that suit your agenda which is simply to belittle evrything that happens at Saints, the hallmark of someone who does not actually support Saints. I don't think you are a Skate, no idea who your allegiance is with (Bournemouth perhaps?).

Dull interview, didn't say anything of any note, mostly bigging up Luke.

Interview on R5L in next 30 minutes. Will talk about Clattenburg

To be fair it was not difficult calling the Ramirez substitution at HT. Ramirez was not on the pitch with the other 6 doing the HT warm-up. Nailed on when that happens that he is starting the 2nd half. Really don't understand the OP's desire for Laudrup, when he has already demonstrated that his is totally unreliable and wants to be somewhere else with a team in Europe. The Gracia guy being mentioned seems like a better bet, but really don't think Poch is on his way anyway.

Lovren was awful today, and not for the first time this season, Fonte got Lovren out of jail a few times. Fonte made one mistake and was judged harshly to have fouled the little cheat. It was immaterial, in the 95th minute and Lee "Liverpool" Probert was itching to give Liverpool something. I'll forgive Lovren his abject performance, it was clearly too soon for him to return, will be back to normal next game hopefully. Clearly we need some new strikers next season, today was crying out for someone of Dani's class, pity he is a nut job. Poch made a mistake taking Davis off, he should have hauled JRod off and left Davis on with Ramirez pushing up more and playing just off Lambert. Shaw was over-eager to impress, especially in the first half. The best 3 English Saints players were Chambers, Cork and Lallana, thought Chambers was immense again and outshone the England/Skate right-back, who was playing on the left.

Assuming Osvaldo doesn't return, we need to be looking for 2 if not 3 strikers. Relying on JRod ans Sam G is a rexipe for disaster.

1960 in Division 2. 4-1 at home, 1-0 away. We have won 5 of our last 7 meetings. Have a feeling that it might be 5 out of 8 after tomorrow.

No wonder our players are looking fed up. Having to listen to Morrisey's wrist slitting durges in the dressing room is enough to depress anyone. Maybe why Osvaldo got ****ed off with his decent taste in music. I suppose adding some Leonard Cohen into the mix could finish off the squad completely.

Hope the French fail miserably period.

Oh noes the BT curse.

Good luck to the lad if he gets selected to play against Germany. I think he may need it. Might need some support from Higgy, who continues to play for Gib even though he has now retired professionally.

Nothing to do with any group called Boleyn Group and their filthy lucre, the only filthy lucre at Wet Sham is that of the porn kings Gold and Sullivan. It is indirectly connected with Anne of 1000 days actually, but not named after her. The club rented Green Street House and grounds in the Municipal Borough of East Ham from the Roman Catholic Church from around 1912. Green Street House was known locally as Boleyn Castle because of its imposing nature and an association with Anne Boleyn, who had either stayed at, or as some believe, owned the house, the ground is said to be haunted by one of her maids who died in childbirth. Hence renting the grounds of "Boleyn Castle" the name Boleyn Ground came into being.

Thanks for posting this Duncan. I was in touch with Lisa a few times just before your article was pulled together so I knew some of the details. I have absolutely no connection with the family at all, just trying to help someone with their research and got involved because of the Saints connection. It remains somewhat frustrating that no-one is able to discover what happened to John after his time inside. Would he have been able to visit the USA with his criminal record? I know it can be a problem these days, not so sure about that in the 1920s though. Its a shame that some on here, the usual suspects, have to ruin anything that is posted, whether of interest to them or not. Still I guess that's what they think helps them with their little ego trips, when in fact it just makes them look stupid time and again.