VectisSaint

Lived in Pompey from a young age (went to school in W'ville). She is a Skate.

OK, who voted for Theo ? Moi and Perraud were the outstanding performers, and Stu. Caleta Car on another day (another ref) would have given away a few free kicks, Lyanco was lucky to be on the pitch after Nketia had swapped shirts with him. It was good to see some players who have been getting some stick from people on here showing up well, I actually think Perraud could become a bit of a cult hero.

Isn't AMN an Arsenal player?

Given he is only expected to join team training this week, it would seem unlikely, another couple of weeks I would imagine, at least.

Coupled with our midfield being shit and our goalkeeping being not up to much things are looking good. If only we still had a radio station to be proud of.

19 times winners over the last 130 years (St Mary's, Reserves, A). Haven't even included Southampton Police 😉

or more specifically the loss of Romeo and Romeu.

Things beginning to fall into place now, Bruce and WBA part ways.

He was here for half a season in 2013 and then full season 2013-14, joined Spurs in May 2014. He will not rejoin while KL is still involved with the club (and probably wouldn't even if she was not).

See Delap managed a goal today.

Not when the B team have an important game on the same day as they did this morning. No B team game might agree.

Interesting conspiracy theory. I don't believe for one minute the Oriol going to Girona was part of a Man City master plan, any more than Lis to Troyes. Much as I like Edozie and Karios, Oriol was way more important to our future prospects than either or both.

Agree totally with you, but you need to note that not paying the Living Wage is not illegal (sorry about the double negatives). The Living Wage is voluntary, but is a decent benchmark for good employers which Saints should definitely be. There is no reason they should not pay substantially more than the LW. If they are not paying the Minimum Wage that is a different matter and would be an illegal operation. Sadly in today's economic environment more and more businesses are flouting the Law but our Govt doesn't care.

England have been relegated to Division B, not D

True, there were strikes previous weekend as well.

Think they will have them at your local 1980s golf shop 😉

The strikes will always be targeted to.maximise impact, any other plan would be a nonsense. I think these are the first strikes planned for Saturdays, the impact on weekdays was not as extensive as expected, so new strategy. Will continue until Gov get their heads or of their asses and get involved with negotiations (so that will be never).

No it wouldn't. It would have been right to say give us the last season of your contract and you can leave for free with our blessing, meanwhile we will endeavour bring in an adequate replacement. Instead the possibility of getting a (relative small) fee took precedence. From what I have read Oriol only pushed for the move after their Chairman made a cheeky offer to Saints and was somewhat shocked when Saints didn't tell them to take a long walk off a short pier.

She 😉

There is no compelling evidence that OR's legs had gone. With Lavia he would not have been required to play every minute anyway, so it was not such an issue. Basically Saints made a big mistake thinking Oriol was expensive, and we are reaping the rewards with Lavia injured.

JWP had Lavia and Diallo in support in the middle (at least for 60 minutes). JWP is struggling when he has to hold the midfield together and play Romeu's role.

I didn't say that I agreed with the tactics, merely that this appears to be what has been happening in most games so far this season. Fact is that all 7 points we have gained this season we have come from behind. Every other game we have lost (also from behind of course). In the past we so often lost having gone in front usually because Ralph had no idea how to protect a lead, it seems logical to me that Ralph (with his new staff) has sought to address this, but we don't have the players to do it, especially with Lavia out. I don't think anyone has really realised what a huge loss he has been coupled with Oriol's crazy departure.

It is clearly the tactics that Ralph and his team are employing, and there is evidence other teams are doing the same. We used to go hell for leather from the start, get a goal and then get beaten, hence we are top of the points dropped from winning positions. Now the game plan is to keep it tight for the first half, with the possibility of a goal and then change it up with attacking players after half time, and to some extent it has worked (we were actually top of the most points won from losing positions table). Trouble is without a solid midfield since Lavia got crocked we are a shambles and don't get the service to the attackers to make the difference. I don't think there is any issue between Ralph and Stu, just Stu doing what he is asked, but I think it will change soon as it clearly isn't working at the moment. But there is no doubt that 5 subs has brought a new dynamic to team selection and tactics and managers, not just Ralph, are still working out how best to exploit it.

90+ minutes of my life I will never get back (and at my age that hurts). What an abysmal game of football, and what an appalling performance by Saints. Beggars belief how we can be so bad. Hurts to say it but one of the worst offenders was JWP. Really isn't anything positive to say, OK Larios did look good.

Ahem, apart from AMN it is exactly what I predicted. Must say without AMN the lineup is crap. It really was a bad decision for us to let Oriol go.