Rut

Can't be many? I just know of this one. On about 1.30 he sings 'Head to St. Marys - see the best team on earth. Southampton FC - been a fan since birth.' Anyone know RapperNED? He nails a few things about Southampton pretty well in this song!

Beattie's opening goal that night is one of my all-time favs. Had to check this and yep - we hadn't scored a goal for the previous 4 games. 1 Nov 2003. Man City H L 0-2 8 Nov 2003. Bolton A D 0-0 22 Nov 2003. Chelsea H L 0-1 29 Nov 2003. Villa A L 0-1 2 Dec 2003. Pompey H W 2-0 I went to all those games (t-shirt not a medal please) and it had been a bit depressing. Talk in the pub pre-game was positive though. We've been saving our goals for tonight. Hadn't we. Drank in the King Alf from early afternoon. Usual talk of Pompey in town and then about 5pm-ish someone heard that Pompey had just attacked the Joiners. The Joiners? That ain't even open on match day... Well it was that day if you knew the right people. The sort of people who invited Pompey to come and say 'hello'. 2nd hand it was that a mob of Pompey were strangely allowed to roam unopposed (by SFC or police) through town to the Joiners to 'do the scummers' - unaware that every nutter from Southampton was waiting for them. The pub emptied - Pompey didn't like what they saw and most of them legged-it. A few stayed and Saints just laughed at them and told them to fuck off. Nobody got badly hurt. Rumours that Southampton old bill knew who were in the Joiners so were happy to let Pompey go there (they stopped them going elsewhere quite easily). Was def suspicious that they let them get all the way down there... 20 years on - any good first hand stories from this incident? What really happened? Did anyone actually get nicked? As the evening drew in more match goers stream past the Alf - including tons of Pompey. Lots of bravado from both sides. Alf ended up closing the curtains (it was that bad man!). Police everywhere. Atmosphere was proper old-school. Block 42 was given to Pompey that night. My season tickets were in 41 on the aisle of 42 - didn't get moved so ended up right next to them. Hostile was an understatement. I swear some of them were foaming at the mouth as they stood there offering out any 'scummer cunt' who wants it (behind a thick line of police and stewards of course). Praps these tough guys should have been at the Joiners earlier on... When Westwood made an appearance from up the back somewhere he was greeted with a raucous 'you can stick your fuckin' bell up your arse'. Of course this just made him rattle it even more. Great to have a cartoon character to give abuse to - but I bet he secretly loves it when everyone is chanting 'Westwood is a wanker' at him. Craved attention. Got attention. Total genuine (not like the 'for the camera' shit of today) mayhem when Beattie scored right in front of us. I think everyone ended up about 20 seats from where they were before the goal. Don't remember there being too many incidents after the game. A great night.

Thought this thread was about Southampton - not dirty northern shitholes like Winchester. Shame it ain't the Southampton King Alf - that was always a handy pub for games & used to put gigs on during the week as well.

The King Alf on Old Northam Road is back? Who remembers the after game entertainment they used to put on upstairs? Are pubs still allowed to do that nowadays?

My understanding is that not every team gives the option to sign up to watch every game. If Saints do go for it then I think they don't show the games when they are on ESPN+. You'll still need that as well. We'll have to see what happens...

Current best odds to win the league according to Oddschecker - who's worth a bet then? 6/1 - Leicester 7/1 - Leeds 10/1 - Saints, Middlesbrough (Saints are 8/1 or 9/1 in some places - 10/1 is with SkyBet) 14/1 - Norwich 16/1 - Watford, West Brom 20/1 - Ipswich, Stoke, Sunderland 25/1 - Blackburn, Millwall, Coventry 28/1 - Swansea 33/1 - Sheff Weds, Hull 40/1 - Cardiff, Preston 50/1 - QPR, Huddersfield, Bristol City, Birmingham 100/1 - Rotherham, Plymouth Source: https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/championship/winner Note: these are the best odds from the 8 bookies who've currently priced it up. There will be more over the coming weeks so you may be able to get more than 10/1. I doubt much more though...

1/100 & 5000/1 are not what you should be comparing. Has a 1/100 shot ever NOT won? That's we need to happen here.

Arsenal = drum banging CUNTS. Paul Davis jaw breaking CUNTS. Van Cuntie owes me a grand CUNTS. Glory supporting didn't care about 'only winning the FA Cup' in 2003 CUNTS. Bunch of CUNTS. Don't really give a fuck who wins the league but I hope Man City do the CUNTS. Man City are cunts but not total CUNTS like Arsenal. Fuck 'em. And it's 'Man City' - not fuckin 'City'. Do you think Leicester City were happy with our point tonight? New age cunts do my head in.

Strange game. Both teams had lots of chances. That shot from Man Utd that hit the inside of the post looked like it was going in all-day-long. Somehow didn't. Plus very surprised the ref didn't give them the pen for the handball. Seen lots of similar ones given this year. Plus when one of theirs tripped over after getting very close to Bazunu - seen them given many a time up there. It wasn't a pen - but since when does that usually matter? Well played ref - made a pleasant change. Very much all to play for over the last third of the season. Any of the bottom 9 could end up in the bottom 3. Quietly optimistic that one of them will NOT be Saints.

Chelsea (A) - L (no - W)Leeds (A) - D (no - L)Leicester (H) - D (no - W)Man United (A) - L (no - D)Brentford (H) - L Thankfully you went for Saints to lose on Weds. Long may your very shitty predictions continue!

and your zillion team accumulator is busted!

Can imagine Carlos sat at the game tonight nudging the bloke next to him. Southampton - they're the team in yellow right? I thought as the home team they'd be the ones in red.

Brighton are pretty shit. Def in a fake position in the table. They'll drop just as quickly as <insert what you think drops quickly here>. Saints 3 Brighton 0. Early goal and an easy win.

I've just heard that Nathan Jones has been on the blower to Tim Tebow to see if he fancies playing centre forward. Ralph back!

Fuck The Athletic. They never have any real exclusives so make shit up to get some clicks. Who the hell actually pays for their shit? Obviously some cunts do. Fair play to The Athletic for tucking them up.

For all the SFC fans saying shit like 'we will lose guaranteed' - how much have you put on? Currently if you chuck 100 on Spurs you'll get 140 back. Surely the easiest 40 you'll ever earn? Bet you've put fuck all on ain't you? Wankers.

I've got a sneaky feeling we'll do well. Like most people - I've no real idea what our best team is - or where the goals will come from - but nor have Everton. Saints ain't a load of blokes from the pub. Take it to them and we'll win. Everton 1 Saints 3.

Pre-season doesn't mean shit. Who remembers the Branfoot days? Didn't we win every pre-season game when he first took charge? Roll on next Sat.

City did win it. I bet if some Man Utd fan said to you 'there's only one United' you'd call him a twat.

This was more enjoyable than a 6-0 win. If it was the other way round it would have been hailed as a 'Sean Dyche masterclass'. If we'd hit the post 6 times, screwed up when clean-through 8 times & missed 3 penalties - then Burnley scored from their one shot at goal - it would also have been hailed as a 'Sean Dyche masterclass'.

Yeah - if West Ham are 3-0 up he'll be going on about 'can Lpool get the most famous of comebacks here, we know they can, who can forget.... SALAH! what a throw-in that was, could this be the start of the comeback'. Puke. This is a great resource - tells you who the commentators are going to be every week: https://worldsoccertalk.com/2020/02/21/epl-commentator-assignments-on-nbc-sports-gameweek-27/

Another vote for Drury. Unlistenable. If one of the so-called big teams is playing he'll just go on&on&on&on about them and scream out the name of any star player when the ball goes anywhere near them. If they successfully complete a 10 yard pass he'll cream himself. Drury does a lot of the commentaries for the world feed. Thankfully here (USA) this often gets over ridden and we get Arlo White instead. He's fine. *warning* Drury is doing the Lpool v West Ham game today. That'll be shocking.

If you are gonna have a hopeful one then shop around a bit. We were 33/1 in places. Now down to 'only' 30/1: https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/man-city-v-southampton/winner If you are going to the game (fair play) then you have to have a fiver at 30/1. You're prob spending a ton anyway. Sure - gun to head - you pick Man City to win. But the prices are getting stupid nowadays. 6/1 used to be the 'no chance' price. Not 30/1. Bleeuuuggghh.

Looking at https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/liverpool-v-southampton/winner I see Saints are 18/1 to win on Sat. Seems like a great price to me. Obviously life-on-line you'd choose Lpool to win but 18/1 seems great value. What has been our longest price then? We were 20/1 to win at Highbury in 2004. I remember it very well as I had 50 quid on and was counting my winnings - then Van Persie scored with literally the last kick of the game to equalise. That was painful. I don't remember ever seeing us longer than 20/1 for a single game. 18/1 - get on it. Or for the pessimist Lpool are 100/1 to win 7-0 ( https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/liverpool-v-southampton/correct-score )

Just to add that Lpool v Saints is a TV game (NBC Sports) Cardiff v Man City is also on TV (CNBC) Man Utd v Wolves is on stream (NBC Sports Gold) You should be in luck at any soccer bar that is open.