SNSUN

Dare I say it the omens are good this season... we're unbeaten against Manchester clubs, we can beat the likes of Spurs, we are beating our bogey teams, we're bang in form AND our bogey team, so far the only team to do the double over us, Wolves are out of it.... ...we have a bloody good chance of winning the FA Cup this season. West Ham are stuttering. Beat them and we are 3 games away...

A second goal would settle the nerves here. God willing it sounds like we’ve deserved it...

Well that’s a turn up for the books for me as a shift worker, Newcastle on the Thursday and Watford on the Sunday now means I can attend both games. Expensive weekend then!

Weirdly after our recent form, I’d be tempted to take a draw here as they’re a bogey team but our first XI is on fire so I’d risk the win/loss. I think our midfield will dominate proceedings and our back 5 is pretty solid so it depends on whether the attackers can keep finding goals... and Adams is in form. It’ll be tight, like a 1-0 Either way. Richarlison worries me... but I think their defence is poor so 2-1 us.

They'll still rush him back before he's properly fit. At least they've got Mighty Matt Targett on the other side to keep their attacking prowess on point.

Ha! Maybe a play on the song "He's got the whole world in his arms"? "He's got tiny T-Rex arms, he's got motherf*cking tiny T-Rex arms..." SNSUN does not endorse swearing at football matches. Nor crap songs. But sometimes...

I hope it’s the penultimate game of the season and I hope that miraculously they’re still in with a shout of relegation. A Saints victory would rarely ever taste so sweet.

Livramento, Broja, Salisu, Walker-Peters, Perraud, to a point Diallo, If these are the quality of young people we aspire to bring in to our club, then I’m all for the project. I’m wary though that it only takes a few Djenepo/Adam Armstrong failures for the plan to suffer. That said our scouting seems to be decent of late so fingers crossed that doesn’t happen. We also need to bring in the odd “old head” for experience... again hopefully not like Walcott and more like Stu. If our long term plan by the new owners is to be the Leipzig of the Premier League, then that should help us with player progression. It’d be like getting first dibs on the new Sadio Mané. As for manager in two years, I wouldn’t fully rule out Ralph changing his mind if things are going well. Fergie changed his mind on retirement a couple of times iirc. That said, again, we currently seem to have the right people in charge of us to pick correctly.

One thing I’ve noticed recently is our heads not go down when we concede. Against Swansea, Coventry and Spurs we showed that being behind isn’t the end of the match and showed courage to get the wins, heck even against United we didn’t let the early goal faze us. Saints of old were too keen to capitulate when going behind. Now we seem to thrive on it. We may lose points from winning positions but we seem to gain points from losing positions these days. Players-wise, so many players are in form. Forster seems to make us more solid than McCarthy, almost as if the opposition fear him more than Alex. Salisu is simply class. Having two proper full backs in form is also important, KWP playing well with the knowledge Tino isn’t far away, and Perraud adapting to the league. Further forwards we have Romeu, Armstrong, Adams and Broja in good form, but there’s one player for me that seems to get better and better... Captain Fantastic. Actually it’s hard to pick out a poor player right now, we don’t have any (Ok, you could say Adam A but he’s hardly getting game time to play his way into form). It seems having a better squad makes players fight harder for their positions. Also so look at our possession against Spurs. We were better by miles than them. Normally we soak up pressure and try to break... against Spurs we were the dominant force. If we could just be a bit more clinical up front we will be smashing teams off the park like we did against Brentford. Will our form dip? Sure, I don’t think we will keep this up all season, and the inevitable injuries will happen, but I’m enjoying it right now. Of all our games remaining though, the one I really want us to be in our current form for is Newcastle in the rearranged game!

RIP to Minsk and condolences to his family. Sorry to hear he didn’t make the Spurs game but he leaves us with a recent upturn in form, and the takeover, and he can watch over us with, hopefully, a long term smile on his face.

To this day one of my favourite tunes. I'm not from Southampton, I'm a Berkshire boy and was influenced into supporting Saints (which obviously stuck) from the very late 80s although I really only truly got into it around the formation of the Prem and the Alan Ball era... thus not being terribly conscious of the Branfoot era bar a few football magazine posters that my school friend gave me when he got them. (Neil Maddison was one...) Despite not being from Southampton or the area I still had badgered my parents enough that we used to holiday a lot in the Lymington/New Forest area (then they bought a static caravan as a holiday home in New Milton so we holidayed there permanently as they love the New Forest) and so Solent was available to me in school holidays (and occasionally when BBC Berkshire would share the airwaves with Solent At home.) Ergo I remember the days of Bruce Hornsby and the results, the cheers when a goal had gone in. I was listening there for the 6-3 and recorded MOTD on VHS. Ceefax was a staple - I remember hunting through pre-season fixtures in the hope I'd see Southampton but was rarely lucky. Then there were the rotating pages of scores, waiting to see another goalscorer added for any team, the short summery of a result, the snippets of transfer news. I miss that... but when you have access these days to most football Live, or at least within easy reach, we are world's away from those days. I've mentioned it before, but my Club call experience got me into trouble with my parents for ringing up the phone bill... it was the last 15 minutes of the Saints vs Norwich 5-4 and some of the aftermath. I went mental when Monkou scored. I forget how much I cost them but they weren't happy. It was a simpler time but you can't deny the Internet has changed things massively. (Yes I'm aware there was Internet in the 90s but I didn't have it then!)

Shamoon Hafez. It’s not the first time I’ve noticed his biased comments against Saints and pro- any team that plays us. He seems to hate us. Wonderful BBC impartiality. I’m not watching the game as I don’t have BT so largely I read the positivity and negativity on here. It sounds like we started slowly and came back into it. Be brave Saints and keep pushing. The best thing about Saints win against Spuds is our heads didn’t go down.

The difference now to, say, last season us that we're in great form, and have a strong first XI and a better squad. That means we CAN beat United. Simply if our performance levels are like Spurs we can beat United. Even though they have better players than Spurs IMO. WILL we beat United? Well that's the question. We've been a bit Jekyll and Hyde this season, I was at St Mary's for the godawful loss to Wolves, but we can. Simply said, with the win at Spuds behind us, I'd take a draw here. Even so a loss isn't a disgrace at Old Trafford. I'll go with 1-1. Same line up.

It seems we've beaten Tottenham twice in a week by the looks of it as they wanted him. We're also about to sign one of their young prospects from what I've read. Hattrick of blows for them in a week if so by the mighty Saints.

Beating Spurs is so sweet as I gravely dislike them. Beating Spurs with that angry tosser Conte in charge is even sweeter. What can I say... what a win. Just seem MOTD and we looked brilliant. If that performance had been Man City the media would be raving about it for weeks. Stats look great too, especially chances and more importantly possession... when we are usually the ones soaking it up and breaking. All 3 goals looked good but my god those assists from JWP were different class. He spotted Moi's run perfectly and was pin point for Adams. Just wow. If we still have JWP next season I'll be amazed... the lad just gets better and better. Great line up today and it showed, our squad is good as it showed even missing Livramento, Redmond, Tella and Lyanco didn't matter. That result has banished any lingering doubts of relegation for me. I thought perhaps we could slip with some tough fixtures to come and teams at the bottom picking up points but nah. We good for a top 12 finish at least I reckon. I like Elyounoussi. He may not be the fastest but he knows where the goal is and has a decent footballing brain. A good squad player. Fraser over Alex every day of the week for me too. We'll dine out on this for a while. Before tonight I thought we'd have more of a chance beating United than Spurs. United is now a free hit and they are beatable. I'm off to read The Fighting Cock forum to spy on some, umm, fighting cocks.

Redmond? Not incredibly pacey that team but solid. Would definitely take a draw. Keep it tight at the back and hope for an Adams special.

Our 4-0 win in 2003's FA Cup third round - the goalscorers were: Michael Svensson (CB), Jo Tessem (Str), Anders Svensson (off the bench, AM), James Beattie (Striker). The same thing will happen tonight so: CB - Salisu, Str - Adams, Elyounoussi (off the bench, AM), Armando Broja (Striker). Woo 4-0 Saints. I'll stop smoking crack I swear. 😑 In all seriousness we drew against them late December with Salisu sent off and Valery in CB. They only equalised with a penalty. Since then they only just beat Watford in injury time, they only just beat Leicester in injury time and they've lost a lot to Chelsea. I think we can at least get a point tonight - I'll be happy when we finally cross the 30 point threshold so every point counts right now.

In a perfect world (for me) tonight’s results would be wins for Utd, Everton and West Ham. I want the relegation places to be decided ASAP, even though I’d be surprised if we slipped towards them, but really the only result I REALLY care about is for anyone to beat Newcastle. For the lols

Depends if the other offer is 8th and they stay up. I’d take that. But it would be very sweet if they went down but I’m not holding my breath as it’ll only lead to disappointment. I still think someone from the clutch above the bottom 4 will drop into shitsville. I just hope it’s not us. I can see Brentford continuing to slide...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60283136 Vote for Armstrong's goal as goal of the round! Harvey Elliot is winning it so far and, great first touch as it was, Armstrong's was better and Liverpool fans know it. EDIT - OK, he was, he isn't now...

I ran out of posts during the game yesterday, but hot damn what a hit by Armstrong. We could really use him back at his best for the rest of this season and that will give him confidence. Cool finish by Gyokeres. Had a quick look up at him, 23, Swedish International, tall and has good feet and seemingly can score goals. Previously on the books at Brighton. Maybe worth a punt as we seem to like Championship strikers? Oh and I didn't see the game as my stream gave up, but that's twice Valery has been in a 3 at the back that had to switch to a 2 CB with him as one of them. And he didn't concede after that. So well done him.

West Ham continue to piss me off. I lost money on their flukey get out of jail goal by Rice yesterday after having a few quid on Kidderminster, then again by their flukey get out of jail goal in the last minute of extra time. Poor Kidderminster. Then I got home from work and said to the wife that I bet we get West Ham in the next round now and I bet they bloody fluke a win against us. And sure enough, there it is. 🙄 F%cking West Ham - I'd have loved us to face Kidderminster. Hey ho. If we're going to win the thing we have to beat what's in front of us. The only thing I cling to is that, after Antonio, they seem to have sod all up front and they didn't rectify that in the window, so maybe that will come back to haunt them. Bonus is that we're at home I guess. EDIT - Just seen the potential dates midweek and I can make it. So at least I can tell West Ham they suck to their faces. (From a great distance across the pitch in amongst a sea of 26k voices, from behind a face mask lest I get a beating).

Come on Kidderminster. Would love this upset!

Wow that's not as strong as I assumed it would be but, as we say, it should be enough to see us through. Livramento back and in a more attacking role will be an interesting experiment at least! Walcott and Long. If we diss them do they both get hat-tricks today? 🤘 Good luck to Small. Well I got 5 of the 11 right. 🙄

Fairly strong please - we certainly need Nathan "Plays like Messi against Championship opponents" Redmond in there. Coventry aren't bad and we don't want to see an upset - not to mention one "big" club has already exited the competition. I wonder if we'll give Caballero a start? So my predicted line up based on nothing would be: Caballero KWP Stephens Bednarek Perraud JWP Diallo Redmond SArmstrong AArmstrong Adams. Rests one of our spine (Salisu, Romeu, Broja who can be benched) but keeps the team strong. A couple of youngsters on the bench too. Addendum - Just realised this team bar the keeper is the same as @FarehamSaintJamesabove. I suppose it depends how strong Ralph wants to go, but he usually takes cups seriously.