SNSUN

Let's hope the pancakes are the only things that are flat tomorrow.

@Wade Garrett to the forum, repeat, @Wade Garrettto the forum.

I look at our team now and I see confidence, fitness, strength in depth, togetherness and talent. Our downfall will either be defensively (as Huddersfield showed on Saturday), injury/suspension to key players or overconfidence/cockiness. There is no reason why we can't go unbeaten for those 5 games, or indeed the rest of the season. However as a Saints fan with years of disappointment behind me I do think it's possible that as the fixtures get trickier, we may see our first defeat in donkeys. As long as it's the odd defeat amongst wins, it's not too much of an issue - it is draws that we don't want to get into the habit of. I think we will win tomorrow, I think we will also beat Hull, Millwall and Brum, the WBA game at theirs is the one I think we will possibly come a bit unstuck. But we will see. Ultimately that Leeds/Leicester game will be a key game in the next few fixtures. Win our game in hand and Leicester beat Leeds and suddenly we will have a nice gap over them.

Yep. Joe coming home to join the promotion push.

Aribo is on! Is it too late...

Ivory Coast now 2 1 up. Haller. Nigeria need Joe on soon...

It was great vision for Rothwell's second. Almost like they recently played together somewhere else... 😁

If a magic fairy offered me right now guaranteed second or guaranteed play off winners then yes, I'd take play off winners for the Wembley day out and getting to watch our team win for 3 more games. But there is no magic fairy and play off winner is not guaranteed and is a huge lottery, even though we would be favourites. All it takes is one bad performance and you're out. Ergo 2nd is much better watching Leeds sweat it out against the other 3.

Watching the AFCON final hoping to see Joe at some point. I can't believe Max Gradel is 36! Made me feel old, I remember signing him on FM07 as a teenager. Lots of familiar names, not a great deal of quality so far. I didn't realise Tella missed out for Nigeria. All the better for Leverkusen I guess.

Palace did that with Viera and despite a reasonable first season, it didn't really get them anywhere and they went back to what they knew in Hodgson.

Weirdly (and I was Pro-resigning Ings short term as he could have been our Billy Sharp for 2024) in just a couple of weeks with what we have I can already see that would have been a mistake as we would most likely never have found out what Mara could do. Whether Mara's exploits are temporary or not, between him, Che and AA and a whole load of quality wide attacking options now, we certainly don't seem to need another striker. Bringing Edozie, Brooks and Sulemana off the bench yesterday along with Mara, and their impact, finally turned my head that maybe we do have the firepower that matches Leeds (who up until yesterday I believed had the best attack in the League). Add Dibling and SAA to that and it will not be our attack that let's us down this season.

I can’t see Leicester dropping enough points for us to catch them either. Maybe, had they lost KDH in the window perhaps but not now, so absolutely I hope they smash Leeds who are, IMO, our only rivals for second. No disrespect to Ipswich as they have done brilliantly this season but I’ve thought for a while they’d drop off. I do think they’ll linger behind us like a bad smell but not close enough to worry. We’ll be 2nd or 3rd and even 3rd I think we win the play-offs. Rather 2nd though without the lottery.

Possibly gone at the end of the season but they are still 8th with a European trophy behind them. If they want to get to the next level they need a change though. Like Emery at Villa. Only West Ham have crapper, older players.

Ings must be wondering what he has to do to get a game. So out of favour and it's not like they're blessed with strikers.

Arsenal going in raw on WHam. Hopefully win 10 nil to end our unwanted record.

I agree that our best shot of doing well in the Prem is to go up this season with what we have and add some "spine" signings (CB/CM/Str and a left back). I still think our attacking options looking at what's left that you've listed would have us doing well next season (but I guess it does depend on who stays and leaves and how we rebuild our defence).

Just watched the highlights again - yes it looks like a deflection for their first but on second watch the ball simply swerves. So correction on that one. Their second was a good finish but that 3rd was a freak.

Reading other forums of our rivals and posters are largely saying that we have tough fixtures to come (true) and we have had a run of very easy fixtures (no fixture is "easy" but yes we have played sides in the lower reaches of the table) but you can still only beat what's in front of you. We still have Leeds and Leicester to come and they should be afraid of us as much as we may be afraid of them. We leaked 3 goals yesterday but two of them were deflections (the third being a freak deflection) and besides that, our defence has been tight AND we have Bree to come back if we want to be tighter at left back. Downes will be a loss but I see our subs come on yesterday and shine and I really think we have a strong enough squad now to deal with any injuries or suspensions that fall our way. We've found a way to win games when we're not playing well too which is huge. I don't think we'll go unbeaten for the rest of the season but neither do I think Leeds will either. I think this promotion race goes all the way. If that means going into the last game against Leeds with "winner takes all" on offer, so be it. As key as promotion is (or we probably say goodbye to the likes of KWP and THB amongst others), we can't fault how this season has gone otherwise. Even if we don't go up we have the nucleus for a great side next season.

Four tough fixtures before our easy cup game. Bristol City, WBA, Hull and Millwall are tricky and it's possible one could mark our first defeat of the great run. If we come out of those with anything more than 7 points I think it would be a great showing and keep us in the auto hunt, 8, 9, 10 or 12 points would be fantastic. Bristol City are the ultimate Jekyll and Hyde side, you never know which side will turn up. They recently beat West Ham and drew with Forest, Leeds only just scraped past them away and they are a team that like to keep things tight. That said I think if we play like we did in the second half today we will win, though my head thinks a draw is possible. Same team as today but with Rothwell in for Downes (I can't make the case for not playing him over Charles after today's showing unless we also rest Stu or Will) and Brooks to start for Che with AA in the centre (although I prefer AA wider personally). Lots of players making their case for selection though after today, at least in an attacking sense.

Yes but you can still only beat what's in front of you and we're doing that very well. Equally as harder as our games are getting, Leeds also need to get full points from their "easier" fixtures which is not a definite. (Though they are playing well...)

There's a player in there.

I've said for a long time that Leeds have the most and best firepower in the League which is why they are the greatest threat. But wow if our own attacking talent didn't turn that around for us. Substitute players all did their jobs today.

Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye, 4 and twenty pube hairs baked in a pie...

Brooks has been excellent. Hope he plays against Liverpool.

Glad I couldn't go to this game. Sounds shit. 🤭