Stud mark of doom

Great work - I assumed it had been lost as probably pre video recorders and not part of MOTD/BM archive. Like others can clearly remember staying up for sportsnight in ignorance of the score, and listening to solent in bed for the second leg.

Not so long ago, we were a win away from fourth. Last season, didn’t we have top half form under Ralph? We should aim for 7th but I’d be happy with 10th. Below that, not so happy.

He has been known to smile during games too, which also shows a clear bad attitude. And I remember Fonte getting really uppity when Dr Barry Gale decorated his car. The OP definitely has something here.

A very good friend of mine went to see saints play in Switzerland on a pre-season tour, while he was over there in business. Not sure there were many/any other saints fans there but he had his scarf on. He got talking to Markus and Nicola and had a good chat to them - Markus came across as a lovely man and was very interested in what he was up to in Switzerland. They chatted for quite some time. It was only a few weeks before Markus died, sadly.

He scored a corker from miles out in a pre season friendly at the dell against a Russian side - Dniper I think - to make it 3-3 after we’d been 3 down. Vaguely recall a good one from closer in for us at Anfield too.

How about Schteve De Ridder away at Reading

Surely we should exclude players for which it wasn’t even their only goal in that match!

That Moroccan midfielder who we are still paying.

Yeah, baby.

I read it as if we perform as well as last season (ie while he was manager) then we would finish 10th. Would be odd to say the very best we could do is 10th, given there’s Generally not much between 7th and 10th.

How far away can you hear SMS? I’ll get things started - Obelisk Road Woolston (with a good performance, and the wind in the right direction).

....

My 125 anniversary/red sash top is still going fine.

Anyone know how this turned out?

Let’s keep things in perspective - we seem to have signed a record sponsorship deal - if it doesn’t work out, we’ll need to find another sponsor. It’s not like we have been subject to a reverse takeover by a company that looks after old people.

Much prefer this to a betting company. Not sure what people are getting so upset about. If they are paying us a record amount, as reported, what’s the problem that they aren’t (yet) an established name. Complete overreaction.

I still think we should have gone for Hoddle rather than sturrock.

Would we have stayed up without Ings? I doubt it.

Another downside is it is about 60 seconds behind so if you have goal alerts on your phone you’ll know if there’s a goal coming up... or not.

Surely up, to some extent. Much much better football on offer than for a few years. Prices down a bit. What’s not to like?

Ralph has done a truly amazing job, with minimal resources. He has made me enjoy football again. Really looking forward to next season. Thanks Ralph - don’t leave us too soon!

Pelligrino was awful. Hughes was ok - goodish then pretty poor. Ralph is phenomenal.

I assumed it was a tactic associated with the high press game. Not so much “not showing” but more not rushing, so a bit more recovery time - so we can press more effectively with the energy saved? That’s why the yellow card was incredibly harsh. I think we can safely assume at premiership level it’s not some sort of “schoolboy error” if it is static used repeatedly.

This “evens itself out over the season” mantra doesn’t hold water. It might be true if clubs were subject to hundreds of errors but typically you might have quite a small number of crucial grade A reffing balls ups a season (eg Watford handball for us last year) maybe 5 or 6 for a given side say? Those numbers are too small to even out - chances are a team where most have gone against them will end up lower in the table than they should be. Could easily be the difference between relegation and safety.

I think the answer is to pay them to leave - less than we’d pay them to stay of course, so we’d still “win”.