Stud mark of doom

Seem to remember in our first season in league one Norwich lost 7-1 at home in their first game (to Dean Hammond’s Colchester). Fans ripped up their new season tickets and threw them at the manager. They got promoted, two season running.

Seems like a very good window to me - although I did think similar last year as we stood 7th in the league after demolishing Chelsea, with several new signings looking fantastic. Very glad we have a bit more experience and a bit more of a spine to the team now. Pity we failed to shift either of the panic buys from January - but quite a bit of dosh in the bank/reducing the debt. 8 or 9 out of 10. I’m really enjoying the championship so far.

Big Ronisms are definitely in the clear in my book. A personal favourite is someone doing “a great arrive” to slot home.

I think it’s true to say that VAR hasn’t changed this at all - they are just now moaning about VAR decisions, and the inconsistent use of VAR etc etc. of course, they need to talk about something to fill all that air time, meanwhile, I’ve been two games without VAR, six 6 saints goals and two penalties to celebrate instantly and unreservedly. it feels like proper football is back to me.

I think I may have undercooked it. Perhaps it would be more like mccalliog to stokes who may or may not be onside (the linesman has been told to keep his flag down and let play unfold) Nice finish - but let’s see what VAR makes of it Very long wait if only stokes had slightly shorter sleeves he would have won himself a car, and he’s already booked driving lessons ( as the lines are put up on the big screen virtually on top of one another) - and Southampton go mad

The thing is that there is the occasional howler - and you have rightly pointed out the worst one from a saints perspective. Horrendous. but I’m my opinion VAR ruins EVERY goal in every match. also McCalliog to stokes who’s onside 1-0 and Southampton go mad wins himself a car and he’s already booked…. Hang on…. turns out those driving lessons may not have been necessary

Not boring at all - good to watch I thought. In terms of pace - will be difficult for the crowd to get the old “Olé, Olé” going as the passes are often a bit too quick to keep up with, and the moves go on for ages. Compared to most of the possession football I’ve seen from saints in the past there was more variation and an anticipation that it might actually lead to a chance.

That’s not how it works tho, is it. The whole point is that the moment is ruined because you’re not sure, even tho it all looks fine. Pretty sure there were a couple in back to back matches last season - was one Brighton away - where it only came up with VAR check being made (then ruled out) about 2 or 3 minutes later when the opponents were about to kick off.

Yesterday’s match - and our goals - were so much better with no VAR. The instant excitement of a goal is pretty much the best and most unique thing about football (given the uncertain frequency of goals). VAR ruins the most important moments, and ruins the game.

I think people have been confusing the rule for an own goal (was it on target before the defender got a touch) with the general rule (who was the last player to touch it). A lot of great strikers scored a lot of goals that were going in anyway!

Just watched the 9 minutes of injury time again. That’s Entertainment.

Bloody hell, Sheffield is a long way and a bugger to get out of. But what a performance! Best style of play we have had in years and and it will surely get even better with time. A few more wins might even encourage some of the few true PL level players to stay. I think I’m going to like this new manager.

Anyone got a child season ticket yet? I got my adult ST at the weekend but still no sign of my sons. Pretty sure they came around the same time in previous years.

I think this was on the 89/90 tape I mentioned in the OP. If memory serves, the commentator says something about the tackle being so high it should have needed clearance from air traffic control.

I used to love those season long VHS tapes that came out at the end of each season. I think I used to know most of the 88/89 and 89/90 commentary. This 5 year on tribute to Adkins is the only recent thing I’m aware of that comes close to being as good. I was searching for something similar on the MoPo years but couldn’t find anything. Please post links to your favourite saints videos here. Thanks!

In the BBC fans’ verdict we avoided relegation, finishing joint 15th with Spurs, just behind Liverpool, with an impressive 2/10 score. 🙂 Premier League 2022-23: Fans' verdicts on English top-flight season https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65710078 interestingly, hardly anyone rated their team a 4, 5 or 6 out of 10. Most fans thought their team had a good or great season.

The suggestion that allowing Sport Republic more time to plan might not be a good thing, has bizarrely reminded me of Iain Dowie for the second time on this thread. I remember an article in one of the broadsheets that said of our target man “time and space merely serve to confuse him”.

This did depress me but, although it sounds like it should be right, it doesn’t seem to correspond with the past experience. From a quick look In that list at least two (Sunderland and Norwich) came straight back up and at least one (Sunderland again) came back after two seasons. That is almost identical - marginally better - than the 25pc/10pc for all relegated clubs. Looking at all the clubs that bounced back straightaway 9 finished 18th 5 finished 19th 8 finished 20th so where you finished doesn’t se to impact your ‘bouncebackability’ (as former rocket scientist Iain Dowie would say) much at all. COYR 🙂

I think last time there were only two years on parachute payments - it was madness that we effectively wrote off the first year, and we pretty much went “win or bust” in the second year. I had heard that the parachutes lasted much longer now - but it does still seem that the first two seasons are key, with the first season being by far the best chance generally.

Good article in the athletic looking at all the 80 odd teams relegated since the prem went to 20 teams. This suggests: proportion bouncing back in first year - 25pc second year - 10pc third year - 5pc relegated again within three seasons - 7pc Remaining in championship beyond three seasons - 53pc So our experience last time we went down was pretty typical, unfortunately. Also said the parachute payments last 3 years and are 55pc in year 1, 45pc in year 2 and 20pc in year 3.

My son’s ticket (u18, inner central) has only been reduced £399 - from £404 to £399 Pretty sure that’s not “at least 6pc”. Although my adult seat has dropped 13pc so perhaps I shouldn’t worry too much.

When we were down in the championship and league 1 last time I almost gave up hope of competing at the highest level of the game - there was so much money involved. My son was born towards the start of this period and I thought it very unlikely he’d ever see the type of football I was fortunate to watch in the 80s with the Keegan era, finishing second, and the brilliant young players coming through. I was wrong - we did compete and at times we were incredibly good, even better than the teams of the 80s I’m his first two home games we scored 8 goals (Norwich and Newcastle towards the end of 2013/14). At the start of the next season we hit another four past Newcastle, again without reply, and then - incredibly - doubled that against their rivals, without really breaking sweat. His first away game was at old Trafford - we won that too thanks to Tadic, and we deserved it. (I had to go for years before seeing us win away.) We won on our next away game too - at Swansea. It was only right at the end of our third away game - at arsenal and 1-0 for most of the match - that we actually saw a home side manage to score against us. Several trips to Wembley followed too, including a brilliant performance in the league cup final. We definitely competed. The MoPo and RoKo teams were top drawer. And even in the years following we would throw in an excellent game every now and then. What a great 11 years.

Looking forward to us further establishing our identity by aimlessly passing it around the back (or perhaps up and then back down the side occasionally) before conceding to their first shot around 20 minutes

Just as a 7 year comparison - the home record for our 7 years out of the top flight W82 D44 L35

I suspect quite a few people will have seen this and I’m not sure if anyone was injured. After last night’s game there was a car driving down the (closed) road towards the Chapel Arms - not all that unusual, although perhaps a bit faster than usual/was safe given all the pedestrians in the road just after the match. When the car reached the barrier and was told to stop, the driver decided to accelerate round the barrier, so it was completely on the pavement by the spa, travelling quite fast - I was about 10 or 20 meters behind, and it looked like some people were probably hit by it, although no one seemed to be on the floor when I got there. Turning right past the pub. The roadblock staff tried to make it stop but it sped off. Lots of people were talking to the roadblock staff about what they’d just seen and they suggested as many witnesses as Possible report it to the police I managed to get the registration number and I’ve reported it on the Hampshire police website, so they have it. if you were hurt - you might want to let the police know, as they will have the registration number. If no-one was hurt, it was a very narrow escape.