Sheaf Saint

Well we may not be at our best, but it's an enjoyable game nonetheless. Two teams going for it, just as football should be. I'll be surprised if it finishes 0-0.

Yes, it was Uriah Rennie, I remember now. Couldn't remember the result though.

I seem to remember a game v West Ham in the late 90s. Ken Monkou scored a perfectly good goal from a corner, but the ref disallowed it because he managed to turn Razor Ruddock so well that he ran into his own team-mate and ended up on his fat ar$e. Possibly one of the worst refereeing decisions I've ever seen. Can't remember if it cost us any points though.

It's moving the boxing day game that has stuffed it for us. There's no way we could play on 27th and on NYD with a game in between, because we would have to play twice in 48 hrs. It's a bit sh*t really.

Happy beer/wine/cheese/chocolate feast to one and all. And especially to Ralph who has brought hope through the darkness.

Good times. The negativity that has enshrouded the club for the last couple of years is finally lifting. I know it's very early days but I'm so encouraged by everything I have seen since Ralph joined. This goes way beyond just the normal new manager bounce that struggling clubs tend to enjoy. He's really laying the foundations for something here. After our result at Hudds today, I had a quick look through our upcoming fixtures, and found myself thinking we have a lot of winnable games in January and February. If I had done that a few weeks ago, I would have looked at the same fixtures and thought "where are we going to get the points we need to stay up? We can even go into our games against City and Chelsea with some confidence of a possible result now, rather than just assuming a tonking.

3 goals in back to back games under Ralph. We never even managed it once under Hughes!

What a chance for Obafemi!

Lemina coming on for Armstrong

Oh dear. A strange goal to concede. Right in the centre of the goal from that distance. Macca just couldn't see the flight of the ball obviously.

Anyone found a decent stream?

Penalty!

Fixed it for you. Some managers don't have the slightest interest in youth teams and will always favour the senior pros no matter what. Koeman was a prime example. My wife's nephew is in the Everton academy and he told me he wouldn't even say hello to the kids if he walked past them, that's how disinterested he was. Remember 'Arry setting the kids up to fail against Mansfield in the cup that time to make a point, because he was being pressured from above to play them?

Oh right, fair enough. But then in that case, we've had Valery available all season, haven't we?

I think that's a little harsh on Pied in all honesty. In the few appearances he made for us he looked a solid if unspectacular player, and a more than adequate understudy.

He might get a chance if Redmond's injury keeps him out for a while.

Not sure about Lemina, was surprised he wasn't in the squad yesterday so if it's something he picked up in training it's unlikely to be anything majorly serious.

He didn't get booked yesterday, and I very much doubt the PL website is more than a week out of date, so I think he's OK.

Well I hope Hughes was watching that yesterday. We all know our squad has its limitations, but what we saw yesterday was the result of a team working hard and with a clear game plan. That Hughes wasn't able to get the same squad playing anything like that and repeatedly failing to win any games should leave him with a sense of shame and embarrassment. If he has any integrity, he will never apply for another manager's job again because he's nothing but a fraud, stealing a living. It's not as if he needs the money after all the compo he had received

Yes, we did improve with the appointment of Hughes (otherwise we would have gone down). But to try and compare that to the transformation into what looked like a completely different team, such as we saw today, is quite erroneous. The two situations are in no way comparable.

I think we can safely say that Mark Hughes is NOT God!

You missed the best Saints performance since Koeman left, basically. We played with intensity, commitment and confidence. Looked to play the ball forward quickly instead of the sideways passing we have become accustomed to in recent times. Didn't retreat into our own half after taking the lead and never let heads drop after conceding. It was a very entertaining game, and the crowd seemed really up for it. The atmosphere sounded a world away from what it has been like. We weren't lucky - quite the opposite. Arsenal's second goal came from a fluke deflection leaving McCarthy with no chance. But we still persevered and won anyway.

Reading between the lines, he's quite blatantly having a dig at the previous manager(s).

He was immense today. I've been openly critical of him in the past, but Ralph already seems to have unlocked some of his potential. He was involved in pretty much all of our good attacking play before he went off, and the Arsenal defenders were quite clearly terrified of him.

I'd forgotten what it feels like to be happy after a Saints game. What a shot in the arm that is! And to be entertained as well. Just fantastic.