Sheaf Saint

I'm starting to have my doubts though. Vestergard scares the bejeesus out of me every time the ball goes near him. Why can't Ralph see his is a very weak link?

Yeah agreed. I still consider Yoshida to be the best CB in our squad currently, so his continual exclusion is quite a mystery. But I have faith in Ralph, unlike his 2-3 predecessors. So I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

10/11 on Bet365. They must be taking the local derby nature of the game into account. On the same night, they have got Leicester (1 point above us in the PL) at 11/20 away to Luton (who are a division above Pompey).

Two very interesting stats from the BBC... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49684490 Bournemouth have never won a match at Southampton in any competition (D6, L9). Southampton have lost their last four home league games on a Friday, although three of those were in the Championship between 2007 and 2012.

I suspect he is referring to this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49752486

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49760230

It's interesting to see some of the comments made back when this thread was started. I'm very pleased to see he has regained the kind of form that won him POTS in 2017. Long may it continue.

That's not surprising about Djenepo. When he came back on to the pitch to celebrate with the rest of the players on Saturday I noticed his thigh was heavily strapped up, and in his post-macth interview Ralph praised the physios for getting him available to play in the first place.

While this is factually correct, it's fair to say that a large number of voters only actually vote for the party and don't care who is wearing the rosette.

Just watched Johnson's interview with Laura Kuenssberg. What a car crash. He just isn't capable of giving any kind of proper answers to anything. Just keeps waffling on about being positive. He's a f*cking embarrassment of a PM.

We rode our luck a bit on Saturday though. JV in particular looked more than shaky at times, and Bournemouth have much better attacking players than Sheff Utd do. I will be very surprised if we keep another clean sheet.

I didn't watch the game but they seem to have done very well to fight back today. If it had stayed as it was at HT they would have been looking at 1 point and a -8 GD after 5 games. As we know from last season, failing to get the points on the board in the early season will result in a season-long struggle.

2-2 now.

No. He could have controlled it. Unlikely I know, given the pace of the ball and the general lack of quality throughout the Utd team, but we'll never know.

Watford 0-2 down at HT. Looks like they are in for a long, hard season.

They're currently 3-1 up against Everton.

Would be a bit harsh to drop Boufal after his performance yesterday.

Quite. It's amusing reading that thread from their forum complaining they had the better chances and should have won. The only really clear chance they had was when McGoaldrought got away from JV but fluffed his shot and made it easy for Gunn. Their keeper made the best save of the match from Adams' header in the first half. And his earlier shot against the post was really unlucky, cos he hit that superbly. His goals will undoubtedly start to come soon.

His arm was out in a very unnatural position and it prevented a clear scoring opportunity as without the touch off his arm the ball would have fallen to the attacker at the back post. Agree about that corner though. That was bizarre. Long deliberately let it go out because the last touch quite clearly came off the Utd player.

Yeah just seen that on MOTD. Absolutely baffled that VAR didn't overturn that. We would rightly be fuming if that was the other way round.

They were a joy to watch today. Boufal's skill was constantly wrong-footing the Utd defence, and Djenepo's solo goal was a thing of beauty. More please fellas.

BTW - that "John Westwood is a paedophile" song? Have a word with yourselves lads FFS. Childish and pathetic.

He was dreadful today. I remember one occasion where a ball was played out wide and it was quite clearly his to win, but he just didn't even attempt to get his head on it and they got in behind with ease. I can't comprehend how someone as tall as he is manages to get beaten in the air so easily. His general alertness and decision making was very poor. Not a good performance at all.

Yeah that's probably more likely actually. Hoj did a decent job at LB in a 4 last time out, but he's probably not suited to the more attacking wing back role. Would much rather have him in the middle with Romeu.

Has Maya ever played LB before? I expect it will be 3 CBs with Hoj at LWB.