Sheaf Saint

Hughes becomes the first manager ever to be sacked by two PL clubs in the same calendar year.

Whatever mitigation you apply to his record, the lowest win rate of any Saints manager with at least as many games as him speaks for itself.

Dementia kicking in? A weeny bit distracted by his impending indictment by Mueller? Or does he just hate having to go abroad where he can't stuff venues full of his lobotomised supporters to stroke his fragile ego?

Meh. Would have taken a point beforehand, but it's still yet more points dropped from a winning position. I though Obafemi did pretty well, and it's a real shame he's gonna be sidelined for a bit now. Another good finish from Armstrong. It's only taken us 4 years (since we sold Lallana) but at last we seem to have a goal-scoring midfielder. Overall we played pretty well, but yet again we manage to give away goals through very poor, some would say non-existent, marking. Is it really too much to ask that - just for once - this bunch of players can hold onto a lead?

Well, you say that... You could genuinely apply his concerns about Rasiak and John to our current inept strike force, while McGoldrick is currently in pretty decent form in a team challenging for the Championship title. So he wasn't really too far off.

Well you clearly don't like any of the posters on this forum, so I think you have answered your own question.

I dunno. Lost of people have been complaining that the current bunch of players are unlikable, so I think it's got merit really. Personally, my least favourite of the current bunch is probably Redmond. He has a massively over-inflated sense of his own ability, and the way he whinges and moans at his team-mates when he cocks up is abhorrent.

Stay classy eh?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-46370665 What an inspirational man he was. Lived through the great depression and served in the RAF during WWII, and spent his later years (right up until his death, aged 95) tirelessly campaigning for human rights and social justice. A very sad loss to all of humanity. Rest in peace Harry.

I can only assume he has had some kind of injury recently that the club has not publicised. Why else would such a senior player not even make the bench for a few games and then end up playing for the U23s?

He makes GW Bush look like a genius.

It's not the fact that he didn't save any that concerns people. It's the fact that he was clowning around on the line trying to distract the takers and then didn't even get close to saving any of them.

IIRC he did the same thing in the last round at Everton as well. Left the best penalty takers in the squad on the bench.

I know he's still young but Gunn needs some coaching on penalties. He was dancing all over the place and didn't get close to a single one.

Oh dear Gabbi

Gunn keeps going too early and making it too easy for them.

Right then. Time top find out if Gunn really is worth the money we paid for him.

Off the bar!!

6 mins? Is that cos of the VAR?

Review due to the possible handball in the build up. No goal.

Not even getting real-time updates on Bet365. It seems nobody actually gives a toss about this game. Who'd have thought?

Doubtful. There wasn't one for the Everton game in the last round despite it being the only EFL cup game being played that night.

Did anybody else used to watch The Thick Of It and find themselves thinking "My god! Imagine if government was actually like this!"... https://twitter.com/chunkymark/status/1067374989962330112

True, but a better manager would recognise that and not play him week in week out regardless of how gash he is. Despite his limitations, Stephens is a better CB, and it's no coincidence that we kept a clean sheet in two of the three games he has started this season (with the third one being the mauling at Man City, so he can't really take too much flak for that). In the back half of 2016/17, when we lost VVD to injury and sold Fonte in the Jan transfer window, he and Yoshida gave a pretty decent account of themselves. Our problems during that period all stemmed from our inability to score, not from the defence. In other areas of the squad, we know that certain players are capable of better. Romeu, Bertrand, Cedric and JWP have all performed at a higher standard in the past than they have done this season. Even Redmond had a good spell under Puel and contributed a few goals and assists. Despite looking really threatening in his early few games, Ings has regressed badly since he joined. I don't know if it's because of the slack training regime, or if the general air of negativity has engulfed him, or both, but he doesn't look anything like the player he was in August. So yes, there are obvious weaknesses in our squad. Players like Long, Austin, Davis etc... are done at this level and cannot be relied upon any which way. But, given the right management, coaching and fitness training, I believe we have a squad capable of finishing comfortably mid-table. However, with our current setup, we are on course to finish bottom with a record low points total, and that cannot be acceptable to anybody.