Sheaf Saint

Leeds away - under the cosh for the full 90 minutes and mugged them with a smash and grab goal of the highest quality, followed by one of the finest goalkeeping performances ever witnessed to hold on to it. Millwall away - honestly thought we had lost so went and made a cup of coffee, only to come back to my computer and find we had turned it around. Definitely our MK Dons moment and had me convinced that not only did we have the quality, the confidence and the ability to get promoted, but we had the slice of luck needed sometimes when things aren't going your way. Was convinced we would win the title after this game. Blackpool away - following a spectacular run of form, all of a sudden it didn't look quite so nailed-on as it had done prior to this game. All expectation on us and we choked badly like rabbits in headlights, and all of a sudden I went from being convinced we would win the league to being fearful that we might not even make second, leading to a very nervy last few games.

Choose one of each if you like. There's no rules here

That's what I understood as well, with Aviva writing off the remaining debt as they had already received most of what they originally loaned in interest payments anyway.

Guly was certainly on fire yesterday. Ran his socks off, got back when needed and generally got everywhere and didn't give the Cov midfield any time to get the ball down and under control. However, I did also think he was wasteful in possession a few times and gave it away a little cheaply at others, so my vote has gone to Schneiderlin who, despite just coming back from injury, I thought had a magnificent game and I can't wait to see him performing in the prem next season because the lad is sheer class.

Provided we can bring in 3 or 4 quality additions then with the nucleus we already have and the incredible management skills of NA I don't see any reason we can't finish comfortably mid-table. So I'm going to go for 13th.

Watched Take Shelter the other night... http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/take_shelter/ Considering not much is ever really happening it's an incredibly tense film, beautifully filmed and with a powerhouse perfromance from Michael Shannon in the lead role as a man who is apparently spiralling into a mental disorder. Highly recommended.

Aaaah, that was it all along. He was a year ahead of the rest of us!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/apr/28/southampton-coventry-city-championship?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/lallana-gets-saints-over-line-in-style-7687427.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2136527/Southampton-4-Coventry-0-Saints-promoted.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/championship/9233370/Southampton-4-Coventry-City-0-match-report.html http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4285701/Southampton-4-Coventry-0.html

Was lovely to hear Amarillo being played over the PA after the final whistle. Didn't somebody on here mention recently that they knew the stadium announcer and put in a special request? Good work!

What's everyone reckon then? Conolly's against Boro at home is an obvious choice I guess cos of the amount of passes that lead to it, but my vote would go to Lambert's in the away game at Leeds. Great break down the right from Cork, a delightful cushioned header from Chung to tee it up and he hit it so hard it would have snapped the keeper's hand off if he had got to it.

Not too many needed I don't think. The core of our team is good enough for the prem already. Definitely need to address the RM situation. While I have been very impressed with Chaplow there at times this season, I don't think he is the man to line up there in the prem and neither is De Ridder, Puncheon or Guly. I think Fox will do OK at LB but perhaps a new RB is needed as I'm not convinced of the PL credentials of either Richardson or Butterfield. Up front, I'm not sure how well Sharp will do at that level. Obviously he has been a huge asset for us in the run-in but PL defences will be a whole new challenge. From what little I got to see of him before his injury, I reckon Chung will cause a few problems and will do well at PL level. So a new RM, a new RB and another quality striker are a must. Another CB to provide quality cover would also be a useful addition.

I know she only made a handful (probably literally!) of appearances as a sub, but....

Yep. Knew from that moment on that we had the cahoonas for a fight and that it would take something either spectacular or extremely lucky to stop us.

Chesterfield got relegated to L2 today... Which means that once the FL/FA have actually grown a pair and given Pompey the punishment they deserve for their total lack of respect for any sense of decency or fair play over the last few years, Chesterfield should still be a division or two above them!

7 years ago I watched the horror unfold in a bar here in Sheffield. At full time I was crying into my pint when the guy who had been stood next to me for most of the game introduced himself as a pompey fan. He was very gracious and I ended up necking vodka shots at the bar with him before going to meet some mates at another pub where I apparently got up and did OWTSGMI on karaoke wearing my Saints top. I didn't think it would ever get any lower than that and had no idea of the rollercoaster that was to follow. But you know what? All of other was worth it. All the hours and pennies I have invested in supporting Saints; all the years of struggle, frustration and hurt; all of it was building up to this moment today and I was actually in tears watching Jive struggling to hold back the emotion and the look of sheer joy on Rickie's face as he was held aloft by the fans on the pitch. Since I left Southampton in 2004 this site and its predecessors have been an absolute lifeline for me and enabled me to feel a part of it all still despite the distance. So proud right now - words can't describe it. All of the petty bickering on this site suddenly seems so irrelevant. How I wish I was in Southampton to join the party tonight. However you all choose to celebrate and wherever you are, remember you are not alone.

Anybody recognise any of them?

That all seems very oddly familiar doesn't it? Feel sorry for Coventry really.

FFS! You had to go and post that didn't you!

I'm discounting the business-side of things and purely focusing on the football. Besides, the '4-days away' thing always seemed to me like a massive exaggeration in order to hurry up any interested parties, and as it turned out we didn't go out of business so it wasn't really a sucker punch of the kind I'm referring to. When we lost the shootout at Derby in 2007 I felt gutted watching all those smug Derby fans come running over towards us, so that one comes close. But relegation to L1 was inevitable that season we were so dire, so when it eventually happened I was actually a bit "meh" in the end.

Since we dropped out of the PL I have become a lot more aware of just how fickle it is and how precious it is to the media in this country. All those years of us beating Man U and then reading a 3-page spread the next day about what a disaster it was for Fergie without a single word of praise for us, I naively thought that we would actually get some plaudits in the press for once. But now having tasted 7 years away I realise that the only reason we even got as much attention as we did was because we were in the PL. When I look through the sports supplements on a sunday to find 4 or 5 full-page spreads about the PL games and maybe about half a page summarising the Championship, I realise that there is something seriously wrong with the way the PL is regarded as the absolute be-all-and-end-all of football in England; my experiences over the last 7 years tell me otherwise. I have had some bloody great away days during that time and really enjoyed some of the football. Going into every game believing - genuinely believing - that we can win every one and should fear nobody is something that I never experienced for the first 20 years of supporting Saints, and it has been a real novelty. So am I not bothered if we don't make it to the PL? No. I'm not bothered from the point of view that we can still enjoy our football and look forward to challenging at the top again, confident in our ability to beat anybody else in the league. I'm not bothered from the point of view that the PL is a ridiculous bubble where the only way you can possibly hope to be truly competitive is if you can attract a multi-billionaire owner who is willing to recruit players on the most obscene wages, and I would never want to see Saints go down that path. But one thing would bother me massively if we don't achieve promotion this year... We have been in the top two, and indeed - top, for most of the season, and to see us f**k that up now would probably be the most sickening blow I have ever suffered as a Saints fan - worse even than the one I suffered almost exactly seven years ago. So come on you f**king reds! Win it for Markus!

You are very welcome Moff. I too have always considered us and Coventry to be very similar clubs. When I first started following Saints in the late 80s we were both considered to be small fish in a big pond and I remember a few really good games between us. Though I wasn't at all happy when we ended up signing David Speedie off you! But there is more to it than the football. The two cities are similarly sized and both suffered unwanted facelifts by the Germans in the 40s. I really feel sorry for you as fans because of the situation you now find yourself in, and I am so grateful that we managed to stave off the SISU threat because we could now be in exactly the same situation. Let's not be unclear - we hit the jackpot when Markus Liebherr bought us, and it seems that your lot drew the short straw. It could so easily have been the other way round. Obviously relegation is a horrible thing to experience, but I think you may find you will actually enjoy L1 in a strange way, as I did - although I was extremely glad we got out of it when we did. I wish you and your fellow fans good fortune for the future - starting on sunday, obviously!!!!!

14 pages! Is this the longest build-up thread ever seen on SWF?

I don't think a team-talk is necessary. All of the players know the stakes - win it and they are in the PL. SImple as that.

wwwwibble