Cabrone

Fair play to England, they crushed Ukraine. Kane looking like the player we know he is, Maguire back, Shaw playing great, no real injury issues and home fixtures from here on in. It's as good a chance as England has ever had.

A fairly turgid game punctuated by one piece of real quality from England and a bit of a let off just after. Glad Kane got a goal, fingers crossed that sparks him up for the rest of the games. Also Pickford was decent, made a couple of smart saves and always seems to perform decently when I see him in an England shirt. Overall still not convinced about England, must get a bit more positive but there's no denying that beating the Germans is sweet even if this is not their best line up. Oh, and play Grealish from the start please.

If you have seen the Germans as long as I have you know to never ever back against them. I've seen bang average German sides still get to the final (2002 springs to mind and I think the 82\86 sides were no great shakes). They have a mental resilience that England can only dream of and you cannot ever write them off. I remember the 86 team were 2-0 down and looked dead and buried. They pulled it back before the Argies smashed a late winner. Germany plays the kind of football England would play if they had confidence, it seems to be in their psyche (and ours sadly). If England play the Portugal Germany then we'll get done, if England play the France\Hungary Germany we *might* just get past them but I wouldn't bet on it.

Germans have had an odd tournament. Pretty pedestrian against the French, sparked back to life against the Portugese and then back to plodders against Hungary. They made chances last night but couldn't convert. Seems to me they lack an out and out striker, instead they have a bunch of attacking players. Still think they have too much for England though.

And so on to England's last game. At least they will go down at Wembley.

Same old England. Not smart enough to get past an organised team like Scotland. The draw was fair. They will get through and then be booted out the first time they meet a heavyweight. Looks like they are on course to play Portugal\Germany in the first knockout game, that's the end of their tournament.

Just throw them out now and let's get on with a new competitive premier league.

Take this to its logical conclusion and you eventually end up with a global league. I would not be surprised if in 30 years fans will be tuning into Sydney Sharks vs Manchester Devils or LA Galaxy vs Madrid Laticos or something like that. Why the surprise? It's all about money and has been for decades. And as for all the multi millionaire ex players on our screens who were more than happy to get very rich off the back of the gravy train now getting all indignant about it's inevitable conclusion, please spare me.

Yes, I'm all for this. Been wanting the big 6 to break away for a long time and now the inevitable has happened the Premier league should become a much better competition. Let the big boys play each other in a competitive league and let the remaining prem clubs fight it out in a now competitive league. I do wonder though if the long term plan is for this new European super league to gradually add more and more clubs from across Europe and build itself up into a new pan European league with several divisions? Only time will tell.

Reminded me of the performance against Chelsea in the last FAC semi final we were in. The free kick delivery on 94 minutes summed us up, last roll of the dice and Ward Prowse skies it over everyone. What a dull uninspiring team we have become, looks like we are back to the bad old days again.

Full strength team and go for it 100%. Absolutely no 'resting' until we are mathematically safe, until then every game is important.

That 2nd half was pure Pellegrino, played at a glacial pace, plenty of silly mistakes and absolutely no urgency whatsoever. Completely unwatchable. I *think* we'll survive because we have the points but based on that performance we'll be crawling over the line rather than breezing past it as we were looking back in January. I'd like to know what has happened, have the players decided that the season is already over? Has Ralph lost the dressing room? Are the tactics wrong? (same tactics that got us a load of points pre January?). What on earth has happened?

Looks like we've gone back to the bad old Saints, far too slow going forward allowing Brighton all the time in the world to reorganise. I think(?) we'll survive this season but we are making seriously hard work of it. We don't deserve anything from this game.

Ralph is on a fast track to legend status. What a performance, what a goal.

This is what happens when you have one of the best managers in the prem. If we can stay lucky with injuries this could be our best ever prem season. In Ralph we trust.

Played fairly poorly but still won, sign of a good team. Pen was very debateable but we've had a few against us in the past so it all evens out. 5th tonight and Ings back in, things are looking good.

I've given chairman Gao some pelters over the last few years but fair dues, his main job is to hire the right manager and he did it. He then stuck with him when a lot of chairman would have pulled the trigger. Gao is a remote chairman who is hard to warm to but he has gotten this critical decision right. As for Ralph, IMO he is in the elite band of prem managers. I thought we'd punched above our weight when we got him and now he's really proving why. He's taken a mixed bag of players and moulded them into a formidable unit capable of giving anyone in this league a run for their money. Don't forget these are mainly the same players that the last two managers had and were getting slagged off on here as not being good enough week in week out. That's the difference between a poor\mediocre manager and a class act like Ralph. He's an ambitious guy and if this continues he'll be on his way so enjoy this man's tenure here. I really think he's going to achieve great things in his career, I'd love it to be here and if it was he'd become a Saints legend no doubt.

Going forward Ralph's going to have to be cautious with Danny, we all know his history and how vital he is to us. TBH why was he even on the pitch that late in the game when we were 4-1 up?

Superb victory that was dented by a couple of odd late goals (when the game was already won). However I'll take 3 points at a revitalised Villa all day long thanks. Ralph's really got them purring now, this could be a vintage season....

Top 3 prem manager, only behind Klopp and Pep IMO. He's ambitious and will go when one of he big boys come knocking, maybe at the end of this season or next. In the mean time let's just enjoy his stint incharge.

Always satisfying to get one over Everton after all the punishment they have dished out to us over the years. The team is playing well now but that's because we have one of the best managers in the league. Comparing what he's getting out of our players to what the last 3 managers did and it's like night and day. Gao has gotten 1 thing right......but that thing was probably his key responsibility, hiring Ralph. He really is a class act.

Fantastic point against a team that will be top 3/4 at seasons end. After a slow start Ralph's got them fired up as I expected he would, the guy is a class act. Would love for him to be here for a few more seasons at least but I think he's going to turn heads this season.

Well what a surprise, we lost on opening day. Can't shake this hoodoo, we have the worst opening day form in the league, reliably playing like a sack of spuds year in year out. Won 2 out of 21 opening fixtures, last opening win against West Brom in 2013. Shocking stats. Romeu was wasteful, defence were caught asleep more than once, strikers were shot shy and Redmond's finishing was all over the place. Maybe next year Ralph should hypnotise them so they think it's November rather than Aug\Sep.

Koeman - fantastic team Ralph - quite possibly the best manager we've had in the prem era Adkins - great fun Honourable mentions: Hoddle and Strach

Don't forget Bedford place and a slap up meal at Zorbas. Who could resist.