SaintBobby

Same starting XI. keep with the plan. Look, we are underdogs for this one, but 6/1??? I just put £200 on. I think our chances to win are about 20% and to draw, maybe 25%.

We were about 1000/1 to win the league at the start of the season. Now about 125/1. Sounds about right to me. Was practically inconceivable. Is now merely vanishingly unlikely. I think we have a really good chance of a Europa League slot though. And maybe, just maybe, could get top four of the cards really fall our way (I think that’s about a 20/1 shot at the moment).

I had ID checked to access corporate hospitality - and was temperature checked twice. Even though a good number of staff know most of the season ticket holders there personally. So, I think I could have got in without ID, but doubt someone else could have got in using my ticket. I’d guess there might be pretty severe consequences for attempting to do so too.

The bit of Kingsland closest to Northam was the loudest. The gaggle of fans in that block made some damned good noise - certainly on a per person basis.

Thought I’d be nervous as hell watching Saints at St Mary’s again. If we’d lost, you maybe get a “we don’t want fans in the ground” meme going. But that was a stroll, really good throughout the team. Congrats to the club and stewards for running things so smoothly with a weird situation. Congrats too to the 2,000. Pretty damned good atmosphere given the ground was 90+% empty!

Overwhelmingly, adverts are designed to get you to switch brands rather than to consume more. It’s hard to understand why Andrex would advertise if this wasn’t the case. How many people watch the ads with the cute puppy and decide they will now take a dump more regularly? There’s no evidence that liberal rules on consumption and advertising have an adverse impact on gambling addiction. The USA has far tighter rules than us but similar prevalence rates for problem gambling. The problem with prohibition not working is that prohibitionists never retreat, they just double down. When banning gambling adverts on football shirts doesn’t work, they will want wider advertising bans, no branding on high streets etc To a man with a hammer, every problem is a nail.

Go with the strongest XI that you realistically can. Sheff Utd might be bottom but they aren’t mugs. Resting players for future matches is inviting trouble, unless they are not fit enough to play (most of) 90 minutes. Basically, fitness aside, seek to keep your best line up on the pitch as long as you can. Deal with suspensions and injuries as and when they occur. Query for me would be Ings - if he’s not judged fit enough yet to last 70+ minutes then there’s a case that the best set up is to start him on the bench again. Guess same question applies to Redmond?

100% agree. Surely, the question isn’t where the foul started but where it finished. If, for example, you’re tugging at an opponent’s shirt over a twenty yard stretch, including as he enters the penalty area then its a penalty. Not a free kick forty yards out because that’s where the foul started.

I had no doubt it was a penalty and felt certain as soon as I saw the first replay that we’d get given it. Seems more marginal on a 15th viewing though. A real problem is that it isn’t clear and obvious what clear and obvious means.

I'm desperate to get back to St Mary's - however low the numbers. Hope I make the cut.

Those bottom four are truly dire on what we've seen so far. They still haven't managed a single win between them against any of the other teams. Sheff Utd must have a chance v West Ham though.

Newcastle are dire. Toothless. Chelsea beating them 2-0 and hardly out of first gear.

The book “Soccernomics” makes a good case that it’s pretty much impossible to make a profit out of football. There are exceptions, of course, the Liebherrs bring one (obviously had the advantage of buying us at such a low ebb - I think Aviva got stuffed on the stadium mortgage, if I recall?). Aren’t wages 107% of turnover for an average club in the Championship? If your aim is simply to make money, football isn’t a good option. Or, at the very least, it’s a very high risk option.

I remember as a kid him and Shilton vying for the England keeper position - two epic goalkeepers. RIP.

Semmens assuring us that Saints won't get complacent even if we win the Premier League 3 times in a row 😅😅

Great listen, thanks.

Top.

5 is ridiculous. 3 should be the max. I’d also like some sort of rule that you can’t make tactical subs after the 90 minute mark, but not sure how that could be made fair and workable.

I put £20 on us at the start of the season at something like 680/1. My more serious bet was £100 on Spurs at 16/1. Thinking of cashing out - or at least partially cashing out - as I’ve doubled my stake.

The bottom four are still looking hopeless against the top 16. Played 25....Won 0 Drawn 3 Lost 22...For 16 Against 54 Points per game = 0.12 In the unikely event that this dismal form continues all season, the bottom four will each pick up 3 or 4 points on average against the top 16 over the whole season.

Pity....mind you we still needed two more results to go our way to stay top...always a long shot

Yawn.

Yawn.

Ok, we’re on fourth tonight. Guess that’s fair enough as the match is over 24 hours old and it’s not called Match of Yesterday. However, I’ve watched the title sequence several times and can hardly find any representation of Saints. Redmond appears in the background right at the start. Other clubs have their emblems front and centre as the title sequence unfolds. Where’s the Southampton iconography? It must be there somewhere, what have I missed? Where have I missed it?

It's a nightmare. Problem is they can only seemingly use VAR to enforce the exact laws of the game. If your armpit is offside, well, you're offside. It's not like a penalty decision, which can be subjective (although I recall hearing that the technology is only accurate to a certain %, presumably if that's 1cm and you're 1cm offside, they count that as onside?) My preference would be to only use VAR to look at the position of the feet. If your head, armpit or knee is offside then it's down to the linesman/ref to call it. If they don't, VAR will only look at the position of the feet. I think that would eliminate most decisions which, while they may be technically correct, are enfuriating and seem to go against the spirit of the "doubt favours the attacking team" principle.