Midfield_General

*cough* rookie numbers *cough*

The Roy Race / Blackie Gray strike partnership was still going well into the 1990s I believe. Vic Guthrie, goalkeeper Charlie Carter and defensive hard man Duncan McKay also had pretty solid careers, plus of course Paco Diaz providing some continental flair on the wings. I had loads of Roy of the Rovers annuals but they all came from a car boot sale and were from the 70s, so even though I was reading them in 1986 I thought all players had long hair and flares and looked like the Bee Gees

Funny how the bits of history he’s forgetful about always accidentally end up making him look better, isn’t it? Re autonomy, given the absolute dogshit he saddled us with when he didn’t have Poch or Koeman calling in favours and making him look good, I’m with Gao on this one. For a true reflection of his own ability you just need to see how he got on as a manager. One of the worst records in premier league history (until Rusty came along). Respect where it’s due, he appointed two good managers. Other than that he’s a serial bullshitter who has made a career out of taking credit for other people’s achievements.

Brilliant result. How long can we keep this unbelievable run going? Amazing stuff

That’s the problem though - we won’t. We’ll almost certainly lose Peretz, Larin, THB and Charles, and probably Scienza as well if someone makes a decent offer and the most recent accounts are to be believed. I think it’s highly likely that Eckert will get poached too if we don’t go up. Then we’re back to the tombola of having to find a new manager, half a team, and hoping they all gel over the short space of one season, with less money. Does Spors stick around too, and even if he does, can he find another bunch of affordable gems or will it be more Damion Downs / Jelert / Roerslevs? Who knows. It’s very, very risky. We need to go up this season or we risk going back to square one.

Only 45% possession FFS

Well, they will be absolutely delighted to see both Scienza and Fellows on the bench. That's a huge boost for them. Need Edozie and Matsuki to step up and show they can cause just as many problems against a side whose own fans say they have a real weakness against tricky wingers.

Some interesting and fairly balanced views from the other side: https://www.redpassion.co.uk/threads/southampton-h-ts-ps.127291/ They're generally viewing it as a 'must win' for them as they think we'll win our game in hand and that if we get above them they won't catch us. They were pretty confident before the Arsenal game, but that result seems to have understandably got them a bit worried. Lots of them saying that we are clearly a better footballing team than them. They seem particularly fearful of Scienza and Fellows, as they generally seem to feel that fast, tricky wingers are a bit of an achilles heel for them. I can see those two getting a kicking tonight so I hope we get a strong ref. If we can score first they'll have no choice but to come at us and then I think we can do some proper damage against them on the break. If they score first I could see them shithousing and trying to park the bus for an ugly 1-0. Could be an interesting game this one. Over to you Tonda. If you can school Arteta then surely you can come up with a plan for Parkinson.

Bazunu, Djenepo, Lyanco, Caleta-Car, Salisu, Walker-Peters, Diallo, Lavia, Ward-Prowse, Mara, Armstrong. Subs: Caballero, Perraud, Finnigan, Elyounoussi, Edozie, Aribo, Orsic, Adams, Morgan. That awful side played a Man City team that started with Cancelo, Walker (when he was good), Laporte, Gundogan, Foden (ditto), Palmer and Grealish and had Ake, Mahrez, Rodri, De Bruyne and Haaland to bring off the bench. It was also managed by Nathan Jones. Result - 2-0 Saints win. It will obviously be a very hard game but it can be done.

I know. No light show, no pyrotechnics, no influencers live streaming it on TikTok - what has modern football become when the FA Cup draw is just balls being drawn out of a bag? They really missed a trick there, it could have been really really cool

Fratton

“… but verily, at leas’t we shall have half a chance if Gav’n Bazunu be nowhere neareth the side.”

Man up you bunch of melts we’ll twat them

Yeah Di Canio got a straight red and an 11 match ban, and as far as I can see the only difference was that last night the ref stayed on his feet. Retrospectively he surely has to face more than a yellow card?

Wrexham are sending t a dossier to the head of referees to try and pressure them into giving more penalties: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpd51wevy79o

I think it’s important to remember that the fa cup is just a pointless waste of time because we’ll never win it so we shouldn’t even bother trying, so whoever we get we should just put the reserves out and rest everyone for the Ipswich game a few days later, because that’s what really matters. We could get fifth in the championship, imagine telling your grandchildren about that

Absolutely outstanding. So proud of every one of them. Went toe to toe with one of the best teams in the world and deserved to beat them. Magnificent

Interview with Peretz: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/apr/04/southamptons-daniel-peretz-we-have-a-lot-of-respect-for-arsenal-but-we-are-not-afraid Talks about playing with Neuer and Kane, and how him and his Mrs are apparently the Israeli Posh and Becks

Matty Fernandes of course. And I'm surprised you've overlooked versatile full-back Matthew Robinson, who could play both sides and made four appearances under five different managers between 1994-1998 before becoming a copper; Matthew Marshall, a right-half who played once in 1894; and Matthew 'Gunner' Reilly, who made two appearances between 1895-96 and as a former Gaelic football player was able to turn his hand to a stint as a glovesman. Matthew 'Gunner' Reilly Matthew Marshall - Matthew Bound - Matt Mills - Matt Targett Matthew Robinson - Matthew Oakley - Matheus Fernandes - Matt Robinson Matt Le Tissier Matthew Paterson

If we’re talking championship level then Breezer is a solid 6-7 every week. Never going to set the world alight but just gets on with it, does a job and we miss him when he's not there.

He 'won us points' in this game, right? The one where his positioning was so bad he managed to get lobbed by a wafty header from outside the six yard box?

It's why modern professional football is fucked. Most of the people involved at the top end are simply parasitic capitalists out to make as much money as possible out of businesses that happen to be football clubs, so getting the money for being in a particular competition every year is far more important to them than silly secondary concerns like the sporting glory of actually winning them. So they make decisions that reflect that, and put forward convincing-sounding justifications for those opinions, which some fans end up nodding along with. While that's sad, if you put yourself in the shoes of those businessmen or agents or whatever who don't give a toss about sport and purely see the opportunity to make millions for themselves or their families, you can sort of understand them doing it, from a purely selfish point of view. What's weird though is like you say when the fans start talking like that as well, even though they don't actually see any of that money.

Yeah, I'd hate to spoil a league game for sixth in the Championship with a waste of time like the FA Cup 😉

I do wonder sometimes why some people bother with football. The FA Cup is the only major honour we've ever won. It was fifty years ago, before many supporters were even born, but that date is still burned into the soul of most Saints fans. Half a century later, we're still bringing out a special shirt to remember that one thing we did. We won that as a second tier side who no-one gave a prayer to against a much stronger team with much deeper resources. But somehow we did it, and it's the biggest thing that has ever happened to the club. Now we're in touching distance of having another go at that, and some people would basically rather not bother trying, because of some small imagined advantage it might give us in a league game a few days later which, while important, won't even decide this season on it's own. As a football fan and a supporter of a team that has won almost nothing in 140 years, if you can't get excited about having a crack at one of the best sides in the world, in your own stadium, to go within one game of a major cup final, honestly, what's the point?

Something something gets caught Sleeping too much Something something Satellite club