Midfield_General

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

£120 for a nylon football shirt that probably cost £3-£4 to make. They can get to absolute fuck. I was born a month after we won the Cup, so it's my 50th anniversary this year as well and it's made me kind of want one even though I don't actually ever wear football shirts. But that price/ mark-up is absolutely outrageous, and if the club want to try and take the piss out of the fans like that then two can play at that game and to be honest I couldn't give a toss if they get the money or not. I'll probably only ever wear it once or twice, maybe for a 5-a-side kickaround or in the event that we get to Wembley, so if the option is there to pay £11 + shipping for something which to the untrained eye is basically exactly the same and not like you say obviously some rubbish Kho Sanh Road knockoff, then that's absolutely fine for me. Anyway I'm going to get one off the back of the excellent feedback from others who have already bought one, so I'll report back

This was really helpful mate - didn't realise I'd missed a whole discussion on this exact issue! Thank you

Nice one - cheers fellas 👍

Has anyone bought the 50th anniversary shirt from DHGate? If so, is it obviously a snide? Thinking about getting the anniversary shirt for a friend and don't want to pay £120 for it but similarly don't want to get a DHGate one if they're obviously a poor imitation. If you put the DHGate one next to an official one from the shop, is it easy to tell the difference - e.g. different quality of material or quality of logos etc?

Like a top ten Premier League team? 15 days ago

This one is a lot better https://watchfooty.st/en/stream/4825499/southampton-oxford-united/easy/1

Stream went down just as we took the corner I take it we scored?

GET INNNNN

https://antenasport.org/embed.php?id=bet11581784&rtitle=BET Not the best quality but you can just about make out a football match in there somewhere. Anyone got a better one? Fawa not working for me

‘Bazunu wasn’t one of the big factors in why we were crap’ is right up there with ‘managers and formations aren’t that important’ as the gold standard for the most staggeringly deranged viewpoints we’ve had on here this season, and there have been some absolute belters

I think my phone just exploded

Said it before and I'll say it again - the way the club just apparently refused point blank to accept that Bazunu was crap is like nothing I've ever seen before in terms of going all-in on a single player. Look at Downs. We bought him, we played him, we saw he was crap, we tried to persevere for a bit to give him a chance but after four months it was obvious he wasn't up to it so we shipped him out. His value will take a knock but so be it, that's football. With Bazunu, he got three and a half years, the majority of which was first team football. A few contrarians will try to find a way to defend him, but he was incredibly average to poor the entire time - everyone could see it with their eyes and every single metric backed it up, consistently, for that period. What the hell was going on that he gets three and a half years? Even after we finally loaned him out the first time because he was consistently rubbish, he came back and went back into the first team for yet another go, and - shock horror - was still rubbish. It can't just be that we didn't want his value to depreciate - he only cost £12m which really isn't a lot now and wasn't when we bought him either. Downs was £7m and he only got four months. Something very, very odd went on there.

His positioning in general is outstanding. Also he moves his feet really well, which should be a basic skill for a keeper but lots of them don't. Not just Baz, although he was appalling for it, but for example that free kick that Vicario let in against Liverpool was because he didn't move his feet, and you see it surprisingly often at all levels if you know what you're looking for. Joe Hart was terrible for it as well, especially when it was to his left.

Where was Long last night?

So is a centre forward, and there are lots of things that need to happen throughout a team for goals to be scored, but goals win matches and in basic terms that’s how value is generally measured for that position. It’s the same with big saves at pivotal points in a close game, which can be the difference between grinding out a win or dropping points, which is what Clough was talking about.

Brian Clough said having a good goalkeeper meant putting 15 extra points on your points total by the end of the season. How many has Peretz won us already by making huge match winning saves at pivotal points in close games - 9 at least?

Exactly. All that matters at this stage of the season is finding a way to get the 3 points, and we did Fucking love grinding out a 1-0. Excellent, gritty result

Peretz milking the crowd, clearly loving life Flippin love this guy