derry

No, in the middle fifties, I used to sell penny on the ball tickets and there were balls around all plastic coated whilst the balls we used were the old brown leather or lighter coloured panelled balls but uncoated and very heavy when wet.

That's factually correct in comparison with the current light balls. In reality the leather ball was replaced in professional football in the fifties with the plastic coated much lighter ball as it didn't absorb water as with the original leather uncoated and probably laced ball. It then didn't become heavy especially as a new ball was used every match.

Don Roper?

The defensive coaching is ridiculous. Salah, Mahrez, and Alli were allowed to cut across the box on their shooting foot and hit the goal. Why weren't they pressed onto their weak foot and made to go outside. Romeu showed Alli the inside line today FFS, that is just stupidity, just like thinking challenging behind an attacker at a free kick and unable to reach the ball is defending. Defenders have to attack the ball not stand off. We need the defenders coached to win the header not let the attacker get in front of them. Kane today and the equaliser against Arsenal and Huddersfield. There is a lack of direction from the coaches. Winning the ball is more important than zonal stand watching as the ball hits the back of the net with the spectating goalkeeper showing no leadership.

Even the commentators were talking about how passive we were. A team plays in the character of its manager. Standing off the ball and not pressing hard has cost us dearly this season. We need a manager that believes in attacking the ball not passing it around until the opponents press takes it back. As soon as we got on the front foot and got the ball up front quickly and attacking the ball we were so much better. Forster has lost his way he is so hesitant he is a liability. Redmond's thoughtless back pass that opened us up was awful, We need to get rid of Pellegrino for starters, change the goal keeping coach and apart from strengthening the side, play the strongest team all the time. I thought Romeu and Hojbjerg were better together but Lamina could be an attacking midfielder. For me add Long, Boufal and Gabbiadini and we have the makings of a competitive team.

This manager is an idiot. We are playing Huddersfield and really need to play our strongest team and compete. When I heard the team, I just couldn't believe it. Stephens and Targett were necessary, Davis, Tadic, Redmond and JWP was self inflicted. Romeu, Hojbjerg, Boufal and Gabbiadini or Long would have given us more of a fighting chance. FFS if it doesn't fit 4-2-3-1 then play something else like 4-3-3 with Hojbjerg alongside Romeu and Lamina to get forward and help the forwards. For a season and a half we have seen Davis, Redmond, Tadic and JWP are incapable of making the runs behind defenders and getting into the box yet this clown still picks them. The longer the club leave it before they sack him the deeper in the mire we will be. We should really be replacing those four permanently, selling VVD and bringing in a striker and attacking midfielder plus some genuine pace and another CB (DeVryj? to be sold by Napoli.

Does he know what he is doing or is he just shuffling the pack on a weekly basis? For me he hasn't a clue. We have hired a talker who has been found out.

How long before the Chinese hit the panic button. It doesn't matter what Krueger, Reed etc think, sooner rather than later the owners are going to see through the bull****.

I had a perfect match Tv wise from Mania HD using Express VPN.

If this team doesn't win today it needs to be slaughtered and hopefully that will see the panic button pressed. CP3 LC0 I think we are sleep walking into trouble. I still think this manager is clueless. His changes formations and substitution are bizarre.

Anybody want to give some odds on Vardy getting horribly clattered early on. For me he's got it coming after injuring VVD, I suspect that's not been forgotten.

But we hit long cross field passes to the full backs and got to the bye lines. We made more passes in the opponents half and a lot less passing around the back four and midfield going nowhere. PEH made more passes than anybody else, 96 with better accuracy and more tackles than anybody else on the field. We also played with a higher tempo.

It's probably still not dawned on Pellegrino, he's far too clever. Some kids are naturals, no matter who they play for put them in the box with the ball and they invariably score. How do they keep doing that, they don't even know most of the time but they just do it. Charlie Austin is one of those unique kids. You want to mark up, use somebody else, you want to hold the ball up and wait, use somebody else, you want somebody to get crosses in and get to the bye line, use somebody else. Charlie Austin in the box, four chances, one missed hit the post and stuck two away. He's not the fastest, fittest, strongest but just watch his instinct it is brilliant. He doesn't do ordinary but just let him play his way and he will get a bucket load of goals if the ball is put in to him. He has done it at every level, the way we have treated him was just stupid given his ability and our inability to score. The way we played on Sunday was the way to play to Charlie Austin not the 600 pass dross being put forward by Pellegrino in thirteen matches as the way to play

Looking at the stats PEH made more passes, 96, than any Saints player with better accuracy and made more tackles than any other player on the field. In ordinary circumstances MOM but only goals win matches and Austin's two headers were the match winners without them Everton were still in the game. We have found it so hard to score from play but Austin showed that three yards of intelligent positioning trumps everything else.

Plenty of runners, high tempo, early forward passes, plenty of pressing and a player that picks out the space in the box. So Pellegrino was wrong all along. PEH outstanding hard working display but the MOM for me was Charlie Austin scoring goals. The way Austin spotted the pockets and lost the defenders was brilliant. Good team display, all the players played well but it was getting forward in numbers that made the difference. If Pellegrino has learnt his lesson, and I really can't see that he hasn't been well leant on, amazed it took this long.

One thing that is really ****ing me off is the club's PR machine wheeling out random players and the manager week after week pronouncing on the next game's anticipated success story, how the players know what they are about and a weekly lecture from the manager how we are going in the right direction and doing things right keeping possession. Week after week same crap equals same result or rather lack of result. Somebody should tell those ****s to shut up, most of the people they are addressing are far cleverer than they will ever be and see right through their bull ****. Don't insult our intelligence with the sort of garbage that is worthless.

This is probably the best post you've ever made. Absolutely nail on the head. Players that want to play, no more underperforming foreign managers, we see loads of good players on tv in the EFL every week, loads of great goals. It's how we got into the Premier. How Leicester won the PL, get in pace, power and stop bringing in foreign big ********es on loads a money that are already lining up their next move and buy hungry players that are grateful and want to be here. I've had it with the present team and set up.

That he keeps picking, and in Tadic's and Redmond's case on the wrong side.

I almost tempted to think two more defeats in the next two games is probably for the best long term good.

You've got that right but led by a manager without a clue, philosophy be damned, it's results that count. Two or three strikers after no chances created by five midfielders, four defenders and one striker and only on for fifteen minutes to try and rescue a game. That's been successful except for Austin's penalty, good job it wasn't Tadic at that stage.When Austin came on at Liverpool, Pellegrino was lecturing him and pointing what looked like his defensive duties. It should have been get in the box and get us a goal. Forster looks like a rabbit in the headlights. VVD's face said it all after one of the goals, it looks like the defence have lost confidence in him and he knows it. A save nowadays is the ball hits him or he palms it away if straight at him

Silly mistake after starting at the front.

I wonder if he will change because he must be getting desperate. A friend that works at Saints told me on Monday that he has heard that two games is the figure being talked about within the club. My remark was that's two games too many. The club will close ranks until a decision is made. It seems that a consensus amongst some of those working at SFC is that he needs to be replaced ASAP. I asked about the training, loads of shooting practice but under no pressure. Any body can shoot if they aren't going to be opposed by 10 defenders. As we play so slowly and don't attack in numbers we are always going to be outnumbered up front. Pellegrino has to pick a different team with a different philosophy, even without Romeu. Hojbjerg did a good job at WBA last year. For me put in three strikers, play as physically strong a midfield as possible with two full backs and our three best centre backs and maybe give McCarthy a go although he didn't look that great against Fulham last night. If we stop this ridiculous 600 pass go nowhere style and go toe to toe with the opposition with a high tempo the crowd will wake up and get behind the team rather than demonstrating 90 minutes of frustration at the dross then Pellegrino may yet save his season. I can see no change and Everton winning. Then wait for the eruption at full time.

Now even that would be an improvement on the meaningless dross we are serving up. Unless we change the way we are playing a slide down the table looms. Unfortunately it isn't far to the bottom.

I would be interested to know whether the emphasis in training is keeping possession without goal targets or attacking and defending with the emphasis on getting the ball into the goal. I suspect the former. I think Puel and Pellegrino have neutered the team with their obsession with possession and lost sight of the need to score goals because of the fear of losing. We aren't scoring, but still losing, so we need to change the way we are playing. Maybe a week of a few full sized games with no emphasis on possession, but playing high tempo, getting the ball and numbers forward quickly. Definitely playing no player on their weak side. Then seeing whether that has any effect on the way the team plays in the next competitive game without the need to only keep possession. 600 passes a game mostly in our own half, sideways and backwards, except Forster who hits ball after ball aimlessly up field, has destroyed our ability to play early balls as there are no players making runs, just waiting to pass the ball around. Only the lone striker makes any runs mostly unsupported and deprived of support, with ten opponents goal side because of the slow passing.

At last somebody saying how it really is. How can he even begin to promote the dross he is responsible for as playing well and going in the right direction. Even worse if he really believes it. Three penalties, two or three after corners, one from a free kick that hit the crossbar, in a total of nine goals in twelve matches including losing to Wolves seconds. We are in deep trouble and the band plays on while the ship sinks. I don't want to hear any more meaningless bull**** I want to see a change on the pitch. We have been talking ourselves up since August and all of it turns out to be so much garbage.