adysaint

God I really hope so - but theres some twists to come - that was a big win for Charlton. I had this horrible feeling that we fail to sell out Wembley for the Semi and they take 40,000+ to a PO Final and bang on about it for years.

Well at least they didn't win. I didn't have them in my mix anyway. But that run in made it look like they could get dragged in. Also reiterates my theory that as the top 4 is pretty much done - that the big teams can't be relied upon just to streamroller the teams fighting for their lives We need 37 and GD or 38 points. Anything less is bye-bye.

It was always a concern now City have sown up the title. Spurs are playing for what? 2nd, 3rd, 4th is essentially the same prize. Its not like when Spurs were hunting down Lester and were irresistible. They didn't NEED to win tonight - hence they are not.

I see it as the Steffen Karl day - the lowest ebb. I knew Hudd gonna win. Watford are dreadful. Its gotta be Swansea now. I've been saying for months it was Hudd and the GD would keep up us - but today has put them almost out of reach.

I'm now putting a massive amount of money on us to beat Bournemouth - we will probably be odds against. That will be the 'Norwich'.

Yeah the parallels with 05 are startling: The first home win 3-2 v West Ham being similar to the 3-2 v Blackburn. Dodgy last minute pen. The failure to beat awful teams at home like 05: Charlton, Birmingham, Fulham, Boro, Palace, WBA = 18 Huddesfield, Brighton, Swansea, Stoke, Watford, Burnley That was surely the Aston Villa moment wasn't it. Does anyone know what number game or weekend that Villa game was?

With this 'pick a seat malarky' and being able to view the green dots (and you don't even need to log in) - if it doesn't sell out - it looks like you might be able to pick say, a £30 seat, monitor whats not sold - and come KO move into say, an unsold £45 seat...

Oh, and the other thing that's pooping me off is the wins against the big 6. Minus 6 off Swansea for beating Arsenal and Liverpool (like how did that even happen?) Minus 6 off Bournemouth for beating Arsenal and Chelsea Minus 3 off Palace beating Chelsea Minus 3 off Hudd for Man U handing it to them Minus 6 off Watford beating Arsenal and Chelsea And imagine how the table would look. (I can't be bothered to work it out - but it would look better) I want us to win a game that all those thought we'd lose just to see how they like it. Really poops me off.

The ones that scare me are anyone playing Watford and Bournemouth - they are in deckchair territory. CPA will surely get at least 2 wins. Hudd I fully expect to beat Watford - and then which Everton turns up will decide it for them I think. Having said that - they had homes against Palace and Swansea which they got 1 point from. Swansea is a funny one - maybe the Carvahal bounce has worn off. Again, which Everton shows up there and obvs the result vs us will be the key. We prob need to beat Chelsea, hard as it sounds - imagine the lift Hudd, Swansea and Palace would get (all at home, all winnable) if we've lost at lunchtime?

*Just happened* The vibrations from my washing machine caused my Saints pint glass to wobble off the draining board and - despite falling a distance of 3ft onto my hard tiled kitchen floor - it DID NOT SMASH. I have taken this to be a sign that we will survive.

Well a mixed bag. Swansea not winning was good. Plus we still have them to go to. Hudd get a point - but said on Sky that Wagner didn't really go for it and they didn't have any chances against 10 men. They got gifted the goal - they are still lacking quality. Palace conceed ANOTHER late goal and drop points. But I still think with WBA home on the final day plus no big teams that they'll be OK. Sounded like Stoke played really well - but still lost. I'm pretty much writing tomorrow off - as long as our GD doesn't get a lot worse. Chelsea is a game to target - they seem to be meandering - top 4 beyond them. Probably know Conte is going. I think we're the only ones in the scrap not to have beaten a Top 6 side. That's gotta change if we have any chance.

Hudd have WAT and EVE home which are winnable for 38pts which I think is our absolute limit.

Palace 2-1 though I'm less concerned about them due to easy run in. Brighton red card. If HUdd nick it in the last 15+inj then I think we are gone.

Now not looking like a bad day. 10 mins ago we were in a situation where even a twenty nil win at Arsenal wouldn't have taken us out the drop zone. Hmm... Brighton / Hudd ending 1-1 wouldn't be a massively bad result. 1 more pt for Hudd, but Brighton still have that horrific run in. The only problem is we can't get close to affect those teams at the moment. Swansea would have thought that was a banker. WBA I think have a couple of nasties after today, so don't worry about them getting some kind of momentum and us finishing bottom.

BOU 0 - 1 CPAL That's why I hate Bournemouth - they're abysmal - but when you want them to do something for you - they lose. Like they lost 1-4 to Hudds. If it wasn't for the wins over ARS and CHE they'd be right in the poopoo.

I think it will now mean a situation where we can't be down before then as we'll still have 6 points to play for. Assuming we do nothing other than beat Bournemouth for a min of 31pts - 2 teams would have to be 38pts at least. Which I can't see - at least going in to the final week. It's also Swansea v Stoke on the last day. We need to avoid a situation where they could MAD (Mutually Assured Draw) to send us down. It's the hope that kills you - I'd rather get it over with.

Always knew it was a bad decision to swap the fixtures. We should have rearranged the away game to a midweek earlier in the season and kept the home game where it was. GD has taken a hit as well. It's gotta be between us, Stoke and Huddesfield. Getting 40 pts seems a big ask as well - gotta hope it's gonna be 37/38pts + better GD.

A Palace fan spat in my face and tried to start on me after the 2-2 at Selhurst in the 05 Relegation Season, so no one hates them more than me. I'd love them to go down but having said that, based on that evidence and a couple of other games I've seen from them, they are not one of the worst 3 teams in this League.

We are generally favorites with most bookies - as of now @ bet365 - WHU 15/8 SOU 7/4 (tenner on WHU wins £28.75 - tenner on Saints wins £27.50) Jeez that's the stupidist thing in the history of sports gambling IMO. Based on what? Winning not very convincingly against a LG1 team in the Cup last week? Yes, WHU have their problems but we are away to a team above us in the League having won 2 away all season. Ridiculous that we could be classed as favourites.

I'll say sorry too - I read my OP back and it did come across as If I was was gloating about buying tickets for games I wasn't going to just to go to Wembley. It wasn't intended to read like that.

Er, well I live in Newcastle so its difficult to get to home games. But I've been to 8 aways this year - but based on previous big games - I expected they'd go off home games so I planned in advance. The only thing I got wrong - was that they didn't include Chelsea home. And I went to Israel last year - so that puts me in the top 300 of Saints fans - let alone the the top 33,000.

What a knob, doesn't even count. And I made the criteria anyway cos they counted the Wolves and Watford tickets I also bought but didn't use. All in all a ticket could cost me £80 + £25 + £40 + £12 + £10 = £167 But hey, I'm going.

Saturday 21st April Everton 15:00 Newcastle United Stoke City 15:00 Burnley Watford 15:00 Crystal Palace Sunday 22nd April West Bromwich Albion 14:15 Liverpool Manchester City 16:30 Swansea City Monday 23rd April Arsenal 20:00 West Ham United Thats what we know so far - looking at that there isn't a clash where say, Man City are in London, and Arsenal aren't at home Sat or Sun so that means Man U v Spurs can be any time they want. If I was a broadcaster - I'd have them at 5:30PM on the Saturday nite. Now if theres Prem games on SKY on Sunday at 2PM and 4PM where could a Sunday semi be put in? 12:30PM Sunday would be my call - Chelsea don't have to travel and it's not far for us.

Just finished watching the BBC coverage having got home from the game. lol - the Beeb were totally devastated - they tried to big Wigan up every opportunity. If they remotely threatened the commentator sounded like he was gonna have a heart attack and everything was: "Oooh great clearence / cross / block / pass by [Wigan player]" It was a nice story that they beat Man City - but at the end of the day - no cares about Wigan and the ratings would have been terrible.

I've just bought a £40 Chelsea home ticket with zero intention of going.