doddisalegend

Behave we could have kept every player from the last two summers and still struggled to do as well as the last two seasons. Bettering your best league finish ever is hardly likely to happen season after season even with an improved squad anyone could tell you that which would be why no one would want to take you up on a bet based on the blatantly obvious.

Biggest game over our season?

yeah because he was also fouled in the penalty box making it two possible penalties in 30 seconds. Not that it matters we can't play that badly and expect any kind of result.

LOL Nostradamus no one would take your bet that we wouldn't finish as high as our best ever two PL finishes ........I'm shocked. What's your next amazing prediction/bet? How about Shane Long won't win the Golden boot or Martina won't make the PL team of the season?

Bloody awful game. The thing that ****es me off is everyone and their granny knows Stoke play counter attack these days. Given that It was likely we would have a lot of the ball but our passing needed to be on top form to wear down the Stoke defensive wall and pull them out of position with good quick one touch football instead it was awful and every time our passing broke down Stoke counter attacked with pace. That also begs the question why we were committing so many players forward so early in the game both VVD and Betrand were out of position for their goal and couldn't recover fast enough. Once we went a goal behind, and so early, we played right into Stokes hands we should have been more disciplined first half. Stoke had the best chances late in the second half to but that was partly through us pushing for an equalizer and leaving us open at the back. You can see why they've only scored 11 goals this season though as their finishing was pretty bad (granted not as bad as ours yesterday). Claise is about the only player who came out within any credit for me yesterday. It was like watching a bunch of strangers out their yesterday passing was awful and player communication was non-existent. So many players making poor decisions yesterday to passing when shooting was better, shooting when someone else was open passing to the team mate under pressure when someone else was in an acre of space the whole match we were just poor. Special mention for Tadic's set pieces which were dire I don't think there was one which didn't go straight down Butland's throat yesterday. All in all we were ****e and Stoke set out their stall and played it well. On to face the Man city backlash next week....

Maybe sending "naughty" letters had an impact seemed very subdued in the Itchen North yesterday The whole atmosphere seemed weird from the start. No one seemed to know what to do with the whole National anthem thing *****il everyone just ended up clapping), still lots of empty seats at kick off, first half was flat on and off the pitch where the players were giving us very little to get excited about. The Stoke fans weren't much good either so no banter really got going. Second half we had a short spell in the Itchen North were some singing got going but as the players seemed to respond by playing even worse it just petered out in the end. TBH when the highlight of the match is getting slightly amused by chants of "You're getting a letter in the morning" to a stoke fan who set off a smoke bomb you know it's been a crap day at the football.

Far worse......

Well if the Man U game is anything to go by I don't think that will happen

Yeah I guess it will be 11 men behind the ball and hit on the counter attack from Stoke (nothing wrong with that from an away team I guess) so we will we have to hope Tadic and Mane have got some tricks up their selves to open them up at the back. I think Stoke, saints and palace all have better away records then home records this season.

Yeah one guy complained he hated having to listen to OWTS for 90 minutes In fairness though quite a few posters are very complimentary calling us the toughest game of the season (so far) and one of the best teams in the league a far cry from the old days when saints were considered a nailed on 3pts.

I feel a Ralph moment coming on....

Careful Turkish I think Karl Oyston has sued Blackpool fans for less than that.....

Well I got mine and feel well and truly told off Seriously though I'd love to know what the club would do about my ST if they carried through the threat of closing the Itchen North.

I look forward to getting one when I get home.

Jesus that's not even a 3/10 attempt.

Not even sure how it helps it's not like going to the gym is going make him taller he'll just end up looking like a short incredible hulk. FWIW the little bits I've seen of him I thought he looked promising but seemed to struggle with the pace of games. It's not so much he got knocked off the ball because of his stature but because he wasn't anticipating opposition players closing him down so quickly. The only way he will improve is through regular game time in the league. Which is going to be a problem given how on form our current forward line is right now (not to mention Shane Long on the bench)

A) When is it required for someone to say something on a thread before you can make a point? If you go back early in the thread a couple of people have made similar comments about military action. B) Who is being selective now I see you are ignoring the quotes from the guy about Russian airstrikes on civilian areas. Also despite the line you've highlighted (one of many) the guy in the article does not feel airstrikes are working seems to pretty much answer this point that the effectiveness of the airstrikes militarily does not directly equate to their perceptoin on the ground.effect the perception on the ground on the ground among C) I don't

Well the way I read it people do not have a problem showing respect only the way it's being done. The French are not the only country to suffer terror attacks eight days ago 43 people were killed by an Isis suicide bomber in the Lebanon, the Russian jet is now confirmed as being downed by an Isis bomb and last April Islamic militants killed 147 people in attack on a college in Kenya (particularly relevant seeing as the Kenyan captain is a Saints player) yet not one person has suggested playing their national anthems at the football games. We should be showing respect for all victims of terror attacks, with dare I say a traditional, minutes silence. Playing the French anthem runs the risk of suggesting that western victims are in same way more important than those killed else where IMO.

Not really I left a link to the full article for people to read and my point was nothing to do with how effective the air strikes are, or are not, but how the are perceived by those on the ground so the bit you highlighted was irrelevant to me because I was highlighting that the civilians there feel the airstrikes are ineffective (regardless of what the reality might be) which is the main point of that whole article. Those airstrikes might be spectacularly successful but it doesn't help much in gaining the hearts and minds of the local non-Isis population of Syria if they feel they are the ones being bombed. The whole point being that military action by the west has to be carefully judged any good will from killing a couple of hundred Isis fighters will be wiped out by one stray bomb on a civilian family which is also great propaganda for the recruitment of new Isis members. So which part of the west having to tread carefully in any military actions in the middle east do you disagree with?

Interesting article on China's views on ISIS after they executed a Chinese (and a Norwegian) hostage today http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-china-blog-34865696

Lawro's prediction up on the BBC predicting a win for us which is usual a sure fire way to make us lose Southampton v Stoke Southampton are in great shape at the moment - they have only lost one of their last 10 league games and are playing really well too. As the weeks go by, Saints are confirming what they showed us last season, which is that they are one of the best teams in the league. Since Ryan Shawcross returned to action at the end of October, it is no surprise that Stoke have been even harder to beat, but this will be a big test for the Potters. Lawro's prediction: 2-0 Neville's prediction: 1-0

yeah I'm not quite sure were the foot injury came from. One week he seemed fit and now he needs surgery:?

Good stuff. So we've come back from the international break with no new injuries and Shane Long fit again? Got to be happy with that.

I'm not quite sure what the expect us fans to do are we supposed sing it (because I sure as hell don't know the words) are stand in respectful silence while it blares out on the tannoy system? Much better to have a minutes silence dedicated to all those killed in terror attacks around the world IMO.