JRM

Let's just make one thing clear here, Saints fans were attacked in the square that day, they were not the ones to go looking for it. If some of the lads fought back then that is completely different from a scenario where they went looking for trouble. All the Vitesse lads seemed to accept their fate as they were rounded up and put on buses outside their bar which was over by the main road, the saints fans were left to enjoy their day, but typical of the Hampshire football "intelligence" officers they could not miss out on the opportunity to get involved with some banning orders themselves, ensuring their budget is nicely secured for another season.

Disappointed with that, was hoping they would be away in Eastern Europe in a must win 2nd leg playing a full strength side....but nonetheless hopefully the game is evenly poised going into the 2nd leg and they get a tough run out including extra time at Old Trafford then have to come here a couple of days later. Spurs have a tasty draw with Borussia Dortmund

Yeah I noticed that, we seem to be playing at home / away on the same day as them quite often now, must lead to fans crossing paths. This weekend for example both teams are home 3pm on Saturday, At stations between Southampton and Portsmouth must be quite a few fans stood on opposite platforms.

Each to their own at the end of the day, 'The Cat' and 'View From The Top' clearly have a more relaxed approach to parenting than I do. I've seen some pretty unsavoury things from Saints fans at away games, the 'he's got a Mars bar on his head' incident at MK Dons being a prime example.

Judging by Big Ron's social media accounts he's been for a few relaxing days in the sun in the Algarve so there does seem to have been a break. Let's hope everyone is fully fit and raring to go. Massive week coming up in the context of the season. 12 games to go, 3 of them in a week against bottom half teams, 2 of which are at St Mary's, great opportunity to set ourselves up for an exciting end to the season.

I know what you mean but I think this is more the case after the International breaks, at least this time the squad have had a well deserved rest and will have trained together no doubt focusing on how we'll approach the Chelsea game probably with a behind closed doors game as well. Romeu to give a man of the match performance to show Chelsea what they could have had. Regarding the Bournemouth game, I agree it will be tough but they do not look great at the moment, especially at home.

They do look poor at the moment, in recent games they just look like they've lost belief and direction, I guess Pellegrini doesn't have the incentive of trying to keep his job, strange situation they are in and one I hope we can avoid next year if Koeman runs down his contract. We could really do with Man City getting a win next week to beat Liverpool in the cup final, that should ensure Europe to 6th place, we'll then see if they start to bottle 4th place if Man Utd / West Ham or us get within a couple of points of them. I'm going to go for a 2-2 draw in our game, on current form Chelsea are capable of beating us but I get the feeling that the Champions league and FA cup are their priorities now.

Aren't interested in what exactly? clearly a lot of people are "interested" in attending away games, we sold out 2k quickly for Swansea , and took big numbers to WBA where tickets were also reasonably priced. anyway there is now another 350 ish tickets on sale.

this year we have only taken blocks 39 + 40, last year we also had 37 + 38, 38 was full 37 was quite empty (although half of the block was segregation netting). i've had a look on Stoke's website they are selling block 37 to there own fans but neither team are selling block 38 so there could be scope to get some more tickets.

Wish I'd had a few quid on Midgetland when I saw they were 6/1 to win earlier. Van Gaal looks like a beaten man, hope he sticks around long enough to help us finish above Man Utd

There's a full schedule of lower and non-league fixtures so an opportunity to take in a game at Eastleigh / Sholing or equivalent near you. The England v Holland game on 29th could be of interest to us if Forster and Bertrand feature for England against Stekelenburg, Clasie and Van Dijk for the Dutch.

Yes for some reason they always play it at the same time as one of the TV games, so 1.30 or 4pm usually. I agree with MLG, I knew Liverpool were still in Europa league so had a quick look at the round dates and knew that our game followed the first leg . I expect Liverpool to make it through so planning for Sunday

i agree i don't think it is even worth discussing top 4 at this stage, we're just a couple of defeats from dropping back down the table. Keep on the good run and see where we are in April but most likely i think we'll be 7th or 8th. Liverpool always finish above us and i can still see Everton putting a good run together. West Ham and Everton should have the distraction of the FA Cup , Chelsea are still capable of catching us with a good run in. We could do with Man City winning the league cup next weekend which should guarantee Europe for 6th place in the league, with any luck the FA Cup will be won by a team already in Europe and 7th will once again qualify. That should keep our season interesting for a while.

I think you miss the point that a 5-3-2 can very easily become a 3-5-2 with Cedric and Targett playing in advanced positions giving us a strong presence across the midfield. I trust Clasie and Romeu to battle well for us in the middle of the park, Romeu looks like a great buy to me and he'll be keen to show Chelsea what they could have had, I do worry if he picks up an early booking though. Difficult game, I'd be happy with a draw - hope Chelsea go all in for the FA Cup and Champions League and take their eye off our game.

same here mate, i don't usually read these interviews but this one was funny, top man is Fraser .

How many matches would that be then? we haven't had any Monday night home games this season, just Watford at home on a Wednesday night from what I can think of, and that is a normal mid-week fixture, in fact we seem to have fewer this year than in the past. Has travel from London become more difficult than it used to be? Seems to be the same from my experience except for the occasional engineering works, but again nothing different to other seasons.

Well done Mikey, give yourself a a pat on the back it sounds like you used this as your GCSE Economics case study. The fact is supply and demand allows for exploitation of a market built on loyalty. The club's would be ill advised to focus on short term greed when their customers have been around for so long and will return again and again until you push them too far. I would add one note to this which is price is not the only factor - often at St Marys we see the cheapest seats are the last ones to sell out. I think the club should make it £25 in wings for C cat games. This has been a good season for affordable football with home cup games priced well (just a shame we made a massive f&ck up off all 3 cups)

Top post mate, echos my thoughts. the "just don't go" crowd do my nut in, they definitely don't understand the emotional investment in following a club that you've been brought up with , generations going off to the match together. Before we all stop going worth letting the clubs know that the greed they are showing is beyond contempt , just to pay players more and more, and football will become a one off treat for families to go to, bit like the theatre.

Our allocation could well be the same but Saints could have put less on sale and kept more back for player / staff complimentary tickets.

someone should upload the video of the Thai Tims singing the Fraser Forster song, it's superb and should be adopted by Saints fans immediately. Interesting character is big Fraser, something like 19 clean sheets in 35 Premier League games is surely a record , he is very modest and has a slightly different background to the average footballer - privately educated and the son of a crown court judge, it might make him less inclined to move just for the money.

I wouldn't change the team much, the spirit seems good, just Romeu in for Wanyama and Targett in for Yoshida , possibly Davis if for Pelle with Long / Mane playing as a front two with Austin to come on in the 2nd half. We have a week to prepare for this game, then a 2 week break after it so shouldn't worry about resting players, Clasie especially is getting up to speed. I'd be very happy with another clean sheet and try to nick it. Surely Forster will be back in the England squad for the friendlies at the end of March. I've noticed our chances of Europe being mentioned again but better to ignore that for now, see how cups go with any luck 7th place will be good enough again - for us to finish there we'd need to be above West Ham I think as can see Everton going on a good run.

For the money we spent the new training dome should be able to artificially recreate all weathers for training sessions, bit like the RNLI do with their boat training.

It is pure greed. You've got people like Arsene Wenger saying the new TV megabucks will be needed to go towards higher transfer fees and wages so the Premier League doesn't fall behind new cash rich clubs in China I couldn't give a f&ck if China started buying up the top talent we'd still have our league here and they'd be welcome to the mercenaries. I'd much rather football clubs remained accessible to the working man who passionately supports his team home and away rather than a play thing for billionaire oligarchs who spend millions of their fortunes plus TV money and gate receipts lining the pockets of players and unscrupulous agents. People say just don't go but it's not as easy as that, before we walk away and stop going to matches at least make our voices heard through actions such as the FSF campaign.

That's a joke, does it have a free option to collect ticket? with a home game on Saturday probably easier for anyone who qualifies just to pop down the ground before the West Ham game, unfortunately i don't qualify to buy until next week. just had a quick look and they've made all 4 blocks 21,22,23,24 available to buy in straight away rather than do a block at a time, quite a few sold already in the first hour from the look of it.

i can see this being quite an open game, think West Ham will be attacking and will fancy it having beaten us a month ago. Agree with the above Clasie and Davis to come in for me if fully fit - i did think we were disappointing as a front 3 last night - would be tempted to drop Tadic back to the bench. After all the controversy over West Ham's comments about Austin's injury it will be a shame if he were to then miss this game with a knock - lets hope it's not a sign of things to come. Should be a good atmosphere at Saturday evening games often are, plus a large away following.