OttawaSaint

My main beef is exactly the sort of thing they will goal for if it was the other way around.

It’d be like going back with an ex girlfriend, fine for a bit of sex but...damn, getting a bit confused with my analogy...

With all that's going on and the difficult time our beloved club is going through, how about a thread devoted to little stories of some of your wonderful Saints moments/memories. Moments that you look back on and make you smile and reminisce at how great they were at the time that gave you the best feeling in the world. I'll start: This was when Leeds were in the top division. My Dad, my (sadly dearly departed brother) and I were crammed in with about 500-1000 fellow Saints fans. Leeds were the top team in those days, vying for the title with Man Utd. Of course being at home and roared on by their deafening home crowd they raced into a 3-1 lead. Steve Hodge was running the show. We were right near the pitch and I shouted, "SOMEBODY GET ON HODGE!!" and (probably co-incidentally) two Saints players (I think it was Hurlock and Cockerill) absolutely destroyed him, making him a Hodge sandwich. My brother always used to say "somebody get on Hodge!" when he wanted the team to get stuck in (regardless of who was playing) as it became a stupid joke between us. Anyway, Saints started to get a grip on the game and got one back. The last 10 minutes we chanted and sung non-stop trying to drive the lads on to snag an equalizer as the home fans started to get a bit nervous. Sure enough, Iain Dowie bundled in a late equalizer and I don't think I have experienced scenes of celebration quite like it, we were going absolutely nuts while all around us Leeds fans stood/sat in silence. My Dad managed to lose his keys in the mayhem and we were hugging complete strangers. The walk back to the car was bloody scary though because they just let us out at the same time as the home crowd and we had to hide our scarves and look as ****ed off as everyone else. I think it wasn't until we hit the outskirts of Leeds in the car before we let out a collective cheer. Brilliant memories!

The whole game is innocuous. A bunch of men running around kicking a piece of plastic into a frame with a net attached. What word should I use for his performance, "mildly irritating"? Or is that going to offend someone who got soap in their eye?

I still have a Rank Xerox shirt from 1981 and the Denmarkeque Hummell shirt from 87/88. Bit too small for me now though.

In those days Ottawa was pretty much a very small town. In those days Canada still had to run any parliamentary decision by the Queen. It’s a pretty big city now and (in my opinion) a wonderful place to live. The only thing I miss about Britain is being able to go to a game and a decent curry, good fish and chips, haggis supper and black pudding. Oh and tea, my mum sends it over. Been a tough season with Saints being so bad I usually look to our ice hockey team, the Ottawa Senators to ease the pain but they finished 2nd last out of 31 teams.

His post says “cheeries”. Also, do you think it might be possible for a British Saints fan to emigrate to Canada? It wasn’t, collect 5 beaver tails and enter to win supportership of a random premier league team.

Cheeries?

Hopefully we pop our cherry.

I notice the ones that have played well lately are the ones that don’t strop when they are left out for a bit. Kind of ironic that the stroppy ones come in and then play total **** suggesting that they have no justification for stroppiness in the first place.

JWP to score the winner with an exquisite Hughesesque bicycle kick would be very welcome.

Yes my handle is OttawaSaint. I lived in Ottawa when I joined here. I now live just across the river in Aylmer, Quebec. Some posters will see the name and instantly think, “****ing Canadians know **** all about football etc.”. The truth is, is that most Canadians that follow football are very knowledgeable. I am a Canadian right now (since I am in Canada) but I am originally a Brit that lived near Andover back in 1980. My dad took me to my first game back in 1981 (I think) and I fell in love with Mick Channon and the Saints, seeing them play Man City off the park (4-1). I’ve been a Saints fan since then. We moved to Germany for a bit (Military) and actually had to have someone send us a VHS tape with the 1984 cup semi final on it for us to watch. We came back in 86 but lived up North but did all the away games up there. Never forget going to Scarboro in the cup and two heart breaking 3-3 ties with Newcastle and Boro, and also a felt like a win comeback to 3-3 at Elland Road. I love this club, but in the last few years it feels like all we have is to hope we can give the big clubs a bloody nose and maybe get a favourable run to a cup win. The last 2 seasons have been full of the frustration of our best players getting poached. Even when we played hard ball it blew up in our faces with VVD moping around the field. The big clubs are just getting bigger and the money getting crazier. Refs are now under pressure to not damage the product. We had VAR there today but did they use it? Did they ****ers like. More $$$ for everyone if you get a Chelsea vs Utd final. I will still be a Saints fan if and when we go down but it begs the question. What do teams 8-20 aim for. It almost seems better to go down and have a shot at some glory than winning 10-12 games out of 38 to stay in the big boy’s club.

We absolutely have to win this, no ifs or buts. I will likely be fretting about this all week. Get up early on Saturday and while I’m showering fantasize about some heroic blood and thunder winning performance only to be jolted back to the sickening reality of more tepid tepideness than Tadic went to study tepdity at tepid university in tepidsville. **** this football club right now!

Nicely put. That helps.

Tadic? Don't think so. You've got the wrong guy.

Nope. Not buying it.

Just seems so pointless. When we’re good we know the players will be off and we’ll have to start again. We don’t get decisions against big teams so can just forget it if we want to win a cup. I guess we should have enjoyed those 8, 7, 6 finishes, knowing we’d be weakened by playing in Europe and that we’d be picked apart by the big team vultures unsettling our players. If we stay up, what do we have to look forward to? Another relegation scrap?

Yep. It’s so utterly futile thinking we might one day win something.

Yes, we know you are going to try and rile up others who are upset with refs by pushing a “we’d be top of the league if it wasn’t for refs” sarcasm tactic. Give up now troll. Oh and it’s “who’s”.

He’ll probably be seen all smiles getting a brown envelope in ****smouth.

I never want to see Lemina in a Saints shirt again. Utter disgrace. Not fit to wear the famous shirt.

noone is saying that.

It's the hope that kills. You can almost imagine a fired up Saints destroying Bournemouth and getting a lift to go on a run...and then the game starts and it's the same tepid lazy cba ****.