Saint Fan CaM

An excellent point, well made Sir!

Perhaps Puncheon will use tonight to pick up his yellow as he knows he would miss JPT anyway? Or doesn't the JPT count?

Block 143. Great view. Flag, scarf and Wife's girlie Saints shirt purchased. It's gonna be a great day out.

I would agree with Connolly starting over Waigo, although AP may see that Waigo has played more and therefore he gets the nod. Not seen enough of Oxlade-C to make a judgement, although I am not sure he's done enough to warrant a look in beyond the bench yet.

A good point. But mine still stands excluding him.

Got mine Friday - yeeha - block 143. Get in.

2-0 Saints - that is all. (Although it will not look too good because none of the players will want to be crocked for Wembley - especially Lallana, Puncheon and Schneiderlin, our 'playmakers'. So Rickie better get his tin helmet on again coz' its gonna be a hoof-fest methinks.

Great result. Sounded like we managed to win ugly for once. Given we had Harding at RB, a clean sheet says a lot. How many times have we called for a performance that delivers like this? It's how some of the teams we have beaten have found their way into the top 6. Can we get to the playoffs? Damn right we can - until the maths says otherwise. Well done Lambo, you really are a goal machine. Well done AP - you're doing a great job.

On reflection, there is one overriding reason why this team loses games and is inconsistent. And the teams that have beaten us this season have demonstrated they know how to exploit the weakness. Fact is, many of our players HATE to be pressurised on the ball. They do not know how to react to players closing them down by using each other to pass the ball out of difficulty...i.e. keep the ball as far away from an opposing player as possible. What tends to happen is either the player loses possession to the aggressor or in a fit of panic hoofs the ball up to Rickie or indeed as on Tuesday night to nobody. Don't want to pick on any particular player, but Lallana, Puncheon and Schneiderlin appear to suffer the most. Perhaps this is because they are young and scared to take a clout in fear of missing the next game? Who knows? But AP needs to coach them so that they use each other more and release the ball quicker to feet IMO.

Great OP. Surely people's expectations will differ and the definition of success will be different. For some (like Glasgow Saint) it would seem that promotion this season is the yardstick for AP to prove success. For me and others, it's all about the match day experience (the walk-up, the beer, the smell of nasty burgers, the sight and sounds, mates banter etc.)....and watching home football that is attractive so we're winning more games than we lose. NC and AP have delivered that in bucket loads this season and I am really enjoying my football again. Promotion will be good, just like getting to Wembley will be, but it's certainly not the be all and end all of what I love about supporting Saints.

Still not got mine - ordered in first hour of opening lines. HOWEVER, I am led to understand that they are releasing them in alphabetical order - can anyone confirm this?

I reckon it could be around £450.

This.

Pompey reserves. HTH.

See above.

Reasons for last night were... (a) Swindon were well briefed to put 11 men behind the ball, close us down at every opportunity and wait to hit us on the break. We cannot handle those tactics (same as Tranmere etc) and so resort to hoofball mostly which does not work. (b) The lads looked tired and the pressure of the games is getting to them. © Our three play-making players - Schneiderlin, Lallana and Puncheon - all had mares. (d) We do not have the strength and depth of squad needed. James and Wotton for example would struggle to get into the Swindon side. (e) We will not win every game in a season because of (a).

Davis, James, Lallana, Schneiderlin, Puncheon and Lambert had an awful game. Fonte was quite poor by his standards too. In fact I never want to see James in a Saints shirt again - he really is too slow in his decision making, running and crossing. Fact is, Swindon had us in their pocket tonight - they ran their socks off, fought for every 1st and 2nd ball and kept their cool until they scored. Their passing technique and off-ball movement was way, way better than ours. And we for some unknown reason kept resorting to hoof to Rickie, which was not working because he was marked out of the game and latterly got injured. We'll never win every game. Not this season and not next season. But we're winning enough at the moment for us to be close to top 2 form. For me, for now that's good enough. The essential issues are winning the JPT, keep winning as many games this season as possible and keeping the 1st team squad together over the summer. Get rid of the dross in the squad and get some decent replacements in.

There was a great documentary on BBC 2 last week discussing how our view of the universe is changing dramatically. Science has now proven (by observation and maths) that expansion theory is correct (i.e. a second after the big band, expansion took over), however we do not know what caused it (or continues to cause it), so they've called it Dark Energy. They have also discovered that galaxies do not act like solar systems - i.e. the stars at the edge spin AT THE SAME SPEED as those on the inside. This should not happen because there is not enough mass in those galaxies, so there must be something else there - namely Dark Matter. There is 5 times more Dark Matter than there is matter - everywhere. The problem is we cannot detect it yet, but it is passing through everyone of us every second of every day. Lastly, recently a scientist made a random observation that some galaxies are not moving outwards in the way expansion predicts - they are converging on points in the universe independant of previous predictions. Nobody knows why or how, so the scientists have called this Dark Flow. The prevailing theory is that there are other universes that interact with our universe in some strange unknown way! The more we find out about the universe it seems the stranger it becomes. However, my belief is that we (the human race) are on an exponential curve of development in terms of our science, math and understanding of everything. If you imagine a line that runs almost horizontal and then curves upwards to almost 90degrees, that would represent our development and we - right now - would be on the lower part of the upwards curve. What that means is that assuming we survive war, famine and the worsening weather conditions, we are at the beginning of an incredible period of increasing knowledge. I also do not believe we are alone - the advent of modern man in terms of the vast amount of time the Earth has developed would suggest to me that the Earth was seeded by a visiting advanced civilisation thousands of years ago. Or something. (:

2-1 Saints. Will be a tough match methinks but we'll have the class. Or it could be a complete tonking 4-0 if we come out to destroy from the off - nothing would surprise me with Saints now.

Best thing about this season and particularly now is that even the doubters are secretely thinking (and expecting) that a high proportion of our last 12 games are ALL winnable! Over the last 10 years we would never have even dreamt of thinking that. Just shows what a little positivity does.

Interesting to hear AP thinking that 9 wins might be enough. Thing is, if you check the form of some teams in the top 6 there is some evidence that their seasons are starting to unravel a little bit and they could drop points. Particularly if we have to play them. Swindon is a good case - Huddersfield another. It's still looking very unlikely that we will do it, but the fight is not over yet and all credit to AP - he is clearly communicating a positive approach to both the players and supporters alike. Can't ask for more TBH.

Well I've not got mine yet - I hope they arrive today otherwise I'm going to whine and ***** a lot. Can't believe people half way up the country have got theirs and me living in Southampton I'm still waiting!!! Blah.

That's good - that's VERY good!!! lol

Got to agree with most on here - the Ref was diabolical. And there were many around me in the Kingsland who were going apoplectic at some of the decisions (e.g. Fonte's throat tackle and the ninja kick on Harding). And as someone has mentioned, either he was completely incompetent or he was on a cheating bung, but either way he should be sacked for that performance. Regarding Fonte, even if there it was 50-50, Jaidi's goal should have stood - there was no other infringement that I could see.

Can only be one true Saints song that is internationally known and that's "When the Saints go marching in" whatever the rendition. All the rest are johnny come lately songs that have no history. HTH.