M271

If we win today it would be wise to travel to an at altitude training camp ASAP. It doesn’t take long for the body to initially adapt to the reduced oxygen content but the longer the better, although it takes some weeks to fully adapt for strenuous activities.

Larin starts for Canada

BBC news on tv and radio this morning also makes it sound like they’ve won the World Cup not just beaten Haiti by 1 goal in a group match.

Larin not starting for Canada

I don’t know why that the refs schedules couldn’t be arranged so that Artan officiates games in Mexico or Canada, once they knew he was being turned away by USA.

Nurd alert here, it has always stuck in my memory that the b side of “back home” was a track called “ Cinnamon Stick”. I’ve always wanted it to come up in a pop quiz but never will.

It’s a difficult one with Stewart a bit of a throw of the dice. On the positive side he was an integral part of our effective squad in 2026, chipped in with some good goals and seemed to have got over his injuries. Keeping him for the 26/27 season in the championship would be a known quantity that could keep our momentum and team spirit going. On the negative side I can understand why Saints held off extending his contract with not knowing which league we would be in next season, we would have been looking at getting another striker in for the premier league. His minutes and game time has to be carefully managed and his injury prone history makes it a risky decision going forward. Imagine if we had extended his contract a month ago and he gets a bad recurrence injury at the World Cup. On balance,now that we have secured the permanent signing of Larin, I’m not too bothered if we lose Stewart, if (a big if) we can sign an effective striker less injury prone and whose game time doesn’t have to be so carefully managed.

Great uplifting, positive interview. We need that short of talking after the downer of the last month.

It’s worth reading the bbc article it has more information contained in it than the edited video. Such as "I'm pretty sure if the FA decides to ban him, he will get a triple better-paid job in Italy or Germany." https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cq6pn58pmn4o

Stewart not starting or on the subs bench today. ‘Felt something with his knee’ in training this week! according to the Scotland manager.

What would the punishment have been if we had lost the semi final? Or would just not being in the playoff final have been enough specifically in relation to the Middlesbrough incident.

I will be concerned if Stewart and Latin are withdrawn or delayed from meeting up with their countries squads. Mind you I assume that the other players are away on their hols now anyway?

It might sound strange but I’ll be more gutted if Middlesbrough win and gain promotion than us being expelled. If they go up after all the shenanigans from them exploiting the apparent seriousness of our misdemeanour I’ll be livid, if they lose it will be karma.

I hope that he doesn’t have ‘evidence’ of many other instances of us spying on other clubs training.

If it’s not against the rules in the EPL, is it against the rules in the FA cup? If not then why treat our individuals differently for the same actions that would be ok in the EPL? I know that it is outlier EFL rules broken but it seems double standards if the FA apply actions differently.

I really hope that Hull win the playoff final. If Middlesbrough win it will be a win for media hype and a losing semi finalist getting promoted and protestation from Hull.

If we lose P&O cruises sponsorship I guess that Cheetos cheesy snacks will be very keen to be our shirt sponsor 😂

If we had won the playoff on Saturday the ruling is very harsh and over the top but if we had lost it’s actually quite light with no financial penalty. Why did we admit to the other 2 matches, did the efl have evidence for us to answer to? However IMO the efl / ruling panel has been overly severe in their punishment for the crime committed. If the appeal today, with different panel members, is focused on the punishment I am still naively optimistic that our expelling from the playoff will be reversed, but pessimisticly we’ll probably go on to lose in the match on Saturday anyway.

It is really strange how the kick off time hasn’t been confirmed when the fixture and date has been known for all of the season.

We spy where we want we spy where we want we are Southampton we spy where we want

Even though we’ve beaten Wrexham twice already this season, I wouldn’t want us to play them in the playoff final with all the media circus around it and they could get their own back for the our earlier wins.

Was always going to happen, we couldn’t clear it

When I did it came out with a 43% chance of a Saints win

Any news on what happened to Stephen’s in the build up to the match? Maybe a warm up injury or precaution after something not feeling quite right.

I was on the back row as well and could see most of the pitch including the goals. However couldn’t quite see the near side corner area to my left and only just not the far touch line, it was comical seeing us fans ducking down to get a better view for throw ins.