M271

As it stands have dropped 7 points from leading / promising positions in the last 5 weeks, Man City, Huddersfield, Arsenal and so far with CP. Vital points dropped.

I know the feeling, I'm just waiting for the Palace goal from an unmarked header or shot from outside the box! Huge next 35 mins for Saints must hold on.

From today's Daily Echo article / interview with Hoedt "......I think that Southampton is the best club to start at in the Premier League.” Um.....

The player doing the best shooting practice was Hoedt.....

Thanks. In past I seem to remember that they had an appropriate coloured shirt symbol by each match fixture.

Are we playing in home or away kit? I can't seem to find a place to find this information. I'll be there as I was back in Div 1 days, my last away match was against WBA in April when we won 1 - 0 so hoping for the same.

Knee jerkers out in force on this thread tonight. Writing players off left right and centre.

I am in no way supporting what Van Dyke is orchestrating, far from it, however several things happened in the 6 months or so following his 6 year contract which will not have increased his affection for Saints: 1) His fellow countryman and idol Koeman left Saints. 2) His team mate Fonte left the club after an acrimonious period with the club. 3) A non-ambitious transfer window in the summer transfer window 2016 4) Not progressing in the Europa cup (although I seem to remember he missed some chances to get us better results!) 5) As he has admitted, after his injury he had time (to much) to think about his future and influenced by his agent. Many of our players were encouraged to come to the club for the ambition of a plan of being a top PL side and progressing to Champions League contenders, some may be feeling disappointed that the ambitious plan sold to them is not being met.

Quote: Players are bigger than clubs these days, and the Neymar farce hasn't helped things one bit. This is the nub of the problem, players should not be bigger then the clubs and the football authorities have allowed this to happen. The current TV PL deal should have split the monies more equally between that used on players (transfers / wages) with that going to REAL football such as the club infrastructure, fan tickets subsidies etc.. The balance at the moment is far to far towards player and agent rewards.

The way I saw it was that Long had indicated that he was injured and JRod was readed to come on, when Long was subbed he then indicated that he wasn't injured enough to come off but Black pointed to his own thigh as if to show that Long had shown that he was injured. Why there wasn't more positive communcation between the bench and Long to confirm his fitness I don't know!!

I was hoping to read about the Saints injury news on this thread, I should've known better, just more infighting!!

The next 2 matches against Crystal Palace and WBA IMO are crucial, at the start of the season I would have had them down as some of the more winnable games but WBA are having a strong season and Palace are in a good vein of form recently. If we lose these 2 with us still having to play most of the top sides, it could be nervous times. I was hoping that the 3 matches this week would get us over the line but I would now be glad to get 2 or 3 points out of the next 2 games. It's been a strange season with 2 matches a week earlier in the season with lots of rotation, then very few games over 2 months and losing key players for long periods of time, has made it very disjointed and for me difficult to judge the capability of Puel. Next season I hope things will be more settled and the injury gods will be more kind to us.

I've just checked our remaining 12 fixtures and we still have to play 8 of the 9 teams above us in the league, the only exception being Everton!

Was it ever confirmed what the injury actually is? Or did I miss that info.

I can only reflect what many on here have already said, to lose it in the final minutes in that manor is gut wrenching especially having come back in the way that we did. But teams like Man U are so clinical with the meagre chances that they have, unfortunately. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation with our late substitutions, my personal feeling is that we should have waited until the end of normal time in order to assess which players actually needed replacing, I didn’t notice Gabbiadini being tired but surely he wouldn’t have been replaced if he wasn’t out on his feet. Typical that Zlatan was about to be replaced just before he scored, or so I have read. Did we try too hard to finish the game in normal time at the expense of being too open for them to exploit in the final minutes, naive? Did anyone else notice Mourinho being ‘pally’ with Cedric in the 2nd half as he was about to take a throw in, gave him a hug and both smiling, both being Portuguese of course, or being tapped up! I’m not usually one to overly criticise our players but FF in goal doesn’t fill me with confidence, I wince every time a shot comes in on goal, I’d like to see on target shots to goal ratio for our opposition over the course of this season. Mayo and Stephens played well and apart from their last goal but I can’t help thinking what the game would have been like with VVD taking the game by the scruff of the neck. I thought that Saints fans on the whole were good, loud music and announcements up to kick off don’t help an atmosphere build as they used to in the old days. I did think that we were a bit quiet early in the match even before their first goal but after that some good OWTS, come on you Saints (reds) at corners and especially Gabbiadini after our 2nd goal will live with me for the a long time. Like others have observed, I noticed in block 551 all the empty seats, I’m not sure if 551 had always been on sale directly to saints fans (I know that there some were released late last week to buy through Saints). I was told that some ‘attendees’ in that block were not Saints fans but had bought their tickets through the Football League (an allocation for those associated with Football Clubs, officials etc), so maybe the FL retained some tickets which were in the end not applied for, but whatever the reason it is not acceptable to have spare seats when people were desperate to attend the game. Mention to Wealdstone FC who were good hosts to us Saints fans who went there. Also easy getting there by road and easy transport on the tube from Ruislip to Wembley. Overall a great display by team and supporters that was a credit to the club, but still doesn’t help me feel any better about the result, which is what counts in the history books.

Do you have to book with Harrow fc in advance? I can't see anything on their web site.

He could try contacting Torquay United and other local League clubs (Exeter, Plymouth) and see if they have any spare tickets (not taken), each League Club gets an allocation and sometimes not all are used. It's a long shot but he might strike lucky. Wouldn't be in Saints area but in the 30,000 not allocated to either Saints or Man U.

Lose the cup and stay up, i'd take that. Honestly would.

£3.9m is a lot of money to us on here but in football terms is negligible, I'm not saying that it should have been Sakho but there must have been a good out of favour CB somewhere out there to get in on loan between now and mid May. I think that a loan would have been the way to go in this transfer window, with the transfer money and Fonte off the wages we should have been able to attract someone decent in on good money. I feel that the club haven't got to grips with the influx of extra money available this season, other clubs seem to have realized that their income has increased substantially and acted accordingly. Something strange seems to be going on behind the scenes with regard to treating people who apparently do not really want to leave i.e. Koeman, Fonte, I'm not saying we should bend over to their demands but we do seem to disengage with them, go cold on them, make them feel not wanted and just let them leave. Well that's the feeling I get anyway, whether that's the truth is another matter.

We've played OK this half, pity about the lapse for their goal. Not as bad as some on here make out!

All of our players need shooting practice!!

Seems mad to me how there are 10 Premier League matches just in December and January when there is also more chance for Premier League clubs still being in cup competitions (Saints played 16 matches just in Dec/Jan!). I'm not in favour of a Winter break but the 'authorities' seem to do the opposite and cram in even more at that time of year. No wonder the FA cup gets lost in it all and clubs have to make choices where their prioritise lie and how best to manage their squads. Then from next Saturday onwards mostly only 1 match a week until the end of the season of 15 League matches in 3.5 months. Why not have more mid-week matches spaced out between now and mid-May? Regarding todays match it was overall such a weakened side I wouldn't want to judge each player too much, if just one or 2 of them had been otherwise in a starting 11 I'm sure that each would have done better.

If the FA want clubs to put out full strength sides may be they shouldn't shoe horn in a midweek league match straight afterwards!

Not worried (fingers crossed) luck has a habit of coming back to you (fingers crossed).

Haven't read thread as normally too negative and ott after a loss. I thought we played OK for an away match, by far the better side nothing to be worried about. However typical that our chances don't go in and their chance does.