Lighthouse

I mentioned this when Roy was appointed but you can fit the entire life of Freddie Mercury between the birth of Hodgson and Eckert. I wonder if there's ever been such an age gap between two managers in English football before.

If ever you needed an example of why players throw themselves to the floor pathetically if someone lightly touches their face, then that incident is it.

Leicester was officially a draw and we won after e.t. Two years ago we drew against Watford in the cup and won the replay. They are/were both fantastic achievements and better than any run Adkins (whose tenure I absolutely loved) managed in the Championship. As far as I’m concerned both were great times to be a Saints fan and I see no reason to downplay either.

Genuinely no idea how to feel about tomorrows games at Portman Road. On paper that second place is tantalising but I can't help but feel Millwall will match our results from their three fairly easy fixtures. It still might end up being in our best interests for Ipswich to ride off into the sunset and not have to face them in the playoffs, as counter-intuitive as that feels.

18 wins and 7 draws (6 of which were away games) compared to 15 wins and 4 draws.

Poor in the sense that they won eight out of nine and took their foot off the gas in the last three games now they're guaranteed to win the league. They're on the beach, next season will depend on how they recruit.

There is no way on Earth relegation is going to come down to Blackburn vs Pompey. Oxford and West Brom would both need about 7-9 points each from their last four games and that's not happening.

Takes him twelve minutes to beat JW's highest score of the season so far.

A player rather than a game but RIP Alex Manninger. In goal for Arsenal for the last game at the Dell, conceding perhaps the most iconic goal in Saints history. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c4g84l14e5eo

I think our home league record in 2011 was something utterly ridiculous, like won 20 and drew 2. Then we played Bristol City on 30th December and lost.

Matsuki certainly wins the award for most improved player of the season. Of all the criticisms of Still, I’m not sure that choosing not to play KM is really one of them. He had just turned 22 and never played in England before. That goal against Norwich reserves was a cracker but I think he needed a bit of time to adjust to the Championship.

The odds are still against us for second as we need a lot to all go our way. We will need to win our last four, if Ipswich get a draw or better against us then it looks almost insurmountable. Their game in hand is basically WBA when we play Man City a week Saturday, I'd say win there is still more likely than not. This Saturday's game is Ipswich vs. Boro. We want a draw really but on the balance of things, Ipswich are still favourites for that. Between this and the FA Cup, it's not what you'd call a damp squib of a finale.

Well, since attaching images crashes the server, here are today’s lucky boobs: (oYo) You’re welcome.

It's stupid from Martinez, I can't get my head around why any player would do something that daft, especially with VAR around. It's in the same boat as those ridiculous, leaning in pseudo headbutts, like the incident with BBD at Newcastle last season. You're basically trying to get sent off for violent conduct, without actually being violent.

The bad news is it’ll boost their confidence ahead of our FA Cup final.

Abbott really looks in the mood in this game, knocking stumps over for fun. Just need to get Bean out in the morning session and we should be able to see it through.

I'm not sure where that number has come from but this game was brought forward a week ago to effectively give people nine days notice. People have lives to fit this around and life's not exactly cheap with the cost of fuel going through the roof and so many home fixtures packed together.

Good riddance to Putin's Hungarian mate.

As per usual, the weather is sh**ting all over a game we're in a great position to win.

I associate them with nineties computers, which actually might explain quite a bit.

Live on Sky if you can't get a ticket. Pompey are at home to Ipswich at the same time, so play nice on the trains.

The list of fixtures I posted was basically what we needed to finish second and why it was far less likely than Wrexham finishing above Hull. That bit is straight forward, they just need a win and a draw more than Hull. The point about Boro losing at home to Wrexham was that we don't just need to catch Ipswich. We needed (before yesterday's fixtures) two points on Hull and six on Ipswich, Boro and Millwall. It's a bit like all those PL relegation fights we were in. You're better off being 13th and five points above 18th, than being 17th and six points above 18th.

I was just posting a crazy bunch of nonsense about how finishing second was massively unlikely and that we'd be better off not having to face Ipswich in the playoffs. Completely loopy stuff obviously, I'm off my meds again.

Pretty much a perfect set of results for us this weekend. It looks increasingly like we won’t have to deal with Ipswich in the playoffs and none of the other candidates are in any sort of form. I couldn’t really give a crap about Pompey if we’re not playing them. Their injury time winner at Boro is cracking news for us.

Wrexham gaining four points on one team is a far, far more likely scenario than Saints gaining seven points on three different teams. The whole Saints finishing second dream was basically a nine-fold accumulator on: Norwich vs Ipswich - Home win Saints vs Derby - Home win Saints vs Blackburn - Home win Swansea vs Saints - Away win Saints vs Bristol C - Home win Saints vs Ipswich - Home win PNE vs Saints - Away win Ipswich vs Boro - Draw Wrexham vs Boro - Home win There are plenty of other permutations which could play out but you'd basically need to overhaul a combined 21 points on Ipswich, Millwall, Boro and Hull. If you add in a couple of draws for Saints, which is more than likely, then you start needing five or six more games for the teams above us to go our way. The bookies had us down as having a 3% chance of automatic promotion before the Old Farm Derby today, I'd have said that was about right.